Workout Notes: March 23, 25, 27... and Beer Bike 2010

Beer Bike 2010, Men's Race

Finishing the First Bike Leg

Mark (L), Jasper (C), Jones Guy (R)

Tuesday, March 23

Biked down to Bray's Bayou in the morning traffic, then did a quick lap to the end of the bike trail and back. The starting temperature was 45 degrees, so I used arm & leg warmers for the first half of the ride. By the turnaround point, it had warmed to 55 degrees and the arm warmers were no longer needed. There was almost no wind. My cruising speed on the trail never went under 20 MPH; stopping & starting, and traffic, lowered the average a bit.

Distance: 21.5 miles

Avg. Speed: 18.5 MPH

Thursday, March 25

Started the day with a short time trial to try out for the GSA beer bike team. Biked three 1/3 miles laps at 49 s, 48 s, and 49 s, for a total time of 2:26 min/mile. That's just fast enough to get me one of five slots in this Sunday's race. After the tryout and a few miles of warmup (5-10), I went on a 'relaxed' ride with RUCT. The only rule I made for myself was that I had to attack every hill - the result was an acceleration from our 18-20 MPH cruising pace to 24-28 MPH by the top of each hill (read: overpass) on the ride. The pollen in the air was seriously hurting my performance, though, and it took several hours of recovery before I could breath normally again. I'd like to find a way to bike in Houston without needing a visit to the cleanroom to clear my lungs.

Distance: 20 miles

Avg. Speed: 17.0 MPH

Saturday, March 27

Went to Memorial Park with Erique & tore up the trails for about three hours. Got in a pretty good workout, & learned a bit about how to reduce brake usage during trail riding.

Sunday, March 28 - Beer Bike 2010!

For the first time since coming to Rice, I managed to win a spot on the GSA's beer bike race team. The race went reasonably well, as evidenced by the win. For my part, the first GSA chugger got me launched before the rest of the pack. I went out hard - possibly too hard - and ended up heading into the second turn at around 27 MPH. Just as I was coming out of it, perpendicular to the wind, a huge gust almost blew my bike over. To avoid crashing, I had to go wide on the turn and ended up over the white line for about 10 feet. That resulted in a GSA penalty and cost me a few seconds, allowing the pack to catch up, although it didn't affect the final results. I had a Jones biker behind me on the second lap who wasn't willing to work, so I cut back to 24 MPH to conserve energy. The final lap I took it back up a bit, & managed to cross the line before any of the other bikers. Not a perfect performance, but I'm pleased to have contributed to the second ever men's GSA victory!

Men's Race

1. GSA-12:07.19 2. Jones-12:07.93 3. Will Rice-12:30.77 4. Hanszen-13:05.29 5. Wiess-13:11.37 6. Lovett-13:15.00 7. Brown-13:45.04 8. Martel-14:45.85 9. Baker-15:10.27 10. Sid Rich-Disqualified (Did not participate)

Women's Race  

1. Will Rice-9:04.03 2. Brown-9:14.05 3. Lovett-9:29.82 4. GSA-10:03.69 5. Wiess-10:09.54 6. Jones-11:18.35 7. Hanszen-11:29.67 8. Martel-Did not finish due to severe interference 9. Baker-Disqualified (Severe interference) 10. Sid Rich-Disqualified (Did not participate)

(View official list of results)