2010 LBJ 100 ride report.
This started out a very bad day.
First, we were camping at Enchanted Rock, and the night before the ride, the wind was just ridiculous. I have no idea how much it was gusting to, but it was strong, gusty wind, made worse by being in a high-profile tent that shook every time a gust hit. Each time I'd get close to falling asleep, I'd be startled awake again. So I probably got an hour of sleep total, around 4am when the wind briefly died down (then started up again). So I started the day already somewhat grumpy.
A 45 minute drive got us to the LBJ ranch, then a 20 minute drive got us from the entrance to the ranch to the place we parked, a total of about 20 feet away. Lots of traffic. Finally got parked, started to unpack the car, and Matt went back to unlock his bike, asking me if I could grab the keys to the lock from the center console. The keys.. which were in my pocket of my shorts. The shorts that were back at the campsite. 45 minutes away. And there was no getting out of where we were parked, anyway. The next .. well, I have no idea how long. The next eternity of my life was just bad. Suffice it to say, Matt wasn't happy, I didn't blame him, I did blame me, quite thoroughly. I don't know if I've ever felt that guilty. Or helpless. So I basically just kinda broke down. The good news is, instead of curling up and sobbing on the ground, I sobbed in a functional manner, going to see if I could figure out a solution. I found Jamie and choked out the problem to him, he flagged down a volunteer and we asked him to find some bolt cutters. About 15 minutes later, the lock was removed and the bike was free. Granted, I didn't know this yet, because I'd, optimistically assuming the best, ridden up to the start line to pick up our packets. When I got there and waited in line, I realized.. my rear tire was flat. We were about 2 minutes from the start of the event at this point, and I now had an angry husband, no packets, a flat rear tire and tears streaming down my face. Finally got the packets, and began the walk back to the cars. The ride over had seemed kinda long, but the walk in bike shoes back down the runway (we were parked on a runway), walking a bike with a flat tire, seemed about 10 times as long. Aaaaanyway, got back, Matt's bike was free, Matt very quickly changed my tire, and we were off to do the ride, maybe 20 minutes after the ride had actually begun. Jamie patted me on the back and told me to aim for doing the metric (65 miles) as planned, but to cut it to the 40 if I needed to.
Whew.
So I'm trying to pull myself together (Matt hugged me and told me he loved me still), and get started on the ride. The first 3 miles were really annoying, riding through the back of the pack where people don't know how to ride, have never ridden in a group, weave all over the road, move left when you call "on your left", are wearing jeans, etc. In the middle of this, Jamie pulls up by me, pulls in front of me, and slows down right in front of me. The international sign for "hey, draft off me!" So I did. He pulled me for about 7 miles or so, getting me out of the wind and enabling me to go so much faster than I otherwise would. VERY much appreciated. Also very tiring, since even his slow-down-and-go-Amy's-pace pace was a little fast for me, and I was pushing to stay with him. Eventually I knew that I was pushing my legs way too hard, given that I had to do a duathlon the next day, so I told him to fly, be free, and was on my own again, much further along that I would have otherwise been.
Since I was alone, I started playing my game of "ride as far as I can without having to stop at a rest stop", and so I started passing a couple folks I knew who HAD stopped. On one of the out and backs, I noticed Scott coming out as I was going back, and realized I'd passed him (he also started late, just not AS late). I thought about waiting at the next rest stop, but Scott's faster than me, so I didn't want him to feel like "she waited for me, therefore I feel obligated to stay with her." So I just kept riding, knowing he'd catch up eventually. And he did! And he stayed with me, even though I kept telling him he didn't have to. He said he was just in this for butt-in-the-saddle time, and didn't care about pace. So we rode the last uhh.. no idea.. 30 miles? together, and had a lovely time. For the most part.
We stopped at the mile 40 rest stop to refill bottles, and found that the rest stop had no water. No gatorade. Just pickle juice, which.. isn't really a substitute. And ice. So we filled our bottles with ice and hoped for melting. Not a huge deal for me, 'cause I still had most of a bottle of water left, but Scott just had ice.
Miles 40ish to 50ish entered into the realm of unpleasant. Uphill.. uphill.. uphill.. headwind.. uphill.. headwind.. headwind.. Many miles of all that. Despite my slowing way down and getting either very quiet or very bitchy, Scott stayed with him, even though I granted him permission and encouragement to go on if he needed to. I could feel my fatigued calves, hamstrings and quads from the time trial on Thursday, and I was beginning to fear how my legs would feel during the duathlon.
Just when I started to feel like I wanted to lay down on the side of the road and cry again, I realized things felt unnecessarily difficult, and asked Scott to check out my back tire, which.. was going flat again. So we pulled off to the side and started to change it. Then realized we were at mile 50, it wasn't fully flat, and maybe if we just put some air in it, it would leak slowly enough that we could get back to the car without changing the tire. So we aired it up (much to the dismay of the SAG vehicle that came up and wanted to help) and moved on again.
Things got more pleasant at this point, in that they got more downhill, less headwindy, and close enough to the end that we could smell the finish line. We zoomed in, back onto the ranch, then with about 2 miles to go, I could feel my tire going flat again. Arrrrgh. This wasn't helped by the fact that this ride was one non-stop cattleguard, and I still had to go over 4 or 5 to get back to the car. But Scott assured me there still appeared to be air in the tire, so I wasn't ruining the rims of my wheel, so I just pushed it in, going ever slower the less air my tire had. And then.. finally back to the car, 65 miles later!
Overall it was a good ride. Started out very rough, but I tried to channel that into ride motivation, and even with the hilly, headwindy, very slow section and the flat tire I ended up averaging around 15.7mph, which is great for me. I'd definitely do this ride again.. it was beautiful out there and, aside from the no-water at the mile 40 rest stop (we heard rumors of no water at the 55 rest stop, as well, but didn't stop at that one to find out), seemed well supported. The one disappointment was, even though we saw a ton of wildflowers on the drive to Enchanted Rock, and in other random places, there seemed to be very few on the actual course. It was odd. But it was still beautiful.
So, longest ride this year so far. That will change dramatically this coming Saturday at the Easter Hill Country Ride!
First, we were camping at Enchanted Rock, and the night before the ride, the wind was just ridiculous. I have no idea how much it was gusting to, but it was strong, gusty wind, made worse by being in a high-profile tent that shook every time a gust hit. Each time I'd get close to falling asleep, I'd be startled awake again. So I probably got an hour of sleep total, around 4am when the wind briefly died down (then started up again). So I started the day already somewhat grumpy.
A 45 minute drive got us to the LBJ ranch, then a 20 minute drive got us from the entrance to the ranch to the place we parked, a total of about 20 feet away. Lots of traffic. Finally got parked, started to unpack the car, and Matt went back to unlock his bike, asking me if I could grab the keys to the lock from the center console. The keys.. which were in my pocket of my shorts. The shorts that were back at the campsite. 45 minutes away. And there was no getting out of where we were parked, anyway. The next .. well, I have no idea how long. The next eternity of my life was just bad. Suffice it to say, Matt wasn't happy, I didn't blame him, I did blame me, quite thoroughly. I don't know if I've ever felt that guilty. Or helpless. So I basically just kinda broke down. The good news is, instead of curling up and sobbing on the ground, I sobbed in a functional manner, going to see if I could figure out a solution. I found Jamie and choked out the problem to him, he flagged down a volunteer and we asked him to find some bolt cutters. About 15 minutes later, the lock was removed and the bike was free. Granted, I didn't know this yet, because I'd, optimistically assuming the best, ridden up to the start line to pick up our packets. When I got there and waited in line, I realized.. my rear tire was flat. We were about 2 minutes from the start of the event at this point, and I now had an angry husband, no packets, a flat rear tire and tears streaming down my face. Finally got the packets, and began the walk back to the cars. The ride over had seemed kinda long, but the walk in bike shoes back down the runway (we were parked on a runway), walking a bike with a flat tire, seemed about 10 times as long. Aaaaanyway, got back, Matt's bike was free, Matt very quickly changed my tire, and we were off to do the ride, maybe 20 minutes after the ride had actually begun. Jamie patted me on the back and told me to aim for doing the metric (65 miles) as planned, but to cut it to the 40 if I needed to.
Whew.
So I'm trying to pull myself together (Matt hugged me and told me he loved me still), and get started on the ride. The first 3 miles were really annoying, riding through the back of the pack where people don't know how to ride, have never ridden in a group, weave all over the road, move left when you call "on your left", are wearing jeans, etc. In the middle of this, Jamie pulls up by me, pulls in front of me, and slows down right in front of me. The international sign for "hey, draft off me!" So I did. He pulled me for about 7 miles or so, getting me out of the wind and enabling me to go so much faster than I otherwise would. VERY much appreciated. Also very tiring, since even his slow-down-and-go-Amy's-pace pace was a little fast for me, and I was pushing to stay with him. Eventually I knew that I was pushing my legs way too hard, given that I had to do a duathlon the next day, so I told him to fly, be free, and was on my own again, much further along that I would have otherwise been.
Since I was alone, I started playing my game of "ride as far as I can without having to stop at a rest stop", and so I started passing a couple folks I knew who HAD stopped. On one of the out and backs, I noticed Scott coming out as I was going back, and realized I'd passed him (he also started late, just not AS late). I thought about waiting at the next rest stop, but Scott's faster than me, so I didn't want him to feel like "she waited for me, therefore I feel obligated to stay with her." So I just kept riding, knowing he'd catch up eventually. And he did! And he stayed with me, even though I kept telling him he didn't have to. He said he was just in this for butt-in-the-saddle time, and didn't care about pace. So we rode the last uhh.. no idea.. 30 miles? together, and had a lovely time. For the most part.
We stopped at the mile 40 rest stop to refill bottles, and found that the rest stop had no water. No gatorade. Just pickle juice, which.. isn't really a substitute. And ice. So we filled our bottles with ice and hoped for melting. Not a huge deal for me, 'cause I still had most of a bottle of water left, but Scott just had ice.
Miles 40ish to 50ish entered into the realm of unpleasant. Uphill.. uphill.. uphill.. headwind.. uphill.. headwind.. headwind.. Many miles of all that. Despite my slowing way down and getting either very quiet or very bitchy, Scott stayed with him, even though I granted him permission and encouragement to go on if he needed to. I could feel my fatigued calves, hamstrings and quads from the time trial on Thursday, and I was beginning to fear how my legs would feel during the duathlon.
Just when I started to feel like I wanted to lay down on the side of the road and cry again, I realized things felt unnecessarily difficult, and asked Scott to check out my back tire, which.. was going flat again. So we pulled off to the side and started to change it. Then realized we were at mile 50, it wasn't fully flat, and maybe if we just put some air in it, it would leak slowly enough that we could get back to the car without changing the tire. So we aired it up (much to the dismay of the SAG vehicle that came up and wanted to help) and moved on again.
Things got more pleasant at this point, in that they got more downhill, less headwindy, and close enough to the end that we could smell the finish line. We zoomed in, back onto the ranch, then with about 2 miles to go, I could feel my tire going flat again. Arrrrgh. This wasn't helped by the fact that this ride was one non-stop cattleguard, and I still had to go over 4 or 5 to get back to the car. But Scott assured me there still appeared to be air in the tire, so I wasn't ruining the rims of my wheel, so I just pushed it in, going ever slower the less air my tire had. And then.. finally back to the car, 65 miles later!
Overall it was a good ride. Started out very rough, but I tried to channel that into ride motivation, and even with the hilly, headwindy, very slow section and the flat tire I ended up averaging around 15.7mph, which is great for me. I'd definitely do this ride again.. it was beautiful out there and, aside from the no-water at the mile 40 rest stop (we heard rumors of no water at the 55 rest stop, as well, but didn't stop at that one to find out), seemed well supported. The one disappointment was, even though we saw a ton of wildflowers on the drive to Enchanted Rock, and in other random places, there seemed to be very few on the actual course. It was odd. But it was still beautiful.
So, longest ride this year so far. That will change dramatically this coming Saturday at the Easter Hill Country Ride!