Hills, hills and more hills

 

Cyclists and runners in the North Texas area know that we don’t have much in the way of elevation change. There are no 4-mile hill climbs for us to train on (heck I can only think of a couple of climbs withing a 2 hour drive that are over 1 mile). This forces us to get very creative with our local “climbs” in order to get in some “hill work”.  Luckily in Fort Worth we have a few more options than the folks in Dallas. Today I went out with my GPS to map all of the hills I could think of in the area in order to determine the actual distance, elevation change and average grade of our local climbs. Is Hidden Road steeper than Ranch View? How long is Rogers Road? What’s the change in elevation on Nice Hill? I’ve got all of the ones that I could think of (and had the time to ride to) below. Click on the links for directions to the hill or for the profile from my GPS.

Deerwood Forest Right

Taking first right off Drop Time after main entrance

.70 miles – 167 ft – 4.5% avg. grade 

Legend Drive

Starting at Mont Del Drive and Park Lane

.79 miles – 156 ft – 3.74% avg. grade 

Burton Hill

Starting at Merrick and Burton Hill towards Byers.

.53 miles – 135 ft – 4.8% avg. grade 

Merrick Road

Starting at Merrick and Burton Hill

.29 miles – 134 ft – 8.8% avg. grade 

Hidden Road

Heading towards Alta Drive

.35 miles – 131 ft – 7.1% avg. grade 

Ranchview West

Starting at Bellaire Drive South

.26 miles – 126 ft – 8.8% avg. grade 

Deerwood Forest Left

Turning left on DropTime at main entrance

.38 miles – 120 ft – 6.0% avg. grade 

Ranchview East

Starting at Overton Park towards Bellaire Circle.

.17 miles – 82 ft – 9.1% avg. grade 

The Wall – Aledo

End of Underwood Road

.12 miles – 83 ft – 13.1% avg. grade 

Rogers Ave.

Starting at Rogers and Colonial Drive

.26 miles – 80 ft – 5.8% avg. grade  

Nice Hill – Benbrook Lake

Coming from the South

.24 miles – 62 ft – 4.9% avg. grade 

Nice Hill – Benbrook Lake

Coming from the North

.17 miles – 57 ft – 6.4% avg. grade 

“Catting-Up”

So today I received what I have been working towards all Summer, I got my USCF upgrade to Category 4. You earn a Cat 4 upgrade by competing in at least 10, qualifying, mass-start races. From here on out my ability to move up in categories will be based soley on results. You need to earn a certain number of points in a 12 month period to move from 4 to 3 – and you earn points by placing well in large races.

The great thing about getting my upgrade today though was it enabled me to race in the “B” race in the last Tbi Wed. Night Crit of the Summer. You must be a Cat 4 or Cat 3 racer to compete in the B race, plus the B race is longer and faster than the C race I had been competing in. The B race also starts ~30 minutes later than the C race, so next season it will make it much easier for me to get to the race without having to leave work early.

This week’s race was also special for another reason.  One of TBi’s junior racers, Ivan Musaka, died tragically over the weekend. Ivan was only days away from starting his first semester at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX.  All proceeds from the race were going towards Ivan’s memorial fund. Several area racers also donated several hundred dollars to use as prize money in the races in order to generate more interest in the race. It worked and the B and A race had 35+ riders.

For the B race there was enough money that they decided to do a prime on every lap. My goal for the race was to simply finish with the pack and see how I measured-up; therefore, giving me a good gauge of what I need to work on for next season. My second objective was, in the slim chance, if I had an opportunity to get a prime, to go for it with the intention of donating the winnings back to Ivan’s fund.

The race started fast, but not a “break-neck” pace. I tried to always be in a rider’s slipstream in order to conserve energy. We averaged over 24 mph, but I felt good. On the 7th of 10 laps, I made a move to get towards the front of the pack and decided to go for it. I opened up a pretty good gap and it looked like no one was going to chase me. What I didn’t realize is Tammy, a strong women’s racer for Colonel’s/Lonestarworks and Joe from the Broken Film’s Team started to work together to chase me down. I heard Joe at the last second as we approached the line and I tried to shift to a bigger gear to sprint and my chain slipped, Joe beat me by a bike’s length.

At this point I was pretty spent, but managed to get back in the main pack as they came by. I recovered and was able to stay with the pack at the finish. I unofficially finished 13th out of 35 riders – not bad for my first B race. As I’ve said before, I will definitely need to work on my sprinting for next season.

Hotter n’ Hell – 63 miles comes down to 15 seconds

So the beginning of my  HHH experience this year started slowly. Jess, Grant, Wrigley (the dog came too)and I weren’t able to get out of Fort Worth until 5 p.m. Therefore, we hit traffic and it took us about 3.5 hours for what is normally a 2 hour trip. We rolled into the hotel, unpacked and the next thing I know it was almost 11 p.m. I planned on getting up at 5 a.m. to eat and ride to the start line for 6:15 to 6:30 (the race was scheduled to start at 6:50 a.m.) . The picture above is Grant and I at 6 a.m. right before rolling out. Since I haven’t joined a team yet, I wore my ThinkCash kit – which is a pretty good-looking kit (keep in mind I’m biased since I designed the jerseys).

There were 100 racers in the Cat 5 race and there were a couple teams with mutliple riders; however, team tactics rarely work in a Cat 5 race, so I didn’t expect any organized attacks. After a quick briefing by the race official, we rolled out shortly after 7 a.m. The pace started quick and we averaged 26-30 mph for the first 10 miles or so. We got a good tempo going and average 25 mph for the first 40 miles. There were only about 50 of us left in the lead pack and several riders were really suffering and would probably soon drop-off.  But right about that time a break-away from the 45+ race (we had earlier caught and passed the 45+ field) came up on us and the race officials had us go neutral for a couple miles (going neutral basically means you stop racing and just soft pedal for a while). This let everyone that was struggling recover, so I knew we were now looking at a large-pack, sprint finish.

The next 20 miles were into a 15-20 mph headwind, so no one was willing to attack and fight the wind alone. Finally with about 4 miles left we turned out of the wind and really picked up the pace to 30 – 35 mph and basically shed all the remaining struggling riders. There were now about 35 of us in the lead pack with a couple miles to go. My legs felt good and I decided to make a move to get in the front of the pack; however, when I went my legs felt really strong and I decided to go for it – I could see the final overpass into town ahead. I’m a decent climber for my category so I though if I could get a small gap and maintain it until the overpass, no one would catch me on the climb and then it is downhill with a couple turns downtown to the finish. I shot passed the lead riders and opened up a gap of maybe 50 meters or so. No one had made a strong move all day, so everyone in the pack got very vocal as I shot passed and started to chase me down. The front group did get organized and managed to catch me just as we reached the overpass. I didn’t have much gas left in the tank, but I managed to get back in the pack as we rolled into town. My legs had no juice left, so I was a non-factor on the last couple of corners and the sprint to the finish, as a result, I finished 29th – 15 seconds behind the winner. That’s racing – 63+ miles of racing comes down to 15 seconds.

In hindsight, if I would waited and made my move just as we reached the overpass, I probably would have had a good shot at the win (or at least top 3). But considering this was my first road race (my other 9 races have all been criteriums), I’m OK with the results. Plus, Jess and Grant got to see me at a finish line for the first time. It was great – just as I crossed the finish line I could see the two of them on the left, cheering me on. I even got a “Go Daddy” from Grant.

You can check out the race profile from my GPS unit here. We finished the 63+ mile course in 2:45, averaging just over 23 mph, so it was a pretty good pace for a Cat 5 race. I’m moving up to Category 4 this week, so this was my last Cat 5 race. That means next year I’ll be racing the full 100 miles . . . can’t wait!

What happens when you mix record rains and 30-ton gas trucks?

The record rains we’ve had this year in North Texas has definitely caused problems for cyclist and other outdoor enthusiast; however, the rains have also turned many of our roads into black-tar versions of swiss cheese. This situation has been magnified in the rural areas west of Fort Worth (particularly around Aledo) where the various trucks involved with drilling activities of the Barnett Shale have totally destroyed some of the once scenic country roads.
Today I rode with a group out on Kelly Road, Aledo Road and McDanniel Road. A pretty well-known loop for cyclists in Fort Worth. Riding on these roads is now like riding the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. There are stretches of loose gravel, dirt and even sections filled with rocks the size of golf balls (not ideal conditions for a carbon race bike with 23mm tires). It’s sad because riding these hilly roads were one of the factors that sparked my love of cycling last summer.
What makes the situation even worse is that the gas company’s are not forced to contribute to the repair of these road. Instead, this burden falls on the taxpayers of Tarrant and Parker counties.
Hopefully the roads are repaired soon, but I fear that I will be forced to ride elsewhere for months . . . maybe years?

1,000 miles . . . what a difference a year makes

Last Christmas my parents got me a great gift, a 2-year subscription to MotionBased. MotionBased is a website that allows you to upload GPS data (like the data collected on my Garmin Edge 305 – the best piece of cycling equipment I ever bought) and track the information over time and really analyze your performance. Click on this link Ben’s Goatneck Ride to see an example of all the data it captures (maps your ride to Google Maps or Google Earth, tracks time, elevation, speed, etc. etc. etc.). This is technology that even the best professional cycling teams in the world didn’t have 5 years ago and now it is available to any Weekend Warrior. Pretty cool.

So last night I was uploading my recent ride data and I noticed that I rode over 1,000 miles in July. The reality of it kicked in . . . that’s more miles than most people put on their car in a month. Looking at it a different way – that is over 46,000 calories or 230 doughnuts. So I got to thinking how much different my cycling is now compared to one year ago (I first started cycling in May of 2006).

• Last year I was riding about 100-125 miles per week. This year I am riding 250 miles per week (sometimes 300).
• Last year at this time the longest ride I had ever done was the Peach Pedal in Weatherford, TX. It was 56 miles and I averaged 16 mph.  This year I did the Peach Pedal again and finished (60 miles) in less than 3 hours and averaged ~22mph.  I regularly ride over 60 miles on my weekend rides and have completed about 5 century rides since that time.
• Last year I had one bike (my Specialized Roubaix). Now I have three bikes (my Roubaix, my Kuota Kredo and a Lemond Poprad cyclocross bike – which I use to pull Grant’s trailer and just goof around on).
• Last year I had no interest in racing and said I would never race in a Criterium. This year I am a licensed Cat 5 racer and have raced in 6 crits with plans to upgrade to Cat 4 before the season is over.
• Last year I was training for my first century ride ever – the Hotter than Hell 100. I finished the HH100 in 7 hours (I was diverted and actually did 115 miles plus it was the hottest HH100 ever at 108 degrees). This year I will ride in the HH100 again, but plan on finishing in under 5 hours.

Last year no one else in the office rode a bike. Now there are at least 6 other guys who ride on a regular basis (most being members of Team ThinkCash – our MS150 team).

Last year Grant couldn’t even say the word “bike”. Now he regularly watches bike races with me on TV, came with Jess and I to the Tour of California professional bicycle race and he is my official “tire air pressure checker” every morning before I head out for a ride. Oh, he is also my official water bottler filler-up-er.

Won’t it be interesting to see what the next year brings . . .

Goatneck 2007

Did the Goatneck bicycle rally in Cleburne, TX this past Saturday. This was my first time riding this well managed event. The course was great and over 2,500 brave souls came out to ride 10, 27, 41 or 70 miles through the rolling countryside of Johnson County.  I met up with many of the members of Team ThinkCash. As a reminder – we put together a company team to ride in the Frisco-to-Fort Worth MS150 (raising money for Multiple Sclerosis research). Several guys joined just to get some of our cool team kits (cycling talk for jersey and shorts), but amazingly everyone is still riding on a regular basis.

 

I did the 70 mile ride  (this link will give you all of the data for the ride from my bike’s GPS unit) and felt good.  I tried to do as much of the ride solo as possible (not getting the benefit of slipstream by rising in a group) in preparation for the Texas Time Trials in September (100 mile race with no drafting allowed).  That put me at an average speed of just over 21 mph, so not bad for 70 miles of rolling hills, but not hammering it. In fact, I felt good enough to go for a 55 mile ride on Sunday morning.  The rest of Team ThinkCash did really good (everyone has improved dramatically from the MS150 in May). Kevin actually had his best ride ever.

I’m going to try and race a Wednesday Night Crit or two over the next few weeks, but the next big ride will be Hotter than Hell 100 in Wichita Falls, TX at the end of August.  I did the HH100 last year. It was my first century ride ever and actually ended up being 115 miles due to some pranksters that changed some of the signs on the course. I might have found it amusing if it wasn’t 108 degrees that day. This year I will probably do the 100K Cat 5 race in order to get me one race closer to moving up to Cat 4. Jess and I had reservations to stay at the Holiday Inn in Wichita Falls (where we stayed last year), but I just learned that they had major flood damage from all the rain we have been having, so I might be driving there the morning of the race and driving back after (2 hours each way . . . arrgh).