Almost Had a Pedal Unclip Fall

A few weeks ago, Weiland posted about a track stand that turned into a fall.  I posted a snarky comment on his blog, then made a sarcastic reference to the fall in my own blog.  This morning, karma almost got me.

I got up at 5am to ride intervals in the neighborhood.  I rode north on Solera Drive, and as I approached the stop sign at Los Milagros I slowed a little, not really thinking about stopping, as I expected a clear intersection.  It was 5am, after all.  I see maybe 3 cars when I ride between 5a-6a, and as a result have come to expect no traffic to avoid.

My expectations were wrong, because a truck was approaching from the left, and did not have a stop sign.  I grabbed a good handful of brake, slowed to a near stop, and felt myself begin to fall over to the right.  I thought about unclipping, but I think my legs were frozen.  Luckily, I was taking my half of the road in the middle.  As my balance shifted to the right, instead of falling I just steered into the fall, and executed a nice little snappy loop.

If you're a cyclist, you know that this trick usually won't work.  You'll hit the curb.  Or you'll slip in gravel and fall.  Or you'll lean so deep into the turn that you'll fall anyway.  Or you'll be with a group and someone will be to your right.  I'm surprised I didn't fall myself, as I have ZERO track experience, and just sort of let the turn happen naturally.  I'll probably fall next time.

You can see the nice little loop on the GPS overlay below.  It's above the 2800 mark on Solera.  Weiland, you almost had some blog fodder.

Map from Google Maps

18 Miles to Nowhere

Fatty has organized the 100 Miles to Nowhere ride to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and today I took the bike out to scout a possible route. I needed to scout a route, because this is a virtual group ride. Riders around the world will be riding a century on rollers, trainers, or short loops, and I needed to find a good 10 mile loop.

It helps that the terrain down here looks like "nowhere"-- flat, brownish-green, and windblown.  The photo below shows what might be the first couple of miles of the loop.  As I rode this section, I realized that the wind was stronger than I expected.  I could only hold about 14 miles per hour without some serious effort.  Since I left the house at 11am, it was already 92F.  I was a few miles into my scouting trip, and not feeling good at all.

The route is part of the normal Team McAllen Tuesday-Thursday loop in Granjeno, TX, but since that route is only 6 miles per loop, I needed to add 4 miles.  I turned off the standard loop, and rode down into Anzalduas Park.  As I neared the border wall construction zone, which is on a levee, the road turned from potholed pavement into hardpack caliche.  I took the next two photos while riding, and the camera almost vibrated out of my hand.  I am not kidding.

The add-on to the route was not looking good.  I cleared the levee, and stopped to take this photo of the border wall construction.  The concrete wall is on the south side of the levee, and to get to where I took the photo I had to ride over the levee and basically over the wall construction area.  Also, the new Anzalduas Bridge is in the background.  It's not open yet, but will be soon, or at least that's what we're told.

I rode down into Anzalduas Park, around the perimeter, and then exited the same way I entered.  I picked up the normal Granjeno Loop, and with the intense wind I decided to try to max my speed.  I grabbed the big ring, spun up my cadence, and pushed my speed up to 39 mph.  Dang.  I was shooting for 40 mph.  Wind or no wind, a flatland 40 would have felt nice.

Of course, I then turned back into the wind.  After all, it's a loop.  When I finished the loop, it was only 9.2 miles.  Obviously that is close to 10, but it would require a final jaunt of 8 miles to somewhere after finishing 92 miles to nowhere.  Drat.  I need to think some more on this.  Maybe I'll join Weiland and do 100 miles comprised of 100x1 mile loops.

I decided to grab a few more miles, and as I rode, I was sweating the first real sweat of the summer.  My eyes were burning from the sweat, so I sprayed some water into them.  The water was warm; in fact, it felt hot on my skin.  It's time to change out the small, uninsulated bottles to the large, insulated ones...and add ice.

As I neared home, with only 18 miles on my odometer, I felt beaten.  I was tired, hot, and windblown.  I had finished a very short ride, but felt like I had ridden a century.  My average speed was only 17 mph, which is very low for my solo training rides, especially one this short.   I saw this on the side of the road, and had to stop to get the photo that would capture my ride in one image.

Poor Sprinting Technique Hurts You

About 8 years ago, I was playing a round of golf about 1.5 times per week, and usually practicing once during the week.  But I couldn't break 90.  I was self-taught, and had terrible technique.  My swinging form emulated my baseball swing.  I would actually touch the back of my head in my back swing, and it sometimes would push my hat clasp into my skull, which didn't feel good at all.  Once, I was hitting range balls, and the caged cart that drives around picking up balls drove nearby my tee box.  The driver said "if you haven't had lessons, you should get some before you ruin your swing forever".  I wasn't the worst, but I was bad enough that it frustrated me, injured me, and brought random insults against me.

Today, I noticed a similar problem with my cycling form.  I am often a lazy sprinter.  Sometimes, when I get out of the saddle, I'll let my form disintegrate and drift all over the place.  I forget to try to keep my rear over the saddle.  I lean forward, taking weight off the driving rear wheel, and swing the bike wildly from side to side.  I know better, but I just get sloppy.  Every few months, I get a nice physical reminder to return to good form.  I get so lazy, and so out of control, that my knee will touch the stem.  Yep, that's crazy, but it happens.  The injury comes from the screws that hold the stem onto the headset.  There's about one full screw thread that is exposed, and it's sharp, and if you let your moving leg slide across it, it lacerates.  Which looks like this:

And if you were distracted by the forest of ever-thickening leg hair or by the pure cycling energy pouring from my powerful lower leg, then my apologies.

It's Good to Laugh when You're Unemployed

I found MeMo by way of The Morning News.  Her posts consistently make me laugh, and even though today's post is not a MeMo original, it made me laugh so hard that I had to call my spouse and read her some of it over the phone.

She found the idea at Videogum, but the idea is to take a well-known movie, and create a TV Guide-style synopsis, only so bland and obscure that it wouldn't make sense if you didn't know what movie it was describing.  Here are MeMo's examples:

Alien: Ship fails to deliver cargo, crew doesn't get bonus.

Blade Runner: Man with no apparent skill stumbles into escaped robots, fails to kill most, [does] one.

Die Hard: Dysfunctional cop saves marriage by murdering foreign national.

Groundhog Day: Misanthropic creep exploits space/time anomaly to stalk coworker.

Jurassic Park: Theme park's grand opening pushed back.

I liked the idea so much that I wrote one of my own, which I think is perhaps the best that has ever been written:

No Country for Old Men:  Injured thief takes trip to Mexico for cheap medical care.

If you've got one in mind, post it in the comments.  And if you're really nice, head over to MeMo's post and post it there too.

I am an Elite Cyclist

I've been living in deep south Texas (Mission, TX specifically) for almost 3 years, and during that time my cycling conditioning has drifted from intermediate down to beginner, back to intermediate, and most recently I think I've jumped to "elite".  Please stop laughing.  Those are the categories that Team McAllen uses, not me, and I really hate them.  It doesn't matter, though, because we keep using them and and using them and using them.  Here's how the categories break down:

Beginner --I might have a great bike, or I might not, but one thing is for sure:  I'm exhausted after riding for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks.

Intermediate -- I can ride a century, and I have enough stamina to suck wheel with the fastest cyclists on the team.  But my bib shorts are really a bit constricting, so I don't think I'll take a pull for the paceline today.

Elite -- Stop smiling and pull the group at 25 mph.  If you can't, then get the heck back with the Intermediates.  Hey -- who was that dude from Austin that just dropped our whole group?  Is he a Cat 1?

If you've followed the blog, you know that through a combination of conditioning and weight loss, I've managed to get a bit stronger and faster, and for several months I've been riding in the "elite" group.  On Sunday, as usual I decided to ride the standard Team McAllen ride, and Dutchman and I led out the "elites".  Some of the truly stronger riders and leaders weren't there, so the group was a bit sketchy, and very disorganized.  As we approached 10 miles (20 for me since I'd ridden from home), six to eight of us took off like scalded dogs, building some distance between the other "elites" and leaving the intermediates to enjoy their ride.

After another five miles or so, my legs felt like lead.  And so did Dutchman's.  The two of us started to drop, groaning and complaining, then suddenly felt a bit happier when a couple of other buddies joined us.  We watched a group of four leave us, noting that one of their riders was one of the more notorious wheelsuckers and dangerous riders on the team.  Dutchman and I commiserated about how we just couldn't let that stand.  We had to catch him, which meant catching THEM.  Why?  Because...

• You can't ride with the "elites" until you're able to pull your weight.  And by pull, I mean that literally -- you need to be able to take a real pull, at speed, at the front of the paceline.  You get a pass, maybe two, but if it keeps up, folks will try to punish you.
  
• If you can't pull, then fall back and ride with the intermediates.  Don't wheelsuck your life away!
  
• And if you can't pull on a given day, and you're still in the "benefit of the doubt" stage, then for pete's sake don't allow yourself to rotate to the front, and then drop the group speed by a few miles an hour, causing a bunch of energy-sapping yo-yoing.  Just stay in the back and do your best to hang on!
  

This guy regularly breaks all of these rules, so Dutchman and I rallied our group of 4, and we started pushing our speed up from 20 mph towards the 25+ mph range.  We each took short 30 second pulls, and within a few rotations we could tell we were gaining on the breakaway group.  We pushed ourselves by carping about how "we can't let him get away" and "he never pulls" and other petty comments, and apparently petty sentiment can sometimes help, as we caught them within a few miles.  Or maybe it was because they only had 3 riders pulling, and we had 4.

After we caught them, the next goal was to drop this rider, and drop him hard.  There's no better way to drop someone than to surprise him with a race tactic when he doesn't know he's in a race.  Some might think this is cutthroat and childish, but to me and Dutch, it makes us feel like MEN.  As the rider in question finished his pull and Dutch rotated to the front of the six (or so) rider group, I pulled out of the paceline, stood up, and hammered up to 30 mph.  Dutch got on my wheel, along with two other stronger riders, and we dropped him.  I'm sure he was thinking "why do I simultaneously feel like a bad habit and a hot potato", and if he had been able to catch up and ask me, I would have told him "IT'S BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN DROPPED BY AN ELITE GROUP OF CYCLISTS", and when I say "elite", I'm particularly thinking of myself.

Independent of our petty, silly tactics, it was a hard, strenuous ride, even for an "elite" cyclist.  And before I forget -- a few minutes after we dropped the dude, a couple of the stronger time trialers in the group really dropped Dutch and me, to the tune of 4-5 mph of speed that we were too toasted to summon.  If you want to try to substantiate my tale with hard data, you should start here.  

Training in McAllen versus Austin: Intervals

When I was traveling to Austin, I was building strength and endurance by going to spin class 2-3 times per week, riding the Austin hills 1-2 times per week, and doing one 50 mile ride at 20 mph pace on the weekends.  

Since I've been unemployed, I have been mostly confined to the greater McAllen area.  I don't go to spin class.  I run 2-3 times per week, and ride 2-3 times per week.  I'm not getting much weaker, and in fact have logged some significant miles and broken at least one PR, but I don't feel like I'm getting stronger, and I'm fearful of starting to atrophy.

To try to combat that, I decided I would start getting up earlier and doing intervals on the bike.  My goal is to mostly replace my 5:30a runs with time on the bike, but I'm contemplating mixing in at least one run and some basic core / leg work too.  Today was my first day of the new plan.

I chose a route within my neighborhood, even though it has two stop signs.  I chose it because it is:

• Close to home, so I can make it back home before my spouse wakes up
  
• Well lit, so the drug runners can see me before they run me down like a dog
  
• Well used by walkers and joggers, so there will be witnesses if I have a clip-out fall like Weiland
  
• On a smooth, wide, and flat street named Glasscock, which makes me snicker

I don't subscribe to any particular training or interval regimen, so I simply decided to alternate loops with 1) small ring, 85+ cadence and moderate exertion and 2) big ring, whatever cadence and high exertion  

The ride was highlighted by:

• Strong 15 mph headwind on 1/2 of the loop, making the ride feel really challenging
  
• Laziness while on the small ring loops, accented by reduced speeds and daydreaming
  
• Some out of the saddle sprinting right after I slowed for each stop sign
  
• A feeling of nausea while on the big ring loops, accented by a small amount of bile that rose from my throat on the 2nd interval.  Even though my heart rate was low, I think I was approaching time trial effort.
  

In summary, I think this type of ride will be a really great replacement for spin class.  My quads were burning, I could tell I was maxing out during the tough intervals, and the easy intervals were easy enough that I knew I was recovering and was well below aerobic threshold.  As always, the nitty gritty ride stats are here, and will be accessed by only the most data-driven bike geeks.  Enjoy.

Cycling in Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Over the Easter weekend, I ate about 8 million calories worth of chocolate-covered marshmallow bunnies, jelly beans, Cadbury eggs, and homemade cakes and pies.  I ate another 4 million calories worth of ham, casseroles, boiled shrimp, hamburgers, and other goodies that my family and my spouse's family made.  When I finally made it home with the family to the good ol' Rio Grande Valley, it was time to get back on the wagon.  

To put my foot up on the wagon stepboard, I went for a run yesterday morning.  To throw the other leg into the wagon, I went for a calorie-burning ride today.  I met Speedo at the intersection of Bryan Road and Trinity, and while waiting I saw some beautiful Wild Olive (aka Anacahuita or Mexican Olive) trees blooming, and took the below photo.  

Speedo suggested we ride over to the World Birding Center at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.  Speedo has a Texas State Park pass, which means I could get in "for free".  It seemed like a great idea, as it would mean the ride would be steady, relatively slow, and ensure that I kept my heart rate in the aerobic zone.  I could feel the calories burning already.

We rode up to the entrance, which is blocked by two large steel arm gates that are opened only for tram rides.  We rode around them through the pedestrian / cyclist entry, and as we entered the park we were stopped by a park employee and a volunteer.  They asked that we return to the visitor center and get arm bands, because they were gathering visitor data to try to justify budget and staffing.  They also showed us some damage to the park that happened the previous night.  A vehicle that was evading police drove through the two steel gates, lost control, then hit a tree and drove through a grassy area.  It eventually made it to the Rio Grande river.  This is a typical drug smuggler tactic; i.e. if they are stopped by police, they simply flee, dump the vehicle in or near the river, then swim to Mexico.  The photo below shows the damage.  Depending on your point of view, the driver was very lucky or unlucky to have not squarely hit either of the trees.  

Since this is a major bird watching site, I snapped a photo of the volunteer's bike, leaned against a Mexican brick wall near a list of bird sightings.  While we were in the park, we saw javelina, chacalacas, dove, and...grackle.  Yeah, they're everywhere.

After we rode a few laps in the park, we pedaled toward the exit, where Speedo saw our volunteer friend again.  She was English, and Speedo is an anglophile (long story), so he stopped to chit-chat.  Meanwhile, I saw a marker that detailed the history of Penitas.  I never knew the history, and it is truly fascinating.  I had no idea that I was living near one of the oldest towns in the United States.

On the way back home, we retraced our route, which took us through the Mission Trails, a local hike and bike trail.  Speedo's sharp eye spotted a tarantula crossing the trail, so we stopped to snap a photo and to gently shoo it back into the underbrush.  It did not go willingly, but Speedo managed to help it off the trail and out of danger without hurting it.

At the end of the ride, I felt great.  According to my Garmin Edge 305, I had burned over 2000 calories over the almost 37 mile ride.  It's a good start!  For those that like to bury themselves in stats, or if you want to see a map of the ride locale, here's the link to the GPS data.  Finally, I should say that I really enjoyed the World Birding Center and the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.  I plan to take the family back, and spend some time on foot, looking for wildlife and taking photos.

Live Like You Race

In several ways, it hasn't been a good few weeks.  As my loyal readers know, I'm out of work.  We have funds, but they're not limitless.  About a week ago, Vic and I decided to convert a sun room into a bedroom, and expand the nearby 1/2 bath into a full bath.  Based on potential home buyer feedback and realtor advice, we think this will make the house much more marketable, although we won't reclaim the cost in the sale price.  The remodel cost was between $3 and $4K, which is cheap for the remodel, but very significant to cash flow.  Then yesterday, I found out that we owe over $5000 to the IRS this year.  Wow.  We're still on the edge of okay, although we accelerated our cash burn by months, and that's worrisome.

Monday night, I tossed and turned all night, and woke up at 5:00a and couldn't go back to sleep.  I got up and ran 3 miles, but I decided I needed to go for a ride on Wednesday morning.  I picked a new route, one that took me through urban McAllen, instead of into the farmland.  The link to the route and ride data is here.  I intentionally just wanted to get some miles on the wheels and spin the pedals, and it's a good thing, as the wind was a killer when heading south.  As I rode north, I saw this abandoned farmhouse, and it needed to be photographed.  It was a good match for what I was feeling.

I looped up towards Edinburg, then headed back south on Jackson and McColl.  I decided to stop at Wally's Bikes, the newest shop in the Rio Grande Valley.  I got there a few minutes before he opened, and snapped this photo of myself snapping a photo.  

I sat down, just me and my thoughts, and ate my PB&J sandwich.  I drank from my bottle, relaxing, thinking how good it was to be riding.  A few minutes later, Wally showed up, opened up and we visited for awhile in the shop.  At one point, I asked him "are you nervous about being a new small business owner"?  He gave me an answer that applies to more than just his shop.  He said, and I paraphrase, "I think of running the shop like I think of a race".

To me, that means that you don't enter a race thinking you'll fail.  You enter it with some sort of goal, whether it be finishing, winning, setting a personal record, helping a teammate win, or even just using the miles to prepare for the next race.  You do your best, and you push hard to meet your goal, but you don't start the race thinking about NOT meeting your goals.  You don't ride the race thinking about NOT meeting your goals.  Worst case, you change goals in the middle of the race, but only losers think about losing.

The race continues.  I'll post my splits as I complete them.  

Stress and the Enemy of Stress

Superheroes have archenemies.  Protagonists have antagonists.  Points have a counterpoint.  I have my causes of stress, and things that take the stress and smash it into pieces.

Stress:  Construction workers traipsing in and out of the house all day, making noise.

De-Stress:  Leave the house and ride my bike.

Stress:  No call back for a job I really want.

De-Stress:  Stop waiting by the phone, leave the house, and ride my bike.

Stress:  Potential home buyers call at inopportune times and want to see the house.

De-Stress:  When the listing service calls to show the house, leave the house, and ride my bike.

Stress:  Spouse is angry because of my incessant cycling.

De-Stress:  No known solution.

  

My KRGV TV Job Fair Spot

Earlier this week, I attended a job fair sponsored by KRGV.  Although I wasn't impressed with the companies that were at the job fair, I happened to luck out and get interviewed for a live spot on KRGV's broadcast.  I was given about 20 seconds to say whatever I wanted about my qualifications and job search.  Here's a link to the the video.  The video is embedded below, with a screen capture too.  And with that, my 15 minutes of fame are now officially complete.

POSTSCRIPT...If the link doesn't take you directly to my interview, scroll through and find "Jeff Contreras".  

Personal Record Ride...with Pesticide

Earlier in the week, my cycling buddy Dutchman asked if I wanted to ride on Friday.  He's mired in one of those "mandatory Friday vacation" situations due to the automotive crisis, so we've ridden on Friday a few times in the recent past.  In preparation Thursday night, I detailed my bike, cleaned the drivetrain, and replaced my cut and booted rear tire.  When I came in from the garage at 9:30p, I didn't have a message from Dutch.  I started thinking about routes, and noticed the wind would be building from the southeast.  That usually means the dreaded ride to Progreso, which Dutch and I both hate, mainly because we've done it too many times.  With no response from Dutch and a route that wasn't a favorite, the ride wasn't setting up well.

I woke up on Friday, with still no message from Dutch.  I wasn't happy.  All I could think was that I would be riding alone, and on a route that I didn't really like.  Should I not go?  Maybe try to do an afternoon ride?  I put those thoughts aside, and I resolved to ride alone to Progreso.  I left the house at 8am, with clear skies and 67F temperature.  It was a beautiful day for a ride, unless the wind decided to be mean.  As I rolled out of Sharyland Plantation, I felt good, and decided to set an aggressive goal:  complete the 50+ mile ride with a rolling speed of greater than 20 mph.  Even riding in a group, I've only finished one ride with 20+ mph average, so this was aggressive.  I rationalized that I would have the wind on the way back, and I would probably be able to fly.  I started pushing 20+, feeling like the goal was achievable.

As I crossed from McAllen into Hidalgo, I saw a strange structure, and stopped to take a photo.  It really doesn't have anything to do with the ride; I just thought the unfinished industrial building, with architecure that reminded me of a church, was really interesting.

From 090403 Ride to Progreso

I pedaled on from there, struggling to keep my speed about 20 mph.  I was heading into the ESE wind, and it just kept getting stronger.  I was in the small ring, trying to get some speed, but it just kept dropping...21 mph, 20, 19.5, 18, 16.  It wasn't looking good.  I started getting a little depressed about my fading goal, and just then I saw an irrigation pipe that was leaking water, with the border wall in the background.  Seemed like a good photo op and rest stop, so I stopped.  It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but the wall here is on or in front of a levee, which has a road on top.  I'm not sure why there's a higher section with a gap in the middle, but it looks cool.

From 090403 Ride to Progreso

I hydrated a little, got back on the bike, determined to stick with the goal.  I wasn't able to hit 20 mph, but I could get to 18 mph without dying.  That's when I saw and smelled the crop duster.  It was spraying pesticide, and if you've ever attached one of those bottles to a hose and sprayed your lawn or landscaping, it smelled exactly like that.  You know, the same stuff that warns you to stay upwind of the mist?  It's a bit hard to do when you're riding near a crop duster, and the wind is gusting.  Here's a sequence of photos that I grabbed while riding.  I'm pretty happy with the framing and results, although it looks farther away than it actually was.  Eventually it flew directly overhead, although I think he cut short the spray because he saw me on the road.

From 090403 Ride to Progreso

From 090403 Ride to Progreso

From 090403 Ride to Progreso

Once I hit Progreso, I didn't even check my stats.  I thought "it is what it is", and took my time eating a PB&J sandwich and refilling my bottles.  Unlike previous rides, I didn't eat a taco, although I did get a shot of the convenience store and taco sign.  For the non-Texans, you can see that tacos are an ingrained part of the culture down here!

From 090403 Ride to Progreso

I turned and headed back, anxious for the tailwind, and feeling energized. I could tell the wind was picking up, but I was totally surprised at how easy it was to hit 26-28 mph. I was encouraged, as I knew if I could hold mid-20 mph speeds, I would have a good chance at meeting my goal. I shifted up to the big ring, got into the drops, and hammered. I felt strong, fast, and on target. I cranked and cranked, with strength in my legs and plenty of breath the whole way home.

When I uploaded the data, the first thing I did was check the average speed: 20.3 mph over a 54 mile course! Even faster than my group max! Yes, I did have 14 mph wind on the way back home, but I was riding into the same stiff wind on the way out. The most telling data point is that my speed on the way home never dropped below 20 mph unless I was approaching a stop sign or signal, and for most of the return I was at 25+.  Also, my heart rate was higher the whole ride back than the ride out, indicating that not only did the wind help, but I pushed myself harder on the way home. That's fairly atypical of what amounted to a 54 mile non-continuous time trial effort, but that's what happened.

Overall, it was a great day, a great ride, and it felt great to hit the goal. The data detail is here.