2012 Hotter N Hell 100, DONE!

Hotter ‘N’ Hell 2012

While not literally hotter than hell this year, it was windier than hell out there!  We were blessed with moderate temps in the low to mid 90’s and a bit of God’s own air conditioning in the form of a nice cooling breeze that was reported to be gusting to over 35 mph.

This was my first trip back to Wichita Falls, TX and the Hotter ‘N’ Hell since 1991.  Obviously a lot of stuff has changed since then, the course, where I stayed, (Yay, no camping out in a tent with the fire ants), the weather, and my bike.

This year I decided comfort was going to be a deciding factor and I wanted a good night’s sleep the night before, this meant air conditioning, a real bed, and a real bathroom.  This required finding a motel which was kind of hard to do when you have over 14,000 cyclists coming in for the ride.  The nearest motel Vicky could find for me was in Lawton Oklahoma, 50 miles away.  I will say though, it fit my definition of comfortable.

Ride day for me started at 0’dark 30, (0300) in order to get my morning routines out of the way, the van repacked the drive back to Wichita Falls and be there in time to get ready before the start of the ride.  Rain was threatening the area when I looked at radar but due to all the cyclists devoutly praying it would go somewhere else our prayers were answered.

I got into the starting area with plenty of time to get things packed, repacked, repacked yet again, (do I really need to carry a spare tire?  What about that extra bottle of pickle juice?  How about more energy bars?  Do I really need to carry three spare tubes?)   Yes, I over packed as normal, (good thing I wasn’t towing a trailer, I’d have stuffed it full of crap also!)

However somewhere in my repacking my phone got lost and I didn’t discover it was gone till I was in the starting group and ready to go.  I initially thought I’d left it in the van so I wasn’t super worried, I should have known better as it had fallen in the parking lot.  It was picked up by a nice guy from Saginaw who returned it Monday.  He earned himself lots of thanks and a couple $20 bills.

From previous experience on the Hotter N Hell I knew that the start was going to be were the most problems were going to occur.  When you try and pack 14,000+ riders down a road, things can get a little "entertaining".  Fortunately the start was well organized and the start was staggered by groups so we avoided the overwhelming crush or riders all trying to get going.

Lurking in my mind was also the other bane of the Hotter N Hell, the sheer amount of water bottles, seat bags, bottle cages, pumps and other bike bits that were going to end up littering the course.  This year was no exception.  By the time I got 30 miles in, the water bottles on the road were becoming a real hazard and causing numerous crashes.  When that many people are packed up that tight on the roads at that kind of speed, crashes happen.  I did manage to snag a nice Camelbak insulated bottle that was in a pull off next to the road, I saw plenty of others I wanted to grab but they were out of reach and I was out of room to carry stuff anyway.  I swear one of these years, I am going to pull a trailer just to pick up all the bike bits that fall off/get dropped out there.

This is the route for the 2012 Hotter N Hell.  The north running bits were fun, the south running bits, not so much so.

The ride start surprised me as it was earlier than announced, which is why I missed getting video of the start.  Since we had started at the front with the tandems and the pace setters there were plenty of fast riders to set in with.  At one point I’d found myself a nice pace line and settled in at 21 mph or so.  I glanced in my mirror and see a recumbent coming up FAST.  Turns out, it was Roy on his carbon wonder bike.  I heard later the reason he was hammering that hard and flying that fast was to get to a bathroom.

I continued rolling past SAG #1 in hopes of getting to SAG #3 before stopping to avoid getting caught up in the crowd of 14,000+ cyclists.  Unfortunately my own call of nature was beginning to scream so I pulled into SAG #2 and took care of business.  I grabbed some more water a bite of food and tried to get back onto the road, but it was wall to wall pacelines flying by.  After catching a break it was back onto the road.  This stretch proved fairly dangerous due to some inconsiderate people who either passed me a little to close or cut in way to early, I had to remind a couple folks that the front end of a recumbent is usually where the feet and chain rings are and that they would not be very happy running into either. 

By the 40 mile point I had used up the water in my Camelbak bladder and was down to my water bottles as had been my initial plan.  This meant that skipping upcoming SAGS wasn’t going to be an option as I would need to refill my bottles about every ten miles.  The SAGS were all well stocked with your typical ride food, lots of ice, water, Gatorade, (red & blue flavors) oranges, bananas, Clif products, (a sponsor), and in the later SAGS, pickles and pickle juice.  Lots of the SAGS also had homemade cookies which I made sure to sample.  The volunteers manning the SAGS were all extremely helpful and polite.   The best sag though had to be Margaritaville as it had the most homemade cookies, the watermelon, and was ran by the high school cheerleaders.  I found the blue Gatorade, Clif shot gels, Clif mini bars, watermelon, pickles and homemade cookies worked for keeping me hydrated and fueled during the ride.  I also found out the commercial pickle juice, Pickle Juice Sport tastes flat nasty but seems to work.

At one point during the ride, I overheard a couple of riders approaching from behind.  They were in full team kit and flew by me at a high rate of speed.  I decided, what the heck, let's burn another match or three just to have some fun.  I grabbed the big ring and cranked.  They were more than a little surprised to have some old guy on a recumbent come smoking by them.  I think you can see on my speed graph just where that occurred.

We had a nice conversation after I slowed down and let them catch back up. 

The course was new this year to the ride and incorporated a few new features.  There were a couple nice little hills in the course and two cattle grates which caused a spike in my heart rate as we went over them, all it would have taken was one person to fall and it would have been mass chaos.  The 100 mile group also got to tour through Sheppard Air Force Base.   Going through the base was an amazing experience.  They had a nice aircraft display lined up for us to check out with friendly airmen and lieutenants to talk to.  I did try and work a deal for a pair of JATO rockets to sling under my bike as the wind was starting to get to me.  Unfortunately the three lieutenants didn't think so much of my idea.  Riding south out of the base we rode through the gauntlet of airmen all out to cheer us on, seeing all these men and women who volunteered to serve their country was inspirational. 

My moving  time for the 100 miles was 5:59:43, I broke the 6 hour mark!

Overall, it was a great ride!  I had fun, I didn't crash, and the bike ran great!  Next year, Vicky gets to ride her first Hotter N Hell!

2012 Tour De Cure Dallas/Fort Worth

This was my first year on the Dallas Fort Worth Tour De Cure and it was an exceptionally well run ride!  The Tour De Cure ride raises money for research to combat both Type I and Type II diabetes.  Being a Type II diabetic this is an issue that really hits home for me.  At the start of the ride they announced we had over 1000 riders who had at that point, raised over $400,000 dollars to fight diabetes.  This money goes to help all of the diabetics out there, from the kids just diagnosed with Type I, the expectant mothers diagnosed with gestational diabetes, the folks caught between the two with Type 1.5 diabetes, to the Type II’s like me.

First off, a big thank you to my sponsors!  Thank you so much for your commitment to helping fight diabetes, you have helped make a difference.

This event offered a chance to meet some of the athletes from Team Type I and Team Type II.  These people have “been there, done that” as far as endurance riding with diabetes and I was more than happy to get the chance to pick their brains as to how they handle their diabetes while on longer.    Two of the big things I took away from my conversations with them were the importance of testing, especially during a ride, and the idea of moving toward a more natural diet.   Both of these things were already on my radar but it was nice to have the ideas confirmed by the resident experts.

Unfortunately, my day had to start with a bit of road construction and getting shunted off onto the wrong road as I was driving to the start of the ride.  This ended up costing me my normal 30 minute “opps” window I try to build into events like this.  I had just enough time to put my bike together, grab my registration stuff and make it to the start.  What I didn’t have time to do was to stop by the bathrooms, something the morning’s coffee and my hamster bladder were making me very aware of.

Being a “Red Rider”, (diabetic cyclist) they started the group of us at the front.  Normally, since I ride a recumbent, I tend to start toward the back to avoid the crowds.  Starting at the front worked out extremely well for me as it put me immediately with the fast group once we left Texas Motor Speedway.  I managed to ride with the fast bunch up until SAG #1, (food, water and port a johns), were my cunning plan came together.  By getting started at the front and riding with the big dogs at a fast pace meant I was first into the Port A Johns, something that my hamster bladder was more than grateful for.  A quick pee, a check of the SAG food for pickles, (crap, no pickles!) and it was back on the bike.

 

Eight miles down the road and SAG #2 and it was another stop to pee, at least I was staying hydrated!  Back on the road and I found the main hills for the ride.  While a recumbent rider may be a bit slow up a hill, we more than make up for it on the downhill.  

Around mile 25 or so I was busy talking with another rider and failed to pay attention to the road.  I hit a nasty pot hole and immediately pinch flatted my rear tire.  I found a bit of shade and started changing out the tube.  Everyone that went by checked to see if I had everything I needed and was more than helpful.  Fortunately the tube change went quickly and smoothly.  Back up and on the road and I wanted to make some time and catch back up to the group I’d been riding with.

By that point in the ride I was feeling exceptionally well and the legs were more than happy turning big gears at 90+ RPM.  The couple of times I paid attention to my bike computer I was surprised to see I was cruising along at 27-30 mph.  The legs seemed more than happy at that pace so I just kept everything set in super cruise mode and hammered on into the turnaround point at Sag #4 with a 19.3 mph average.  I grabbed some more water, a piece of a peanut butter sandwich, a Clifbar Mini, and of course another trip to the port a john and it was time to fight the breeze going back.

I had kind of figured that given my average speed at the turn around that I’d had a bit of a tailwind pushing me down the road and I was correct, it had now become a headwind, fairly light but still there.  A ways down the road I came across another cyclist with a flat.  It was her third flat and she was running out of tubes and patches.  Having learned that lesson the hard way last March I stopped to help.  By folding her tire back on itself and running my thumb along the inside of the tire till I went “OUCH!” I was able to find the tiny staple that she had picked up.  Pulled the staple, patched her tube, and got her back on the road.  She was happy, I was glad to have helped and the break seemed to put more energy back into my legs as my pace started picking right back up and I was making good time.

I stopped at Sag #6 for, you guessed it!  Another bathroom break, boy was I ever staying hydrated!  As I was looking over the menu choices for food, I noticed my personal food nirvana of choice for long hot rides.  Some folks dream of cake and ice cream, some of a big plate of spaghetti, some of cold beers..  Me, nope, none of that for me!  When it’s a long hot ride, the one thing in the world I want to eat are pickles!   For me, it keeps my legs and body from cramping up, (google it, it’s how Philly beat the Cowboy’s in an early season game one year).  What the angles at the sag stop were opening up were the big five gallon pickle jars loaded with big dill pickles.  A glass of cold refreshing pickle juice, a nice juicy dill pickle and I was ready to ride!

Back on the road and feeling reinvigorated the legs went right back into super cruise mode.  I shifted up into the big ring and my legs spun out a nice solid cadence between 90-100 rpms.  I bypassed SAG #7, (the last Sag) as I was feeling outstanding and still had two full bottles of water with me, and for once, I didn’t have to pee!  

By now, the roads were reasonably familiar from having ridden them that morning and I was spotting my turns before the GPS was giving me the heads up.  I was still running around a 19-23 mph pace as the wind had slacked off and I was close to done.  I was also close to running out of water.  The pace I was riding had me sucking through my water bottles at a relatively high rate of speed.  I hit the finish with about a swallow of water left in one bottle and a 17.5 mile per hour average speed.  Not too bad for a former fat guy if I do say so myself.

Here is a link to my ride.

Things I took away from this ride.  

Eat small amounts every 15-30 minutes.  This worked to keep energy flowing into my system and helped me keep the speed up.  Clif mini bars worked great for this.  A bite size bar with 100 calories and a reasonable mix of protein and carbohydrates.

Stay hydrated!  I stopped at most of the Sag stops and filled my bottles, this kept me drinking lots of water between Sags. 

The Great Grasshopper Massacree in three part harmony of June 16, 2012

The Great Grasshopper Massacree in three part harmony of June 16, 2012

Well, it seems this ride was bound to be entertaining and interesting.  I'd been wanting to get back into the 100 mile rides since my last one in March.

The fun started out before I even left the house, my digestive system decided since I was planning a big ride, it needed to go into overdrive, (at least I was lighter!)  Then 15 miles into the ride, I pulled off at my normal, "It's time to water a tree stop" and ended up dumping the bike on the rocks and gravel.  That little stunt cost me a bruised knee, ankle and tweaked elbow, along with some bar tape and a chunk of cable housing.  And since I hit hard enough and torqued the front end of the bike, my headset came loose.  This occasioned a call to my wife to meet me with headset tools out on the road.  I figured unless I was bleeding severely or had trashed the bike I was going to ride so up the road I went.

As I was flying up Weston Road courtesy of a nice tail wind I remembered I'd forgot to start the ride with a prayer.  I thought I'd covered the relevant issues during my prayer, safety, strength, endurance, health for a couple of very sick friends and for general grace and peace, it seems though I'd not asked for no biblical plagues.

The grasshoppers were out in force, thousands of them covering the roads.  I had grasshoppers hitching rides on me, my bike, my helmet, gloves, and where I really didn't want them the crotch of my shorts.  The road was a literal carpet of grasshoppers in some places.  Riding along through those areas you got treated to a steady prolonged crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch as you went pedaling down the road.  Auto traffic going by was the worst, a cloud of grasshoppers would kick up and you got to ride through them.   At one rest stop I spent about five minutes picking grasshopper bits off my jersey.

From about mile 55 on I started noticing my rear wheel was dragging a bit, having a pathological hatred for all things disc brake now I immediately blamed the disc brake and adjusted the pads out where I thought it would quit dragging.  Of course then I had no rear brake.  Next rest stop the rear wheel was still dragging.  This caused much consternation and consideration of just removing the entire brake in order to finish the ride.  Instead I tweaked it some more and went down the road with the promise I'd remove the offending bit and go to a caliper brake.

More rest stops and Quicky Marts in Gunter, Tioga and Pilot Point.  A quick shot of pickle juice and more water and ice as well as some food at each stop.  By Pilot Point I was 72 miles in and beginning to feel it.  Leaving Pilot Point I had 12 miles to go to the next stop in Celina.  Those 12 miles were tough.  I got trapped on a steep uphill with no shoulder to bail to, an impatient dually pickup pulling a trailer and lots of oncoming traffic.  I had no option but to burn every match I had left and get up the hill as quick as possible.  By the time I topped the hill, my heart rate was spiking and I was ready to fall over in the grass and just lay there.  I managed to recover a bit and kept heading to Celina.  By the time I got to Celina though, I was hurting.  It took about 10 minutes of sipping cool water before I convinced my stomach it really didn't want to spatter its contents  all over the sidewalk.  More pickle juice, (by now thawed and warm, YUMM!), another big bottle of water, lots of ice and a Chocolate Chunk Rice Krispie treat and I was ready to go.

Mile 94 and a stop at Meyers Park for more food and stretches.  I did try and bum a horse to tow me into McKinney but the owner didn't think that would work out to well.  The run down FM1461 and onto Lake Forest gave me a bit of a second wind as I was feeling great.  Felt really good coming up my nemesis  hill by McKinney North and even recovered more waiting at the stoplight at Virginia and Lake Forest.

By the time I hit the driveway I hit 101.93 miles with a moving average speed of 16.1 mph.  Not to bad for a former fat guy!

Strava link with ride data HERE.

Oh and my rear brake?  My wife discovered that my pump and rotated on its mount when I crashed and was dragging my rear tire, it wasn't the brake at all.

Dodging a figurative bullet

Dodging a figurative bullet

It seems I dodged a bullet last month.

As a diabetic it’s routine for me to go in for blood work and talk to my endocrinologist about the results.  The last visit had her doing cartwheels over the continued decline in my A1C and my cholesterol numbers.  However, in the manner of all doctors she had to find something else to poke at, (my thought is it’s a secret doctor conspiracy to keep patients forking over more money, after all, they have to pay off those student loans somehow…) what she found was that my white blood cell count was falling, it had been low the visit before and it had fallen again.  She wanted me to go see a specialist, in this case a hematologist/oncologist. 

 

Being one who likes to be prepared for all situations I started googling low white blood cell count and started reading.  I didn’t really like what I was reading as bone marrow disorders, aka leukemia kept coming to the top of the lists.

However after a consult with the hematologist/oncologist they don’t think it’s a bone marrow issue.  The doctor’s best guess is either a sub-acute virus, or a low B-12 count.  With my father having a B-12 deficiency issue this could be the issue.  The sub-acute virus may also be in play also as last weekend saw me off the bike and sick all weekend.

Looking at my training performance for the April and May makes me wonder just how long I’ve had this issue.  I’ve not truly felt at the top of my performance level since March.  Other than last weekend, I’ve not felt 100% sick but just off.

Last night was the first ride I’ve had since the Muenster ride where I’ve really felt good.  Maybe I’ve kicked whatever this is and have turned that corner.  Hopefully that is the case as I’ve got to start ramping up my training in preparation for September’s 300K/double century ride.

For want of a pickle, a review of the 2012 Collin County Classic.

Yesterday, June 9th was the annual Collin County Classic bicycle ride.  This ride had been on my to do list for quite a while and I was really looking forward to it.

Since the ride starts just on the other side of town I figured I'd add in some bonus miles by riding to and from the start.  I'd already signed up for the long ride, 62 miles, and with my bonus miles I would end up right about 75 miles.  I figured if I was that close to a century, (100 miles) I may as well add in a few more and knock out another century.

The ride was extremely well set up and organized.  There was a ton of volunteers at the start helping everyone get parked, registered and where they needed to be, lots of support from the local shops; Cadence Cyclery and Plano Bike and Fitness, and most importantly, lots of port-a-johns, (I knew I should not have had that cup of coffee!).  I was there early enough that I got the chance to ride around the parking lot talking to people, ran across several folks from the local recumbent community, talked to a fellow Red Rider, (diabetic), and met a really inspiring guy who had lost a leg to an accident riding a carbon hand cycle.

The start of the ride was the usual mass chaos with the announcer trying to outshout the deafening music, riders all jockeying for space to ride in and everyone trying to funnel through the starting line.  Fortunately I didn't see anyone go down and get trampled by the thundering herd.

The first part of the ride took us through McKinney.  McKinney's finest were out in force at all the intersections to guide us through traffic.  They did an outstanding job and were very much appreciated.  In fact the entire ride had either police or sheriff presence at all intersections to make sure things were running smoothly.  All I can say to the law enforcement officers who helped out is great gob and a big thank you!  Their efforts were very much appreciated.

By the time I got to SAG #1, the morning coffee I drank was making it known that I needed to either find a tree to  water or find another port-a-john.  Fortunately all the SAG stops were well stocked with portables.  While at the SAG I ran into a guy I'd been talking with a bit on the first part of the ride, he came over, pointed to my jersey, (Marine Corps jersey) and said thank you.  Turns out he was Navy, even more, turns out he was a Navy Corpsman who served with Fleet Marine Force patching up wounded Marines.  I ended up shaking his hand and giving him a very well deserved Thank You!  I grabbed a cookie and was off down the road.

I was making some really nice time on the ride by staying with the main fast group as we rolled up the roads north east of McKinney.  It was fun just sitting in and rolling along 22-24 mph for mile after mile.  After SAG #3, where I grabbed some more water and a bag of Chex Mix for the salt, the groups started breaking up and I started riding from small group to small group.  I had a lot of fun talking with folks along the route and enjoying the day.  As is normal on a large ride like this a lot of people were asking about my recumbent so lots of questions were answered.  Got more questions about my tail light, (Dinotte 140L), one of the brightest out there, and about the GoPro camera I was running.  I had lots of fun answering the questions and talking bike gear with people.

By mile 40-45, my legs were starting to get a bit tight and starting to act like they were going to cramp up on me.  I hit the next sag stop in search of pickles.  Pickles work magic on me by preventing leg cramps.  I'm not sure how or why it works, it just does.  Last April, I'd done the Muenster Metric ride by eating pickles at every SAG.  Sadly, the Collin County Classic had no pickles.  With no pickles to be had, I hit the bananas and the Hammer Nutrition Enduralites figuring that should work.  Nope, God had other plans.

Of course this was also the area where the nastiest hill of the ride was, it's been nicknamed Alpe d' Wheeze..

On down the road I went with the legs getting progressively worse.  I started pushing more water and Gatoraid, took a couple more Enduralites and prayed for the best.  God answered those prayers by saying, "Hey stop that stupid crap" in ever louder and louder ways.  I limped into the finish line in hopes of grabbing some Dickey's BBQ for lunch cause I knew they would have the holy grail of leg cramp relief, PICKLES!  I didn't plan on a line 200 people deep moving at a snails pace however.  No joy on lunch, and no joy on pickles.  More Enduralites, more water, and pedaled my way towards home.

I hit a stoplight #1 and cramped hard, stoplight #2 and cramped even harder, (it's really fun by the way riding up a nasty hill while one leg is cramping).  I was almost home and hit a stop sign that I had to stop at, (right thing to do but a big mistake).  God had enough of my not listening to what he was telling me and figured enough was enough.  Both legs lit off and the entire left side of my body cramped, (that was a first).  Everything from my jawline down to my ankle was cramping.  It kind of felt like I'd been hit by a couple of thousand volts of electricity.  It was all I could do to ride 10' to a parking lot, stop without falling off the bike and screaming like a little girl.  After a bit of terrifying some folks out walking by howling, gnawing on my handlebar tape, stretching, more howling, I called Vicky for a pickup as I was DONE.

I think for next years Collin County Classic, I'll contact the organizers well before the event.  My cunning plan is to donate a case or three of pickles for the ride.

74 miles a change, so close but yet so far, all for the want of some pickles.