Summary
This was my third year at HHH100 and my best ride so far.
Did the 100 mile route in my fastest time yet. The recumbents start a few minutes before everyone else and the certificate below does not refelect the actual start time. Garmin and Strava indicate that my total elapsed time was 5 hours and 39 minutes for the 100 miles.
Starting with the Bradfords
Again this year we stayed with Gary and Gay and their family.
A picture of Robyn and Gay just before the start of the ride.
Another picture of Robyn, Gay and family at the start.
Robyn rode with the kids and they had a blast. They went on the 10k route and every time the little girl went down an incline she would scream “I’m going 100 miles an hour!”.
The Start
This is a very long video showing the start of HHH100. It covers the first 10 miles from Wichita Falls to Iowa Park which I did averaging almost 21 mph the whole way.
I try to get in as many miles as I can early in the ride to avoid the heat that occurs later in the morning.
All the recumbents start together at the front of the line. Must have been a couple of hundred. Recognized a lot of friends at the start. Next year I need to get to the start line a little earlier so that I can visit before the ride. Once the ride start everyone turns all business like.
Fast Pace Lines
Around mile 28 there start a four mile gradual uphill into Electra. This is where the very fast pelotons start catching and passing me. The pelotons are groups of 50 to 80 riders drafting together to try and finish the ride in a certain time - under 5 hours, under 6 hours, etc.
It is pretty amazing when they start flying by you.
One of these days I’m going to make it to Electra before they catch me.
New Roadie Code Word Discovered
Riding into Burkburnett I caught up with one of the slower pelotons. There were a lot of them in a very long line consuming the whole width of the lane. The road conditions were perfect for the Quest (slightly downhill and very smooth) and I decided to pass them all.
I crank up the watts on the power meter and started flying by them. Well I learned a new code word these fast riders have. After I pass a few riders I hear one of them yell “Holy Sh!t”. If you listen closely in the video you can hear them yell it out.
I pass a few more and again another rider yells out “Holy Sh!t”. I must have heard that yell about 6 or 7 times before reaching the front of the peloton.
As I’m approaching the front two riders I hear the one in the back yell to the one in the front “Get ready, I heard a Holy - HOLY SHIT!” as I flew by them. I guess the front two thought that someone was going to try to sprint out the front of the pack and they were going to chase them down. Good luck with that.
They finally did catch me about four miles later on another uphill.
Garmin Vector Power Meter
One of the reasons I did ok on the ride is that a few weeks ago I started riding with a power meter.
I got the Garmin Vector 2 power meter peddles. I just replaced mys existing peddles with these and then wireless (Ant+) to the Garmin 1000.
After the first hour I knew that I would have to reduce the effort a bunch if I wanted to finish the ride and not have to pull over later on and fight the cramps.
This is kind of an interesting chart of speed vs heart rate vs power. Last ten miles of the ride I was just trying to coast as much as possible. I was pretty much spent by that time.
Strava KOMs
Well, strava really like my ride. Twenty-four trophies because this was my fastest time to complete the ride.
By The Numbers
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/381294325
Garmin:
