Well Travis Wilky, a former professional cyclist that's on our team decided to do a "tempo" ride this afternoon and asked me to join him. Now for Travis a "tempo" ride is ride at a pace that hurts almost to the point of throwing up. For some reason he invited my fat ass to join him and for an even dumber reason I said yes! Well I figured I needed someone to join us so I would have a voice of reason when Travis was putting a whipping on me and I invited Jason Newman to join the party.
Now anyone that knows me knows that I do stupid shit all the time and today was no different. Asking Jason to join the ride was like asking a match to guard the gasoline, can you say explosion!
So we met up and headed out into a nice little 20mph wind, which after Sundays hurricane really did not feel that bad, at first! Not more than a mile into the ride we hit some glass on the road that was probably a broken beer bottle from one of the 43,000 rednecks that live in Round Rock and bam, flat tire.
So after a not so quick tube change and CO2 refill, we head out on Travis's 2 hr "tempo" ride.
Well I usually need about 20 minutes to get good and warmed up but today 20 minutes came around 5 minutes instead. Travis is just hammering away like he was late for an all you can eat buffet and I am already getting dropped like 10th grade french class.
I feel kinda bad because Jason is in his element riding right on Travis's rear wheel, while I am just a blip in their rear view mirrors. At least they slowed up at each intersection to wait for me! Otherwise I would probably still be out there trying to figure out which way they went.
As we ride, well more correctly, as Jason and Travis ride and I ride alone, the wind gets stronger and stronger until I have to resort to riding in the name of my blog "Down in the Drops". I find myself in that position more and more these days. Old age is not being kind to me! Neither are all the hamburgers I eat either!
So for the rest of the "tempo" ride Jason and Travis make me chase them around farm fields, and back country roads and places that I am sure are pretty at certain times of the year but today with water in my eyes from the stupid freaking wind and pain in my legs from my hill ride last night,they looked as ugly as Hiedi Flyss and smelled just as bad I am sure.
2 hours later we finish and as a reward for all my pain and suffering, we head out to Serrano's for some good ol Tex-Mex food. I don't know how good it really was, but I didn't leave hungry that's for sure.
I may be a Cat 4 on a bicycle but I am a Cat 1 at the dinner table! Everyone has a special talent, the idea is to find yours. I know what mine is!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
A ride in the Sun
So since I skipped my ride yesterday to let my legs rest from the weekends worth of races, I decided to get out this afternoon and get in some miles. The plan was to go down to Mellow Johnny's bike shop, more correctly Lance Armstrong's bike shop here in Austin and get in their ride.
On Tuesday nights there is a ride called the "Tuesday Nighter", imagine that. Its been going on for better than 20+ years and has a cult following around this part of Texas. In the old days it wasn't uncommon to have Lance himself show up and ride. It really is an unsanctioned race that can draw 60-100 racers of all abilities to throw down against each other on an old country road in South East Austin. But like all things in Austin, growth has changed the ride.
In the past few years housing developments and commercial developments have made the roads that are used to race on much more friendly to cars, than the bicycles that show up to attempt the race.
Well since I have never done a "Tuesday Nighter" and a few of the guys on my race team were going out to do it, I figured I would go see what all the fuss was about.
Since the traffic in Austin SUCKS! And it really SUCKS anywhere around 5 pm, I decided to head down to my favorite bike shop in town, Austin Bikes, around 3pm to beat the traffic.
Austin Bikes is a cool little shop on 5th street in downtown Austin, and since it is only a few blocks from Mellow Johnny's it was a great place to go waste some time with Sol and his crew before the 5pm ride start.
Sol or really Soloman Frost, man what a cool name, is a professional cyclist who raced in Spain for a while and came back to Austin and opened up a neat little bike shop. He carries mostly mid to high end bikes, out of my price range for sure, but the guys that work at his shop are such nice guys and Sol is about the nicest guy you will ever meet in your life, anytime I have a chance to visit I will. I always leave Austin Bikes in a great mood!
So I stop by and mention that I am going to try the Tuesday Nighter out finally. Well I thought I was.
Sol and Scott, another great guy who besides working at the shop is also is a top bike racer in Austin, proceed to tell me about how the ride has really become a dangerous event and that they would probably never ride it again. Well if two professionals say its dangerous then that's enough for me. I have no reason to go out chance it. So I call the guys up and tell them I am skipping the ride.
Well since the traffic will be terrible if I try and head home and my wife works downtown, I call her up and we meet at a burger joint called Phil's Icehouse for a great burger and fries. So we visit a little after the burger and my wife says she is going to go shopping for awhile, which means she might get home by midnight if the store closes and kicks her out. Since I know of another ride in town tonight I head over to join that ride so I can burn of the massive meal I just consumed.
This ride is a hill ride which means we go find some really steep hills in West Austin and ride one after another until you can hardly turn the pedals around. I did it last week and it is a lot of fun, well parts of it are. So we head out and hit the first few hills and I start feeling like I probably should have skipped the food before the ride, although it was nice to re-taste the meal I just finished. It was like having 2 burgers tonight.
Well the ride went good and we had about 10 riders show up which was a nice size for a hill ride. I hammered up a few of them and ground my way up the hardest, Ladera Norte and it was nice to get out and ride after the day off Monday.
I guess I'll get some miles in tomorrow and then get ready for the races on Thursday night.
That's when all of Austin shows up to race at the Driveway. The best weekly race in America!
On Tuesday nights there is a ride called the "Tuesday Nighter", imagine that. Its been going on for better than 20+ years and has a cult following around this part of Texas. In the old days it wasn't uncommon to have Lance himself show up and ride. It really is an unsanctioned race that can draw 60-100 racers of all abilities to throw down against each other on an old country road in South East Austin. But like all things in Austin, growth has changed the ride.
In the past few years housing developments and commercial developments have made the roads that are used to race on much more friendly to cars, than the bicycles that show up to attempt the race.
Well since I have never done a "Tuesday Nighter" and a few of the guys on my race team were going out to do it, I figured I would go see what all the fuss was about.
Since the traffic in Austin SUCKS! And it really SUCKS anywhere around 5 pm, I decided to head down to my favorite bike shop in town, Austin Bikes, around 3pm to beat the traffic.
Austin Bikes is a cool little shop on 5th street in downtown Austin, and since it is only a few blocks from Mellow Johnny's it was a great place to go waste some time with Sol and his crew before the 5pm ride start.
Sol or really Soloman Frost, man what a cool name, is a professional cyclist who raced in Spain for a while and came back to Austin and opened up a neat little bike shop. He carries mostly mid to high end bikes, out of my price range for sure, but the guys that work at his shop are such nice guys and Sol is about the nicest guy you will ever meet in your life, anytime I have a chance to visit I will. I always leave Austin Bikes in a great mood!
So I stop by and mention that I am going to try the Tuesday Nighter out finally. Well I thought I was.
Sol and Scott, another great guy who besides working at the shop is also is a top bike racer in Austin, proceed to tell me about how the ride has really become a dangerous event and that they would probably never ride it again. Well if two professionals say its dangerous then that's enough for me. I have no reason to go out chance it. So I call the guys up and tell them I am skipping the ride.
Well since the traffic will be terrible if I try and head home and my wife works downtown, I call her up and we meet at a burger joint called Phil's Icehouse for a great burger and fries. So we visit a little after the burger and my wife says she is going to go shopping for awhile, which means she might get home by midnight if the store closes and kicks her out. Since I know of another ride in town tonight I head over to join that ride so I can burn of the massive meal I just consumed.
This ride is a hill ride which means we go find some really steep hills in West Austin and ride one after another until you can hardly turn the pedals around. I did it last week and it is a lot of fun, well parts of it are. So we head out and hit the first few hills and I start feeling like I probably should have skipped the food before the ride, although it was nice to re-taste the meal I just finished. It was like having 2 burgers tonight.
Well the ride went good and we had about 10 riders show up which was a nice size for a hill ride. I hammered up a few of them and ground my way up the hardest, Ladera Norte and it was nice to get out and ride after the day off Monday.
I guess I'll get some miles in tomorrow and then get ready for the races on Thursday night.
That's when all of Austin shows up to race at the Driveway. The best weekly race in America!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Rest day for some tired legs.
So after two bike races this weekend, neither of which I did anything that memorable in, it is time for a day off the bike. This last week was a fairly tough week of riding with 2 spin classes on Monday, a hill ride on Tuesday, 2 Criterium races on Thursday and 2 hard races on the weekend. After all that I think my legs needed a day off, so I gave it to them. I did nothing all day and it was all that I expected it to be and more.
Since I had some free time I went to my favorite lunch spot, PF Chang's and hung out for a couple of hours shooting the shit with my bartender friend Jim and a customer that is there almost everyday that I go, Marty.
After awhile Marty and I got to talking about golf and before I knew it I was invited to his country club to play 18 holes with him and Jim and another guy from the restaurant. As much as I like the idea of getting back on the golf course, I used to be a golf professional, I have not played but a few times in the last 2 years so I might need to go hit a few balls this week to iron out the wrinkles. I think Marty is looking for a playing lesson and since he is picking up the green fee, which is probably $125 or more, I need to give him his money's worth.
Well I am hoping to make a good impression with Marty since he appears to be a mover and a shaker around town, and since I need to find a job, he might just be the contact I need to find employment.
So it looks like I will have to find time to ride my bike before the races this Thursday and hit the golf course for a practice session this week.
For someone with no job, I sure do have a lot to do!
Since I had some free time I went to my favorite lunch spot, PF Chang's and hung out for a couple of hours shooting the shit with my bartender friend Jim and a customer that is there almost everyday that I go, Marty.
After awhile Marty and I got to talking about golf and before I knew it I was invited to his country club to play 18 holes with him and Jim and another guy from the restaurant. As much as I like the idea of getting back on the golf course, I used to be a golf professional, I have not played but a few times in the last 2 years so I might need to go hit a few balls this week to iron out the wrinkles. I think Marty is looking for a playing lesson and since he is picking up the green fee, which is probably $125 or more, I need to give him his money's worth.
Well I am hoping to make a good impression with Marty since he appears to be a mover and a shaker around town, and since I need to find a job, he might just be the contact I need to find employment.
So it looks like I will have to find time to ride my bike before the races this Thursday and hit the golf course for a practice session this week.
For someone with no job, I sure do have a lot to do!
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