BIRTHDAY RIDE

 I belong to the Royal Academy of Octogenarian Cyclists, a worldwide group of folks 80 and older.  I think membership is 2200+.  We posts our various cycling activities to let others know we're still alive and kicking.  Some of us post when we do our birthday rides.  Most of us now do them in kilometers, but there are a few who can still stay in the saddle for that long.  I hadn't done a birthday ride in maybe fifteen years, until last year, after joining the group.  Last week one of us posted he had done his 84th celebratory ride a little early, and in miles (84).  Plus, his actual birthday is the same as mine (30th).  You might say he "ride-shamed" me.  At least I felt ashamed since it had never entered my mind.  In looking at the calendar, I have things going on that would make it difficult to get in a long ride, except for today.  

To achieve 83 kilometers I needed to go 51.6 miles.  It just so happens I have a 50+ mile ride in my catalog.  It's the Walburg ride, but with variations it goes from 50 to 55.  I left at 7:05am, sunrise was 7:19.  Forecast was cloudy to partly cloudy with a south wind at 8mph.  I can tell you right now, it is always more once you get out in the country.  I anticipated four and a half hours for what would normally be a four hour ride.  One more thing, I usually do this ride on Sunday mornings.

Not a whole lot of cars moving in the neighborhood as I got started, sunglasses in my back pocket.  I cruised through the neighborhood, eventually meeting up with the bike trail.  So far, so good.  Still, hardly anyone riding or running or walking their dog.  Eventually I found traffic.  Boy, did I.  For those familiar with the area, Red Bud Lane north of Old Settlers.  For those not familiar, it's a two lane road and at this time of morning, a steady stream of vehicles.  Fortunately, I had a light that stopped traffic so that I could head north on Red Bud.  I had to pull over at intersections to let cars go by, otherwise they would have tried passing me.  Soon enough I had a bike lane and could breathe easy.  

One last traffic trial, making a left turn.  This was on a road where I dare not get in the left portion of the road.  So, I made a right turn, a U-turn and stopped.  It seemed like an eternity, but we finally got a break in traffic after three or so minutes and I was finally in the country, headed north with the wind at my back.  An hour and a half into the ride and I had a quick stop for a Gu gel.  Fifteen minutes later I made the turn and began the return.  The wind picked up and was mostly a head wind for twenty-five miles.  It was uneventful, other than not fighting the wind.  My Fly-6 camera stopped working about two hours into the ride.  It's old, I might need to replace it.  Or, stop doing long rides.

My estimated time proved correct, in that I finished in four hours, twenty-three minutes.  I made three stops in the last eight miles.  I was really knackered, in that my wife drove past me a half mile from home and I didn't know it.  But I got my birthday ride in and now will collapse in my recliner for the rest of the afternoon. 

TEXAS ROAD RACE CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2025

 This is a long story about how we came to have a really short championship race.  For years the Texas RR Championships have been held at Fort Hood.  This was a brutal thirty-three mile course and I was never young enough to have to do more than one lap.  The race was well run and very popular.  But this year not enough sponsors came forward to fund the race and it appeared that it would go the way of others.  Then three Austin organizations came forward and agreed to do it.  They already put on the Oatmeal Classic, in Oatmeal, Texas.  I'm not privvy to what all had to happen in a short period of time, but a few months ago I received an email announcing the championships.

My elation was short-lived in that the oldest age group category was 40,50, 60+ and they would be doing fifty-two miles.  Bad enough to race against guys half my age, but the distance was too far.  I put it out of my mind.  Then we had the tragedy of one of our teammates being struck by a car,  Because our team is scattered, we couldn't organize a memorial ride so just dedicated an individual ride to him.  Several of us wrote to the race organizer to try to get older age categories included their lineup.  Resources were minimal and they had very little time to make adjustments.  The best they could do would be to give us a two minute head start over the young kids, 13-14 boys, and younger boys and girls categories.  They also limited us to one 13-mile loop.  As an homage, the categories of 70+ and 80+ were dedicated in memory of Tom Hall.  That's how I ended up Saturday morning in Oatmeal, Texas.

Side note: I encouraged my friend, Craig, to enter.  He is 75+ and hasn't raced in fifty years, although he is a ride leader for the weekly Trek rides.  He and I pre-rode the course last Wednesday so had a pretty good feel for it.  All of the hills were done in the big ring.

There were six riders in the 70+ and just me in the 80+.  We introduced ourselves, it being such a small group. I think it's quite difficult to get excited about driving from all over Texas to do a 13-mile race.  Next year they promise it will be more normal.   At the start I quickly clipped in and jumped to third and found a wheel to draft.   We had a quarter-mile slight downhill before hitting a series of inclines.  I thought we were doing just fine until two guys passed us.  Truthfully, I thought I had the fast guy's wheel (Mike).  

I jumped ahead and tagged on to the leaders, briefly.  At 150 my HR was over 95% of maximum and clearly unsustainable.  My hope of it dropping a bit as I drafted didn't pan out and I had to wave goodbye to them.  Not long after, Mike caught up and passed and I once again glued myself to his wheel.  As it turned out, with a little back and forth, I just followed the his wheel for eleven miles.  His pace was slightly less than what I would have liked, but since I wasn't racing anyone in my age group, I didn't feel the need to extend myself too much.  As it was, I spent 55% of the race in zone 4 and 37% in HR zone 5, so it wasn't like I was lollygagging.  Craig and Don caught up and drafted for awhile.  Don moved ahead and Mike didn't have the oomph to catch his wheel and I saw no reason to.  On a few short hills I jumped ahead and made Mike catch up.  My reason for doing it was hopefully to wear out his legs a bit in order to give Craig a chance to out-sprint him at the finish.  As it turned out, I wore myself out and he and Craig left me on one of the last climbs.  And Craig didn't have enough left for the sprint finish.  

The race that started before us was hit by a two minute downpour.  The race after us probably did several laps in a torrential downpour.  I wouldn't know, I was safely sheltered.  Race stats: avg spd 18.2 mph; max spd 30.28; cadence 83/121; 141/152 heart rate.  It was only a 13.1 mile race, but I have bragging rights for another year.

BORING STATS FROM NATIONALS

 The USAC criterium in Milwaukee took me 46 minutes.  The course was more or less a triangle with a distance of .84 miles.  The first nine laps were within a few seconds of 2:34 each.  Then we slowed down to mostly a few seconds either side of 2:38.  The speed stayed either side of 19mph.  Because there were just the three of us in our own little pod, there wasn't a lot of jostling for position.  My heart rate jumped to 152 on the first lap as I tried to get position, then stayed around 148 for the next five laps.  The rest of the race it was around 142.  Strava has my average at 142, so there were a few dips.  In retrospect, I should have been pushing the pace and not have been content at 142.

The time trial was in Sturtevant and only 30 minutes in length.  I averaged 19.8mph with a high of 31.4mph.  My heart rate average of 147 indicated I rode hard the whole way.  Top of 152 came going up the 1% incline for the second time at 24 mph. 

The road race in Lyons was very short.  Only ten miles in thirty-five minutes, since I was pulled.  In that time, over a hilly course,  I averaged 17mph with a top speed of 38mph.  The heart rate average of 136 with a top of 149 indicated I didn't work at my hardest.  I'd like to think I worked smarter.  Power numbers are 138/564.  I used a lot of cadence going up the hills, thus didn't top out very high.