Hell Week Day 4 - Rain Forces a Rest Day

Today we rode a modified route as a result of rain, wind, cold and sore legs. It was a bit of a forced rest day and we decided not to put wheels down until 12:30p when the rain had ceased and the roads had started to dry a little.

Small flecks of wet granite sticks to tires. Small flecks of wet granite are good at digging into rubber and worming their way through the belts. Small flecks of wet granite also make great scalpels that provide flat tires. Luckily, I didn't get one that I know of... but tubulars tend to go flat more slowly so I may not know until morning.

Jeff took a flat only a few miles into the ride, and Chuck took another maybe 15 miles later. Seeing as how we were only on a 45-ish mile ride the odds were not in our favor. Still, we plodded on and took our time. Cold legs on steep hills made things rough, but in the end it was a good rest day and I felt better as the ride progressed. Toward the end I was climbing at a nice tempo but my shins -or at least the muscles that run up the front of my legs- hurt like hell.

The plan, seeing as we'll have better weather, is to ride today's route tomorrow. The normal day 5 route would take us past Enchanted Rock on 965, which is not a nice road to be on due to traffic into the park and the lack of a real shoulder. Instead, we'll ride "Comfort Zone 2.0" and hit a series of hills that top the 20% grade mark. It should be suitably painful and a good midweek challenge.

Hell Week Day 5 -->

Hell Week Day 1 - Going to Camp (Verde)

Distance: 93 miles
Time: 5:01:01
Speed: 18.8 mph

Today was the opening day of Texas Hell Week 2010. We had beautiful weather, great roads, excellent company and a very good day on the road. You can find map and route data at Garmin Connect.

I felt great today and had an excellent ride. This morning I met up with Tom, Allen, Dave and Gary at the EconoLodge and then headed over to the Sunset Inn for the official start. We rolled everyone out as a single group and then split the ride later on depending on what route folks wanted to travel.

Today's A Route headed south to Camp Verde and Center Point with rollers on the way down and some very difficult Tour das Hugel -esque roads on the way back to Fredericksburg. We kept a good pace the entire ride and Tom spent a lot of time pushing hard to try and drop many riders and break up the pack. It worked. While a few riders did get away ahead of us we are pretty sure they will not be around all week... there were a lot of riders here for only opening weekend so picking the right wheel to follow was critical on opening day.

I felt very good all ride and only towards the end started to get a slight headache. I may need to hydrate more in the days ahead but I felt as though my hydration and eating schedule were working well for me. Still, it may help to pull in some additional electrolytes and carbohydrates. To do so I may supplement my normal ride diet of Fig Newtons with additional Clif Blocks. While I had the Clif Blocks with me today I did not start eating those until the end, when I was out of Newtons.

Not much else to report aside from beautiful weather, excellent roads and great company. I'm looking forward to the week ahead! Based on the ride schedule for this week I will need to adjust my goal mileage down a little bit. I will not have access to the 200k route(s) I thought I would (no maps provided) so I'm shooting now for around 800 miles. Many of this week's ride fall just shy of a full century. No worries, the elevation gain and steep climbs more than make up for the extra miles!

Hell Week Day 2 -->