Made it - Although it has taken me a week plus to recover to update the blog ! It was a very windy weekend - Apparently the worst weather in 7 years with a head wind running at 15 mph to 18 mph on both days and gusting to 24 mph. The wind started about 8.30 am and went all day until about 5 pm as the tempreature dropped. I left with the other BHP Billiton riders from Houston about 7 am and crawled into La Grange about 5.37 pm - My average speed was about 12 mph as the wind was so strong. I did stop at nearly all the break points along the way and found I was worn out, after doing the 100.5 miles on Day 1.

The mornings were cool, and it was very cold in La Grange on day 2. We wound up wearing extra layers - I borrowed a long sleeved jersey from a very kind fellow rider on Day 2, as I did not bring any cold weather gear. It did however warm up by lunch time and and it got wuite hot in the afternoon. On Day 2, I did another 72.5 miles, taking the Express route and avoiding the Park - (Bastrop State Forest) This turned out to be a wise decision, as I was tired from the wind and I got in later than I had done the previous year, even though I did not do the big hills in the park. It was a nice feeling to cruise home though...

Against the Wind!

Weather looks like it will be fine with no rain, but we have a NW wind with speeds up to 10 mph on the first day... Sat72°F 45°F and Sun74°F 47°F. Whilst the wind won't be nice...at least it will be overcast on Saturday...Here is Cameron helping me attach the bike numbers on......

Rider Number 7121

I am rider 7121 ! I got my rider number earlier in the week and our cycling club at work handed out the new look jerseys for the ride. BHP is sponsoring the Beijing olympics so we have the logo on the jersey as well. We have approx 5 numbers to attach to the bike along the top tube, handlebars, helmets, jersey etc etc... No way they will miss me when I power over the finish line. This year we also have a gadget called ride connect which you attach to your shoe. When you ride over strategically placed mats, it will send a text message to a cell phone. A great way to let people know your progress through the day.......

The Schlumberger Education Expedition Ride

Managed 56 miles over the course of a long morning. The ride started at 7 am and it was overcast and cool. We made the 10 am cutoff for the 82 mile route but decided to take the less tiring 56 miles and leave part of the afternoon to recover and get some chores done around the house. This has been the longest run I have done thus far - and have not been able to put in any back to back rides - Schlumberger are the maiun sponsor, and there was a competition for the best rest stop. Some of the local schools participating went to a lot of trouble to decorate and cheer the riders on. Lunch was cheerfully provided. We had a choice of a healthy subway and a less healthy couple of fajitas on the way back - Here is a picture of us attacking the lunch stand at the end of the ride.......

Tour De Houston

The Guaranty Bank Tour de Houston on March 14th had about 4000 cyclists that started downtown Houston that looped out over the Hardy Toll Road which was closed for the ride until 2 pm that morning. I was riding with a friend from work who wound up helping me change two tubes after a biking accident when existing the car park at the Wortheim centre, up from City Hall. Crossing a grating caused the tube to blow out, and we stopped to change the tube before we even got started on the ride. The new tube sufferred a broken valve stem, as we were pumping it up, and we were down to the 2nd and last spare tube between us to get us going. A lot of other cyclists were caught out by this grating - When we found a bike repair stand at the starting line, the guy had changed a lot of tubes that morning. Armed with a new spare, we set off over an hour late and nearly at the back of the pack. A clean clear morning, it soon became fairly hot. The course took us out to the Shell Houston Open golf course, located in a housing estate on the east of the 59 towards the airport. We clocked up 41 miles and maxed out at 34 mph when coming over the flyover bridges....It was a good ride. Best bit were the folks along Elysian Way who came out of their houses early morning to cheer us along!

Safety Class and the League of American Bicyclists

Completed 30 miles on an early morning training ride with about 15 folks from the office (either colleagues or their friends who were riding) The morning started out cold - v. cold, prob the coldest day that I have ridden yet this season - It was about 42 degrees and not the time to be wearing gloves with cutoffs...Fortunately the sun came out after about an hour into the ride and warmed things up a bit. BHP organised superb safety class through the league of American Bicyclists online at http://www.bikeleague.org/ We did 1.5 hours of classroom training in Group Riding and then spent another 1.5 hours on the roof of the car park practising emergency braking, dodging obstacles, looking for hazards and cycling in a group. It made me think about practising unclipping from the pedals on both sides - Generally I always stop with my left foot first and I had trouble with one of the emergency braking scenarios where one has to come off the back of the bike, tummy over the saddle and unclip to get off in a hurry. A good course. The League trainers were definitely Green Cyclists. Zero Carbon Emissions and Commuting to work by bicycle is definitely the norm for them, judging by the lights and carrier packs their bicycles were sporting. A good day all up!!

Riding the Static Bike

It's been cold off and on this week and I have only managed to ride indoors 3 times to make up for not getting on the road. The BHPB team have a training session on Saturday morning ahead of the safety session in the car park roof top. I am hoping to turn in another 30 miler to make up for the lack of outdoor riding this past week. Only 4 weeks to go before the big ride and with Spring Break in between, it will be hard to get many long rides in before hand....Still it has been a good season. The weather has been mostly mild in February.

I finally found some time to fix the broken seat post on the bike. The coupling under the seat had snapped leading to a squeak every time the bike flexed. I ended up having to get a new seat post and bracket as the old one had an angular shape. $60 bucks and 2 days later (after a special order) I was riding again - squeak free at last!

Wild Wild West Ride - Sunday Feb 17th, 8 am.

Much of the ride was through fields like this with cattle or horses.

Total ride was 53.4 miles with the longest stretch of nearly 20 miles without a break. (I skipped the 4th rest stop on the way back, mainly because it was on the wrong side of the road.)
There was a bad head wind for part of the ride - Winds were gusting up to 15 mph and my speed dropped down to 9 miles an hour. On the way back though I was peddling at 18 to 19 mph with no problems. So it evened out, though I was glad to have the headwind at the start, rather than towards the end of the ride - harder as ones gets tired.

Averaged 16.4 mph, with a total ride time of 3.43 mins. I got back to the car park at 12.20 pm so elapsed time was 4 hours 20 mins. Stops were quick - no more than 10 mins apart - towards the end it was just nice to get off the bike.

The car park of Forster High School on Hwy 723 north of Rosenberg, Texas. Day started cold 52 degrees but it warmed up nicely to 70. It had rained all day on the Saturday, so I was not sure if we were going to get a clear day - but it worked out nicely (apart from the wind...) The view from the car park early in the morning as folks were unloading their bicycles.


All in all a pretty good ride - I was tired when I got back in though. Phyiscally and mentally from the concentration - Lots of road kill to dodge on the ground.....!

Week 2 Practice

Managed to get on the static bike 3 times during the week, averaging 40 mins a time in the morning. Covered approximately 26 kms (got distracted by the kids one morning and didn't make the full distance of 10 miles a day). The bike is set to record the ride in kms, and I can't find the ole user manual to change it...Still the setup works well for training.......
Just need to increase the distance covered each time I get on it!

West U Warm Up - Do you WuWu !

I finally started serious riding for this years MS150. My plan at the moment is to cover 100 miles a week between the static bike and on road riding through the rest of February. Had an early start this morning to get to the first training ride I've attended this year at Tom Bass Park on Hwy 288. The annual West U Warm Up or WuWu as the organisers call it! It was much warmer than usual for this time of the year, although still a coolish 62 degrees when I left the house at 6.40 am for an 8 am start. The event organisers had some great music blaring out as the sun rose and it started to warm up. "I want to ride my bicycle" stayed in my head as we set off against the wind. Completed a 30 mile ride averaging 15 miles per hour in mild conditions. 3 rest stops and it started to warm up on the last 12 miles back. The wind from the early morning part of the ride disappeared. It was a good chance to get into traning mode, get organised with the logistics of getting the bike ready for a ride each weekend and packing gear, as well as seeing how creaky the ole body was....I have a lot of training to get through to get close to the form I need to be in for April 12th and 13th!
Finished the ride at 10.30 am and headed home happy with the effort!
(On my way back I noticed cricketers in the park! something I haven't seen in Houston very much. Turns out the Houston Cricket Association play at Tom Bass, and there are 5 cricket fields.......)