Yesterday, in beautiful Cedar Hill, Texas (south of Dallas), I did my fifth bike rally of the year and my 451st overall. Having lived in Tucson, Arizona, for five years of my life (August 1983 to August 1988), I love sunshine. We get a lot of it in Texas, but there are times when you get nothing but clouds for several days at a time. It's been overcast on most of my bike rides this year, including yesterday. Oh well, at least it didn't rain. The temperature was fine, and there wasn't much wind. I guess you can't have everything.
Six of my home boys showed up: Joe, Phil, Randy, Bryce, Julius, and Troy. Think of it as a seven-member team, with me as its leader. (Just kidding.) Julius is the oldest (60 or 61), followed by Phil (58), Randy and Bryce (57), me (52), Joe (50), and Troy (in his 30s). Troy (Julius's son in law) is just learning the ropes. He is strong and enthusiastic. Before long, he'll be riding in the lead pack instead of hanging around with the old guys. Randy, who hasn't been riding well this year, surprised me with his strength, so much so that I concluded that he is taking steroids. Early on, he was dropped. I figured I wouldn't see him until the finish. But all of a sudden he was with us, and then, as if to rub it in our faces, he rode off the front. Later, as proof that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, he cratered, but it was great to see some spunk in the old boy.
I'll speak for myself as far as statistics are concerned, because I stopped to wait for the others a few times. When I stop, I turn my computer off. I rode 19.1 miles the first hour, 19.3 the second, and 17.4 the third. (The wind helped us during the first half of the rally and hurt us during the second.) I averaged 17.1 miles per hour for the final 26:36, which gave me an overall average speed of 18.41 miles per hour for 63.4 miles. A year ago, on roughly the same course, I averaged 18.48 miles per hour. I'm nothing if not consistent. The course was nice. We had a little of everything: country lanes; highway shoulders; and residential parkways. Some of the roads were smooth; others were rough.
There's a big hill early on. I believe the official name is "Texas Plume," but it's known to cyclists as Dead Possum Hill. I've climbed this hill dozens of times and gone down it a few. The problem with the hill is that there's a stop sign at the bottom. We had traffic control yesterday, but you still had to come almost to a stop at the bottom to make the sharp left turn. This is dangerous, especially for novices. On the way down, traveling at over 30 miles per hour, I saw a bike lying on the right side of the road. On the left side, in the ditch, was a man. He was on his back and just starting to get up. I have no idea what happened to him. If I had to guess, he crashed on the descent, got separated from his bike, and slid on the road until he arrived at the ditch, which stopped him. I hope he is okay. A couple of minutes later, as we were climbing the same escarpment on a different road (Lakeridge Parkway), a young man passed me. Crash! He went down. Again, I have no idea what happened to him. Perhaps he wasn't paying attention and hit an expansion joint in the road. I believe there were other crashes as well, but these were the two that I saw.
My friends and I agreed that the hill is dangerous. Perhaps the rally organizers can eliminate it or put it at the end of the course instead of at the beginning. It's one thing to fly down a hill when you're alone or in the company of one or two others; it's another to do it when you're in a crowd. Another thing the organizers might do is have us go down the less-steep hill (Lakeridge Parkway) and then climb the steep one (Dead Possum).
I burned 1,978 calories during the ride, which is an average of 574.4 per hour. How many calories you burn per hour depends on how hard you're working. My average heart rate yesterday was 122. The highest average I've seen on a bike ride is 132. My maximum heart rate was 153. I reached a top speed of 38.2 miles per hour. I hope my home boys had as much fun as I did. I can't imagine anything more enjoyable than riding a bike on a fine spring day.
