Pedal Thru the Pines

Saturday

March 6, 2010

Bastrop, Texas

Our bike tour season has started, and to jump start the season, Pedal Thru the Pines at Bastrop, Texas is an excellent place to begin. Pedal Thru the Pines has all of our expectations of a good ride: scenery, plenty of hills, excellent support, and several choices of ride distances.

This year marked the 8th annual ride in support of the Family Crisis Center of Bastrop. As implied, the tour has plenty of volunteers; excellent support from the Police, Sheriff, and Fire Departments; and attentive ride marshals and SAG trucks.

Scenery: As the brochure states: “Cyclists will enjoy traversing the beautiful Loblolly Pines of Bastrop and Buescher State Parks and the surrounding country roads of Bastrop, Fayette, and Lee counties.”

Hills: The website best summed up the ride with: “Many riders find the route challenging because of the hills through the state parks. The route is through probably the most challenging part of the BP MS150 and the first 14 miles are very hilly. Riders have to climb two steep hills in the first 4 miles of the ride that many find challenging. For the next 10 miles there are several short, but steep hills that quite a few riders need to walk up. After the first rest stop in Buescher State Park, the ride is much easier, although on the two longer routes there is a hill about 2 miles after you leave Buescher. If you can't make it up a hill riding straight up, please pull to the right side of the road and walk up.”

Environment: Nature wanted to make sure we did not get heat exhaustion on our first organized ride of the year so, as Ty says, “It wasn’t cold, there was just an absent of heat.” And, to further assure we did not get heat exhaustion, nature provided a huge fan to provide ventilation.

At first I thought riders were lining up at the start line then noticed it was another type of line. See left side.

Pedal Thru the Pines organizers hold registration at 1,500 riders. It was close if not at capacity this year. Near 9 a.m., approximately 1,500 of us started the line up ritual.

The line up makes a "U" at the school house back to the road and extends left back a block or so.

Most organized tours have riders line up by distance. This year Pedal Thru the Pines asked riders to line up by expected riding speeds. I don’t think too many people noticed the change and lined up as they would have normally, i.e., by distance. Chris dragged me toward the first part of the crowd as she wanted to get in front of those who hit the steep hills, stall out, and fall in the road blocking other riders or stop right in front of you. So when I noticed the recommended speed of the section we lined up in, I didn’t point it out to her as it may have changed her ride strategy...which was: not to walk up the hills and to finish.

The organizers wanted an orderly start, and they did not want to block traffic too much, so they called for a staggered start. We were in the second wave of starters, and the first part of the ride going toward Bastrop State Park was downhill so Chris was still not aware that we were with the “fast” crowd.

We entered the State Park, and it was at first flat,

then we hit another downhill section. Remember, for every downhill there is an uphill. On the first steep hill, regardless of the organizer’s efforts to segregate the riders by speed (and presumed climbing ability), riders were falling over, pushing their bikes up the hill, and creating road hazards, as they would stop where ever they stalled. This went on through out Bastrop State Park.

Some of the Bastrop State Park scenery.
Entering Buescher State Park,

there was a nice turn, and then a turn into a downhill. At the end of the downhill, another turn and guess what? A lot of people didn’t have time to shift gears and we had another traffic jam of stalling, falling, pushing riders.

One of the small hills. Only a couple of walkers.

I tried to take a picture of the rider-less bikes, but truthfully I was afraid that I was going too slowly to control the bike and take a picture. I can only guess at the steepness of the hill. I had documented my speed going up the 14% grade on Allen Lane as 4.1 mph. As I was just barely passing some of the riders pushing their bikes up the hill, I glanced down and saw my speed at at little over 3 mph. Now, does it correlate that the hill must have been 15% or greater based upon my speed? I don’t know, and as yet, I can not find where someone has published the gradient of the State Park hills. So until then, some of them are 15% or more.

As the website had stated, there was another hill about 2 miles after we had exited Buescher State Park, but I personally did not see anyone pushing his bike up that one. It just seemed like a long 6% grade.

Finally we turned onto a straight, flat section, and things picked up.

I was lucky enough to latch onto to a group of buddies who were together, and they didn’t mind my drafting on them.

Group who let me draft. Never found out where they were from, but THANKS.

We made good time (for me—18-20 MPH) for a pretty good distance, and then they decided to turn off at a rest stop. I unwisely decided to go on by myself. As Randy knows too well, if left on my own and with no one to push me, I will fall back into my comfort zone which is a mellow RPM, no effort gear ratio, and Sunday stroll mph. Oh well, it is a fun ride and not a race...so enjoy.

Scenery was nice, but:

Enjoyment faded a little as we turned on a FM to head toward Serbin. Due to construction on the routine route, Serbin marked the turn around point of an out and back instead of the half way mark. As we turned onto about that 7 mile stretch toward Serbin, nature turned up the fan to almost full speed. My not sticking with the friendly group of riders again back-fired on me as I couldn’t find a person to draft on, so all I could do was enjoy the nice breeze.

As we got closer to Serbin, the more riders we met who were on the return trip.

Serbin has a small Wendish Heritage Museum, one of the oldest Lutheran Church Missouri Synod churches in Texas, a little Lutheran elementary school near the church, and an old cemetery. And some of the earliest spring flowers were starting to bloom. We spent a lot of time at Serbin enjoying the views and peanut butter and jam sandwiches.

Wendish Heritage Museum

Historic St. Paul Luthern Church, founded in 1854, under renovation.

"Modern" elementary school. The original is located by the Museum.

Old cemetary on the grounds. Spring flowers starting.

Heading back with the wind and going downhill, Christine left me in the dust. Later as we had turned off the Serbin road and headed toward Bastrop, the friendly group passed me again, so once more I latched on to them. By and by, we passed Christine and I wanted her to fall in behind me, but soon I noticed that she could not be seen. We sailed along happily until they hit the same rest stop that I once again unwisely chose to go on by myself.

Not too much farther I seemed to hit a wall. It was not the comfort zone style of riding, I just sort of bonked. The next rest stop was at about mile 52. I needed to rejuvenate, and I thought back to Randy's wanting to work on my endurance and agreed with him, so when we start back up with the CompuTrainer, if he wants to work on my endurance, I am putty. The rest stop was well stocked and had plenty of the small bottles of Pickle Juice. I inhaled the first one, and about that time the leader of the friendly group rolled in and headed straight for the pickle juice. He said he wasn’t going to stop until he saw the sign declaring Pickle Juice was available. He said his muscles were wanting to cramp. The PJ man said that there were a lot of cramps that day. Cramps weren’t my problem—energy was. So I ate three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two chocolate chip “energy” bars, two cookies, and had another pickle juice. Tip of the Day: don’t wash peanut butter and jelly sandwiches down with Pickle Juice. Sure, I know that it takes at least 30 minutes for the body to reap any benefit from food, but it doesn’t take the mind that long—especially if it is sweet.

Christine rolled in about my third PB&J sandwich. Usually, I like to take a picture of her with or without her permission as evidence of our enjoying a ride. Not that day. She, too, had hit the wall and her face showed the fatigue. Before the ride she had put on plenty of sun screen, and during the ride she had perspired, and it dried. The sun screen was caked on her face. She may not even let me retain the description, but if she does, that is why I don’t have a picture of her on this ride.

After reasonably recuperating at the last rest stop of the ride, we began the last leg. Good news/bad news for two tired riders. Highways 71 and 95 had excellent shoulders similar to Highway 277. Bad new, more long, rolling hills.

CompuTrainer time paid off even with our 52-mile bonk. Unlike many of our previous year’s rides, we passed the finish line, changed clothes, ate lunch from a vendor at the ride, AND watched people still staggering in off the ride. AND the parking lots were NOT completely empty. That gave us the energy shot we needed.

Spring is in the air, at least in central Texas.

Beginners Page # 14 CompuTrainer Chapter 5

Wednesday, when we went into Randy's CompuTrainer room, Jack Lomax was still working out. Jack was on that 62 mile course with a constant 3% grade, and he was about to finish a grueling 1 1/2 hour ride. I know how tough it is as Randy had Christine and me do that one once. I think I went about 9 miles in an hour session. Jack, on the other hand, was over 18 miles into the ride as we started watching. The silver guy was back at mile 17. He has perfect pedal strokes and constant watts. But talk about perfect: Jack was trucking along at a nearly perfect circle. 

We were in awe. An almost perfect circle. And note that he had been spinning for 1 hour, 21 minutes while putting forth this effort.

Jack has an ulterior motive for his perseverance. He is being coached and trained by Randy Rangel of Randy's Bike and Run Shop to race in the April 10-11 Fort Davis Hammerfest. The Hammerfest is a Texas Cup State Division Race, and this year's Flyer states the following:

"The West was never Wilder - welcome to Hammerfest! Race the “Texas Alps,” one of the most challenging courses in the Southwest. Stage one will start the climbing with a short, intense road stage. There are 10 miles to warm up, THEN 6 miles of real climbing (up to 17% grades) – enjoy!!! We will start in Fort Davis, Texas, on Hwy 118 and climb our way to the top of Mt. Locke--location of McDonald Observatory. Stage two will also begin in Ft. Davis on Saturday afternoon--a 16 mile out and back time trial on fast, 'flat,' straight roads. Stage three on Sunday morning, April 11th, will start at the Prude Ranch and wind through the mountains of the Scenic Loop. The altitude goes from 5000' to over 6500' and climbs are steep and numerous. The 74 mile route will have a neutral start through Ft. Davis then race around the loop to “Heartbreak Hill”. The 34 mile route will be an out and back from the Prude Ranch to Madera Canyon and back to “Heartbreak Hill” (a lot of climbing). The 16 mile race will start in Madera Canyon and race to “Heartbreak Hill”. And the 56 mile route will race from the “Point of Rocks” around the remainder of the loop and finish at “Heartbreak Hill."

If anyone has ridden the Fort Davis Cyclefest, he should be duly impressed with what the Hammerfest competitors are asked to do. But Jack is making leaps and bounds progress. Way back in his training, we observed him and took the below pictures as we were so impressed.

Compare the 83 torque with the 93 above! The new motto is "You've come a long way, Jack."

As we use the bar graph since we understand bars better than circles, we asked Jack to switch the controls so we could see what a bar graph should really look like.

That is pretty.

After Jack's ride, I was priveledged to listen to race strategy. Randy and Jack were discussing how to ride the race, what to do when, how to do it, what to watch for, etc. I was impressed as I have only read racers' reviews of a race after they had ridden it, and the strategy they used during the race. Alas, all the expertise was lost on my untrained ears, as all I heard was Randy's telling Jack to ride hard, ride fast, and win.

April 10 is not that far away, so it will be exciting to watch Jack in his final preparations. Randy is planning on going and being with Jack in the two day extreme endurance tests. Chris got so excited she wanted to go and watch the races. However, we are already registered for Pedal Power Wildflower at Stonewall that weekend.

Back to reality. After Jack, it was my turn. What a difference--my best effort:

Whereas I usually humbly put myself down (with reason), allow me one time to strut. Some time back we

 took the below picture of my best effort:

On our latest training day Randy put Christine and me on a course that had a 15% incline. I have complained about the 14% on Allen Lane before, but the program that Randy had us on was essentially a hill repeat as it was designed to be a five lap course.

I completed three laps in my "allotted hour". Quotation marks on alloted hour because Randy frequently wants me to continue past an hour: a. to complete a course; b. he keeps mumbling something about building up my endurance, c. he is a sadistic task master--ask Jack, me, Christine, or his wife Liz.

I am not sure I pleased Randy, but as I completed the hour, I put the trainer on pause (Jack showed me how to pause as Randy would never let me slack off) and went to tell Randy that I was finished. He was with customers so I went back and started up the ride again. I think I went a total of about 1 hour, 15 minutes; I did indeed work on endurance.

Next, it was Christine's turn and on the same 15% grade hill. During most of her session I was out of the room, so I did not get to see her perform, complain, whine, or smile. I went back into the room right after Chris finished, and she was lying on the floor gasping. I asked if she was alright. 

      "No, Randy had me go up the hill and kept pushing me to have smooth round strokes--and made me complete the third lap."

We will see if the efforts pay off in the tough hills of the State Parks at Bastrop's Pedal Thru the Pines.

Beginners Page # 14 CompuTrainer Chapter 4

During February I came down with bronchitis and was out for a week, but Chris continued. The next week she came down with a cough and was out for a week. So we were back on the same course together after two weeks of one or the other of us ill.

Week 5 (Feb 22-26)
Monday
We were both put on the Hotter’n Hell Hundred course. We have ridden the “real” HHH three times, twice going the distance of 100 miles. I did not remember that many hills on the ride, especially in the first twenty or so miles of the real course. Farther along, way farther, the terrain starts on a slight decline. I would not reap the benefit of the decline, as it would be too many miles down the road for me ever to get that far in an hour. On my first day on the route, I did not get to the dancing girls at Rest Stop 2. It will become my secret goal to get to the saloon in an hour.

Randy says there has been progress in my numbers but I still perspire (sweat in Texas lingo) like I was really riding the HHH route in August. And I still have to be reminded to breath, relax, keep my RPMs up, and keep my numbers at the particular target range. It is much easier just to pedal and then take a break when I want.

 About 14 minutes into Christine's training, she must have caught her second wind. Suddenly the bike just hummed instead of clanking and wobbling. Her numbers remained an impressive 50-50/75. The 50-50 is the relative contribution of each leg and the 75 is the numerical analysis of power during each part of the pedal stroke. A perfect score would be 50-50/100. It's impossible unless you are magically transformed into the little silver man who competes against you in the practice mode. I read somewhere that the goal for a roadie is 50-50 and maintain between 75-85 power stroke. The highest either Chris or I have gotten so far is 50-50/80 but it is not maintained long.

By the time I reacted, Chris was down to a 53/47/78.

Now Monday’s session was just fine except Randy praised Christine’s efforts much more than mine. Could it be that he would walk into the room just after I relaxed each time? Sometimes I could hear him coming down the hallway and I would rapidly try to get my numbers up so he wouldn’t know that I had been goofing off but I think he caught on and began to be quieter.

Wednesday

Frustrating day. The old saying that “I was going in circles” just wasn’t what was happening to me. My pedal stroke was anything but going in circles. The instructions of the day, "Smooth it out. Don’t pull up so hard. Be softer on the down-stroke. Watch those RPMs. Are you still breathing?"

I think Randy would have given up on me if he weren’t a professional.

Now Christine’s day according to my perspective, "Atta girl. Good going. You have the hang of it. Way to go."

I had to do something to break her concentration so she wouldn’t be getting so much praise. Therefore I tried to take her picture which always disrupts things. And it did. “Don’t you dare!!" (She doesn’t like her perspiring to be documented). But the ploy worked. For a few seconds her pedal stroke looked like mine. When I would rush to take a picture of the spin screen, she would get the pedal strokes back together and all I could get were some fairly decent shots of her CompuTrainer screen.

Friday

Vindication of a sort. Randy put us on another rolling hills course. I felt pretty good, and for most of the ride was able to maintain a 50-50/mid-70s reading. A re-cap for my own benefit until I get my terminology right, the left/right leg percentage power splits (50-50) give you the feedback needed to pedal in "circles". It will identify "flat" or "dead" spots in the pedal stroke where optimal power is not transferred to the drive train. The mid-70s is the ATA (Average Torque Angle) displayed on the Polar Graph which helps you adjust your position for optimum power. Randy walked in one time while I was on a roll—50-50 power splits and almost 80 on the torque or power. He just stood there silently. Finally I couldn’t take it any longer and asked him, “Aren’t you going to say something?” He said he was waiting to see if I could maintain those stats. Well, of course, just as I start talking or listening my concentration breaks and my stats went to something like 42-58/64. The bar graph looked like a building that imploded—crashing and crumbling—but for me in an uncontrolled way.

Another time he walked in and my stats were pretty good and the little silver man was way behind. Randy exclaimed “Wow, are you out to prove something?” Secretly yes, to steal some of the glory from Christine, since she did so well Wednesday, and to beat the little silver guy. I think I have mentioned that I visualize the silver guy as being Velma Ogan. And after three years of chasing Velma (and being beaten), even a virtual reality “win” over her is gratifying.

 Chris was having an off day. She was performing as I did on Wednesday. Randy had to keep giving her instructions (albeit nicer to her than he was to me) as I feigned support for her. Finally, about 30 minutes into the ride, Chris hit her stride and her little bike just hummed, and her stats were acceptable (alright—very good).

And thus we ended a month of training. As I was telling Lucy Jochum, progress—for me—is so slow that it is hard to recognize. There are no quantum leaps in the stats which indicate progress or improvement, therefore until the stats prove otherwise, I am saying we have improved—that’s my story and I'm sticking to it.