November Fest Metric Century

The sag guy and I did another charity ride this weekend.

The November Fest Metric Century is organized to benefit Willow Rivers Farm, a residence program for intellectually challenged adults run by the Houston Foundation for the Retarded. The ride started and finished at Willow Rivers Farm, a residential communtiy of group homes, workshops and gallery/shop area, located about 40 miles Northwest of Houston.

We have been having a spell of exceptionally nice fall weather with moderate temperatures and sun and Saturday was no exception. We got to the ride early enough to pick up our registration packets, ride bracelets and a breakfast burrito from the registration area before we got down to the business of gearing up for the ride and lining up at the start area.

The ride distances ran from 10 to 64 miles with rest stops every 15 miles. The terrain was generally flat with some gentle rolls, mostly flat prairie riding alternating with farm fields. Since the ride was mostly on small farm to market roads, there was a lot of chip seal surface which was a bit rough to ride on, but there were also some very nice wide highway shoulders. And of course, as always, there was a bit of head wind on the last half of the ride.

Recently I have trying to push my speed and endurance on the bike. While I can't say there has been dramatic increases on my speed, I can now usually ride at least 30 miles without needing to step down or stop. On a ride like this one, it allows me to skip the first and possibly the second rest stop and get in at least two good hours of riding before I start feeling restless in the saddle or in need of a break. In the long run, this saves me time on a ride since every stop usually consumes at least 5-10 minutes. The rest stop time doesn't show up on my actual ride time, but does show up in the overall time. Being able to skip a couple of rest stops also lets me keep a steady pace and not have to go through the post stop lactic acid burn warm upwhile I get back into my riding pace.

It was pleasant and uneventful ride for me and although I usually end up riding solo, I enjoyed several brief conversations with people as they pulled past me or as I pulled past them. Because I was trying to push my overal speed a bit, I mostly just kept my head down and rode and as invariably happens, at times I ended up with someone drafting behind me. This ride was unique in that after the guy had been wheel sucking behind me in a headwind stretch for about 15 minutes, he pulled up beside me and offered to let me draft him. Shortly thereafter his buddy caught up with us and I had, the first ever for me on a charity ride, experience of working in an organized pace line with each of us taking a turn pulling and then being drafted. Since they didn't get bored with my speed, I must have been going fast enough to make them work which is a change also. Since I didn't need to stop at the last two rest stops, we parted ways and I did the last bit by myself, but I was feeling rested enough from being drafted periodically for 10 miles that I finished with a good strong pull in spite of the tooth vib rating chip seal surface.

The ride concluded with a Texas bar-b-que lunch provided by the center and a quick walk around the grounds. Orbea bikes had a demo tent with a bunch of their bikes available to try and although we were too lazy to go back to the car to get our helmets, we had an interesting discussion with the sales rep about engineering and specifications. I'm not sure how the orbea actually ride, although they certainly sound like they have the right stuff, but they certainly are elegant eye candy.

I finished the ride with a personal best of having done 60 miles in less than 4 hours and Phil finished his 47 mile ride with an excellent overall speed of 16.7, a personal best as well, so it was a good ride for both of us.

today's stats

distance 64.5

ride time 3:44

speed 16.9