Another great biking weather day rolled in today. I started the ride at 3:15 when the heat usually hits the high point and it did kind of today at 88 degrees on my home weather station but due to the 33% humidity it did not feel that warm. Biking in the shadows also helped. By the time I finished the temperature went down to 86 degrees and the humidity stayed at 33%. Partly cloudy skies and a 13.8 mph southeast wind kept the ride comfortable. These temperatures are above normal for this time of the year but I am not complaining.
With the late start school traffic filled some of the roads at the beginning of the ride but not for long. No other bikers crossed my path but I did talk to a new biker at the Texaco station at the Valley Ranch entrance. I stopped there to visit the restroom and refill my waterbottle with ice. As I came out of the store a Montgomery County Deputy Sheriff was sitting in his car and I said hello. He followed me into the service station from the service road earlier. After I said hello he asked me how many miles I usually rode and I told him today would be around 25 but normally I biked about 30 miles with an occasional 40 or more. He told he bought a WalMart bike a week ago and rides around 20 miles. I congratulated him on taking up biking and getting some miles in. I also handed him one of my Texbiker.net business cards explaining he could get information about bicycling in Texas. He told me to be careful and I resumed my ride.
My wife wanted to work in the yard more today so I made today’s ride a little shorter than usual ending up with 26.21 miles. Some more numbers from today’s ride:
1:44:29 riding time
15.1 mph average speed (the first 5 mile lap deficit of 2:19 set a high mark to recover the time to get to 15.0 or above average speed)
Time Trials 2012
Northwest Cycling Club
Sunday, April 15th starting at 7:30 AM will be the beginning of the 2012 NWCC Club TT series. The venue will again be Warren Ranch Road. Please note that we will be starting promptly at 7:30. No rider will be started after 8:00 due to traffic and safety concerns. If by chance more than 30 riders show up we…
Bicycle Seats and Numbness in Male and Female Cyclists
Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s Fitness and Health E-Zine
April 8, 2012
Several studies have shown that male bicycle riders can become impotent from pressing their genitals against a bicycle seat. A study from Yale showed that compression from a bicycle seat can cause loss of feeling in a woman’s genitals (J Sex Med 2006;3:1018-1027). Now, a new study from Yale shows that the lower a woman sets her handlebars, the more she bends forward and the harder she presses her genitals against the bicycle seat to cause this loss of genital feeling (J Sex Med, published online March 5, 2012).
Women who suffer the most genital numbness set their handlebars below the height of their seats. Riders set their handlebars low to lower their bodies so they can go faster. More than 60 percent of the force you press on your pedals is lost by the air resistance against you and your bike. So, to go faster, you make yourself lower and…
CamelBak expands into new markets
By STEVE HART, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Bike racer Michael Eidson was looking for a better way to stay hydrated during a sweltering road race in Texas, the “Hotter’N Hell Hundred.â€
The emergency medical technician filled an IV bag with water and slipped it into a tube sock.
He stuffed it down the back of his bike jersey and sipped from the IV tube as he pedaled. Eidson didn’t have to slow down or take his hands off the handlebars while he…
Red River Riot recap
by bikedenton
I’ve spent much of my life driving past interesting roads, especially those dirt and gravel ones you never have a reason to drive down. I feel a burning curiosity to go down those roads that don’t have stores, parking lots, or even houses. Sometimes the roads stretch to the horizon, and sometimes they curve and disappear into a tunnel of trees. The emptiness that draws us in isn’t actually empty.
Gravel grinding is celebration of those roads.
Last Saturday, I went up to the Texas/Oklahoma border to ride Spinistry’s Red River Riot gravel grinder. 130 miles of desolate roads through rolling prairie and tough hills. The terrain just north of Muenster is far more rocky and hilly than I’m used to seeing around Denton. The elevation was killer, something like ~6800 feet total in the…
Register to Ride in the Georgetown Grand on May 19 – 20
by Keith Hutchinson         news.georgetown.org
Register now for the Subaru of Georgetown Grand by Holland Racing, the state criterium championship weekend on May 19 – 20. The one-mile downtown criterium course sanctioned by USA Cycling has eight turns with plenty of places for spectators to get close to the racing action on the Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas.
Register for the races or the non-competitive recreational ride and get all the details at GeorgetownGrand.com. The Subaru of Georgetown Grand offers $30,000 in cash prizes.
Saturday Racing: Racing on the downtown circuit course starts at 9 a.m. and continues…
Texas Challenge cyclists will start their journey at Brooke Army Medical Center’s Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio and ride through central Texas with overnight stops in San Marcos, Austin, Ft. Hood, Waco and Cleburne. The ride will conclude in…
STCC at the Track, Training Opportunities
by sooner1Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Shawnee Trail Cycling Club
Not technically a group riding opportunity, but several club members are already riding at our velodrome on Tuesday evenings. The track is open to all certified cyclists, not just Shawnee Trail CC. If you’ve not ridden at the Frisco SuperDrome before, you’re missing a fantastic training opportunity. This facility on the Collin County Community College Campus in Frisco, Tx, is one of the premiere outdoor track venues in the country. The track is a 250 meter loop with turns that are banked at 44 degrees. The ride is a little different, on fixed…
So a few months ago I decided I wasn’t going to be a home body and I was going to get back into the outdoors. On my 30th birthday I decided to go and just grab my mountain bike and go! The next 30 years and beyond I am going…
My bike ride started at 11:05 today since we will wrap up the mulch exercise in the late afternoon to avoid some sunshine. With the earlier start the temperature at 74 degrees felt very comfortable especially with the northerly 5 mph breeze (the wind went to calm by the end of the ride). Cloud cover started increasing as the ride progressed. No other bikers crossed my route. By the time I finished at 1:18 PM the temperature rested at 85 degrees with 46 % humidity. Very comfortable biking today.
I did vary my Huffman route slightly today going through Walden at Lake Houston and not returning on Atascocita Shores Drive. Schools were closed today for Easter so traffic around them disappeared. I do not mention the road surface very often but this route does not include any chip’n seal roads. Streets and roads are concrete or fairly smooth asphalt.
Butterflies scatter as I lurch along on my bike, intent on keeping up with one of my tour guides, Kevin Ferguson, the park’s resource manager and interpreter. He’s running the trail on two feet instead of pedaling, and by the time I catch him he’s standing at a trailside overlook, the sweat evaporating off his skin.
Up here, we can see a trio of hikers wading through a creek far below. It reminds me of a little slice of the Costa Rican jungle, and…
Spokes N Spurs: The Ride
by Roy and Christine      Pedal Pushers
I estimated the attendance to be between 500-700 riders. …
David Brown II (@DaveBrownII)Â Â Â Â Â Â via Twitter
70 mile ride outside Austin on #Fitzhugh. Love that Texas hill country! Not to mention my new sweet glove tan…
Jeff Contreras (@331miles)Â Â Â Â Â Â via Twitter
What’s worse than flatting on a ride? Flatting and getting covered in biting gnats while fixing it.
Texas 4000 (@Texas4000)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â via Twitter
The 2012 team completed 85 miles today on their ride, getting ready for the Century on April 21!
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