Ride report - Bluebonnet Express

Distance: 65.2 miles
Total time: 6:01*
On-bike time: 4:18*
On-bike avg mph: 15.1
Avg. mph, incl stops: 10.8
High speed: 28.3 mph

*times are estimates, since I forgot to turn off my watch timer for about 10 minutes after we pulled in, and didn't think to check the bike computer until after I got home. I figure I rode about 1/4 of a mile after I crossed the finish line, so I deducted .2 miles from the 65.4 my computer reported and recalculated the average speed.

(WARNING: This recap still turned out reeeeally long, even after editing out 3 whole sections. Sorry..."concise" is not so much my middle name.)

I learned a few things on this ride. In order of discovery:

1. the Houston cycling community is a small, small world
2. I don't need coffee before a ride, and may do better without it (though that doesn't make me want it any less)
3. I have a harder time staying hydrated when I ride with a group
4. My bike needs a tune-up...badly
5. I need to add a small tube of sunscreen to my ride kit
6. Post-ride massages RULE
7. I'm ready for the MS150 (I think)

So, I once again misjudged how long it would take me to get to the ride location. Again, I should have known how long it would take, because I've already been to this place twice for the Tour de Pink. Still, I managed to get there about an hour early, which turned out to be a good thing anyway because a TON of people were already there. I mean, there was a line of cars stretching back almost to the freeway, and they were already parking cars in the field when I got there. I don't know where they would have put me if I had gotten there at 7:30 as planned.

Lesson #1: And they shall know us by our bottle cages

So, I parked the truck and started to unload my gear. As I was doing this, the girl parked next to me struck up a conversation. It was the usual "how far are you going, man can you believe all these people here so early", pre-ride small talk. Then she got her bike out of the truck--light blue Pilot 5.2, matching bottle cages. I knew that bike! But I had to tread carefully, because I also remembered how I knew it. If she wasn't the same girl, I didn't want to offend her...some people get weird about riding the SAG wagon. A pride thing, I guess.

"Hey, did you ride the Katy Flatland last year?"
"Which one was that--with all the wind?"
"Maybe, it was last summer. I just remember the heat."
"I don't remember...maybe I did."
"The reason I ask is that I think I recognize your bike, but maybe it was someone else..." And then I just decided to go for it, "...I sagged in from mile 54, and I think we were on the same truck."

The light went on. "YES! That was the one where it was so HOT! In JULY! I was riding with..." Then she gave me the whole story of who she was riding with and how they ended up on the SAG truck and didn't get weird about it at all, thank god. Then we talked about how dehydration sucks and how neither of us had any desire to try the 100-mile course at Katy ever again. It was a nice bonding moment.

So, of the 1500 or so people I could have parked next to at this ride, it turned out to be someone I had met before. Funny, that.

Lesson #2: My kingdom for a Starbucks...or not

This makes two rides in a row where I wanted to grab a latte on the way and was thwarted. Last week, my usual Starbucks was on the way, but hadn't opened yet when I was driving by. Then I didn't see another one for the remaining 50 miles to Manvel. You'd think in a city with over 200 stores in the metropolitan area, I'd pass at least ONE within sight of the freeway. Alas, no. I even tried to get coffee at the Burger King/gas station in Manvel, but it wasn't open yet either. Arrgh! So I did the ride without my customary hit of caffeine, and it went fine. Better than fine, actually...I felt better after that 88 mile ride than I did after the 65-mile ride the week before.

Yesterday, it was more of the same. The route I chose to take to Prairie View didn't have any standalone Starbucks stores, and I didn't want to go to Kroger just for a latte. Besides, those in-store branches are kind of hit-or-miss with their business hours and espresso skills, so I didn't want to chance it. I figured I'd see a standalone location somewhere out by Fairfield, but no--my latte jones was denied once again.

And once again, my ride felt better than my previous, caffeinated rides. Hmm...I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Maybe it doesn't give me the push that I thought it did. Or maybe I do better with my caffeine coming later in the ride...the Shot Bloks I like have 100mg of caffeine per package, and I've gone through a full bag on each of the past two rides. That's about 1/2 as much caffeine as I would get from a pre-ride grande latte, but it's being dispersed more gradually, and later in the ride. Also, with 100% less milk. Aw hell, I don't know...no one ever accused me of being Ms Wizard. All I know is that I've felt better on these last two rides, so I'm going to stick with what's working.

Lesson #3 - Let's get on down to the main attraction/With a little less talk and a lot more...hydration (Apologies to Toby Keith)

I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to find anyone to ride with yesterday, so I packed my ipod just in case. As luck would have it, I spotted a club jersey just as I was pulling into the parking lot. After I finished up the conversation with my parking buddy (who was riding solo, but only going 48 miles...otherwise I may have offered to ride with her), I rode back over there to see who it was and how far they were going. It was one of my semi-regular beginner riders, and her riding partner was the girl who rode with me at the Continental Classic. Score! They were planning to go 82 miles, though, so I asked if they minded me tagging along with them until the turnoff. And just like that, I had riding buddies.

When we got to the start line, we ran into another couple club riders who were doing 63, but they were riding with their MS150 team. Still, this made my girls sort of waver on their commitment to the 82-mile course. Then the announcement came that all courses would be closing at 2:00, and that settled it. They weren't sure that they could make the deadline, so they decided to plan on 63 instead, but make the final decision at the turnoff.

Well, they chose the 63, so my ipod stayed in my pocket. By the time we got to the 2nd rest stop (we had skipped the first one), I had begun to realize that while it does make the ride faster and more enjoyable to have a riding buddy, I have a harder time remembering to drink regularly when I have someone to talk to. After about 25 miles, I still had 1 1/2 of my two bottles of water left. Something that also sucked? The rest stop ran out of food and gatorade about 2 minutes after we got there. Not so bad for us, really, but I don't imagine that the couple hundred riders behind us were very happy about it. This was also a pattern that repeated at the next two rest stops...by RS5, things had pretty much caught up to us (and we camped out at that one for about half an hour anyway), but by then it would have been too late for someone who was really suffering. I'm not sure the organizers were prepared for the turnout, or else they didn't weight the food distribution as well as they could have.

Lesson #4 - click...click...click-click...click...AAAARGH!

My bike hasn't had a proper cleaning in about 2 months. I mean, I do relube the chain every now and again, but I've had a hard time finding a really good degreaser so the thing is pretty grimy. It also hasn't had a tuneup for about 2500 miles, and I've changed 2 rear flats since then and taken the front wheel off about eleventy-thousand times. So yeah...my bike is not in peak mechanical shape, and it's finally started to show. A couple weeks ago, the shifting started to get dodgy in the lower gears. In typical Joy fashion, I didn't worry about it much, because the bike was still driveable (for more info on this tendency, see also: Spring Breakaway, Brakes section and My 1999 Corolla, Catastrophic Brake Failure Of). This week, I started to hear a persistent clicking noise while pedaling. Didn't matter what gear I was in, didn't matter what the cadence was or the speed...if the crank was turning, the bike was clicking. By rest stop 3 of this ride it was driving me INSANE, so I stopped by the mechanic and had it checked out.

The first thing he did was tighten the mount for my saddlebag. With that eliminated, he ran through the gears and lubed the chain. Still clicking. His diagnosis? Bottom bracket, and nothing we could really do about it in the field. Also, he wasn't 100% sure that was the problem anyway, because, and I quote, "your bike shifts so badly that I can't really tell." Oy. He then advised that when I do take it in for a tune-up (in fairness, I had admitted to him earlier that the bike was badly in need of one), I should ask them to clean and repack the bottom bracket. Which I did, when I brought her into the shop yesterday. I'm also having them replace the chain and recommend a good degreaser. I'm picking her up tomorrow, and that infernal clicking had better be gone. If not, I might be building the Orbea a wee bit early.

Lesson #5: REAPPLY

This one's short and sweet...racerback jersey + camisole-width straps + one half-hearted pre-ride sunscreen spray = brand new tan lines! Well, eventually. Right now it's a mildly painful sunburn on parts of my back that I can't quite reach. A new travel-sized tube of sunscreen has been added to my ride essentials.

Lesson #6: $1/minute, and worth every penny

This ride was the first time I've ever used the massage guy, and I gotta tell ya...totally worth the half-hour wait. My shoulders were so sore, and after 10 minutes' work, I felt like a whole new person. Totally worth paying for, and you bet your ass I'll be hitting the massage table in the team tent on the MS150.

Lesson #7: I did not bite off more than I could chew, after all

After my fourth metric century (or longer) in as many weeks, I finally feel like signing up for the MS150 was not a huge mistake of optimism over ability. I've gotten more confident with each ride, I can feel myself getting stronger, and I'm constantly discovering what works for me and what doesn't.

This weekend will be my last long ride before the big event--100 miles at the Space Race on Sunday--and then I'm going to keep the distances down to 20-30 miles/day on weekends. I'll try to make a point of hitting the spin classes during the week to keep the weekly mileage up, but no more centuries (standard OR metric) until the big weekend. Maybe three weeks is too long to taper, but with Easter and everything, I figure this is a good a time as any to start backing it off. I'm as ready as I'll ever be. :)

Remember that caffiene and coffee in particular are Diuretics. I realize you are getting the caffiene later with the shot blocks, but it doesn't dehydrate you right away. Drinking a big cup of coffee an hour or 2 before a ride, though, probably does make it harder for you to get and stay hydrated for a long time.

that's a good point...hadn't considered that. I have such a hard time with hydration anyway, no need to make it any harder.