Just a nice easy ride today enjoying the weather. Ronald Reagan is now paved all the way from Williams to IH35 (although not all sections are yet open to cars).
Photo from Bike ride this morning taken where Ronald Reagan meets IH35 looking back south on the new part of Ronald Reagan. What a view.
http://app.strava.com/activities/82637141
Today was a good day - 47.3 miles at 20.6 mph.
If I would have pushed it a little bit more then today I probably could have done 50 miles at greater than 20 mph.
I have a couple of goals:
There are a few recumbent riders in the area that are at or above these performance goals:
The first goal of 25 miles at 25 mph is to attack my Functional Threshold Power (FTP). This I am doing by riding intervals 2 or 3 times a week.
The Engine
Weekly strategy:
I also need to lose 25 pounds body weight. I have drastically altered my diet to be more fruits, vegies and non-processed food. Started to get serious about the belly because with the P-38 (F-40) my belly keeps flopping on my legs as I peddle.
The Bike
I ordered a new rear wheel that is a deep-v carbon clincher rim like I have on the Musashi. This should give better aero performance. It should be here in about a month.
The 100 oz camelbak is not working out. With the longer rides the ice in the camelbak is melted within 2 hours. I’ll probably end up going back to the growler.
Ride Strategy
Every ride now it seems like I get at least 1 one-mile split time that is greater than 30 mph. Today I had one at 30.6 mph and I had 4 splits that were in the 29 to 29.9 mph range.
It takes forever to accelerate to 30, but once there it is easy to hold on level ground. I need to really work on the accleration. It is probably related to shifting quickly and precisely into the 60 tooth front chainring. I can get to 25-26 mph quickly by just staying in the middle front chainring.
Started out just being a nice easy long ride.
Ten miles into the ride I turned north on Ronald Reagan (RR) with a tandem about 1/2 mile in front of me. Caught them pretty quickly and then proceeded to catch rider after rider. At the 15 mile turn around point I decided to continue across FM195 and then north on RR for another 5 miles on the newly paved (but not yet open to cars) section.
At the 20 mile turn around point was averaging 20.6 mph and decided to push it to keep up my average speed on the way back
At the 30 mile mark (intersection of RR and 2338/Williams) I noticed a big group turning around at the corner and heading back to NW Austin south on RR. So, I rested 5 minutes while they got somewhat ahead and then proceeded to do the next 3.5 miles at 30 mph until I had passed them all. What fun.
http://app.strava.com/activities/82357215
On the Musashi, or Baron, if while riding I increased my speed to 20+ mph I was happy. And if the speed increased to 24+ mph I was really happy.
Well, this turns out to be a mental block with the F-40.
New rule: If I increase my speed to 25+ mph then I’ll be happy. And if the speed increases to 30+ mph then I’m really happy.
Beautiful morning for a bike ride - just enjoying the scenery.
Kept the heart rate really low and still averaged 19.0 mph.
F-40 is wicked fast!
The ride this morning was 30 miles @ 21.6 mph and a Strava KOM on a 5.2 mile segment of 26.6 mph.
Last night I put the fairing back on the F-40 and was ready to roll a little before 8am this morning.
I have lightened the F-40 up since riding the last time. Replaced the AeroSpoke front wheel with a deep-v carbon rim clincher (minus a pound at least). Replaced the stainless steel growler with a 100 oz camelbak unbottle (minus a pound at least). Took a few pounds off the engine.
I also have become very comfortable with the speed so I replaced the Marathon Plus tires with Schwable Kojak tires. The Kojak’s are 35 mm and great for Texas chip-seal. They also have pretty low rolling resistance and I’ve found them much faster than the Marathon Pluses.
I felt really good at the beginning of the ride. I had noticed that Justin (the young triathlete in my neighborhood I can never catch) rode by my driveway about 10 minutes before I started my ride. I briefly thought about trying to catch him but quickly dismissed the thought.
About 2 miles into the ride I’m noticing that the Kojaks are making a huge difference and I decide to go for a fast 30 mile ride to see how the bike is doing with all the changes. Remember, I had not ridden the F-40 since getting the heat treatment at Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred.
This morning it was a nice cool 72 degrees and I was wearing my lightweight running clothes. After the two mile mark I was loosened up enough that I took my heart rate up to 140 and tried to keep it there. This resulted in some pretty decent speeds on the F-40.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/371893825
About the 8.5 mile mark I caught a large group of riders that I think were the Georgetown Triathlon team because Kat and Justin were at the front of the group. I had just finished coming down the large hill at Williams and CR245 and was carrying some decent speed so I think I passed the group doing around 30 mph. Kat and Justin recognized me but I was going too fast have any kind of conversation going on.
I was getting close to the start of a Strava KOM that I’m second place. The first place guy was only ahead of me by 3 seconds. Since I was feeling so good and the bike was riding really well I thought I’d go all out to see if I could make up the 3 seconds.
I kept my heart rate above 150, kept the legs really loose and spinning. No hint of cramps, definitely out of breath but not gasping. Boom! Eleven and a half minutes later the KOM is mine. Crushed it - 5.2 miles at 26.6 mph.
http://app.strava.com/activities/80705405#1642303890
While going for the KOM I passed lots of uprights. Lots of uprights! It was early Saturday morning and everybody was out. Many of the young fit guys on really nice time trial bikes would see me coming and speed up to try and keep in front of me. That was not happening today. I blew by many of them doing 35 to 37 mph. A lot of them yelled out some kind of encouraging phrase: “Yow!”, “Ka-Boom!”, “Get after it!”
After the turn around point (15 miles) I slowed down and headed back home. Interesting enough Kat and Justin had actually tried to keep up with me. They had passed all of the other very fit riders behind me and were only about 1 and a half miles behind me. That is impressive.
Well looks like the F-40 is a keeper.
