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A look at four months of riding

05.03.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

Just noticed we’ve entered a new month, so I thought I’d recap what my riding has been like over the past four months.

  • January – April: 35 rides
  • Total mileage: 645
  • Avg. speed: 14.68 mph
  • Highest avg. speed on a single ride: 17.15 mph
  • Highest maximum speed on a single ride: 37.4 mph
  • Longest single ride: 47.4 miles
  • Monthly mileage
    • January: 161
    • February: 96
    • March: 128
    • April: 270

Compared with many, many bikers — some from colder areas than Texas — this isn’t extraordinary. Compared with where I was a year ago at this time, well, a year ago I wasn’t even on a bike. I think I’ll be satisfied that I’ve come a reasonable way in a short amount of time.

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Categories // Records & stats, Rides, training

On the road (partly) with Road 1

04.27.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

With the excitement in our house over Pat’s ride yesterday, some readers may have also spotted the fact that I wasn’t there until it ended, when I drove out to the ride site to pick her up. The fact was, I had another engagement. I was taking the on-bike part of Road 1.

Road 1 is the basic cycling skills development course offered by the League of American Bicyclists. Last month, I took the four-hour classroom part of the course. But the on-bike session was cancelled, because the instructors had conflicts. Yesterday, however, we got out there.

We met near a small cafe on Austin’s East Side. In all, the group numbered two League Certified Instructors, and a third came with his wife, who was taking the course. One young woman of about college age, one middle-aged woman who was a beginning commuter, a middle-aged man who rode a titanium Colnago, and me.

After some preliminary discussion about what would happen, we hopped on the bikes and rode to a nearby elementary school parking lot. The drills we did ran from simple to challenging. We rode between rows of half tennis balls, keeping the bike on a stable course. We “scanned” back, looking for an instructor holding one, both or no arms in the air, and called out what we saw — without letting our bikes swerve to the left. We slalomed (“swooped” they called it) our bikes through a tight course to get the feel for steering by leaning one way or the other. “Ride the way a kid would ride,” one instructor said. It works. We made quick stops with just the rear brake, both brakes, and with our butts hanging off the back of the saddle. We practiced “instant right turns” — the kind of maneuver a biker would have to make if a car suddenly did a right turn in front of him. It went well, although the commuter was less confident about her bike handling ability than the rest of us.

Then it was out on the road. The lead instructor had come up with a route through neighborhoods and downtown Austin. Each of us took turns as the lead rider, with one of the instructors right behind. They were actually “grading” us throughout the ride. We were evaluated on such things as correct lane position, signaling, stopping at stop signs (I got dinged because I didn’t leave my saddle at one stop), etc. The ride was a good mix of quiet residential streets, frontage roads along freeways, crowded downtown thorofares, and poorly maintained streets through industrial areas. One lead rider was stopped at a light, in the left lane, ready to make a left turn onto the freeway access. A car on her right jumped ahead when the light changed and did a left turn, cutting her off. She had to do the same kind of quick stop we had just practiced in the parking lot. The commuter lady was afraid to get into the left lane for left turns, and rode through downtown doing “box left” turns — where the rider stays in the right lane, crosses the intersection, then stops, lifts the bike to face left, and proceeds when the stoplight turns green. At one point, we had to negotiate railroad tracks that crossed the street on a tight diagonal, by turning our bikes to cross the tracks at right angles. (These are the same railroad tracks, by the way, where Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Austin broke his leg last week when he tried to cross them on his bike.)

Then it was back to the cafe starting point, where we had to change our “flat” rear tires. Messy work, and although I had brought an old towel to wipe my hands with, it was in the car a block away, so I was unable to use it. The session capped off with the instructors giving us some verbal feedback — they’ll mail detailed critiques later — and we went our separate ways.

So, what’s my assessment of Road 1? I think every new biker should take it — or something like it. It’s all about building skills, and that’s always valuable. On the downside, it was pretty long (8 a.m.-1 p.m.), although since I was watching the clock in order to leave to pick up Pat from her ride in time, I may have been more sensitive to the length. Our ride through town covered maybe five miles, at speeds of no more than 10 mph — and that was hit only a few times. I learned how to “bunny hop” the bike, but more importantly, I did have a great opportunity to practice important riding skills, and I do believe the experience boosted my confidence in certain biking situations.

No pictures from the session, unfortunately. I brought my camera, but the battery had died. This video from YouTube gives a pretty good idea of the kind of parking lot drills we did Saturday.

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Categories // Safety, training

Recovery ride

04.20.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Since beginning biking last summer, I’ve heard that you should follow a strenuous ride with a recovery ride, where you spin easily in low gears and make no effort to go fast.  Frankly, recovery rides haven’t been much of an issue for me, because I usually have taken a day off after a long ride.

But today was different.  Yesterday, I joined about 17 members of my bike club for a 45-mile jaunt south of town and back.  Great weather; sunny, but not hot, traffic wasn’t crazy, nice long break at a funky coffee shop in the little burg of Kyle, Texas before heading back.  Kept up a 16-plus mph pace for the whole ride.  Felt tired when it was all over, but it was a good tired.

Today, I rode with my wife in her last major training effort before the Hill Country Ride for AIDS next week.  We went out to Dripping Springs for a ride along one of my favorite routes.  I’ve mentioned Pat’s bike before.  It’s a heavy steel hybrid.  She usually cruises at about 10 mph.  As we left Dripping Springs and headed out on the country roads, I found myself constantly slowing and waiting for her.  At about halfway through the ride, the road gets hilly, the uphill way.  Only one hill posed any challenge, though, and I stood in the pedals to get to the top.  I was proud when Pat also made it all the way up.  Last year at this time, she would have unclipped and walked the bike up.

The Texas Hill Country west of Dripping Springs, with another @#$%! cattle guard coming up.

But when the road rises, it also has to return to its original level.  We had a great time coasting down the curvy stretch back to Creek Road.  Our total distance for the trip was 20 miles, and I must have coasted half the way.  Rarely did I feel any reason to use the large chainring.  Our average speed was a whopping 10.9 mph.  At home, after showering and changing into street clothes, I noticed that I tightened my belt one more notch than usual.  I felt wide awake, a bit exhilarated, and even ready to do a little yard work (just a little).

This weekend, I’ve ridden a total of 83 miles, and because the last 20 of those were easy ones, I’m ready for more.  This recovery ride thing is great.  They will be a staple of my riding from here on out.

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Categories // Rides, training

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