I Ride for Cancer

My current route on Hwy 30.

We’re now down to 60 days until I head out from MD Anderson in Houston, TX and ride my bike 2,100+ miles to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD to raise money and awareness for cancer research. This number scares the bejesus out of me. That’s a word right?

My goal this week started with a big number – 300. That’s how many miles I wanted to ride. It’s more miles than I’ve ever ridden in a single week and I definitely ran into obstacles like rain and mechanical issues.

I’ve decided (with the urging of a few friends) that from now on, I won’t let rain get in the way of training because I definitely won’t be avoiding it on the Ride this summer. Sound advice.

Mechanical issues — well what can you do about those?

So today, I decided to ride after church. I was on the fence for skipping it so I could get on the road sooner but since my church, Peace Lutheran Church, is a major sponsor of the ride, I just don’t feel right doing that. I need to make up some miles to hit my goal, but I’m just not sure I have time for 100 miles today.

I opted for 75 instead. It’s a little short of my goal at 275 miles, but it’s better than nothing right?

By the time I got home from church, changed clothes and ate lunch with the family it was after 1:30pm. So I headed out and found out that it was going to be a repeat of Saturday with an approximate 10-15 mph headwind. Oh well, I’ll make the best of it.

On approximately mile 7 I got a flat. Nuts. It took me about 30 minutes to get that fixed and back on the road. I decided not to stress out about it as thankfully my wife Tara, wasn’t expecting me back until between 5 and 6. That should leave plenty of time for a 75 mile ride in the hills and even with a stiff headwind.

I stopped in a gas station in Roans Prairie for a “natural break” which is a nice way of saying I had to go potty. I also filled up on Gatorade and water. I also had a nice conversation with a lady there.

“Do you have a skinny seat or a big one?”

“I have a skinny one.” I said.

“You need a wide one. That’s what I have and I can ride forever!” She said. Although to me it looked like she really couldn’t – but hey. Who am I to judge?

Back on the road again. The rest of the ride went relatively uneventful. Lots of headwind until I turned to head north at Navasota where thankfully I finally had a tail wind all the way back home. There’s nothing like having a tailwind heading into home. Almost like ice cream after a baseball game.

Since I’ve been this way before, I didn’t really see anything to stop and take a picture of. So the image above is a Google map screen capture of the route I took. Nothing fancy, but it might give you an idea of my route.

The total time for the ride was 4hr 15 min. If you take off the 30 minutes it took me to change the flat, this put it right at 20 mph average. Again not bad with headwind and hills.

That leaves me at 275 miles for the week. Not exactly my goal, but still not bad. I’ll get it next week right?

Speaking of, next week I plan to ride to Huntsville and back. That should be a 100 mile ride in lots of hills. That will definitely be an interesting ride. 😉

College Station Little League Opening Ceremonies at Olsen Field.

Today started with plans to wash and lube my bike and then head out for a 65 mile ride to further my training goals for the 2012 I Ride for Cancer ride from Houston to Baltimore. However, I ran into an issue. As I washed the bike, I noticed that my tires had tiny cracks on the sidewalls. I guess after almost 4,000 miles, the tires are due to be changed out.

So off I headed out to my friends at Cycles Etc. and grabbed two new tires and tubes. By the time I got back to the house, had lunch and got them on there and all ready to go, I only had time for a short ride as my son had Little League opening ceremonies scheduled for the late afternoon.

So I ended up just doing a 25 mile ride. However I figured since it was such a short distance, I would just go all out and try to get a really good time. BUT – as I headed out, I noticed that I faced a decent headwind of 15mph which slowed me down significantly on the way out. I think my average on the first 12.5 miles heading into the wind was about 15mph.

However, the way back proved to be significantly faster. I think I averaged almost 30mph! WOW!!! The total ride time was 1 hr 9 minutes for an average speed of 21.7391 mph. Not bad for having a 15 mph headwind!

That puts me at 200 miles for this week total. It’s not exactly what I was hoping to be at (300 was my goal), but I feel that mechanical/safety issues absolutely must come first. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make up the mileage tomorrow, but we’ll see what comes.

Bluebonnets on Hwy 2562

I realized on my ride this morning that I’m doing just a horrible job of posting and part of my training for my 2,100+ mile ride this summer to raise money and awareness for cancer research also involves documenting my experiences on this blog. So – starting today, I will be shortening my posts and including some quick thoughts about that day’s training. Sound fair?

But first I need to get caught up with this week’s training. 😉

This week I’ve been trying to concentrate on riding. I haven’t told Charlie and Sara yet at Boomfit, but I made a decision that I think from here on out, I need to be riding and not doing CrossFit. As much as I love CrossFit, it’s one of the things keeping me from riding as much as I really need to be right now. And I need LOTS of time in the saddle.

Monday March 26

Flooding on Hwy 30 from the Navasota River

So my goal this week was to get 300 miles. I haven’t hit that milestone yet in my training, so I’ve made up my mind that I’m going to do it. Monday started with a 50 mile ride on Hwy 30 to FM 244 and then Anderson, TX and back. It was an awesome ride and I saw some really interesting things like all of the flooding (see the included pictures here).

I also found some hills! I didn’t know there were hills around College Station, but sure enough, if you head east on Hwy 30, you’ll hit lots of hills! So I’ve been getting some good hill training in. Yeah!

Tuesday – March 27

CowTalk Steak House in Navasota, TX. I've never seen this before - so I thought I would take a picture of it.

Tuesday, I went a little further on Hwy 30 to Roans Prairie and took Hwy 90 to Anderson.  I also found out that there is construction the entire way between Roans Prairie and Anderson. Very bad. I had a choice to either ride in traffic or ride on the ‘shoulder’ where all of the construction people were working and hope I didn’t cheese off too many people. I chose the later.  It was a very rough, slow ride for almost 10 miles.

Wednesday – March 28

Wednesday, I didn’t get a chance to ride as I talked about I Ride for Cancer to the Bryan Rotary Club. That went very well by the way and we raised $2,120 (we estimate we need $7,000 for the actual ride) so that went a LONG way towards our goal. Thank you fellow Rotarians!!

Thursday – March 29

It rained cats and dogs on Wednesday night and I wasn’t sure if it was going to continue it on Thursday so I took a down day. However, I was thinking the entire day that I should have just sucked it up and rode. I mean I’m going to have to ride in inclement weather on the ride – so I think from now on unless there’s a tornado or lightning, I’m going to ride. No more excuses.

Friday – March 30

Roans Prairie Nursery

Friday – Back on track. I decided to try a different route from Roans Prairie to Anderson, so I took FM 2562 to FM 149 into Anderson. Interesting riding and very beautiful. I took a few pictures in those back roads.

I also saw a few people who I think were riding cross country (lots of saddle bags and gear on their bikes) heading east while I was heading west. I waved, but that was about it.  I almost turned around and now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t. Next time I see somebody that looks like they are doing that, I’m going to ride with them for a bit. It’s what I would want, so why not right?

Oh and I ran over a snake today. It scared the bejesus out of me. I was heading over a small bridge that overlooked an overflowing creek and the bridge just happened to not have any shoulders. There was a car coming behind me and one towards me. I didn’t see the snake until I was literally on top of it and did a bu-dump right over it. I’m just so very glad it didn’t have the sense to reach up and bite me!!

That makes it 175 miles this week so far. That leaves only 125 miles to reach 300 for the week. As you’ll see below, my plans actually exceed that by 20 miles.

Upcoming Rides

Ranch near Navasota that is completely under water. Look at it - that's not a lake.

I’ll document all of my rides now individually instead of a huge long post like this – but here’s what my plan is for the next two days.

Saturday – I have plans for the exact same ride as Friday. 65 Miles again. It’s a nice ride.

Sunday – This is going to be a little bit longer. I want to do 80 miles, so we’ll see what I do. 😉

Next week, I’ll try to do 300+ miles again. The main thing I need to accomplish is just get lots of time in the saddle to get used to riding for long periods of time.