I rode the 2009 Denton Turkey Roll Bike Rally today. It was sponsored by the Denton Kiwanis Club and was very well organized. I arrived around 8 AM, picked up my packet and t-shirt, and waited in my warm car until right before the rally start. I was able to get the perfect parking spot right near the starting point.

I didn't see anyone else from the FWBA there, but I assumed they were doing the group ride out near Granbury. However, I later found out the Granbury ride was cancelled due to a heavy misting rain. They should have come up to Denton. The weather cooperated wonderfully. The rain experienced on Friday and into early Saturday morning was all gone by 8 AM. The sun even came out during parts of our ride. The event was well organized with great food afterwards! Denton is a lot closer to my home than for most of the other club members, so that's probably why many of them opted for the club ride. But for me, this ride was only about 30 minutes from my home. It was perfect!

It was nice to see both recreational riders as well as some more serious "racer types" at the rally. The first mile was slow due to the crowds, but then it cleared out and I was able to get up some speed. The thing I really liked was that there was enough room to ride without worrying about anyone hitting your wheel. I get nervous riding in large close packs. But there was enough room to go around slower riders and to let the faster riders pass me.

There was a large group riding together than had on jerseys called "Pirates of the Peloton". I tried so hard to keep up with them, but couildn't do it. They lost me on a hill. I didn't stop at the rest stops and kept going which let me get ahead of the Pirates. But they always caught back up. However, it forced me to ride faster and I was able to average above 18 mph for 14 miles. I averaged 23 mph for the 2 miles that I was trying to stay in front of the Pirates.

But as soon as I reached a hill, I had to slow down to 16 mph and they kept going up the hill in the 20+mph range. How do they do that? If I gear down to the smaller chain ring and spin more, I get really slow on the hills. So I kept my bike on the large chain ring the entire 62 miles. There were several hills, but none of them were so steep that they required the smaller chain ring. I'm not sure how the Pirates group was able to make the hill climbs look so effortless. I looked them up later and they're a Masters Cycling Club in Dallas coached by Richard Wharton.

Their coach was riding with them but I'm glad I didn't know that until later. I think he was the one that said "Hi" and asked how I was doing as he passed. He was probably thinking that I had a lot to learn about cycling technique. I was using my big chain ring and mashing my way through the course. Plus my bike had aerobars and the rearview mirror. Those are things the "serious racer types" don't have. I also had on my Camelbak. Most of the Pirates just used their water bottles and refilled at water stops. I didn't see any of them with Camelbaks. I wonder if that's something that only recreational riders use during rallies.

My rearview mirror on my shifter makes me feel safe. I don't have to rely on a car to see me to avoid an accident. I can rely on myself and take evasive maneuvers if an upcoming car is not yielding. Too many drivers are texting, talking on their cell phones, eating cheeseburgers, and turning around to talk to their kids/friends. I refuse to base my health/well-being on whether someone else is paying attention. There were two wheelchair entrants in the Ironman event on television the other day. Both of them had spinal cord injuries from being hit by cars while out training. I'd rather look like a nervous Nellie with my mirror and stay healthy than end up a statistic.

I need to learn to maintain speed without staying in the highest gear. I remember another cyclist mentioning that the larger gears made his knees hurt. And mine hurt as well after the ride. Cycling is low impact, but the mashing of the pedals in the highest gear seems to stress the knees. Plus, it prevents me from keeping the cadence at 90-100 rpm.

I had intended to do the 47 mile route, but when I got to the turnoff point for the 47 mile and 62 mile routes, I couldn't resist the longer route. Plus I was really low on cycling mileage this week due to Hobo's surgery. I wasn't sure I was up to the longer distance, but I felt good at the turnoff point. Consequently, I decided to "go for it". After low mileage long rides for the last two weeks (40-42 miles), I was worried that if I didn't do a 60+ mile long ride soon, I wouldn't be fit enough for the FWBA's 60 mile rides on future Saturdays. Today's ride at a decent average pace gave me the confidence that I could continue to keep up on the FWBA's weekend rides. I wasn't sure how long it takes to lose cycling fitness. I'm still trying to figure out how to schedule both cycling and running in a way that will let me do well at both.

There were a couple of roads on today's route that were chipseal. Uggghhhh! Those vibrations were shaking my aluminum bike so bad that I couldn't even read my Garmin on my wrist. I also could not get up any speed on the chipseal roads. My Continental 4 Seasons tires are great for slick roads, smooth roads, and small amounts of gravel, sand, and mud, but they definitely seem to vibrate more on chipseal roads. They also seem to have more rolling resistance on chipseal roads. That may be my imagination... They're great for being puncture resistant. I passed several cyclists with flats, but my Continentals kept going. Some of the roads had shoulders with glass on them, so that may be what caused some of the flats. So I guess everything is a tradeoff. My tires are very durable, puncture resistant, and have great traction and very little resistance on smooth roads. However, on chipseal roads, they do seem to vibrate more and have more rolling resistance.

I averaged 16.5 mph for the 100K. If I had only done the 47 mile route, I would have had a better average. Up until mile 40, my average speed was around 18 mph. I was trying so hard to keep up my speed. But I had to slow down the last 15 miles. I had only done long rides of around 40 miles for the last two weeks due to Hobo's surgery and other commitments. The mileage splits tell the story. You can see the slow down the last 15-20 miles. I was exhausted from ridng a faster pace. I had to use my larger chain ring to maintain the faster pace. For some reason, I can muscle through maintaining a certain pace much easier than I can by spinning through a certain pace.

On a different note, we went to see Planet 51 last night. It was a zoo! I didn't realize that it was the opening weekend for the Twilight sequel New Moon. The theatre was packed with teenage girls all waiting to see the New Moon movie. They all started cheering when the theatre employees opened the doors for them to start being seated. I was trying to remember if there was a movie that all the girls went crazy over when I was that age. But I couldn't think of one...

As for our movie, we thought there would be more adults there. Our theatre was packed with 8-10 year olds. I think they were part of a school or church group. The kids were pretty rowdy (continually getting up/down, talking loud, accidentally kicking the back of our seats), but the supervising adults made them settle down once the movie started. The movie was great! It may be considered a "kid's movie", but there are references in there that only adults would get. We really enjoyed it. It was a nice, lighthearted way to spend a Friday night. I think we're just big kids at heart.