FORT DAVIS AND BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK

     Earlier this year I participated (I'd use the word "raced" but that would be highly over-stated) in the Fort Davis Hammerfest.  Apparently my system was so shocked I failed to post a blog on it.  A short recap: Three races on the weekend, a hill race of sixteen miles, six of which are steep; then in the afternoon a race on "flat" roads (in my case it was slightly uphill against the wind), and on Sunday a forty-nine mile race with a lot of climbing.  I was in with the 60+ folks, so got dropped early on both the Saturday races.  On Sunday I was too pooped to start, so we cut it short and went home.  We were a hundred or so miles north of the Big Bend, and it was still on my riding/seeing agenda.  Enter Velo View Bike Tours.
     Earlier this year I went to Colorado with Velo View (see post) and had a fine time, even if my cycling prowess was less than optimal.  Shannon Burke offers a variety of quality bike tours, one of which includes Fort Davis and Big Bend National Park.  This would be the best way for me to cross one more spectacularly scenic area of the country off my list.
     This past Friday morning (7am) Shannon and Morgan (mechanic/driver) picked me up for the drive out to Fort Davis, about seven and a half hours.  I joined Barry, with whom I'd ridden several years ago on Sunday rides.  We stopped in Johnson City to pick up Sherri, husband Rich, and friend, Joe (from Cleveland) and continued on to Balmorhea for about an hour relaxation at the famous pool.

There we also met Dan, Hunter, and Robert, who drove themselves due to various logistics.  This made for a nice group of eight riders plus Shannon who rode with us.  Then it was on to Fort Davis and the very nice Veranda Inn.
     What trip to Fort Davis would be complete without going to the McDonald Observatory?  We had dinner at 5pm then loaded the van for the ride up.  This is the same route as the Hammerfest morning race.  Unfortunately, clouds rolled in and the outdoor Star Party had to be cancelled.  We attended the informative indoor presentation.

     Saturday morning we got down to business, although first we took a van ride out ten miles (mostly the "flat" Hammerfest race) since it really is quite boring, plus we already had fifty-nine miles of planned route.  Even so, we still had fifteen minutes of slight uphill, then some downhill, all with a hefty headwind.  Things got better once we made a right turn, and the first hour went by without too much damage.  Then we had five miles of slight climb followed by five addtional miles of steeper pitches.  Some nice downhill, then some rollers, and then we rolled up to the observatory.  After a short break, the bravehearts took on the final climb to the telescope.  I did not, opting for the van.
Photo op over, we enjoyed the downhill.  Of course it was steep from the telescope, but most of the next seventeen miles was downhill.  We enjoyed a late lunch at the Stone Village Market.  They make great sandwiches (fresh) and one of us observed it was like a mini-Whole Foods.  For dinner, after a short rest, we drove over to wander around Marfa (especially the Hotel Paisano), before having an excellent meal.  The chef did a veggie plate for me, as the only vegan dish was the superb squash soup.  We drove back to Ft. Davis and the other folks told me about a hard rain, but I slept through it.
     Sunday after breakfast we rolled out and down to the Rio Grande Village Campground in Big Bend National Park, about a three hour drive.  We had a packed lunch from Stone Village Market, consumed along the way.  This was a mere thirty mile cycling jaunt.  However, a review of the elevation graph shows a steady upward slope from 1869 to 5713 feet, followed by a short, steep downhill and rise into the Chisos Mountain Lodge.

 The last five miles were brutal and I was in serious bonk.  Shannon nursed me up the final pitch, and after a short stop, I wheeled on down and into the parking lot of the lodge.  Upon reflection, while I was drinking my normal amount of water, it should have been double and should have included Nuun or Powerade (although I was chomping Shot Blocker gels and Clif bars).  My body really, really didn't like the punishment I gave it.
     After getting cleaned up and a short rest, I sought out the bar for a carbohydrate replacement drink.  The restaurant had a great looking menu, which included a spinach-stuffed portobello for me (hold the cheese).  Two additional porters and a fine meal ingested, and my body was beginning to forgive me.  I had to pass up additional post-dinner exploring and rest.
     Monday we started out with the one mile climb, back the way we came in yesterday.  But then we had the screaming descent, with me maxing out at 45.2 mph.  This was a very scenic riding day of forty-six miles or so.  We continued on downhill or flat or slight grades, until two really steep climbs.  The difference today was my Nuun infused water consumption, maybe three times normal.  I used all my gears (28-28) and kept the heart-rate steady and managed to power my way up.  We had a short stop at the top, then had our second screaming descent of the day.  The wind had come up so I held the speed to 42 mph and held on to the handlebars for dear life, eschewing a tuck position until lower down.  After that we meandered on down to the Santa Elena Canyon.  At this point my computer ran out of juice and had to be shut down.

   

 Tuesday morning was had a hike scheduled, but because of the cold front moving in, we discussed over breakfast whether or not it was a "go."  I had dressed for the occasion, but would have been happy to forego the experience.  But, hiked we did.  It was cold and windy.  But we hiked the Lost Mine Trail, 4.7 miles and almost 1,000 feet of altitude.  The rising sun with brilliant blue, cloudless sky (the ones in the picture were moving away from us), provided excellent vistas.  Of course, I have a few pictures, but they really don't capture the scene.  It took a little over an hour going up, under an hour going down.  We were especially grateful for our early trek, in that the trail became busy with hikers, including a bus-load of teenagers.
     Then we drove home, stopping in Johnson City to eat dinner and say goodby to Rich, Sherri, and Joe.  We arrived back in Austin about 7:30pm.
     This trip is what my books are all about: short cycling vacations to incredible scenic areas and making it all palatable with good food and lodging and additional touristy stops.  I can't say enough about Velo View and their tours.  I don't think another bike company has Big Bend on their itinerary.  Shannon makes it easy for you to say "yes" to going here.  Added bonus: Shannon contorts his body on the bike and gets incredible pictures of his cyclists.  Here are a few of his pictures, full complement at Velo View.

FORT HOOD STATE ROAD RACE CHAMPIONSHIP 2015

     Ok, it's official: I'm working harder and going slower.  And have been all year.  But now I have three year's of statistics to back me up.  Bottom line on yesterday's race: came in 7th out of 8.  However, to begin at the beginning.
     What a gorgeous day for a race: low 90's (as opposed to high 90's), some hazy cloud cover, a light wind out of the northeast (into the wind for 16 miles, wind at my back left shoulder for 14 miles, at my back for 3).  Fort Hood closed the road for the races.  We had eight racers in our group (70+ males) and I knew seven of them.  If I had been on form, I would have been racing for third, but realistically, I was racing for fifth.
     The first hiccup came after I had just finished my warm-up: a thirty-minute delay, something to do with Army maneuvers being held.  Not wanting to have his cyclists blasted by stray artillery, we waited.  So much for the warm-up.  And, the extra time allowed the temperature to rise another degree and the wind came up a bit.  Thirty minutes later, off we went.
     Knowing my form was off, my plan was to follow (suck wheels) as far as I could.  The first four miles were generally downhill and we stayed together.  The first hill is steep, and, as expected, Richard got a gap and left the rest of us.  But I hung on Tom's wheel and four of us weren't too far back.  After a short period of flat/down, Richard dropped back to us and we carried on to the next steep climb at eight miles.  They lost me on that one.  Actually it was a bit strange, they lost me on the lead up to the hill, I really didn't do too badly going up but never could close the gap.
     I was sitting forth and without a wheel, really suffering in the wind even though the terrain now was rolling.  My heart-rate was in zone five (90%+) and all I could do was wait for the turn at mile sixteen.  Meanwhile, Fred, who struggles up the steep inclines (or just takes his time, I'm not sure), caught up to me and I grabbed his wheel and increased speed for a couple of miles until a slight grade dropped me.  Then my Tour de Gruene partner, Dean, caught up.  Unfortunately, it was on another up-grade, and I couldn't hang.  These are grades that in the past I powered over in the big ring, but not this year.  There were flats and downhills, so he was just hanging about 300 yards ahead, but I was on the rivet.
     Mercifully, mile sixteen came and I had the wind at my back.  Of course, it was also at everyone else's back.  Just because we changed direction didn't mean we lost the hills.  About this time Jaime came up and I sat on his wheel for a short period, before losing it on another incline.  For the next ten miles, he was between  a quarter-mile to a half-mile ahead, but generally within sight.
     At thirty miles there is a sharp 8% hill, the right turn and another 8% incline.  I could see Jaime was struggling.  I kept a good cadence and started reeling him back.  With 200 meters to go, I was about 20 meters behind and a good kick, which I still had, might have made a race of it.  However, I see no benefit of sprinting for sixth place when I had abused my body for so long, so cruised in and immediately went into cool-down mode.
     Apparently I didn't cool down enough, in that after getting off the bike I needed to stand still another couple of minutes to let the heart-rate stabilize.  Anyhow, that was the race.  Never saw the 8th place guy after the first hill.
     Three years ago I averaged 19.3mph and spent eight minutes in zone 5.  Two years ago I averaged 19.1mph and spent five minutes in zone 5.  Last year I averaged 18.1mph and was in zone 5 for 34 minutes.  This year it was 17.1 and a full hour in zone 5.  Fourth place finisher is ten years older than me, fifth place is three years older.  A revision in my training seems to be in order.

COLORADO CYCLING

     When I signed up to cycle in Colorado, I set very high expectations.  Shannon Burke and Velo View Tours easily exceeded them.  The weather exceeded them.  Unfortunately, my body fell a little short.  But, to paraphrase (i.e. butcher) an old saying: Even a bad day on the bike beats a good day at work.
     Shannon specializes in short tours, so his Colorado base tour is three rides, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with an optional Thursday ride.  Four rides sounded good to me, so I arrived in Boulder Wednesday afternoon, had dinner with Shannon, and was ready to roll on Thursday.
     Fellow Bicycle Sport Shop rider, Brian (now given the sobriquet "Flyin' Brian) and I met with Shannon on a gorgeous morning.  We let the commuters get to work before starting out on several of the myriad bikepaths in and around Boulder.  This network of paths should be the envy of any town wishing to encourage cycle-commuting.  Anyway, we did a clockwise loop ending up at the foot of the famous Flagstaff climb.  A quick photo stop then off we went.  Boulder's elevation is 5,430 so altitude was already a factor in my lack of ability.   Even so, I found a good gear and a tapped out a nice rythym at 75 rpm that held my heart-rate  below the 90% level.  All too soon, with an increase in the grade, I pushed over 90% with some ragged breathing.  According to my Garmin, we started around 5,400 feet and I ended at 7,250.  That was at a rest stop just before some heavy grade sections.  Since I was already struggling, I saw no point in going further.  Brian and Shannon continued on to the top while I took in the scenery.
When they returned, I mounted up and enjoyed a thrilling descent.  I hadn't grabbed my brakes so hard since my coast-to-coast ride in 2001.  The switch-backs required rapid slowing, then a few quick strokes to get back to speed.  Once at the bottom, we continued down city streets back to the hotel.  Shannon has this route at 33 miles and 3,850 feet of climbing.  My computer had me at 27.4 miles and 2,625 feet.  The temperature was in the mid-80s with very little breeze.  We had a few hours to wander Boulder, however, given my exertion, I just rested.  Later, we met our third rider, Gary, and went to dinner.
     An interesting aside: all three of the cyclists are vegan (technically I'm on a plant-based diet which is slightly different, but just say vegan since most people are familiar with what that entails).  Plus, Jeremy, Shannon's sag driver/helper for this ride, was vegan for ten years and still maintains a healthy diet.  Therefore Shannon did some research and found us vegan-friendly restaurants to replace the ones he usually uses.  Check-mark for Shannon.  For the record, dinner was at Leaf
     Our Friday ride started in Raymond, a 30-minute shuttle from the hotel.  I opted to start without any cold-weather gear, a mistake.  It would warm up, but I started out cold.  I think the real blow was seeing brilliant sunshine just across the creek, about 30 yards away, while we went up the climb in deep shade.  Thankfully, there was no wind.  We were riding the Peak-to-Peak Highway (not a real highway, but a very popular cycling road), but would detour up to Brainard Lake, a very pretty little out of the way lake.
     I suffered up the climbs, yesterday's Flagstaff having taken a toll, but did reasonably well all things considered.  Brainard Lake is quite a jewel, at an altitude of 10,300 feet.  Jeremy did a full-immersion dip in the chilly water (video available upon request).  We cycled around the lake then prepared for the downhills, first down from the lake, then down into Nederland.  The road from the lake was a bit rough, so speed was tempered.  But once on the highway, we could let the wheels run.  The speed limit on this section was 40mph, and a good, smooth shoulder.  There were very few cars, so I did a lot of riding in the traffic lane.  However, one white car came into view (rear-view mirror), so I moved over to let him pass.  He first stalked me, then came up next but wouldn't pass.  I sat up and eventually he got ahead of me, so I again moved into the traffic lane and stalked him (I would say tail-gated, but there was some distance between us).  About this time Shannon passed on my right (he shouted "on your right" but since I'm deaf in the right ear, didn't hear him) and moved closer to the car.  Then the car pulled away.  My computer says I was only doing 36mph but it felt a lot faster.  I suspect the driver just didn't want to exceed the speed limit, as shortly thereafter, the sheriff came past.  In any case, this was a really fun descent.  I had this ride at 31.4 miles and 3,763 feet of climbing (which is short, since we know 10,300 for the lake and my top was only 9,800).
     We changed out of bike gear, then took the short drive to the Sundance Cafe for lunch, eating outside enjoying the sunshine and great weather.  After lunch we drove to Vail and our accomodations at the Vail Mountain Lodge.  Wow, what a place!
     Once again, I found myself needing to rest rather than explore Vail.  Once again, Shannon found us a vegan-friendly establishment for dinner.  Friendly or not, they were pretty slow (or, relaxed), so we had plenty of time to rehash the day's ride.
     The Saturday ride was from Vail to Breckenridge on mostly the bike path. Bike path or not, we are talking another 4,500 feet of climbing and another 10,000 foot summit.  My lack of speed was beginning to wear on me.  The one thing you don't want to do when cycling at altitude is "go into the red," that is, over-exert yourself.  You can do this lower down and take a few seconds or so to recover, but with thin air, there is little or no recovery.  Therefore I closely monitored my heart-rate and breathing.  My energy-level was low.  After a brief stop, and changing to a dry base layer, we hit the bike path for the descent into Copper Mountain.  There was some sort of cycling event which included climbing from Copper Mountain.  By the time we got on the path down, the only cyclists coming up were suffering: heads down, wobbling.  We didn't dare blast by them for fear of an accident.  Therefore, the descent was more muted than it could have been, but still a lot of fun.  We continued down into Frisco for lunch.  There was a festival going on here also, and Frisco was booming.  The ever-resourceful Jeremy got us situated at the Butterhorn Bakery and Cafe.  Still finding vegan meals.
     After lunch we circumnavigated Dillon Lake and cycled up to Breckenridge.  This last 22 miles includes several miles of more-than-I-wanted incline, short stop, a descent, then a more moderate grade to the finish.  Rather than hold up the group, I opted to skip these first miles, do the descent and climb into town.  It was on the descent that I hit 45mph on the road.  No cars passed me.  The rest of the way into town on the bike path was of the 1-2% variety.  I ended up with 49.8 miles (out of 52) and 4,928 feet of climb.  Our stay was at the Beaver Run Resort, another quality room.  Or, rather, rooms.  My suite included a jacuzzi tub, which I almost immediately utilized.  Again, Shannon eschewed his normal eating establishment and found us one with suitable vegan dishes.
     The Sunday ride was a short 15 mile climb up Mt. Evans.  After a shuttle to Echo Lake, we started up.  I got a headstart since I knew my pace would be slow.  Still, for the first few miles, in the trees, I held steady.  My pace was good, breathing ok, heart-rate within reason.  Keep in mind we started at 10,000 feet and would top out over 14,000.  We started with some breeze, but once I got above the tree line, it was quite strong.  I overheard one person say 35mph.  My breathing became labored and even on a slight grade with the now strong wind whipping at my back, I still couldn't push my smallest gear over 5mph.  Several times the wind came from the side and pushed me several feet.  It was time to call it a day, and with Jeremy parked just up the road, I packed it in with 4.8 miles and 1,452 feet of climbing.  Brian had zero trouble, other than having to wait for Gary and Shannon on the cold and windy summit.
     To sum up, Shannon has put together a terrific package of rides, restaurants, and resorts.  He rides with the cyclists, and counsels and cajols as needed.  Anyone considering doing a tour should check out his website.  I'm already signed up for the Big Bend in November.
     As for me, my enjoyment of this trip was somewhat tempered by my inability to keep up a decent pace.  Given my history of climbing in Georgia (discounting the climbing done more than five years ago), and recent HHH ride, I was somewhat surprised with my lack of energy.  Still, I had fun in the sun and can't wait for the next adventure.

Hotter'N Hell, 2015 Edition

     This is a bare bones recounting of my ride, mainly because in signing up, I assumed too much and rational thought had gone on holiday when making the decision.  But I will give just a little background.
     My Tour de Gruene partner (we are three time defending champions) and Senior Games competitor, Dean, learned I was doing the HHH and asked me to join him and his son and a few friends.  They would eschew the opening hoopla and crowd and start a half hour ahead of everybody and about a mile into the ride.  This required adding a headlight.  As my previous post mentioned, I've done ten of these, and no longer get a thrill out of navigating 13,000 riders.  True, given my placing, it would only have been about 2,000, with the rest of them behind me.  But that is where a lot of accidents happen and it is pretty intense for about ten miles.
     The traffic jam starting about 5:30am, even backing up the interstate, is scary.  I avoided that and arrived at our start about 6:15am, made introductions and we rolled out about 6:30am.  We were not alone, folks with the same idea began their trek starting as early as 6am.
     Our plan was to get to the 20 mile rest stop before the racers, watch them go by, then continue on.  We were unaware that the organizers changed the racer's course so they wouldn't have to contend with all of the riders who left early.  Anyhow, Dean set a pretty good pace, eventually ramping up to 19-20mph.  The morning was cool and cloudy, with little to no wind.  Great weather.  We did side-by-side, switching out every few minutes, although when I was in the lead, the pace dropped off a bit.  A few miles from the stop, I couldn't hang with a pace line and dropped off a bit.  It took a little under an hour to go eighteen and a half miles.
     The racers should have been just a few minutes behind, and only a chance remark from one of the volunteers clued us in.  Our five-minute rest had turned into fifteen before we remounted and continued.  Dean said we would probably become separated, but would all meet up at Hell's Gate (the place where the 100 mile riders turned left, and the 100 mile riders who over-extended themselves could cut off twenty-five miles).  Our intention all along had been a seventy-five mile ride.  Anyhow, two guys (never to be seen again) quickly left me , Dean and Lonnie behind, and I suffered behind those two for another twenty miles.  A slight wind came up, but at our backs, and the sun was behind a thin layer of clouds.  Great weather.  I was feeling good, no problem with the legs.  The heart-rate, which was in the 90% range for the first hour, now hovered close to 80%.
     The forty mile rest stop again took extra minutes, due to unplanned bodily functions (not me).  But we eventually got moving, with Dean reiterating regrouping at Hell's Gate.  Lonnie fell behind but Dean and I grabbed a pace line and enjoyed that for awhile, until I became unlatched and watched them pull away.  No problem, I had my aerobars to rest on until another pace line came by and I grabbed that.  The pace lines were in the 20-24mph range so my heart-rate moved up to 85-90%.
     By now I was on my own, so at the 50 mile rest stop I dropped out and had some pickle juice and a refill of Powerade.  This was a three-minute respite, which is my norm.  Fifty miles in three hours and eight minutes, I couldn't believe things were going so well.  The sun was still hidden and the temperature still below 90 degrees, with the wind now coming from the right but not strong.  Great weather.  I found some more folks to ride behind and all too soon Burkburnett was in sight.  My speed continued above 20mph in pace lines and 18mph in aerobars, with the legs moving quite easily.  The heart-rate stayed around 85% and that caused no problem.
     We made a right turn at the interstate, into the wind, and I was seeing a lot of 15mph on the computer.  Pretty soon, the 60 mile rest stop came into view.  I didn't need to stop since I had plenty of fluid, having filled both bottles just ten miles ago.  But I think this is where confusion reared its ugly head.  About a mile from the rest stop is Hell's Gate.  I stopped at Hell's Gate to look for Dean.  No Dean.  No other two guys.  Eventually I called Dean's cell phone and left a message.  After about ten minutes, I mounted up and continued.  About that time Lonnie came by and said he couldn't find Dean either.  We rode on awhile but he fell behind on a hill and my speed actually moved up into the 17mph range.
     This route takes us on a tour of Shepard Air Force Base and that is a lot of fun seeing the many planes displayed and riding through a gauntlet of airmen (and women) all shouting and exchanging high-fives (actually low-fives so we didn't get thrown off our bikes).  From the base a lot of the road is down hill, so I again was on the high side of 20mph.
     Shortly before the finish line, I turned off to get back to my car, so I missed both the start and the finish, but really did do the whole course.  My average overall speed was 16mph, or saddle-time of 17.9mph.  Overall time was four hours forty-two minutes which included thirty minutes non-riding.  The average temperature a balmy 82.6 degrees, and when I finished it hadn't reached 90. Great weather.  Still haven't seen Dean, and I'm wondering if he was feeling so good he did the 100 miles.  Will email him later.

POST TIME TRIAL RIDING

     My next time trial is November 7th, less than seven days after a three week European river cruise.  But my next race is the always brutal State Road Race at Fort Hood the last week-end in September.  In view of my lackluster showing in the time trial, I am trying to get more prepared for this event.  However, as I've often declared, my main focus is recreational cycling, so while I am bearing down, I'm not foregoing other pursuits.
     We just returned from a family (kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, nieces, sister) get-together in Suches, Georgia.  I took my bike and re-acquainted myself with three of the six gaps of the strenuous Six Gap Century.  This is an annual thing, so I am very familiar with the roads.  Marilane and I arrive early and leave a day or two after everyone is gone, so I generally squeeze in a half dozen or more rides.  But not this year.
     Beginning at the beginning, this was to be my "down" year for racing.  My intention was to take it somewhat easy and be more intense next year.  I didn't intend to lose quite as much form.  For starters, the annual five pound winter gain turned out to be ten pounds.  The three month losing of the excess resulted in zero pounds lost.  The spring rains didn't help.  I was hoping to use Georgia as a springboard to returning to form.  I got rained out on crucial riding days there too.  Oh, I took my rain jacket and actually got caught several times.  Once I called my Uber driver (Marilane), since the rain was accompanied by thunder.  Remember, I'm not hard-core.
     Last year was the first time my highlight trip of riding up Brasstown Bald was skipped.  I missed it again this year.  I also missed Hogpen Gap.  These two climbs wring the best out of me and when I can make these ascents, I know my strength is good.  It isn't like I was totally bereft of rides.  The nine-miles of Neel's Gap, and the ever-popular Wolf Pen gap provided plenty of climbing.  A half-dozen rides were accomplished, just lacking the most challenging ones.
     Next up is the Hotter'n Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls.  I've done this ride ten times, but the last one was in 2001.  I have my sights on a hundred miles, but the way things have been going, it may just be 100k.  Then comes a delightful trip to Colorado with Shannon Burke and Velo View.   That is my altitude training for the road race.  Following that is the river cruise, returning just in time for Gruene.  My partner, Dean, says it doesn't matter to him if I am cruising instead of training.  Dean was 2nd (10k) and 3rd (5k) at Nationals this year, so he can drag me around the course.  Then I let Shannon take me out to ride in the Big Bend.
     Next year is qualifying for Senior Games Nationals.  It is not a "down" year.

REALITY SETS IN

     Well, it was fun while it lasted.  With tongue firmly implanted in my cheek, I've proclaimed myself "the fastest man in Texas" for a number of years.  While a true statement, it took a bit of spinning to see how I arrived at that "honor."  But, without spin, I can unequivocally say that in state competition, the last time I was off the podium for a time trial was 2008.  At Senior Games Nationals I was 13th in the 10k and 18th in the 5k, but the fastest from Texas.  All of that came to an end this weekend.
     It wasn't unexpected.  My training has been spotty, my practice times slow.  Plus, faster guys entered the race (yes, some of my ill-gotten results are because the fast guys didn't show up).  I was pretty sure I'd be racing for third place.  And I repeat what I've said before: I'm in it for fun and conditioning.  All the same, I'm sad to see the string end (I was fourth by a half-second, that hurts a bit).
     But about the races themselves.  Hempstead was hot and ultra humid.  For the ITT, I had a
Saturday 7:36 a.m. start.  It was an out-and-back course, slightly downhill and flat outbound, slightly uphill and flat on the way back.  Truly, I characterize it as flat.  I think I only used three gears, maybe four.  I started last as defending champion.  The main stats I use speak for themselves: average heart-rate of 148 (89% of max and about 3 beats short of AT) and average cadence of 88, but most of that was really at 90.  The most important stat was mph: 21.7 average and 25.8 max. (last year I was 22.1 average and 28.5 max).  I was a gear or two short but whenever I tried moving, I couldn't push it.
     Besides lack of strength compared to last year, I'm also packing an additional ten pounds, so my strength-to-weight ratio has also suffered.  I'll see if I can remedy that.
   

The weekend wasn't a disaster.  I had fun, did my best, reacquainted with racing buddies, and still came home a State Champion.  The second, third, and fourth-place (me) finishers teamed up for the Team Time Trial Sunday morning and finished first.  Without any practice, other than a shaky start and turn-around, we had a very smooth race, with our transitions being excellent.  It isn't the first time we've teamed up, but was our best outing so far.

CAN'T GET IT UP!

     Sorry, this is a cycling blog and I'm referring to my heart-rate.  I first noticed it on Friday.  Wednesday was time-trial practice and the fifth day in a row of pretty heavy riding.  I took Thursday off to stretch and get in some strength training.  Friday I did another time-trial practice, knowing full well the speed would be less.  Well, my breathing was ragged and heart-rate about eight beats low.  In the next two weeks I needed to improved two minutes over 20k based on the Wednesday time and instead added a minute and a half.  Friday's practice did very little for my ego.
     Rather than take another day off, I embarked on an early morning recovery ride, my standard Limmer Loop two-hour, twenty-nine mile mostly flat sojourn in the corn fields.  With a stated goal of a low heart-rate, I used low gears, 80 rpms for the most part (average for the ride 74), and ended up with an average HR of 108.  Interestingly enough, it ended up only a few minutes slower than my previous circuit.  This morning I'll ride with a group and see if I can hang at the back and have another day keeping the HR down.
     Sunday post-ride: yes, 25 miles with an average HR of 94.  True, I rode with the beginners, but we still averaged 12.7 mph.