The winter of my discontent

It's been just one of those less than fun fall and winters around here.

I'd had all sorts of plans and ideas on keeping up my mileage, getting into a training plan and coming into this year with a solid base and to be ready to challenge a double century this spring.  However, you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Last September saw us on a family vacation and a chance to get away from the Metro-Mess into some quiet, (at least with three kids in tow) countryside.  Our family vacation is always a highlight of our year due to the chance for the kids to spend some time with Grandmas and for us to just wind down and relax.

We didn't take bikes with us as we had no room for them and the related gear in the van.  I did take my running gear however with plans to run some gravel roads near where we were staying.  While I did get a couple of runs in, the best laid plans were derailed yet again.

While playing with the kids one afternoon I managed to roll my right ankle hard.  At the time I though OK, no big deal.  Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation and it will be OK.  Little did I know it was going to become a multi month ordeal and involve lots of trips to doctors and physical therapists but it was what it was.

The bum ankle kept me off my recumbent for most of October through January due to my right foot being my power/take off foot.  The power loading when starting from a stop was something my ankle was really unhappy with.  Riding my upright was more tolerable but still painful.  Long walks were tolerable, running was not an option.

I remember an old VeloNews cartoon, something about old guys who lay around and get fat in the winter..  That was what was happening to me.

Fortunately I was still able to ride my upright bike and was doing some commuting via bike just to get some miles in.

I was riding home one Thursday and was still a couple of miles out from the house, I remember the day clearly, a decent sunny day for mid November in the DFW area, one of those days were shorts & jersey were ok for an afternoon ride.  It had been a good ride up until that point.  And then my phone rang.  It was mid ride, I knew it wasn't my wife, it wasn't a telemarketer, and I knew it wasn't anything good, plain and simple.

The call dropped to voice-mail and I continued playing in traffic till I got home.  Once I walked in the door, my oldest was telling me to get on the phone ASAP, never a good sign.

It was a phone call from my sister.  My mother was in the emergency room with dehydration and malnourished.  And also with a diagnosis of late term stage 4 ovarian cancer.

Plans changed, life changed.  Riding wasn't so important, running wasn't so important, losing weight and beating diabetes wasn't so important.  What was important was family.

Thanksgiving saw a mini family reunion at Mom's house.  We reconnected with family we'd not seen in a year and a half.  Mom had come home to hospice care.  My sister who is an RN and my brother came to provide the hospice care.  They were a true blessing as they were there to take care of Mom and their care allowed her to stay in her home and maintain her dignity to the end.

Now things are settling back down.  The travel back and forth to Missouri is over, my ankle is better, and I am riding again.  Now to get spun up to speed, loose the winter 5 pounds that snuck up on me and get back to kicking diabetes in the teeth.

Two Flags 214K/134 mile Brevet

I'd signed up to ride the 214K Two Flags Brevet with the Lone Star Randonneurs leaving out of Dennison TX yesterday morning.

The day started off good, I actually made it about ten miles riding with the group before I waved bye as they pulled away.  Please note, I am not complaining at all!  With that kind of talent and ability they had in that group I knew I was "well out of my pay grade"...  When you have RAAM alumni in the group, you know it's going to be fun.  And since most of my rides are solo anyway it was no big deal.

I did get to see part of Texas and Oklahoma that I'd never seen before, so that in itself was well worth it.  I got to see really happening and bustling places like Ivanhoe, Ubell, Tigertown, and since I work for the phone company, my personal favorite of Telephone Texas.  It's actually some nice looking country up that way, I can see a family camping trip up to the Caddo Grasslands in the near future.

This is what I managed to ride of the route for a total of 108.25 miles.

The ride came off the rails at mile 92 just before I crossed the Red River.  I stopped at a little convenience mart and got some food, water, ice and that danged pickle.  It wasn't until I'd taken a big bite of it before I realized it was the EXTRA HOT AND EXTRA SPICY variety.  However I figured it wouldn't be that bad and I was really needing some pickles to ward off the cramping that was starting to flare up.  I should have known better.

By 5-7 more miles up the road, my stomach was really wanting to rethink that whole pickle decision.  My gastric system was waging a lively debate about just which end it wanted to rid itself of the pickle in question by.  Having to stop and argue with my stomach and convince it that, no,  it wasn't going to do either was not fun.  I knew once I started spewing at either end, I was a ways out from help and that dehydration would come on real fast.

I managed to sneak a call out through the limitless area of no cell coverage Oklahoma and limped my way into Achille OK at the blistering speed of 7.6 MPH where I found a nice cool convenience store, I stopped there and sipped Gatoraide while waiting for Vicky and the monkeys to come rescue me.  Unfortunately, I had the GPS in my car, which was in Dennison.  Achille, Oklahoma is kind of off the beaten path of either US 75 or I-35 so Vicky got a bit of the scenic tour of Oklahoma to come find me.  Next time, (and I'm sure there will be one), I'm going to have to leave the GPS with her.

Overall, it was a good ride with a less than good result.  I wish I'd finished as I was 26 miles from the end but I knew those were "Charlie miles" and that was where all the really bad hills would be.  But I was smart enough to know to pull the plug and live to try again.  I did come away from the ride with some good take aways.

• Don't eat hot and spicy pickles
• Eat what works for you
• Mocha Clif Gel tastes like crap and can be very messy
• Don't forget the sunscreen, my legs are "extra crispy"
• Know your limits
• Make sure your rescuer knows how to find you

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!