Easter Hill Country Tour 2014 weekend report.
Overall assessment: Fun!
This is the second time we've gone down for the whole weekend, and were excited since we had such a great time with Betsy and David (who would also be there this time) in 2012.
My main partner in crime this time, though, would be Karen, who had a really crappy ride, and some PTSD, from the last time she did this ride. After getting her tire fixed that year, she ended up alone, lost, riding way too far, and then pretty much passing out at the end. So my job was to keep Karen positive and having a good time.
And I think I did!
Friday
We drove down Thursday evening and checked into the Y.O. Hotel for the weekend. We rolled out at 8am on Friday to do the 65 mile route. Matt decided he wanted to ride with us, which we told him a billion times was probably going to bore him to death, given how much faster than us he is, but he was adamant. And Karen, Matt and I rode together the entire way! And had a lot of fun.
We rode from the hotel, and took a little unintentional detour to get on the course, so ended up with 70 miles for the day, and they were good miles. Lots of hills, of course. Lots of cattleguards (30, to be exact, which was 10 less than we were anticipating!), and pretty much perfect weather. Mid 50s to start, warming up into the 60s, no wind, partly cloudy. Just beautiful.
Though the cattleguards are annoying (Karen apologized to her lovely, expensive tri bike, Bullseye, each time we rode over one), they also meant we were on my favorite kind of course out there. Loose livestock! No animals in the road this year, but several cows just right there on the side of the road, no fence between us, making Karen nervous and me giddy.
Oh, we did see a zebra. All 3 of us saw it, so I think it was really there. But it was behind a fence.
Amy, Karen and Matt at an aid station with some bluebonnets
The big notable for Friday was near the end of the ride, after a perfect and lovely day, a cop car pulled up behind us and blooped his siren at us, then said over his loudspeaker that the guy in the red shirt, the girl in the green shirt, and the girl in the camouflage shirt (it was actually a Where the Wild Things Are jersey, thankyouverymuch) should pull over. We dutifully did, and Matt said, "What seems to be the problem, officer?" because honestly, we had no idea. We were riding in a little triangle, two abreast in front, one behind, well in our lane, on a tiny, deserted country road in the middle of nowhere.
He proceeded to get ALL huffy ("I'll TELL you what the problem is..") and explain that we needed to ride one at a time, not next to each other. Bikes were motor vehicles, like cars, and you can't drive two cars next to each other.
We all just stood there for a second, thinking, "That's.. not at all true. But he's a cop. (Sheriff, actually.) And we don't really want to get ticketed/arrested/beaten/stuck here for hours."
We all made sorta polite noises about how we weren't sure that was true, but he was positive, and was having none of it, so we just agreed we had a different understanding of the law, and yes, officer, and eventually he let us go.
The funny thing was, RIGHT in front of us, visible as he pulled us over, was a group of about 10 cyclists basically riding in a clump across the entire rode. Horrible behavior. And he didn't care.
So.. yeah. He rode behind us for several minutes, then turned around and drove off. We fumed for the rest of the ride. But aside from that, it was a lovely ride!
When we pulled back into the hotel, Karen and I went and grabbed our running shoes (Matt opted NOT to join us for the run) and did a little 5 mile out and back from the hotel. It had warmed up a bit at that point, and was sunny, so it was a little bit of a slog for me at the end, but we kept a good-for-Amy pace, and got through it just fine.
Then we met up with Betsy and David at Rails (our favorite Kerrville restaurant), hit the hot tub briefly in lieu of our assigned swim, then met up for dinner at the hotel, then bed.
See? Swimming!
Day 1: 70 miles ridden, 5 miles run
Saturday
Century day! Before this weekend, my previous longest ride of the season had been 76 miles, so I rode almost that far on Friday, and now would ride quite a bit further!
Met up at 8 again, this time the whole gang: Matt, David, Betsy, Me, Karen. We all rolled out together from the hotel and stuck together for the first 5 miles or so. Once we hit the first section of hills in the neighborhood, we all got strung out going our own paces, and by the time we got to the highway, Matt and David were up ahead of us somewhere, Karen and I were together, and Betsy was back behind us.
All together in the morning!
I had forgotten how hilly that dumb highway is.. the kind of hills you can't tell are hills, so it's demoralizing that you're going so slow and everything's so hard. Especially knowing the hardest hill of the weekend is just up ahead.
Eagle's Nest! It's long, it's steep, it winds around, it's got two parts, so you're not done when you think you are, but it's doable, and we did it.
After that it was just a lot of little country highways and bad chipseal roads. They change the routes around every year, which mostly I love, but I didn't love this year's century course. The highways are boring and not very scenic. I may have complained about the year there were 75 cattleguards on the century course, but I love those little back roads with loose livestock enough that I'm willing to endure it.
But Karen and I kept each other entertained and had a lovely time. Oh, and we saw an obviously-brand-new tiny horse and some little baby lambs. And some alpacas.
When we got to the Comfort aid station for the first time (~mile 60), we found Betsy, as she'd promised she'd probably be there (she was doing a shorter route, and was going to head back in after she saw us), but we also found Matt and David! That was unexpected. They ended up joining up with us, and the four of us rode together through to the end.
Things went well for the Waring loop, and then back through the Comfort aid station again, and then we only had ~20 miles to go. But man, the hills in the last 10 miles were just brutal. Nothing like Eagle's Nest, just long hills over and over. The reward coming down the other side was lovely, but I was pretty done at that point, and my quads weren't cooperating in any way. But I slogged it out, and Matt hung back with me to keep me company, and we made it back to the hotel!
Karen headed home after the ride, and after a shower, we met up with Betsy and David at Grapejuice and had dinner (lunch?), then back to the hotel for bed. I tried to go to sleep really early, but wasn't able to sleep. I spent most of the night not sleeping, unfortunately. Just uncomfortable. And at some point, around 3, maybe, I realized one of the reasons I couldn't sleep is that I was hungry again. One meal evidently wasn't sufficient recovery food. A protein bar and some water, then I was able to get a little more sleep in.
Day 2: 101 miles ridden, my first century of the season
Sunday
To mirror the structure of Ultraman, instead of doing one of the offered rides on Sunday, I was assigned to do a 2 hour run. (Originally a 20 mile run, and then my coach changed that in light of me racing next weekend, and I'm SO glad she did.)
I didn't really have a plan, and I didn't set an alarm, I figured I'd just see how I felt. Since I wasn't sleeping well anyway, I got up around 6, ate some breakfast, and headed out right around 7 as the sun was coming up.
The routes on Sunday are shorter, and it's Easter, and the weather was very humid with potential rain in the area, so there was practically nobody out when I started my run. It was nice and peaceful.
I had a route mapped out, which I followed just fine (well, I went the wrong way once, but it was scenic, and I realized it quickly), until suddenly it didn't match up to reality. My goal was to run by Schreiner University, which is where the rides officially start/end, figuring I could use the bathrooms and water fountains there. But I ended up on Broadway, which I eventually realized was not pedestrian friendly. I realized this when the sidewalk turned into a drainage ditch with hurdles, turned into a cemetery and a forest. And it was WAY too traffic-busy to run in the road.
So I turned around and ran the other way until I could get back into the neighborhood, then ran around there until someone was in their yard who could point me to Schreiner (which I was actually very near). Hit the bathroom, refilled my water, then just kinda meandered around. I did part of my original course, then turned around and started heading back to the hotel, doing little random out and backs when I realized I was going to get back there before I'd hit my assigned 2 hours.
It rained on me for about half an hour, which was a wonderful relief from the intense humidity, though I felt bad for the cyclists. And then I felt bad for myself again, when the rain stopped and now it was even more humid, and my clothes were wet. But I was almost done!
With 15 minutes to go, Matt drove by and pulled up next to me. He'd looked for me earlier, but my route was not the route I intended to take, so he'd had some trouble locating me. He offered me various drinks and foods, but since I only had 15 minutes left, I just chugged some of his water, then set out to finish before I cooled down too much. My last few miles were uphill back to the hotel, and my legs were pretty tired, but I felt good about the run overall. About normal pace for a long run, even with all the miles from the previous days.
One more out and back to the tennis courts (where I grabbed a feral tennis ball for the dogs) (which I then had to carry with me for 5 minutes, which is more awkward than you might think while running, when you're already carrying a handheld water bottle), then up to the hotel, and done! And it was only 9am!
Got back early enough to pick up the dogs, and then we all crashed out together
Day 3: Ran 2 hours
So again.. lots of fun. And exhausting. A solid training weekend.
3 day total: 172 miles cycling, 17.5 miles running, 30 minutes splashing in the hot tub, half a cupcake eaten, 1 arrest avoided, tons of fun had.
This is the second time we've gone down for the whole weekend, and were excited since we had such a great time with Betsy and David (who would also be there this time) in 2012.
My main partner in crime this time, though, would be Karen, who had a really crappy ride, and some PTSD, from the last time she did this ride. After getting her tire fixed that year, she ended up alone, lost, riding way too far, and then pretty much passing out at the end. So my job was to keep Karen positive and having a good time.
And I think I did!
Friday
We drove down Thursday evening and checked into the Y.O. Hotel for the weekend. We rolled out at 8am on Friday to do the 65 mile route. Matt decided he wanted to ride with us, which we told him a billion times was probably going to bore him to death, given how much faster than us he is, but he was adamant. And Karen, Matt and I rode together the entire way! And had a lot of fun.
We rode from the hotel, and took a little unintentional detour to get on the course, so ended up with 70 miles for the day, and they were good miles. Lots of hills, of course. Lots of cattleguards (30, to be exact, which was 10 less than we were anticipating!), and pretty much perfect weather. Mid 50s to start, warming up into the 60s, no wind, partly cloudy. Just beautiful.
Though the cattleguards are annoying (Karen apologized to her lovely, expensive tri bike, Bullseye, each time we rode over one), they also meant we were on my favorite kind of course out there. Loose livestock! No animals in the road this year, but several cows just right there on the side of the road, no fence between us, making Karen nervous and me giddy.
Oh, we did see a zebra. All 3 of us saw it, so I think it was really there. But it was behind a fence.
Amy, Karen and Matt at an aid station with some bluebonnets
The big notable for Friday was near the end of the ride, after a perfect and lovely day, a cop car pulled up behind us and blooped his siren at us, then said over his loudspeaker that the guy in the red shirt, the girl in the green shirt, and the girl in the camouflage shirt (it was actually a Where the Wild Things Are jersey, thankyouverymuch) should pull over. We dutifully did, and Matt said, "What seems to be the problem, officer?" because honestly, we had no idea. We were riding in a little triangle, two abreast in front, one behind, well in our lane, on a tiny, deserted country road in the middle of nowhere.
He proceeded to get ALL huffy ("I'll TELL you what the problem is..") and explain that we needed to ride one at a time, not next to each other. Bikes were motor vehicles, like cars, and you can't drive two cars next to each other.
We all just stood there for a second, thinking, "That's.. not at all true. But he's a cop. (Sheriff, actually.) And we don't really want to get ticketed/arrested/beaten/stuck here for hours."
We all made sorta polite noises about how we weren't sure that was true, but he was positive, and was having none of it, so we just agreed we had a different understanding of the law, and yes, officer, and eventually he let us go.
The funny thing was, RIGHT in front of us, visible as he pulled us over, was a group of about 10 cyclists basically riding in a clump across the entire rode. Horrible behavior. And he didn't care.
So.. yeah. He rode behind us for several minutes, then turned around and drove off. We fumed for the rest of the ride. But aside from that, it was a lovely ride!
When we pulled back into the hotel, Karen and I went and grabbed our running shoes (Matt opted NOT to join us for the run) and did a little 5 mile out and back from the hotel. It had warmed up a bit at that point, and was sunny, so it was a little bit of a slog for me at the end, but we kept a good-for-Amy pace, and got through it just fine.
Then we met up with Betsy and David at Rails (our favorite Kerrville restaurant), hit the hot tub briefly in lieu of our assigned swim, then met up for dinner at the hotel, then bed.
See? Swimming!
Day 1: 70 miles ridden, 5 miles run
Saturday
Century day! Before this weekend, my previous longest ride of the season had been 76 miles, so I rode almost that far on Friday, and now would ride quite a bit further!
Met up at 8 again, this time the whole gang: Matt, David, Betsy, Me, Karen. We all rolled out together from the hotel and stuck together for the first 5 miles or so. Once we hit the first section of hills in the neighborhood, we all got strung out going our own paces, and by the time we got to the highway, Matt and David were up ahead of us somewhere, Karen and I were together, and Betsy was back behind us.
All together in the morning!
I had forgotten how hilly that dumb highway is.. the kind of hills you can't tell are hills, so it's demoralizing that you're going so slow and everything's so hard. Especially knowing the hardest hill of the weekend is just up ahead.
Eagle's Nest! It's long, it's steep, it winds around, it's got two parts, so you're not done when you think you are, but it's doable, and we did it.
After that it was just a lot of little country highways and bad chipseal roads. They change the routes around every year, which mostly I love, but I didn't love this year's century course. The highways are boring and not very scenic. I may have complained about the year there were 75 cattleguards on the century course, but I love those little back roads with loose livestock enough that I'm willing to endure it.
But Karen and I kept each other entertained and had a lovely time. Oh, and we saw an obviously-brand-new tiny horse and some little baby lambs. And some alpacas.
When we got to the Comfort aid station for the first time (~mile 60), we found Betsy, as she'd promised she'd probably be there (she was doing a shorter route, and was going to head back in after she saw us), but we also found Matt and David! That was unexpected. They ended up joining up with us, and the four of us rode together through to the end.
Things went well for the Waring loop, and then back through the Comfort aid station again, and then we only had ~20 miles to go. But man, the hills in the last 10 miles were just brutal. Nothing like Eagle's Nest, just long hills over and over. The reward coming down the other side was lovely, but I was pretty done at that point, and my quads weren't cooperating in any way. But I slogged it out, and Matt hung back with me to keep me company, and we made it back to the hotel!
Karen headed home after the ride, and after a shower, we met up with Betsy and David at Grapejuice and had dinner (lunch?), then back to the hotel for bed. I tried to go to sleep really early, but wasn't able to sleep. I spent most of the night not sleeping, unfortunately. Just uncomfortable. And at some point, around 3, maybe, I realized one of the reasons I couldn't sleep is that I was hungry again. One meal evidently wasn't sufficient recovery food. A protein bar and some water, then I was able to get a little more sleep in.
Day 2: 101 miles ridden, my first century of the season
Sunday
To mirror the structure of Ultraman, instead of doing one of the offered rides on Sunday, I was assigned to do a 2 hour run. (Originally a 20 mile run, and then my coach changed that in light of me racing next weekend, and I'm SO glad she did.)
I didn't really have a plan, and I didn't set an alarm, I figured I'd just see how I felt. Since I wasn't sleeping well anyway, I got up around 6, ate some breakfast, and headed out right around 7 as the sun was coming up.
The routes on Sunday are shorter, and it's Easter, and the weather was very humid with potential rain in the area, so there was practically nobody out when I started my run. It was nice and peaceful.
I had a route mapped out, which I followed just fine (well, I went the wrong way once, but it was scenic, and I realized it quickly), until suddenly it didn't match up to reality. My goal was to run by Schreiner University, which is where the rides officially start/end, figuring I could use the bathrooms and water fountains there. But I ended up on Broadway, which I eventually realized was not pedestrian friendly. I realized this when the sidewalk turned into a drainage ditch with hurdles, turned into a cemetery and a forest. And it was WAY too traffic-busy to run in the road.
So I turned around and ran the other way until I could get back into the neighborhood, then ran around there until someone was in their yard who could point me to Schreiner (which I was actually very near). Hit the bathroom, refilled my water, then just kinda meandered around. I did part of my original course, then turned around and started heading back to the hotel, doing little random out and backs when I realized I was going to get back there before I'd hit my assigned 2 hours.
It rained on me for about half an hour, which was a wonderful relief from the intense humidity, though I felt bad for the cyclists. And then I felt bad for myself again, when the rain stopped and now it was even more humid, and my clothes were wet. But I was almost done!
With 15 minutes to go, Matt drove by and pulled up next to me. He'd looked for me earlier, but my route was not the route I intended to take, so he'd had some trouble locating me. He offered me various drinks and foods, but since I only had 15 minutes left, I just chugged some of his water, then set out to finish before I cooled down too much. My last few miles were uphill back to the hotel, and my legs were pretty tired, but I felt good about the run overall. About normal pace for a long run, even with all the miles from the previous days.
One more out and back to the tennis courts (where I grabbed a feral tennis ball for the dogs) (which I then had to carry with me for 5 minutes, which is more awkward than you might think while running, when you're already carrying a handheld water bottle), then up to the hotel, and done! And it was only 9am!
Got back early enough to pick up the dogs, and then we all crashed out together
Day 3: Ran 2 hours
So again.. lots of fun. And exhausting. A solid training weekend.
3 day total: 172 miles cycling, 17.5 miles running, 30 minutes splashing in the hot tub, half a cupcake eaten, 1 arrest avoided, tons of fun had.