TOPPLING OVER!

 This longish post is probably TMI before getting to the subject, but bear with me.  My July 7, 2021 post (if you care to read it) details the eight, now ten) times I've fallen.  I would have added "off my bike", but in some of those I was stuck in my pedals so technically I was on the ground but still connected to the bike.

Yesterday I eschewed the group ride for several reasons.  It starts at 8:00, only goes 26 miles, and I don't particularly like the route.  But the real reason is that a few days ago I started a new medication which has one side effect of lowering blood pressure.  I wanted to see what would happen on a long ride.  And so, at 7:22 I set off for Walburg.  I've done this ride for years.  It's 50-60 miles, depending on various back roads I take on the way back.  Even though I intended this to be a chill ride, my energy level was down a bit, as was my heart rate.  I'm thinking medication, but the jury is still out until I do a fast group ride, but I digress.

About fifty miles into the ride, exiting Old Settlers Park at US 79 into Kalahari Resorts (for those who are local), I approached the traffic light.  The light just turned green for those leaving Kalahari and turning left in front of us, and I knew I'd get the green next.  I slowed my cadence and timed it so I wouldn't have to unclip.  I creeped along and was about to accelerate after the last car turned.  But she didn't!  Rather than complete her turn she slowed, apparently thinking I was going to go out in front of her.  It happened in a flash!  My foot got caught up and wouldn't unclip and I toppled over.  Now I was on the ground with both feet still in the pedals.  It took some maneuvering to get unclipped.  By then, one of the drivers next to me rushed over to see if I was hurt.  No, nothing but my ego.  If he had been a cyclist he would have asked if the bike was ok.  Actually, my left knee lost a little skin.  Interestingly enough, the same three places as in previous falls.  Also a few bruises on my left elbow, and my right thumb was oozing blood under the nail.

I made it through on the next light, but stopped at a convenient place and sat down to address the situation.  I carry an emergency zip lock bag with antiseptic wipes, Band-Aids, gauze pads, sun block and other stuff.  I wiped the knee and put a Band-aid on the thumb, checked the bike, replaced the mirror that had come off, and took a few minutes to let the adrenaline subside.  Then did the final seven miles.

Of course, this incident shouldn't have occurred.  I could have easily just stopped and waited the few extra seconds.  But I relied on experience instead of judgement.  Apparently experience is not always the best teacher.  So, be safe y'all and carry a first aid pack for when the unexpected happens.

Ft Cavazos State Road Race Championships, 2024

 About yesterday's race: I was really pleased with my last place finish.  As a matter of fact, the placing was expected.  But my performance exceeded expectations.  And it could have been even better except for an unfortunate happening.

Due to lack of volunteers and participants, I was racing in the 70+ category and all of us 70+ers were starting with the 60+ guys.  This course is a triangle that goes 15.7 miles north, 14.5 miles south and about 2.5 miles northwest.  There is always wind and when it comes from the SW is a killer on the second leg.  But this year it was NE so my plan was to go hard with the peloton until the large hill at eight miles would see me getting dropped.  Then it would be against the wind by myself for seven miles until could get the wind at my back.

All went to plan for one mile.  I was comfortably drafting behind my teammate when I hit some rough road and my front wheel started to shimmy.  Conventional wisdom indicates I should lean forward over the bars, putting more weight on the wheel to get the shimmy to stop.  That didn't work.  I dropped back and actually stopped for a few seconds to make sure I hadn't flatted.  Those seconds cost me my draft so I did fourteen solo miles against the wind.

One rider had also been dropped and he became my rabbit.  I caught him on the big hill then spent the next seven miles putting distance between us.  It felt good to make the turn and have the wind help me up the next hill.  I estimated I only lost five minutes due to the wheel wobble incident.  About five miles further on, at about mile twenty, I caught a glimpse of a white jersey just cresting a hill.  Now I had my second rabbit.  As it turned out, he was pretty well gassed and just trying to get to the end without dying.  It only took a few miles to catch up.  I was keeping my heart rate around 90% of max and with the wind I was zipping along.  

Soon enough the finish came up and I hit the computer button.  Wrong button, it was for lap time.  I realized the mistake 49 seconds later.  I mention this because taking out the 49 seconds brought me under two hours.  And this is what made me happy.  This was the fastest time on this course since 2015!  And, this year the podium was five deep, so I received a fifth place trophy.  Yes, there were only five in the 70+ group.  The two guys I passed were in their 60's.

Finally, stats: Training Peaks gave me two gold medals for 60 and 90 minute heart rate.  Strava gave me four PR's.  I was doing 30 mph when the wheel shimmied, but my top speed was 38.3 and I topped 30 about a dozen times after that.  I averaged 15.7 against the wind and 17.5 with it.  The last two and a half miles were uphill but I managed 15.8.  My average cadence was 79 with a max of 114.  

Tubeless Tutorial

 This is not a tubeless tutorial.  On our Trek Lamar ride today two of the riders had flats.  As it turned out, both were riding tubeless tires.  Those of us who have yet to be enticed over to the new trend, learned a few things.  Doug is our most experienced guy and, by the way, had some nifty tools.  

The first flat, we found, had a hole in the tire.  The sealant should have fixed that.  Unfortunately, due to inexperience plus a broken hand that put her off the bike for an extended period of time, the sealant apparently had dried up.  Mostly, these need to be refreshed every three or four months.  And I read somewhere you need to spin the wheels like every week or less.  That is, don't let too long go without riding.  Doug first got out a little gizmo that looks like a big sewing needle and threaded some rubber-looking thread into it and attempted to push it into the hole.  The object is to get the "thread" off the needle and fill the hole.  I saw this one other time on a ride and it worked quite well.  Didn't this time.  So he went to plan B, got out a little squirt thing and squirted some sealant into the hole.  This worked well enough that he could get air in the tire sufficient to ride.  As it turned out, there was some more air added a little later, enough to get her to the abbreviated end of the ride.  We also learned that you shouldn't use co2 because it reacted poorly with the sealant.

The second flat was a slight slit in the sidewall.  The sealant doesn't do well, or at all, on sidewalls.  However, tubeless or not, you should always carry a spare tube, which he had.  Getting the tire off the rim took a little doing, because you have to do something (sorry I wasn't close enough) to the stem.  Getting the tire off took a bit of doing, mostly to keep the sealant from going everywhere.  That was done quite expertly and Doug neatly emptied the tire.  The tube was installed (the slit was small enough a boot wasn't needed) and aired up (using co2), tire replaced on the bike and we were off.

Due to the time it took on these flats, we decided to skip tacos and go straight back to the shop.   I may be too old to go with tubeless tires and through-axel hydraulic brakes.

2024 USAC State Time Trial Championship

Watching this time trial in Hempstead is boring.  You get to see the start, watching until your rider is down the road.  You get to see the finish, watching the approach and the finish.  In my case, there was thirty-seven minutes of blank time.  My actual time was 37:24.  Riding a time trial is pretty boring also.  There are no tactics, you just go as hard as you can for as long as you can.  There is some strategy in monitoring road surface, elevation changes, and wind direction in order to change to a faster gear.  It's not like you are comatose.  This is a two lane road open to traffic, what little there is, so you need to heed vehicles and hope that they are respectful of your presence. 

The guys in my age category who are faster than I did not show up.  Likewise the guys who might make me work hard but I'm usually faster didn't show up.  As I have done is some of my previous races, I finished first and last.  The only thing I'm reporting is some stats and observations.

I had a tail wind going out and mostly in my face coming back.  It took seventeen minutes and change to hit the turn-around, thus the return was twenty minutes plus.  I averaged 20.2mph.  It took me a whole minute to bring it up to cruising speed.  I took my time because there was no competition plus we were doing the team time trial in the afternoon.  Mostly I kept it in the 23mph range, getting up to 27mph on the one slight downhill.  Mostly in the 18mph range on the way back, with 16mph on the uphill.  It took almost a mile to bring my HR up to 140 (current max is 156) and I kept it between 90-95%  (average 143) the whole way up to the very end when I hit 153.  

Five years ago I was five minutes faster, kept the HR five beats higher, and average power 50 watts higher.  It is now incumbent upon me to find fifty watts.  True, five years ago I had a head wind going out and a tail wind coming back, so maybe I haven't lost that much speed.  I also had competition, so I pushed a little harder.

The other thing that bothered me was how my triceps fatigued so quickly.  In practice, I go for an hour with very little time out of the tuck and the arms were fine.  I did see in one of the photos my grandniece took, that I was on the rivet and my shoulders were too far forward.  Anyhow, because of the fatigue, I came out of the tuck more than I should have to give the arms a break.

We did have one celebrity race with us: EF rider Neilson Powless.  Marilane was working registration but missed recognizing him at first.  So when she had a break, went over to chat and get a picture.

Oh yeah, the team time trial: One of us broke a brake cable and was unable to compete.  We couldn't start with two riders, so we scratched.  We might have tried something, but once again, there were no riders in our category and we all have enough medals we didn't see the need to get another.

Pace Bend 2024 Post Mortem

Regular readers know I really don't like racing at Pace Bend.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great place to ride. It's a 10k loop with twelve or so inclines, a couple in the 8% range.  I just get dropped so quickly my ego takes a beating, and has for the last ten plus years.  I looked at who signed up in my age group and had a good news/bad news moment.  The good news was that Fred and Bob were coming.  I hadn't seen them in a couple of years (but follow on FB and Strava) so we could commiserate getting old since that's what old people mostly talk about.  The bad news was that both of them are faster.  Fred is two years younger so I only compete against him for three years but he is much faster.  Bob is my age and is faster in the road race but I can usually beat him in the time trials.  There were three others signed up but two of them were not competitive and the third was totally unknown (I tried looking him up but was unsuccessful).  So, I anticipated competing for bronze.

The racing order (with which I totally disagree) is 40k road race, 20k road race (clockwise), 10k time trial (counter clockwise), 5k time trial (counter clockwise start, out and back).  Fifteen minutes between the last place finisher and the next race.  I skipped signing up for the 40k, as did Fred.  Bob raced it, but the other riders didn't show up, so he had no one pushing him.  This is a difficult course to start with and a stout south wind made the first two miles and the finishing mile quite a challenge.  That may have been a bit too much for Bob's legs.

In any case, after a warm up lap, I lined up for the start.  In other races, the younger riders are at the front and the older riders, in age order, behind, then the women.  They might start the different age groups with maybe thirty seconds between and then the women.  Here they start everyone together.  I was only five or so riders from the front, on the outside.  Fred, on the inside, another three back, and Bob also on the inside another two back.  It never fails that some riders won't get clipped in on the first (or second) revolution.  I took my time and clipped in quickly and moved up a few more spots and found a broad back to hide behind.  While it wasn't chaotic, the first two miles were quick.  I think Fred got caught behind some clipless guy and missed the first group.  We got to the first turn and picked up the south wind as we climbed the hill that usually gets me dropped.  I put in the effort to stay with the group and did so for the next three climbs but the fourth one gapped me.  About that time I saw Fred in my mirror.  Not long after, he had closed the gap, along with a younger rider.  We let this young guy pull us for about five miles, until the second time up the backside hill, when we couldn't keep up.  I pushed hard up the remaining hills, into the downhill and the finishing straight.  Fred easily pulled away.

My stats for this race show 99.4% of the race at threshold and 13 seconds anaerobic.  My speed, 18mph, was higher than the last two years, as was my heart rate and max heart rate.  A lot of that had to do with staying protected longer, and the wind.

Before the races I bemoaned the fact that I had given up a sure silver by not racing the 40k, and would get a bronze in the 20k.  As it turned out, Bob had fatigued his legs in the 40k, so I still wound up with a silver.  But it turns out that I had also worked Fred above his limit, so he skipped the 10k time trial.  In the time trials,  you just line up without any structure.  The computer sorts you into the proper age group.  Therefore, in either race was I able to get a feel as to position by seeing Bob or Fred.  I wasn't feeling all that chipper, but still managed to come in first by a comfortable margin.  In the 5k, I controlled what little oomph I had left going up the one hill and gave a burst at the turn around and going back down it.  The finish was the same as the road races, wind in your face, but I was able to put some power in the legs in the aero position and ended strong.  As it turned out, four seconds faster than Fred, so I  brought home two golds and a silver.  

My stats for the time trials reflect how tired I was.  In the 10k I only produced 82.5% HR at threshold and no anaerobic.  I averaged 18.5 mph. My time of 20:04 was 1:40 slower than my best time, which btw is second fastest in the 75+ Strava records.  My 5k is 51 seconds slower than my best time, which btw is fastest in the 75+ age category.  But I still held a 19mph average.  My 79.8% at threshold was acceptable, in that the lower numbers were at the start and I didn't slack off in the middle of the race. Training Peaks gave me gold medals for 1 minute and 5 minute HR.

I slept well last night, didn't ride today, and had a power nap this afternoon.  I'm learning that I need more down time as I get older.  I find this post is a bit rambling, sorry.

OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS

 Last Saturday I was ready to leave for the Trek Parmer Pedaler ride at 9:00am.  It had been a week since airing up the tires, so at 8:15 I pulled the front tire out of the car (the bike being already loaded) and took it inside to pump it up.  It showed sixty pounds, so my thinking it needed air was correct.  Since I had a few more minutes before leaving, I went ahead and pulled the bike out of the car in order to air the back tire.  Pook, ding-fu!  The back tire was flat.  Normally it takes me fifteen minutes to change out a tube because I take my time.  That would put me late for the start.

Last October I posted my formula for correctly changing a tube, something I repost periodically.  We will get to that shortly, but I took a few shortcuts and got the tube changed out in record time and made it on time to the ride.  But without a spare tube in the saddle pack.  Fortunately, I didn't need one.  Later that evening I got around to doing a post-mortem on the offending tube.  It took dunking in water to find the pinhole.  I always recommend finding the hole before installing the replacement, because that gives you an idea where to look on the tire to see if the cause is still embedded and ready to prick the next tube.  But I digress.

In opening my tube repair kit I saw that I only had larger size patches and try as I might, the edges would have to wrap around the tube.  BTW, Park Tools has an excellent video on how to change a tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0F_hibWHlU) .  Using the patch, I glued it on and rolled up the tube and was going to put it in the saddle pack.  Another aside, I had no new tubes.  I just ordered some today (I use Continental tubes because they have removable valve stems).  My confidence level in the repaired tube wasn't very high and my new tubes were a few days away.  My Roark is currently doing duty on my trainer, so I switched tubes with it, thus giving me a patchless tube for the saddle pack.  I should have been more confident in my patching abilities, as the tube is doing fine.

All of the foregoing was just getting to the theme of the blog title.  Back in October Ray actually did my replacement, using a boot.  But I learned something new: he puts his tubes in flat, without rounding out the tube.  Because you don't want to air up a patched tube outside the tire, I was "forced" to utilize installing the tube flat.  All went well, the tire filled out nicely with all of the bead hooking properly.  So thanks, Ray.

SO, YOU WANT TO GET FASTER (BETTER)?

But first, a digression.  Those folks with whom I ride probably are not aware that I am a very picky bike companion.  If you have poor bike handling skills, are not respectful of traffic, or are habitually late or perennially slow, I won't ride with you.  Of course, I give new riders some slack, but it only takes a few rides to improve.  

Because I also race, much of my time is training.  Even on group rides, like the Trek week-end rides, I find some sections to get in a bit of training.  Winter time is the beginning of training and I am looking to get faster than I was last year, as the competition will be stiffer (faster guys are moving into my age category).  With that in mind, I was looking for a group that is faster than me, but at the same time willing to let me hang with them without dropping me.  I don't really like being the slowest rider in the group, but if they are willing to put up with me, I'll try to get faster.  This is my pearl of wisdom to you: ride with faster riders.  It's not necessary to continue reading, I'm just going to relate a few previous rides.

Earlier this year, I rode with Tom who leads a ride out of Pflugerville for Bike Austin (https://rides.bikeaustin.org/).  This was recommended to me by Sherry, who does the Trek rides plus others.  This was longer than what I had been doing (47 miles) and I struggled, but mostly kept up for the first 35 miles, then needed to be paced.  It wasn't like I was really far behind, they had to wait at the turns for maybe a minute.  I thanked Tom for the ride and that I'd be back later in the year.  Then I increased my long rides to 50+, at my pace, in order to increase my stamina.

This Tuesday I rejoined Tom and as it turned out, it was the same route as a few months earlier.  This time I lasted until the last few miles, which turned out to be against the wind.  For my effort Training Peaks gave me two gold medals, for 60 second heart rate (132) and 90 second heart rate (130).  Strava gave me two PR's.  I took Wednesday off.  But I was back again on Thursday, with a different route, but still over 50 miles.

The route was Pflugerville to Weir and back (different return roads), 52.7 miles.  Chilly start with a slight NW breeze, forecasted to stay that way.  There were ten of us, all experienced riders.  Tom led the way at a brisk pace.  After a longish break in Weir, we started back.  Although, we continued north for a short time until turning east.  It was a relief to get the NW wind, now more than a breeze, at our back.  I occurred to me that I was enjoying the wind at my back a bit too much.  Sure enough, once we turned south, it seemed like the wind was now WNW.  Not as much help as I'd hoped.  I dropped back a bit on the hill out of Jonah, but when we turned east on CR 101 I held my own in the 17mph range.  Sadly, the turn south had me dropping back.  The wind was a bother most of the whole way back and I was looking for a broad back to hide behind, mostly Steve who was doing sweep duties.  BTW, there were three of us he was helping.

Bottom line: if you want to get faster, go with riders who are faster and be prepared to work a whole lot harder than when you ride by yourself.  For this ride, Training Peaks once again gave me gold medals in the last 90 days,  for 60 minute HR (133) and 90 minute HR (132) plus 60 minute power (138) and 90 minute power (129).  The HR numbers are good, about the same as when I did Nationals in August.  The power numbers are weak, about 30 watts lower than August, and 60 watts lower than what they should be.  Part of that is the wind.