TEXAS STATE TIME TRIALS, 2025 EDITION

 First some background.  I started bike racing in 2005 and knew from the start that time trials are my best category.  Regular readers will recall that at the end of the Senior Games in early March, I said I needed to put more time into riding my time trial bike.  As a result, I had fewer group rides.  Last week, in Crockett's poor performance, I put a lot of blame on a poor warm up.  I know I should get in at least thirty minutes of riding but what has dogged me in the past was what I was doing for those thirty minutes.  This year, for the first time, I brought along my CycleOps trainer and my training bike and did a thirty minute acceleration drill, just like I do at home in the kitchen.  That was followed by fifteen minutes on the road with my time trial bike and helmet.  I also used Voltarol on my neck.

This year Bob, who usually beats me in road races but I return the favor in time trials, had to withdraw due to a cyst on his knee.  Fred, who is two years younger and is now in my age group, signed up.  Fred has beaten me quite handily for the last ten years.  But this year he has lost some enthusiasm for riding, and is really not up to form.  That gave me a glimmer of hope.  There were no others in our 80-84 age category.

Before the race my teammate, Tom, cautioned me about becoming complacent going out (6.3 miles).  We had a stiff wind at our backs and it would be easy to be comfortable at less than maximum pace.  Fred was a late sign up, and therefore was placed first to go off.  We leave at thirty-second intervals.  The course is basically flat, with a few 1% grades and a very short 3% drop, downhill going out and uphill coming back.  Keeping Tom's advice in mind, I would either increase cadence or drop to a lower gear in an effort to increase speed without increasing my heart rate.  At the turnaround, I had made up a lot of the stagger and was only about fifteen seconds behind.

Now I had the wind, my nemesis, in my face.  So did Fred.  I was doing a lot of shifting, trying to find the right cadence to keep my speed.  In a few of the sections, I managed to get a little closer, but I was really suffering.  Had Fred not been my carrot, I may have slacked off a bit.  I knew first place was in my grasp.  I just had to hold on.  We finished, me eleven seconds behind, thus securing the win.

Just a few stats.  It was 24.8mph with the wind, with a high of 28.9, and 16.4mph coming back.  Cadence was a bit higher against the wind and watts a bit lower.  My average of 168 watts was the same as Crockett and below the 180 I am hoping to work up to.  My heart rate of 144 with a top of 149 was right in the 95% of max zone.  It's possible my max is now 149, down from 152 of last year.  

Time to rejoin group riding, but not today.  I'm stiff and sore. 

DAVY CROCKETT CLASSIC, TIME TRIAL

 Perhaps it seems ungrateful to be unhappy about coming home with a third place bronze medal.  But the fact of the matter is that my performance did not meet expectations.  This race was to be a warm up for next Saturday's Texas State Time Trial Championships.  I am the defending champion.  First, some background.

The kudos: Dave Crockett Classic is very well run.  The routes, both TT and road race are fair, yet challenging.  They have a fifty mile road race in the morning and time trial starting at 3:30 in the afternoon on Saturday and a forty-six mile road race on Sunday.  Because I get worn out just doing a group ride for fifty miles,  I was only doing the time trial.  I wanted to preview the course and my options were to ride it after the last morning road race, which was actually 12:15pm, or wait until the last road race rider, sometime around 2:30pm.  I retrospect, I should have waited until 2:30.

Had I waited until 2:30, I could have stayed home until 11:00am before making the three hour drive.  As it was, I left at 8:30.  By arriving this early, I could watch my teammates start their road race.  I expected to see four, but two had something come up.  I visited with them and watched them take off at 12:05.  I took pictures but they are nondescript.

It is now that I start being negative.  Unlike Senior Games and USA Cycling, who have 5-year age groups, this race's oldest category is 70+, racing with the 60-year olds.  I have a hard enough time keeping up with 70's let alone the younger guys.  Anyhow, I did my preview ride wearing my Texas A&M jersey (since I was in East Texas).  I had seen the race profile and was now checking it out first hand, seeing when to shift, and what cadence worked best where.  Time trials are less strategic than road races or criteriums in that you just go as fast as you can.  You strategy is how to do that, mainly by gear choices.  The race flyer indicated a 7.5 mile out and back so at 3.75 I turned around.  As it turned out, the actual turn-around was at 4.1 or so.  My time was 25:32 and I finished up and returned to the car around 1pm.

Now I had two and a half hours to wait.  I brought lunch and ate that.  And sat in the car.  I calculated the guys would finish their race around 2:20, but at 2:05 I roused myself over to the finish line just in case.  As it turned out, they finished at 2:19, having kept with the young guys the whole way.  I had positioned myself for a great video of the sprint.   Somehow, with me being unaware, the phone moved over to photo, so I have a long distance shot of the group and one of the ground.  The guys finished one-two in the 70+ category.

We visited a bit, then I went to warm up.  It wasn't what I expected.  Let me digress.  All of my races are in the morning.  Almost all of my riding is in the morning.  My metabolism is set for morning.  My body is set to rest in the afternoon and it was complaining loudly that it wanted to rest (even though that is what I was doing for the last three hours).  To top it off, when I checked my start time, I was dismayed to see 4:33.  I had anticipated 4:00 at the latest.  In the warm up I was happy to see that my heart rate moved up quickly to 135 with very little effort.  I wasn't happy that my legs didn't like power over 120 watts.  My practice last Thursday indicated I had a lot of strength, I just needed to find it today.

Now to the race itself.  I started off okay, brought it up to speed on the slight downhill and keeping the heart rate below 90%.  But it hit 140 on a slight uphill and was bouncing around 144 most of the way.  In the past, this was optimum (Max being 152).  Today I was having a difficult time breathing at 144 and had to back off a bit and come out of the tuck to bring it back down a few beats.  My time was 25:15.  At first glance it looked like it was the same as my preview ride, which really got the dander up.  I was somewhat mollified upon seeing the race was a half mile longer.  

The average speed of 19.6 was shy of the 21 I expected and the max of  29.1 was shy of the 36 I expected to hit on the one downhill (a younger guy said he did 44 on it).  The average power was about ten watts higher than I expected.  Apparently I wasn't in the right gear.  Last year at State I averaged 144 HR with a max of 152.  This will have to be addressed, as I'm not attributing it to being a year older.  Check back next week to see if I bring my A game.

CHALLENGING DI2

 It wasn't an intentional challenge.  More of a curiosity to see how far/long I could go before it wouldn't shift, i.e. ran out of charge.  The longest I've gone is 57hours, but that may be an outlier, in that three other charges went 47 hours.  Of course, I recharged them when I still had 20% left.  I also keep track of the number of shifts per charge and they range of 3866 to 4671.  When I checked yesterday, I had two bars left, but I was also pretty high on the shifts.

I wasn't concerned as I started out on my 54 mile ride early this morning.  The weather was ideal and I cruised along, feeling a bit loggy but otherwise fine.  20 miles in and I was coming to my planned nature break and refuel stop when the Garmin notified me that my power meter/pedals were low.  I recall, perhaps incorrectly, that that meant 20% left.  Since I recharge the DI2 and pedals at the same time, I became a bit concerned.  One mile later Garmin gave me a notice about DI2, but I couldn't read the small print.  I didn't really need to, I knew what it meant.  So I evaluated the situation, being 21+ miles from home if I turned around, or continuing on.  I turned around.

In an effort to conserve power to the DI2, I shifted to the small ring and kept my shifts at a minimum.  This meant adjusting cadence and power.  I may have shifted five times on the way back. (87 on the way up).  The result was I didn't push hard and my HR never really got over-exerted.  As it turned out, I lost the power meter about nine miles from home and the DI2 about two miles from home.  Since I was in a comfortable gear, it didn't matter.

So, my curiosity had been satisfied.  I think I'll go with 45 hours before recharging.  And I'll continue to count the shifts to see if more data will narrow the gap.  I'm pretty sure temperature plays a role, but I'm not that needy.

PACE BEND, 2025

Regular readers know I hate racing (not to be confused with riding, which is pleasant) at Pace Bend.  This year was no exception.  Don't get me wrong, I came home with three gold medals (and I had a smidgen of competition).  I was also faster than some of the younger riders.  But let's start at the beginning.

Last Monday I took my time trial bike down to Great Northern, mainly to check my positioning and warn my neck what was in the future.  As it turned out, the Garmin decided not to recognize the bike, equipped with a Stages power/cadence meter.  I defaulted to the Strava app on the phone so at least I received credit for the ride.  But the drill I had planned never happened.  Just as well, the wind was up and it was a chore just to get an hour in.  I took the bike and computer to the bike shop in search of a solution.  After a lot of fiddling, and explanation, he got it working.  Friday I was back at Great Northern for a leg opening session.  Only thirty minutes.  My neck still complained.

Saturday I cleaned and lubed the bikes and loaded them into the car along with whatever essentials I thought I might need (mainly nutrition and fluids).  Senior Games run 20 and 40k road races and 5 and 10k time trials in five year categories starting at 50.  Because they are now run on the same day, with the 40k being the first race at 9:00, I skip it.  Pace Bend is a 10k loop.  I arrived Sunday morning at 8:45 and saw the riders off.  Then checked in, received my timing chip and number and went back to the car to leisurely get ready.  

Due to the sparseness in the categories, we all start together.  This is a decided disadvantage to the older groups and ladies.  Tactics are essential.  The first 1.8 miles are mostly a slight downgrade with two longish climbs.  The wind was into our right shoulder.  I started at the back, but that was only about six places.  At the start there are always some who cannot get clipped in quickly and Sunday was no exception.  I was quickly mid-pack and behind a father-daughter(?) duo.  The leaders accelerated and those who couldn't find a wheel were soon left behind.  The three of us made it up the first hill still attached, but at the second the lady kept up but dad was gassed.  That left me with too much of a gap to close.  

For those who don't race, I digress into riding in the peloton.  With pros and younger riders, it is the same, just faster and closer together.  Us seniors place a higher value on our bodies, so we are a bit more cautious.  Still, we ride fairly close and pay attention to any slight wheel movement.  We also evaluate the riding styles of our companions.  Any signs of erratic behavior will result in giving that person more room.  For this race, dad-daughter were very good.

In any case, I was on my own after the first 1.6 miles.  On this first loop I felt as though the wind was in my face 90% of the time.  Perhaps a bit of a misconception.  But I kept up as best I could and on the second lap I could see my teammate, Tom, about two hundred yards ahead.  I almost caught up but was very slow going up the last big hill (7-9% grade) and finished seven seconds behind him.  I count eleven ascents per 10k loop, some harder than others.  For the two loops, I shifted my front derailleur 5 times and my back 301.  Cadence averaged 82 with 104 max and heart rate was 140 with a top of 149 (about 95% of max).  

I had about 40 minutes before the start of the 10k time trial.  Back at the car, I switched bikes, moving the timing chip to the Felt and bringing out the TT helmet.  As I toodled around getting used to the position, it occurred to me that the wind would have me coming out of my tuck and holding on for dear life for most of the loop.  Also, the computer once again wouldn't recognize the bike.  Since I wouldn't be fighting for seconds (the fast guys were a no-show this year), I switched back to the Madone.  This would also give me the opportunity to evaluate the wind for the 5k, which was an out-and-back course. 

The 10k is run in the opposite direction of the road races.  I lined up third, knowing faster riders would be passing me.  We start every 30 seconds so I estimated no more than six would catch me.  The ride was uneventful.  My heart rate and cadence and power were similar to the road race.  I was slower than last year, but last year had good weather.  I determined that the wind was too much even for the 5k, so the Felt stayed in the car.  My neck was appreciative.

For the 5k I started close to the back, giving me an additional ten minutes of rest between races.  Several gusts of wind moved me a bit and bolstered my decision to stick with the road bike.  It was over in a little over ten minutes.  No stats for this race, because now the Garmin wouldn't connect to the power pedals.  I must have hit some button, because the next day the Garmin connected to both bikes without any fuss.

Even though I hate racing at Pace Bend, the race itself is extremely well-run, everything goes off like clockwork.  Check in was quick and easy.  The chips/computer sorts everything out and results posted within minutes of the last rider finishing.  I don't know if I missed an actual award ceremony, since I was last coming in and busy getting the bikes squared away.  In any case, when I walked up the hill to the tent, they were already starting to pack up.  But I just identified myself and the age category, it was quickly looked up the the medals handed to me.

I have two months to get my TT act together.  I'll be spending a lot of time on Great Northern.

MILEAGE GOALS

 Several days ago Allen Turner commented on my Strava post something like "do you ever have a week below 200 miles."  I replied, off the top of my head, that while I have that as a goal, I've only reached it three time in the last 15 years.  Well, I really couldn't let that pass without researching my answer.  I have a spread sheet (3 actually) going back to 2008.  But first some background.

When I started racing Senior Games in 2005 I determined I would have good fitness if I rode 800 miles per month.  And I broke that down into two days long, two medium at pace, and two days of drills which would not be a lot of miles.  That gives me four days off and two or three extra days to make it to 800.  I didn't have a coach, I didn't hit my goals.  I only had a plan that needed adjusting.  It's not like I was unsuccessful.  I refer you to my post of xxxxx.  Well, I can't find it.  Here's a summary:  I've been in 183 races, finished first in 59 (32%), second in 51 (28%), third in 35 (19%).  So I've finished on the podium in 79% of my races.

Back on topic.  Not counting my cycling vacations (Katy Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway (3 times), Natchez Trace, Paul Bunyan Trail among others), I've only done nine 200 mile weeks since 2008.  I came close four other times.  Most of my months are in the 400-500 mile range.  

Feb 19-25, 2009,  212.2 miles

May 10-18 2009,  205.3 miles

May 17-23, 2013, 220.7 miles

May 1-7, 2016, 201.1 miles

May 12-18, 2016,  212.8 miles (a very good month!)

Nov 4-10, 2017,  294.9 miles

Jun 6-13 2024, 233.6 miles

Jun 23-29, 2024, 200.5 miles (another good month)

Feb 1-6 2025, 216.6 miles

Let me tell you how to up your mileage: ride with friends.  Scheduled rides with friends will get you out and about when you might otherwise stay home.  Like there is no way would I get battered by the wind like we had today and Tuesday unless I was with a group.  And some strong rider who would let me draft.  Plus, ride at a pace you enjoy.  My definition of "enjoy" might be different from yours.  I don't advocate coming home from a ride exhausted, but that's me most of the time.  Also, I now describe my cycling goals as "fluid."  If you follow me on Strava, you will see in the coming months more days devoted to Drills.  These days are weather-dependent, so will change if I can't get in a good workout.

And thanks, Allen, for recognizing my rides.  I know we don't always acknowledge Strava postings, but we do at least a cursory review of all of them.

FLAT TIRE, THE REST OF THE STORY

 I had a flat tire on today's Trek Parmer Pedaler ride.  It has happened before, it happens to everybody at one time or another.  But this flat tire has a back story, and an epilog.  And so, I begin at the beginning.

In August I purchased a Trek Madone road bike (really nice).  It came with carbon wheels that are tubeless ready, but not tubeless tires.  At the time, I proclaimed that I would switch to tubeless (several years after inquiring about them) in February or after the first flat.  February because that is the start of racing season and after first flat because I saw no reason not to give these tires some wear.

Taking off these thru-axel wheels is more involved than my quick-release ones.  Only a few weeks ago did I even practice removing a wheel, and it was the front one.  So it was an unwelcome surprise when cruising along about 17 mph when the rear wheel suddenly went flat.  I called out "flat" to get the group to stop and called out to Jim H that I was going to need assistance.  This would be the first time removing the rear wheel.

First thing Jim said was turn the bike upside down.  I never do this, but removed the water bottles and turned it upside down.  Then shifted to the smallest cog.  Jim removed the wheel for me, I handed him the tire tool, and he started to remove the tire.  Meanwhile, I removed the saddle pack and took out the spare tire.  Well folks, since I haven't had a flat on the road in quite a while, and hadn't planned on having one with my newish tires, my mind hadn't fully considered my new Madone with the Pro51 Carbon Wheels.  My spare was perfectly fine for my Emonda with the Dura Ace wheels, but the valve stem was too short for the Pro51's.  Jim had a spare.  One of the benefits of group riding is there are plenty of spare tubes.  The trick is getting one with long stems.  Anyway we used Jim's.  Uh, my tires are 25mm and Jim's tube was 35-45mm.  Jim did the installation, I aired it up with CO2 cartridge, and we cleaned up and were on our way with no further interruptions.

Here is the epilog.  When I got home I intended to switch out Jim's tube to give it back to him (not getting him a new one is another story).  That's when I discovered I could not remove the tire from the wheel.  By this time I could remove the wheel from the bike, but not in the upside down position.  Try as I might, I could not get tire the off.  It will have to stay there until I go tubeless.

I immediately ordered two Continental 5000 tubeless tires and will be visiting the bike shop tomorrow to arrange to get them installed.  Plus buying tubeless repair kits and extraneous stuff that goes with going tubeless.  If you read earlier posts from this year, you will learn that I'm not a big fan of tubeless.  But I am a big fan of how they ride, so I'll suck it up and learn how to deal with them.

CYCLING HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE YEAR

 In working on our Christmas letter, I realized my cycling escapades would take up too much space, so I'm writing them up here and will provide a link.  There needs to be some context.

The year started off March3 with the Senior Games at Pace Bend Park.  Regular readers know I hate racing at Pace Bend, mainly because I don't do well.  This was not billed as a State Championship, but since there weren't any other Senior Games in Texas this year, I prefer to think of them as Championships.  The full write up can be found in my March post, but I ended up with two gold and a silver in the three races.

Next on the agenda was USA Cycling State Time Trials in Hempstead in May.  Again, the full write up is under the May posting, but I came home with a gold medal.

For some reason, I didn't do a post about the USA Cycling Nationals in Augusta, GA in July.  Fort Gordon underwent a name change and is now Fort Eisenhower.  I had the time trial July 25, road race July 27, and criterium July 28.  We had booked our annual stay in Suches, GA  July 15-August 11 so that meant I left the mountains, raced, and drove back.  

I warmed up for the time trial in a drizzle but for the race itself, it had stopped and there weren't any puddles on the road.  I had previewed the competitors and was confident of getting on the podium.  I came in third, which was also last (not by much).  One person who signed up didn't show up.  This is a difficult course and I've ridden it faster.  I'm thinking it's a nutrition thing.

For the road race, Durwood and the new guy(showed up wearing a National Champion jersey) were racing for gold and the race turned tactical.  Two laps with lots of climbing.  Durwood set the pace for the first lap and we suffered.  Then he backed off.  I knew I was racing for third, but couldn't put any moves on the front because it would be Durwood who would reel me back in and not my competitor.  So it came down to the last climb, and I cracked.  Fourth place, but still on the podium (which went five deep).

In the criterium, it was only me and Durwood in our age group.  We were racing with the 70+ guys, so I was happy to hang with them for maybe fifteen minutes.  Then it was survive to the end.  But I still got the silver.

Next is a story of a non-race.  We go back to last year.  Shortly after road Nationals, USA Cycling held Gravel Nationals.  Only one person in my age group participated.  His time was much slower than what I could do.  So I set my sights on this year, if no one signed up in my age group.  Trek sponsored some gravel rides early in the year and I rented a gravel bike to see if I really could ride gravel.  I also went up to Waco to ride with my team leader.  Whitney advised that the Nebraska course was no worse than what we were riding on.  As we got closer to the date, and only the one guy signed up, I was ready to go.  I bought a really nice gravel bike.  Rode it for a week.  But when the last day of sign up came, I gave it a lot of thought (plus how much money it cost), and decided that gravel really wasn't in my future.  I returned the gravel bike and came home with a new road bike.  Ray at Trek gave me a super deal on a Trek Madone SL7.  I followed up on the results this year.  The three oldest competitors came in over 12 hours (should have been 5).  I haven't talked to Fred yet on what happened, but I'm thinking my guardian angel helped me avoid this.

On my new Madone in September I returned to Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos).  No illusions on this one.  The oldest age group was 70+  AND we were starting with the 60+ guys, so I had no hope of staying with the group.  This is another love/hate course. The full write  up is in the September post, but I came away happy with a 5th place trophy.