MORE STRAVA

First, a little history.  I've been racing since 2005 and Old Settlers Park has been my training venue from the beginning.  It is a huge parcel of land and in keeping with Round Rock's self-proclaimed "Sports Capital of Texas" slogan, they keep adding fields.  Several years ago, in adding a slew of soccer fields, they also laid out a new road.  Part of that road is a pan-flat, .19 mile section that someone, not me, designated a Strava Segment.  As an aside, I happen to have the fastest time, not just age group, on this segment.  In any case, this was the only segment in the park until this year.  

Besides training in the park, I also start and finish my long rides in the county from there.  Several weeks ago, upon posting my ride, I discovered I had a PR on a segment.  I'd never seen this before, and my twelve minutes plus for a 2.35 mile distance was unimpressive.  Of course, it included a potty stop, so really wasn't a true reflection of my riding.  Naturally, the first thing I did was check the 75+ age category to see who held the fastest time, and what it was.  Turns out my old riding associate from the Georgetown Cyclopaths held that title, at 7:35.  I wasn't about to let him keep it if I could help it.  I won't go chasing Local Legend Laureates, but age-category championships are another story.

Rationally, there was no way could I mount a challenge after a sixty-mile ride.  I would need to wait for one of my short training days.  As it turned out, I did my long ride this Monday and my Tuesday exercises called for upper-body work at the Y early and a recovery ride mid-morning.  Usually my recovery ride is two eight-mile loops, each loop covering all of the road surface in the park, plus most of the parking lots.  But I changed that up to do a warm-up on the Strava segment, then a serious push on the second time. 

The legs were still feeling the effects of my long ride, but the warm-up only took 8:50 so I felt pretty good about coming close to 7:35.  To be clear, I didn't know my actual time until posting the results, but I estimated nine minutes.  It took twelve to get back to the start.  I replaced the cold weather jacket with my very nice ZFG wind jacket (thanks Todd) and prepared to get serious.  

When your legs are dead, or when they are "race-ready" you know it.  Mine were mid-way.  That is, they were feeling good, but not super good.  I focused on the time to beat of 18.7 mph, and saw 21-22 for the first part.  That gave incentive to keep pushing.  The one slight two-tenths uphill only slowed to 17.1 mph, and reinforced my confidence.  The last hundred meters or so is a 4% uphill and the legs didn't have a lot of power, so it became necessary to gear down and up cadence.  When I got home and posted the ride I was pleased to see 6:44 and 21 mph.

Because this segment goes from one end of the park to the other, I don't see it as anything other than a "thru" route, so suspect my time will stand for quite awhile.  Meanwhile, there are two more segments that have cropped up, and I have them on my agenda.

STUPID STRAVA!

I guess I'd describe myself as a semi-serious cyclist, or maybe a serious cyclist with caveats.  That is, even though I ride a lot and race some, I still don't do what is necessary to become really good.  Don't get me wrong, in the last eleven years I held a state championship eight times, with the other three being silver, and was national silver medalist a few years ago, and manage to get on the podium at USAC when I participate.  But I don't come close to challenging for gold.  And so far, I haven't been training to achieve it.  That's too much like work.  I have my sights set on 2022 Nationals, when I'll be the youngest in my age group.  2021 will see me getting more serious.  None of this has anything to do with today's post.

I resisted joining Strava for years, finally giving in so that Marilane could track me as I cycled about Williamson County by myself.  I find one of the features, the fastest riders doing a segment, useful.  It wasn't useful until they added age categories, specifically 75+.  Now I can see how I stack up against folks my own age.  Like anything else, you take these with a grain of salt.  

The latest innovation from Strava is Local Legend.  This gives a laureate to the person who completes a segment the most times in the past 90 days, speed not being a factor.  This is nothing I aspire to attain, it just happens when cycling routes become less varied.  For instance, when I practice 15 second accelerating, I use one of two sections in Old Settlers Park.  One of them is a Strava Segment.  That's 20 or so times it's completed per practice.  When I do cadence drills I prefer to run up and down Great Northern, a straight, flat 1.4 miles with a bike lane.  Because the drills are mainly three sets of fifteen minutes each, I do go out-back-out and rest one section, three times.  Someone, not me, created Strava Segments consisting of one out/back, two out/back, three out/back rides.  So, my practice resulted in becoming a Local Legend.  And we finally get around to today's post.

On Thursday I received an email from Strava saying that I had lost my Local Legend on Great Northern.  Since I really don't care, that didn't bother me, but I was curious about the person who overtook me.  The email included a link to his page.  He had completed 25 (I had 23) segments, or 70 miles in the last 90 days.  More power to him.  Then I saw that in the last four months he had only cycled 152 miles.  That got my dander up (it shouldn't have, my reaction was completely irrational).   I had completed my "hill" route on Thursday and Friday called for a heavy leg workout at the Y in the early morning and an easy hour spinning on the bike mid-morning.  It could have been at Old Settlers Park, but I decided to return to Great Northern and get my laureate back.  So silly, competing for something I didn't care about.  I hadn't been on my TT bike in awhile, so on Friday morning I loaded it up and cycled Great Northern, completing seven segments.

I'm not doing that again.  That is, competing to be a stupid Local Legend.  A deeper dive into his Strava showed he rarely does anything other than Great Northern and close environs.  This is what the Local Legend was designed for and he deserves the recognition.  Of  course, I'm not abandoning my cadence drills, so will continue to increase my segments.  I blame this all on Strava.  The email created a false competition.  I fell for it once, shame on me.  Not twice.

JEFFERSON, TEXAS

 Marilane wanted to spend a few days in the tourist town of Jefferson, TX.  I'm not much for wandering around in and out of shops exploring and getting the history of old towns, so I brought my bike.  Before going, I managed to pull up the local information and they had four routes listed, each heading out of Jefferson in the four compass points.  Two of them had significant mileage on US 59 which normally had a wide shoulder but is currently repaving and had one side shut down.  So those two routes were immediately nixed.  I previewed the other two and didn't like one of them.  The one toward Caddo Lake had a wide shoulder but was really rough.  But traffic was minimal.  The suggested route was a triangle of thirty-six miles, more or less the distance I was willing to ride.

For various reasons it took longer to get ready, so my first decision was to just do an out-and-back to Caddo Lake.  That would be twenty-six miles and an estimated two hours.  The sun shone brightly in a clear sky, temperature 68-73, a slight wind from the SE that would be at my back on the return.

Leaving Jefferson included several blocks of brick streets, but within a mile and a half I was headed east toward the lake.  I had assumed that cycling enthusiasts in the area were few and far between, and sure enough, my morning ride netted me two Strava Local Legends crowns plus being the fastest in the 75+ age category.  The right-of-way was even rougher than what I imagined and my shoulders were getting quite a workout.  But once I determined that traffic was minimal, I moved out into the much smoother road and spent most of the ride looking in my mirrors.  I'd move onto the shoulder when I saw a vehicle, but surprisingly 90% gave me lots of room.

I hate logging trucks.  That goes back to Cycle Montana (1998) and one scary day without shoulders and logging trucks that were overly aggressive.  Each subsequent encounter has only reinforced that first one.  Therefore I was disturbed to see logging trucks barreling toward me every five to seven minutes on my way east.  Already I dreaded to return.  As estimated, an hour of heading east, really SE, and I hit my turn-around spot.

Fortune favored my return.  I picked up the very slight wind at my back, was able to spend most of the ride in the roadway and not on the shoulder, and apparently the logging truck drivers were on a lunch break.  Only one passed me and that was just before I turned toward town and he was nice enough to drive the other lane.  The return took ten minutes less.  

My second ride consisted of two legs of the triangle ending at Caddo Lake, with the third leg being the same as yesterday's return.  Same weather as the previous ride, same rough shoulder, but a bit more traffic since this was Saturday morning.  Not to belabor the point, but the first two legs of this ride have NO Strava segments.  Once again I monitored the mirrors and more assiduously in that the 75 mph speed limit left little time to get on the shoulder.  But again, the drivers were quite courteous.

As I approached the first right turn I heard some guy yelling "Y'all come back here" multiple times.  There may have been a few expletives thrown in.  I looked over and saw about a half dozen Chihuahuas (or similar breed) running out a gate and chasing after me.  I could still hear yelling, and about a quarter mile down the road, two little guys were still coming for me.  They weren't close, I turned the corner, and assume they finally gave up.

The first and third sections of the ride were macadam (interesting sidenote: macadam roads were introduced by Scotish inventor John McAdam.) but the second one was the roughest chip-seal you can imagine.  I probably lost 100 miles of rubber in those nine miles.  It was also a block headwind, thankfully not very stiff.  Traffic increased.

I make it a point to carry nutrition, generally Clif Bars, on any ride over two hours.  For this trip, I forgot my Clif Bars, and also forgot to pack any nutrition.  When I made the right turn onto the last leg, I was beginning to feel the loss of energy.  I had Nuun, so electrolytes were good.  I husbanded the remaining energy and cruised on back into town.  Again, no logging trucks.

All in all, these were good workouts.  Not much scenery, rough roads, but good weather.