Near the Top of Training Season

Today we rode the Loop 360 hills for the last time in training season. We crossed the Bee Caves and Davenport Ranch hills, tough but not the challenge of the bad boy at left, waiting for us next weekend on County Road 303. One week from today we'll be clipped in and ready to ride the Hill Country Ride for AIDS, 2005 Edition. We will stand at the start line out on 5113 Southwest Parkway on what I hope will be a clear and cool Saturday morning.

The morning has been otherwise. Last year the rain started just as we pedaled off. Thunderstorms had cancelled the first day of our ride. On that Sunday morning we rode off in a steady drizzle that spattered my glasses and made the ride-out road a sandy, muddy mess. We’ve had lots of rain in Texas this spring, too, but we’ve rescheduled and dodged the drops some mornings.

I’ve already had my success with this ride. In 2003 it was a 139-mile course, and the bike only had 10 speeds. Just because I’ve enjoyed success doesn’t mean I’m not anxious about my latest attempt. I need help from others — my teammate Abby, who’s riding her first Hill Country Ride alongside me, the SAG and pit stop angels, my friends pushing their pedals on their bikes, my sponsors and contributors.

This morning I rode with intermediate riders, the 13-16 MPH folks, as a ride leader. It was the first day I could pedal as hard as I could and still stay with my ride group. What a rush. I finished the 24 miles in 1 hour, 40 minutes. I've never ridden it faster.

That was in spite of a 20MPH headwind coming out of the north, on our way back to the Arboretum duck pond start point. In Austin the wind is often out of the south. It was odd to climb the Bee Caves Hill with the wind at our backs. But I'm always glad to have a tail wind while climbing.

I've got one more long ride, tomorrow with my friends and fellow ride-leaders Ron Wilcox and Steve Hardwick, to celebrate my 48th birthday. Then it's a five-day stretch of rest, to prepare my muscles for that hill on CR 303.