I have had some great bike rides this week.  However, before I get into the details, I have to get something off my chest.  It bugs me to no end when I see cyclists deliberately breaking the rules of the road.  Today, for instance, I saw a bike who was stopped behind three cars at a red light.  Rather than waiting in the position he was stopped in, he biked along the left of the cars and pulled out into the front.  Didn’t he learn in kindergarten that cutters go to the back of the line???  I always want to say something to people who are setting a bad example because they just make it worse for the rest of us, but I never do. So, my question to all of you, have you ever corrected someone’s law or etiquette infractions on the bike?  What has been your response from the offender?  Anger? Cockiness? Ignorance?

Any ways, onto my bike rides.  While up in Harbor Springs, I did two bike rides.  If I had to describe the rides in two words, they would be “Holy (bleeping) Hills!!!!” (bleeps don’t count as words right?)

Ride #1 Tunnel of Trees

For my first ride, I headed up M-119 to the Tunnel of Trees.  The Tunnel of Trees is a state designated scenic road along the shore of Lake Michigan and Little Traverse Bay.  It was a gorgeous, but hilly ride.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The entire stretch of road is essentially a single lane.  It was almost like a bike path that cars were allowed on.  Because the road is so narrow and windy, the speed limit is only 25-35mph.  On top of that, if two cars are going in opposite directions, you really almost have to go off the edge of the road as you pass by each other.  Because of these limitations, the road has very light traffic and is generally only used by tourists and cyclists.

The ride consisted of lots of ups and downs.  The ups sucked, but the downs were a ton of fun.  I was hitting 40-45mph on some of the down hills.  It was good practice for descending hills without riding the brakes.

I stopped to snap this picture, but didn’t stay long for fear of running into any wandering spirits.  This sign was at one of the hair pin curves along the course.  It was quite an adrenalin rush to ride down the hill and around the curve at 30mph.

The tunnel would occasionally open up with gorgeous views of the lake.  It was a serious drop off down to the water though, so you really couldn’t get to the beach from the road.

Unfortunately, the weather was a bit overcast on the day I chose to ride.  In fact, when I got to the turn around point in Cross Village, it had started to rain.  Despite not raining in Harbor Springs, I ended up getting drenched through and through at the halfway point.

This is the elevation chart from the first half of the ride.  I did an out and back for a total of about 56 miles, so the second half the elevation chart is the reverse of the above.  As you can see, lots of ups and downs with very little flat stretches.

I had multiple technical difficulties on this ride which was a big pain in the butt.  First off, my Garmin wasn’t fully charged.  I figured I would use it as long as the battery held off, but then forgot to start it on the way out.  So, I was just going to rely on my Cateye bike computer.  However, when I got to the halfway point, I accidentally reset it when I tried to cycle through the functions.  And then to add to the mix, my stupid Profile Design saddle mounted bottle cage fell off just short of the halfway point.  I really need to email Profile Design to see if they will replace it because no matter how much I tighten it, it loosens up after about 100 miles of riding.

Because of the problems with the Garmin and bike computer, I don’t know my exact time, but I am estimating the ride was about 3 hours and 15 minutes which put me at just over a 17mph average.  It was a great relaxing ride and a cool way to explore the area.

Ride #2 Breakwater Course Preview

My second ride was on a portion of the Breakwater Half IM course.  I wanted to ride part of the course in case I decide to do the race at the end of the month.  Yep, that’s right, not only am I thinking of doing another HIM, but I am procrastinating about making the decision.

This was less than a mile into the ride and already a good sized climb.  I have a bad feeling about this…

It didn’t get any better.  This course was even hillier than the Tunnel of Trees route.  And after the first ride, my legs were already tired which didn’t help.

After I got out of downtown Petoskey, the road was more or less a country road with a good sized shoulder.  The road wasn’t particularly smooth, but I’ve ridden on worse.  It was primarily a chip and sealed road that was worn down over time.

I ended up riding 17 miles out and then turning around.  I was only going to do 15 out, but at the 15 mile mark, I saw another hill in the distance.  At that point, I turning into a hill-slayer and wanted to slay every hill in sight.  No hill was too big.  So, I charged off for another climb before turning around.

Finally a down hill! YAY!! The ride back into downtown Petoskey was much more downhill than the way out. There were still a couple of climbs, but nothing like the way out.

Again, I did an out and back course.  Above is the first half of the course with the second half being the reverse.

I ended up finishing in just under 2 hours for a 17.2mph average over the 34 miles.  This was another great ride and was really took a lot out of me.

Breakwater Petoskey Half IM Course

After my test ride of the Petoskey HIM course, I went back and looked at the actual course map.  I realized that I didn’t quite ride the course correctly and that the actual course would be a bit easier than what I rode.  That was a semi-relief.  It will still be a very tough bike course with lots of good climbs though.  Probably not a PR course with all of the hills, but it will be a challenge.

On the plus side, the run course is almost entirely flat.  It is a 6.5 mile out and back along the waterfront so there should be any hills.  I like the prospect of doing a simple out and back course versus the loops I have had to do at my previous HIMs.  I would think that an out and back would be mentally easier than the loops.

Now, I just have to make the decision.  To do the race or not to do the race.  I’m really not looking forward to another 4 hour drive (each way) to Petoskey, but I really want to get a 3rd HIM in this season.  I guess it is time to head on over to Priceline and see if Will Shatner can find us a hotel.

On my bike ride today, I saw a couple of turtles who seemed to be unsatisfied with being on the ground.  In true Yertle the Turtle fashion they sought higher ground to expand their kingdom.  Hopefully, they aren’t settling in because I have a feeling that the sand piles are destined for other use.

Other than the turtles, my ride was pretty uneventful.  I did an hour and half with a half hour at Z4.   It was awfully hot and humid, but I suppose that is good prep work for riding this summer.  I averaged over 19mph for the ride with the Z4 portion at a little over 20mph.  I stayed aero as much as possible, but there was quite a bit of traffic, so I had to stay on the hoods quite a bit.  Both ways, I was very comfortable and am very optimistic for next weekend.

(This post sponsored by my Mom and brother because of their Christmas gifts of $$ towards a bike fit)

I had my long overdue bike fit this afternoon.  Immediately following a nice swim, I hopped on the bike and headed to Grand Rapids Bike Co.  After getting out of the pool, I learned how difficult it is to put on bike shorts when wet.  Not pleasant.

I got to Grand Rapids Bike Co. a little early, which gave me some time to drool over the merchandise.  The Craig Alexander Orbea bike was very tempting, but I didn’t have an extra $10K just laying around.  Maybe next time.

Bryan spent an hour working with me, and we made some drastic changes.  I went from a 100% “Comfort” configuration to between a “Sport” and “Racing” configuration.  This included raising my seat 2.5” and dropping the handle bars almost 3”.  Previously, my handlebars were 1” above my saddle.  Now, they are almost 3” below the saddle.

This did a couple of things.  By raising the seat, I have an improved pedal stroke, which should optimize output power.  As you can see in the picture on the right, I now have the “ideal” 150 degree angle at the bottom of my stroke.  Also, by lowering the handlebars, I am put in a more forward aero position.

 
You can see the results of the fit.  Before on the left, after on the right.

On top of the fit, I bought new aero bars.  My old aero bars were the Century by Profile Design.  They worked well for me and were the right price when I bought them two years ago.  However, with the more aggressive bike fit, the Century’s limited adjustments would have left me way too stretched out.  So, I upgraded to the Airstryke.  These have two main benefits over the Century.  The first is lots more adjustments, both forward and back, as well as more options for where the pads are.  The second is that the pads are spring loaded and flip up when not in use.  This allows more access to handlebars for changing positions.  However, the downside to the spring loaded pads is that they are a bit noisier because they rattle when going over rough patches of the road.  It was annoying at first, but I am already getting used to it.

I took the bike out for a quick spin tonight to test it out.  It is AWESOME!  I was cruising in gears that I didn’t even know existed.  I stayed in the big ring nearly the entire time without tiring.  I did an hour ride; 4 loops around Reeds Lake.  Not only did I feel like I had more cruising power, but climbs were much easier.  I managed to stay in the saddle on all 4 climbs of the Hall street hill.  In the past, after two loops, I have to stand to make it to the top.  While not totally scientific, here is a comparison of my ride tonight with a similar one from a week ago.

A week ago.  4+ loops around Reeds Lake, 20.99 miles in 1:09:58 for a 18.0 mph pace.

After my ride today.  4 loops around Reeds Lake, 19.39 miles in 59:38 for a 19.5 mph pace.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that it was 90*F today?  I was sweating buckets by the end of the ride.

Flashback to last week and you may remember that I ordered some replacement parts for my bike.  Well, they arrived and I thought I would take time last night to get them installed.  The installation went fairly well at first.  However, after I got the bike back together things didn’t seem quite right.  The bike wasn’t shifting very well – skipping gears and autoshifting.  After looking into it further, I realized that I ordered the wrong parts.  The parts I ordered weren’t compatible with my shifters.  So, my options were to order replacement parts again (about $50) or upgrade my shifters (about $300).  I decided to go with the $50 option and ordered the correct parts from Tree Fort Bikes.  So far, I have been very impressed with Tree Fort Bikes.  After I get the parts, I will hopefully do my first Vendor Review outlining my experience with them.

I went to bed last night semi very frustrated that my bike was going to be out of commission until the new parts arrive.  I couldn’t even put back on the old parts because I didn’t have the correct pin for the original chain.  This morning was supposed to be a 1:15/20 minute brick workout too.  Being dedicated stubborn, I decided that I was going to try and ride my bike any ways.  It is technically rideable and shouldn’t do any damage to the bike to ride it as is.  However, I found that it was nearly impossible to ride comfortably.  Every time I would get into a groove, the bike would auto shift up or down a gear.  The auto shifting made it nearly impossible to climb because the harder I pushed, the more it wanted to slip gears.  So, after a single lap (6 miles) around the lake, I head back home frustrated and disappointed.  I could have still gone out for the run portion of the workout, but I was too pissed to even think about at the time.

Flash forward to the afternoon.  I just finished up a day long work meeting and needed to get out.  I was really itching to run.  So, I headed out in hopes of doing a long-ish run.  I ended up with a great 10 mile run at an 8:00 min/mile pace.  I felt great the entire way and didn’t feel like I was pushing hard at all.  In hindsight, this long of a run probably wasn’t a great idea with a the River Bank Run 25k looming on Saturday, but mentally, I needed to get a solid workout in.  Besides the River Bank Run is a C race at best for me this year.  I’m treating like a long training run rather than a race and am not looking to set any land speed records or anything.

So, what started off as a day with a failed workout, turned into a mental victory with a long run.  All in all, a great day in the end.  Tomorrow is an easy day with just a swim followed by race day on Saturday.  Time to rest.

I really wanted to do a bike ride out to Grand Haven this afternoon.  The weather forecast had temperatures in the 50’s, wind out of the east, and only a 10% chance of rain (10% my ass – more on that later though).  Thankfully, I was able to do the ride, but not without a few obstacles. 

I headed out at 2:00.  The skies were slightly overcast, but precipitation free.  I was cruising along when I got stopped by a train on Wealthy street.  There is NEVER a train at this time – or at least there has never been a train at this time the other dozen times I have done this route.  I got there just as the train was starting through the intersection and it was a long train.  I sat for more than 5 minutes waiting for it pass. 

When the end was in sight, I put my helmet back on, clipped in and was ready to go when the gates went up.  I took off over the tracks only to have my water bottle fly out of the cage.  This has NEVER happened to me before.  Seeing a pattern yet?  So, there goes my water bottle skidding across the pavement.  I pull off into the first driveway and look back to find that I have managed to stop traffic once again.  Two cars (one in each direction), stopped for me so that I could retrieve the water bottle before it was flattened.  Whoever you two mystery people are, “Thank you very much!”  I am sure they were just as annoyed by the train and with traffic already backed up, they probably didn’t want to stop and hold up traffic any longer.  Question.  Do water bottle cages stretch out over time?  Once I got my water bottle back in, it seemed like they were looser than normal, but I may have just been paranoid at that point.

So, after the delay of the train and water bottle debacle, I was back on my way.  Or so I thought.  I proceeded to get stuck behind a pickup truck towing a car.  It was going so slow that I couldn’t get into a decent pace, but just fast enough that it probably would have been unsafe to try and pass it.  Finally, after a mile or so, I finally had open road.

I let loose on the O’Brien street hills, flying up the inclines with the energy I saved behind the slow moving traffic.  I thought I was in the clear.  Not so, I guess.

When I got to Wilson (the county border), I felt a couple rain drops.  I guess 10% was turning into 100%.  I figured that if I could make it to 40th avenue (another 5 miles) before the rain got any worse, I would be in the clear because after that it is all pretty much flat.  However, after only a mile, the rain started to pick up.  At that point, I felt my phone buzzing in back pocket. Crap.  I pulled off the road and checked it.  Work emergency.  Lovely.  Thankfully, I was able to get a hold of a co-worker who was able to advert the crisis for me.  By the time I had work all straightened out, the rain was picking up.  At this point, I was so pissed at my bad luck that I was determined to finish the ride.  No turning back now.

I got back on the road and started flying.  I threw my bike in the big gear and started mashing away.  After a couple miles, I looked down and realized that I had averaged 23-24 mph over 3 miles.  Yikes!  I realized that I had to pull back a bit not only so I didn’t burn out, but also because by that point it was pouring and the road was getting slick.  The next few miles were in the 19-20 mph range which was probably a bit safer for the conditions. 

While it was pouring, I looked down and noticed that my tights were foaming.  Interesting.  Backing up a bit.  This morning, I hand washed my tights and threw them in the dryer in preparation for the ride.  Apparently, I didn’t rinse them enough and now I was foaming.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad and with enough rain, they seemed to fully rinse out.

At last, nearly 20 miles into my ride, the rain started to let up and my luck started to improve.  I made it the rest of the way without incident – other than getting filthy dirty.  Green Lightening and I were completely covered from head to toe, front wheel, to back.  I gave up on drinking from my water bottle.  For some reason, this didn’t look very appetizing:

By the time I made it to Grand Haven, I was soaking wet and filthy.  When all was said and done, I had a pretty good ride.  My time spent riding was 1:44:35 although it was more like 2 hours including the time I had to stop for the 36.27 miles.  I averaged 20.8 mph over the ride, but had the wind at my back nearly the entire time which obviously helps a bit.

Jennie shot a couple pictures of me to capture the dirt. 

I should have grabbed a a picture of my backside too.  I had a skunk from seat to neck – it was impressive.  When I got home, I threw all my clothes in a bucket of soapy water.  However, I will be shocked if my bike jersey is ever white again.  If it does whiten up, I could do a commercial for our laundry detergent.  After showering, I had to hose off Green Lightening – again.  It seems like I am washing it after almost every ride these days.

Oh well, I survived and in the end had a good ride and experience I won’t forget.  All part of the training I guess!

In case you lost track, here is a summary of the events from the first half of my bike ride.