March 12, 2012 Entry

I know, I know. It’s been a long time since I posted. 2012 started out a bit rocky for me and I’m just getting my feet back under me.

I’m making progress (slowly but surely) on my goals for the year. Last week, I swam ¼ of my laps using a new stroke. That’s cool mostly because when I started swimming, I couldn’t even complete one lap doing it. Now that I’m comfortable with my old standbys (breast stroke and backstroke) I needed to add some challenge. I’ve bumped up to ~1/3 of the laps this week.

For the first time in our memories, the Conoco-Phillips rides have been rained out three times this year! We’ve had more rain in the last 10 weeks than we had in the first 11 months of 2011. It’s wreaked havoc with our training – in fact, we went 8 full days without a bike ride before tonight. (We made up the other two rides by riding on our own either before or after the scheduled rain-out!) We rode in the neighborhood tonight. The county has finished the trail we like so that it goes all the way to the beltway now. We can pick up the trail right at the top of our neighborhood and then ride all the way out to Katy if we want to! (Haven’t done that yet, but if we keep getting rained out, we might get stuck doing so!)

I’m ok with the rain as long as there’s none on April 21 and 22! Don’t forget to make a donation, if you’re so inclined! Here’s the link in case you are!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=2581539&pg=personal&fr_id=17896

Goals for 2012

This year I decided that instead of making resolutions, I would riff off the “100 things” craze. I found that the “100 things” starters were a little daunting, however. So, I decided to make goals for each week of 2012. I haven’t dated them and I’ve got more than 52, just in case some of them never really happen. Each goal is either personal, professional, health related or fitness related – so I can’t just say I’m going to ride more miles on my bike.

This week, the goal was to burn 3500 calories. That one’s met – although it was a bit of a squeaker! I can’t burn much when I walk because I can’t get my heart rate up above 100 bpm. I had to get BACK into the pool this week after 3 weeks out while the pool was being refurbished. That was tough – and exhausting! (I’ve slept better this week than I have in a month!) I rode by myself one day this week. I’m going to have to rely on that for a while until day light savings time springs forward again. Stephen can’t get home while it’s still light.

The highlight of the week was Stephen’s and my ride on Saturday. We rode our old standby route in Katy. While I wasn’t at the top of my game, Stephen sure was! He finished with gas in the tank despite having to drag my sorry behind for the last 15 miles or so. We had a rather unpleasant surprise when I had not just one but TWO flat tires on the last leg. I changed the first one – with a lot of coaching – and Stephen changed the second one.

Official MS 150 training season begins the last week of January. The schedule seems to be a bit more challenging than in previous years, but Stephen and I have stayed on top of our game all through the summer, so we’re pretty confident that we’ll be ready for the hills as soon as they come! Nathan’s not going to join us this year. Instead, he’s participating in a competitive percussion group. Erin’s, of course, busy with school. So, it’s just us two. I’ll keep you posted as the season progresses!

Ten Things I learned While Taking the Day "Off"

1. Offering fruit, eggs or yogurt to 19-year-old girls for breakfast results in blank stares.

2. Watching 3 19-year old girls get out of the house for a day at the beach can be very amusing.

3. A “day at the beach” for 19-year-old girls means leaving the house at noon.

4. 19-year-old girls don’t know how much sunscreen they’ll need for a day at the beach. But, they’re pretty sure they’ll need a 12 pack of soda.

5. It really is possible to just lose an entire day to inertia.

6. Despite lying on the couch and turning the pages, whatever Nathan’s doing with “Invisible Man” he is absolutely NOT reading it.

7. No matter how loudly he plays it or how wildly he dances to it, Nathan’s “music” still sounds like The Swedish Chef at 78 rpm.

8. Nathan had tortellini for breakfast.

9. We really have nothing sweet in the pantry.

10. Cereal doesn’t count as something sweet.

Last C-P ride of the season!

Today was the last ride of the Conoco-Phillips training series. Last year, we drove all the way out to New Ulm and turned around and came back home because it was raining. This year, we rode…and while it wasn’t exactly pretty, we did it.

It started at 4:15AM when Stephen’s alarm went off. Our goal was to be out the door by 5:15AM. Eventually, we lined up and took off up the first of many, many hills around 7:45AM. This ride was billed as having three of the four toughest hills in the area on the route and the one that wasn’t on the route was near enough that you could CHOOSE to ride it. Of course, those three hills mentioned were only the tough ones. There were a couple dozen less challenging hills intermingled amongst the three tough ones!

We’d had all the bikes inspected this week. Nathan’s outgrown his bike, so we decided to not have some specific repairs done to it on Tuesday, and planned instead to perhaps have a new one that fit him by the weekend. We did not, in fact, find one to buy, so we made an adjustment to his seat post and he rode his little bike today. This may not, in retrospect, have been the best plan.

The shop replaced my chain and Stephen’s chain and re-taped my handlebars, as well. I’ve been working all season on my cadence, and I’ve finally got it down. I know what gear I need to be to cruise and I know what gear I need to be when I’m climbing or heading into the wind. I’ve become a much more efficient rider – and in the past few weeks, I’ve accomplished some personal bests in speed.

But, the first four times I tried to shift into my “granny gear” to take on a hill today, my chain slipped off the sprocket. (Did I mention that there were three, really tough hills on this ride??) I developed a pretty efficient albeit greasy method of re-sitting the chain and I limped the bike into the first rest stop where the Sun and Ski crew made some adjustments to it. Shortly after that, I shifted successfully to begin climbing another hill only to hear Nathan’s chain drop off its sprocket ahead of me. Remember those repairs we’d turned down? – one was that he needed his chain and his cassette replaced. Now, his chain was wedged between the bike frame and the derailleur. Stephen and I fiddled with it and looked at it carefully – only to realize that Nathan’s chain would probably never again ride that full cassette…and certainly not for the rest of this particular day. So, that left Nathan with 7 of his usual 10 gears…and none of his easy ones. Good thing he’s young.

So, it took us 4 hours to go from start to finish. Our average speed was abysmal. But! All three of us made it up every one of those hills with our feet on the pedals, not on the pavement! We ended the day with a barbeque chicken lunch at the VFD park in New Ulm. When I got off the bike at noon, I swore I’d never do this ride again. But, the afternoon has mellowed my mood enough to want to conquer it next year!

Bluebonnet Express

Willow and I rode the Bluebonnet Express this weekend. The only thing that wasn’t fabulous about it was the hideous t-shirt!

We arrived at around 7 for an 8AM start…and started riding about 8:40. There were more riders than I remembered from last year – but the crowds thinned out pretty quickly after the start. The wildflowers were beautiful -- although some other riders mentioned that the pollen count made the ride pretty difficult for them!

We completed about 55 miles with a very respectable 14.2mph average. There were about 6 miles during which the two of us had 6 bikes drafting off us – which made us feel strong and powerful. We wore our UH jerseys and got a lot of “Go Coogs!” cheers from people around us. We also saw two Sesame Street jerseys (one with Bert and Ernie and the other with Super Grover) that we’re going to have to try to find in the next couple weeks!

We’re both feeling almost ready for the big ride in a few weeks. Willow has a ride near her home in Austin that offers her some nicely challenging hill training. I’ll keep up with my speed rides on Tuesday nights and my distance rides on Thursdays and Saturdays to keep me going. Our ride this weekend is pretty tough – I fell going up a big hill on this one last year – but I’m ready to do it!

The Frisco ride is in just a few weeks!!

Things I learned by riding at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, March 22, 2011

1. Riding your bike during “found” time is really fun!

2. Navigating through elementary school dismissal is not quite the same as navigating through elementary school arrival!

3. If you start going up the hill too fast and you get scared on the curve and brake – the remainder of the hill doesn’t just evaporate.

4. When passing other cyclists (at 3:30 in the afternoon on a workday) you may find that they have as big a grin on their faces as you do – or they may just avoid eye contact and look guilty.

5. Wind is wind. You aren’t allowed to pooh-pooh my average (14.2) because half of it was with the wind – the OTHER half was against the wind!

6. Checking your messages at the half-way point is sometimes wise. If I’d known that Nathan’s pick up time got moved back a ½ hour, I might have enjoyed the last 20 minutes a bit more.

7. Threatening to arrive all sweaty and disgusting to pick up your son is NOT wise, however.

Spring Breakaway!

So, this year I’ve gotten back into my Thursday morning solo rides. When I first did these, Erin was still home. She used to take Nathan off to school and I could leave from the house and ride out and back from home. Now that we’re back having to drive Nathan around, I have been dropping him off at school and then riding from Highway 6 west to Fry Road.

I love these rides. I feel strong and powerful because I have to do the whole thing by myself. I only go about 20 miles, because it isn’t really an endurance ride. I get plenty of those on the weekends. So, I work on my speed, my cadence and my form. And I fight the wind.

I’ve ridden this ride 6 times now and on one of them, the wind was at my back for the last 3 miles. For the other five, I’ve been cranking out the miles at a snail’s pace into winds that feel like I’ve stepped back into Hurricane Ike (I hyperbolize).

Today, since it’s spring break, Stephen and Nathan joined me. And what I gave up in peace and quiet (random bits of rap lyrics and poop jokes replaced bird song), I got back in young legs and locomotive legs!

We cruised nicely into the wind for one stretch early on. That was sort of the easy part. When I’m alone, I may struggle a little on that stretch but I’m usually still pretty fresh. Where the boys really came in handy was on the last 3 miles. We turned into the wind and Nathan took over in the lead. He dragged Stephen and me for about 2 minutes, then Stephen took over. Then Nathan took over, then, Stephen took over. I drafted comfortably in the back!

My average speed for the ride was 15.2 (over 22.4 miles!). I don’t think I’ve ever averaged that high for 20 miles before! I’ll take it – even though I can’t take all the credit for it