Although my legs are sore from yesterday’s ride I decided to do an old route I used to do a lot on my Musashi.
My fastest ever speed on the Musashi with fresh legs was 20.0 mph. Today with tired legs on the F-40 I was able to do a medium effort 21.2 mph.
Felt pretty good today so I decided to push it some - two strava KOMS.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/394514037
Strava has a new heatmap for your rides. So I took a screenshot and annotated some of the rides around Texas I’ve done. I did not label them all - but it is kind of a walk down memory lane .
Apparently there are some roads around here I haven’t yet ridden on.
Yesterday strava says that I now have 1,002 miles on my F-40.
The F-40 is by far the most difficult bike I have learned how to ride.
My other bikes were all easy to learn to ride compared to the F-40.
| Bike | Type | Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Catrike Expedition | trike | 2,750 |
| Catrike Musashi | mid-racer | 4,500 |
| Optima Baron | low-racer | 1,000 |
| Lightning P-38 | SWB | 250 |
| Lightning F-40 | SWB w/fairing | 1,000 |
I am just now becoming comfortable enough with the bike that I can have a relaxing ride.
The first couple of hundred of miles were spent learning to just be safe on the bike.
The main learning requirements have to do with wind management and wind reflexes.
Because the bike is so fast, you must learn how to take the lane when necessary.
I am just now becoming comfortable cruising at 30 mph and greater. If the winds become greater than 12 mph it is best to keep the speed under 25 mph.
Of course the bike really helps with the Strava KOMs:
http://veloviewer.com/athlete/1849456/
I had not ridden in over a week because of work commitments. This morning the weather conditions were perfect!
So with the temps around 43 degrees at 8am this morning I set off on a nice long easy ride.
Earlier in the week I have received the new windshield from Lightning Cycle Dynamics and yesterday morning I had mounted it on the F-40. The new windshield does not have any of the issues the old windshield had.
The first thing I noticed was how much quieter it is with the windshield on. Without the windshield above 25 mph it is very noisy on the F-40. With the windshield it remains very quiet even when going 35 mph.
The roads were pretty empty until around the 17 mile mark - ie heading north on Ronald Reagan just north of HWY95. There about 1/2 mile ahead I spot a large group of riders and I try to catch them as fast as I could. Well, I quickly catch them and pass them doing about 36 mph. I hear a yell out “There goes that rocket ship!”
Soon afterwards I climb to the top of a pretty long hill and stop and turn around to take the picture above. I had ridden about 20 miles now and my plan was to have a few munchies and then head back home for a total distance of about 40 miles.
After finishing my munchies I notice that the group of riders was heading up the hill and I decide to wait and see how far they were going to ride. Turns out they were only going a couple of miles further to a MacDonalds on IH 35 for coffee, so I tag along and stop at the McDonalds with them.
Turns out they are a group that ride every day out of Sun City. They ride about 20 miles at an easy pace of 12-15 mph with no drops. One of the riders actually lived in Lompoc CA for a few years and was good friends with all the folks at Lightning Cycle Dynamics.
After coffee the weather was so nice I decided that I would head north to Salado and maybe have breakfast when I got there. It was too beautiful of a day to waste not riding.
After the long coffee stop, I got to Salado after 32 miles around 10:30am. I had not done the Salado ride in quite a while and had forgotten how enjoyable a ride it is. I was feeling pretty puny so I had a long relaxing breakfast until I got my second wind.
While inside at breakfast the wind had started up so that heading back I would have a pretty stiff headwind - 10 mph gusting to 17 mph for the last 25 miles home.
I must be getting acclimated to the wind on the F-40 because the head/side winds were no issue on the way back.
With all the stops it was almost a 5 hour ride - lots of stops - many new friends - and a beautiful day!
http://app.strava.com/activities/90283918
Talk about blowing your preride plan.
The first 20 miles turned into a hammer fest (at least for me) and the ride can be summed up thus:
My legs are going to fall off.
Lots of recumbents at the ride. About 700 riders total. Brian Buckmaster was there on his ICE Vortex. I saw a Cruzbike Vendetta, this guy must live around here because this is the second time I’ve seen him at a local ride. A guy on a Lightning Phantom. I saw a TerriTrike tandem (Red), but did not get to meet the riders. And then some type of LWB bike - maybe a Bella.
Lots of questions about the yellow banana bike - I really need to think of a catchy name.
The most popular pre-ride question today: ‘Is that on there because it is going to rain?’
My preride strategy was just doing an easy 100 miles with a low heart rate and an average around 17-18 mph.
I’m talking to a guy waiting for the ride to start. He says that for HHH he averaged 23 mph for the first 80 miles then his buddy started cramping and they had to slow down. They still ended up finishing under 5 hours.
I think to myself, hmmmm I wonder how long I can keep him in sight?
So at the start I floored it so that I could keep close to him. Well, I quickly took the lead and held it for a very long time. My heart rate seemed to be pegged at 150, which is way to high for me to sustain for 100 miles. But I could not force myself to slow down (after all they were right behind me somewhere :) I was first to the first rest stop, flew by it and just kept going.
About 20 miles into the ride I knew I had over exerted myself and I would not be able to do the full 100 miles. So I slowed my heart rate down to 125. It did not make a difference because right at that time a tailwind kick up and was blowing from the south 14 mph gusting to 20 mph. Hence, my speed did not decrease at all for the next ten miles (mile 30 below) even though I was peddling a lot easier.
This was not good news - because soon I would be turning south for the last half of the ride directly into what was turning into a fierce headwind.
I convinced myself that 100 miles was not going to happen and changed to trying the 100k (63 miles). That did not last long. Now it was time to just try and finish the ride without bonking. Of course in my haste of the first hour and a half I had not been taking my nutrition. Hydration yes, nutrition no. Stupid, I know.
Well I just started looking for the shortest way back and peddled easy to try and finish without cramping. I rejoined the 50 mile route eventually and rode with them for quite a ways.
Final numbers: 57.9 miles at 17.2 mph. (But the first hour was really fast!)
Some good videos of today’s ride:
Start of the ride where I quickly take the lead. Myself and the HHH 23 mph guy leave everyone else behind. One of the three leadout pacing motorcycles goes with us and the other two motorcycles drop back waiting for everyone else. Nobody catches us for a good 15 miles. The HHH guy was really good, but he must have over done it himself becuase when the lead pack finally caught us he dropped back also.
Here is a high speed run where two time trial guys try to go pretty aero to out coast me - good luck with that
Here I’m heading into the 14 mph headwind (slightly from right) gusting to 20 mph. Notice that even though I’m only doing 16-18 mph I’m passing everyone like they are standing still. F-40 says ‘What headwind?’
And last, this is the finish of the ride. Skip to the end to see the finishing line arch.
Last, but not least, all the numbers.
http://app.strava.com/activities/88628795
Finally, a ride with the F-40 where I just relax and enjoy the countryside.
I arranged to met my wife Robyn for lunch at Andice and then just took off mid-morning to ride easy and planned on arriving in Andice at 12:30 pm.
About 8 miles into the ride the winds really kick up to 12 mph gusting to 16 mph. Really not too bad until I turned south on Ronald Reagan Blvd and then it was a nasty crosswind. Almost gave up and turned around to head home. But I decided it would be a good day for wind practice on the F-40. So, I slowed the bike down to under 20 mph and just basically sailed with the wind - that is, allowing any quartering wind to push me forward (tacking) using the wheels contacting the ground as the keel.
I just rode around the countryside until arriving in Andice just in time for lunch with Robyn - a little over 41 miles before lunch.
After a too big lunch of a green chile cheese burger it was a much slower ride home - 15 miles directly into a 12 mph headwind.
Overall, just a really nice day. 56.3 miles @ 17.5 mph.
http://app.strava.com/activities/88033278
All the speed work is starting to pay off - low heart rate easy ride today still gave me a 19.3 mph average.
Legs are very sore. Upper, inner thighs.
Started out the first nine miles pretty easy averaging 18.6 mph. Once I reached Ronald Reagan Blvd I knew I was feeling strong. I had the video camera mounted on my helmet and turned it on just before rounding the corner to head north on Ronald Reagan. I had seen an upright bike cross the intersection about 1/2 mile in front of me so I started pouring it on to see if I could catch them.
I’m starting to acclimate and really understand how to ride the F-40.
Once I got the bike speed up to 27 mph I put the front chainring into the big 60 tooth gear and just kept mashing those big 175 mm cranks at 80 to 90 rpm for all I was worth. A little bit of coasting once the speed got about 35 mph to catch my breath - but it was pretty much an all out effort most of the way.
11 minutes and one second for the KOM. A full 30 seconds faster than the last time I tried it and a full minute faster than the 2nd place professional triathlete! The best I ever did on this segment with the Musashi with fresh legs and wind at my back was 21.1 mph giving me 49th place on the KOM.
Today was a very fast day!
Two days of rest combined with a small amount of time to ride (work commitments) makes for a very fast ride.
Four KOMS and two 2nd place finishes!
http://app.strava.com/activities/87060471
Here is the Strav KOM of the 5.2 miles segment that I average 28.1 mph.
http://app.strava.com/activities/87060471#1799414316
The next KOM was a little shorter at 2.2 miles.
http://app.strava.com/activities/87060471#1799414306
This is also my first time having a garmin one mile lap split averaging 33.1 mph.
To the garmin split lap info
Easy ride today. Got started late because of rain in the morning. A little breezy. Winds from the south 10 mph.
http://app.strava.com/activities/86489710
