Sometimes they get it right

With the suspension of the RUSA permanents program, the only "for credit" rides that are available are RUSA populaires and brevets. These can be added to the RUSA calendar with 5 days notice for existing routes. Typically, this time of year there's not much point in scheduling a ride because the weather ranges from unpredictable to bad.

However, the long range forecast for the weekend of 12/21-12/22 looked promising with a forecast high temperature above 40F. Bob Booth got in touch with me and asked me to put two populaires on the calendar for the weekend. I agreed and said I'd ride with him if the forecast stayed reasonably decent.

For the most part, weather forecasters can barely get tomorrow right some of the time so the forecast a week away needs to be viewed with a fair amount of skepticism but in this case they nailed it.

The morning of the 21st dawned quite cold, air temperature of about 24F but the forecast high was 43. Equally important, the winds were forecast to be "light and variable" and there wasn't a cloud in the sky so it looked like a good day. As an aside, it's funny how that first 40 degree day in September it's "too cold to ride" but 40 degrees in December is "wow, a warm spell! - let's ride".

In general, the roads were ice free with a slight layer of frost. At this time of year given that the sun stays low on the horizon and that it's hilly there are long stretches of road that never see the sun. Typically, in December these are sheets of ice and you either need studded tires or have to walk. on Saturday these could be ridden with care (no sudden moves, smooth pedaling, etc) and we managed them without difficulty.

At the start

We rode over to Spring Green which is a mid-point for the populaire and had a nice leisurely breakfast at the general store before continuing on and finishing the ride. I'd recently made a route change for the ride that deleted the section after Spring Green that was wide open and generally westward (winds are normally either NW or SW so it's almost always a headwind) in favor of a slightly busier road that's more scenic and sheltered by pine trees on the south side of the road.

We finished the ride in 5:49 which was expected given the long lunch break and leisurely pace.

Overnight there was a lot of moisture in the air which turned into a heavy blanket of frost when the temperature dropped. It was a bit warmer in the morning (28 degrees) but the roads were coated with frost. We thought they might clear when it got warm but the ground is frozen hard enough that the places that don't get sun didn't melt at all despite the warmer air temperature.

Walking a frosty stretch

Not a whole lot different on day 2 than the first day. Leisurely stop in Spring Green joined by Melissa and Marcia which made for a fun breakfast and a longer stop. The wind was a good bit stronger on Sunday out of the SW so the route change was appreciated even more. This plus the longer stop at Spring Green contributed to our 6:09 total time.

All in all, a fantastic couple of days riding!

Beautiful winter day

An update from the weak and infirm

As noted previously, I signed up for the HCR 600K this past weekend for several reasons but the one relevant to this post is to experiment with using aerobars to give my hands some relief. My thinking going in was that if I had the "hands crushed in a vise" sensation post ride then my days of doing long brevets on a DF were over.

I took careful inventory of how my hands felt prior to the ride and they were actually pretty good. Maybe a 1 on a 1-10 pain scale.

During the ride, I really focused on not keeping my hands in the same place for any length of time. My mantra was "tops, drops, hoods, aerobars, tops, drops, ...". I didn't set an alarm or anything, just stayed in one position until it started to feel slightly uncomfortable (this on day 2) then moved on to the next.

I'm happy to report that it was mostly a success. My concern with using the aerobars is that I'd be substituting low back or neck pain for hand pain but this didn't prove to be the case. After the ride I'd say I had "normal" 600K soreness. A bit of tingling in ring/pinkie on both hand and some general soreness/aches but nothing like the post-PBP pain. Post ride I'd say 3-4 level of pain/ache which I'd consider mostly normal, especially for a 600K on Texas chip seal.

In related news, I had the first of several appointments about my hands yesterday. This was with a GP/Sports Medicine doc that does consulting for Trek. I went through the history and my diagnosis and he did some tests. For the most part, he thought it likely that my theory of nerve impingement in my neck was probably correct. I have some weakness in my right hand/wrist as compared to my left and constant readers will recall my right hand hurt somewhat worse than my left.

I've got an MRI scheduled in a little over a week on the C2/C3 area (which are the vertebrae I broke). If it doesn't reveal anything then we'll move on to a test that focuses on the flow of signals through the nerves (don't recall what it's called).

So, some progress. Too early to declare victory but at least some forward movement on a few fronts.

December in Texas - A Risky Proposition!

As previously noted, I signed up to do the Hill Country Randonneurs 600K (the Old Dime Box 600K) some time ago. I did this for a few reasons:

1. To thaw out.
2. To test the theory that I could do longer rides using the aerobars to give my hands a break (more on that in a follow-up blog)
3. To ride with a group of folks that I enjoy riding with.

As it happens, in the last 14 months I've ridden a full brevet series and a 1000K with the Hill Country folks (Jeff Newberry, Rob Tulloh and Amy Russell) along with some assorted Lone Star Randonneurs (Dan Driscoll, Gary Gottlieb, Dana Pacino) and assorted others. I always enjoy rolling with these folks and this trip proved to be no exception.

My friend Eric Peterson was also interested in doing a longer ride so we ended up sharing a rental car and hotel room. I did this ride last year and screwed up my travel arrangements big time. I arrived on Friday after 6 PM so by the time I got my rental car, drove to the hotel, got something to eat and put the bike together it was quite late. I then booked my return flight on Monday at 10:30 AM. We finished the ride at 19:00 on Sunday. By the time I showered, got something to eat and packed the bike it was 01:00 and I had to get up at 07:00 to make it to the airport.

Not again.

This time Eric and I flew in on Thursday and had a leisurely dinner at 600 Degrees (good pizza and a really good beer selection!) then spent Friday assembling the bikes and generally faffing about before joining a subset of the group (Dan, Gary, Dana and Dan Colvin) for dinner at a nearby Italian place.

We rolled out at 07:00 and the weather looked great for the day. It was cold at the start (mid-40's) but warmed up to the mid-60's during the day and the winds were fairly light all day so we made great time. The route goes northward toward Crawford where it turns around and returns to Georgetown for day one. Last year we got to Crawford at dusk and left after dark just before the Christmas parade was going to start. This time, we got there about 16:00 and had a nice meal. Only mishap on the way up was Dan Colvin had a flat, other than that no problems at all.

He's every bit as smart as he was in office

Here's the Strava from day one.

Last year we finished the first day at 01:00. We made much better time this year (the light winds and riding with the Charly Miller group) and got in at 11:50 so a luxurious sleep before rolling out at 07:00 the next day. 

The weather on day 2 wasn't quite as nice on the first day. It was warmer (high in the lower 70's) but quite windy and we'd have a headwind most of the way out to Old Dime Box. We met a group of HCR riders doing a 100K/200K about 8 miles into the ride and the pace picked up dramatically. I knew better than to try to keep up with fresh legs doing a shorter ride so I fell off the back. We eventually regrouped at the first control and Jeff, Amy, Eric and I rode together the rest of the way. We saw Gary, Dana and Rob on the retour when we were headed out to the turnaround at Old Dime Box and would regroup with them at the last control at Thrall. 

The control at Thrall has a good kitchen where they'll custom make pizzas but what I was looking forward to was mashed potatoes. Alas, the Gary/Dana/Rob group had eaten the last of the mashed potatoes (sad trombone sound) so I had to content myself with a couple of pieces of chicken. 

The rest of the ride was uneventful and we finished at a little after 20:00 for a ride time of just over 37 hours. I hadn't done a long ride since my Hound Dog DNF and was really feeling the lack of miles in my legs but I got it done.

Eric and I hurriedly said our goodbyes and went back to 600 Degrees for more pizza and several FCAB's (Frosty Carbonated Alcoholic Beverages).

Here's the Strava from day two.

On Monday, the weather went somewhat to hell and on Tuesday it went totally to hell. Monday was cold and very windy, Tuesday was 38 degrees and steady rain.

We lucked out.

My return trip was mostly uneventful for this time of year. The flight out of Austin was two hours late because they had to de-ice the inbound plane in Chicago so I had to reschedule my Chicago->Madison flight and ended up getting to Madison about 3 hours later than planned.

And the wind chill was -7F when I arrived :-(

Some pictures from the ride courtesy of Jeff Newberry and Rob Tulloh

Yes, we have no bananas

Beautiful sunrise

Me bringing up the rear - as usual

Showing off that winter weight

Living large in Old Dime Box

Eric and Jeff

Eric and Amy with me in my usual position

Happy to be at the top!

Before the ride - look at those bright, cheerful faces!

Beautiful sunset

Got it done with a great group!