Yesterday, in Waxahachie, Texas, I did my 11th bike rally of the year and my 505th overall. The rally is known as the Cow Creek Country Classic. Yesterday's edition was the 25th. I did my first Cow Creek in 1990. I had to miss three along the way (one because of back pain), so I've done 19 of the past 22 and 19 of 25 overall. It's a great rally, not least because I don't have to drive far (37.6 miles) to get to it.
It's been extremely windy in North Texas all month. A week ago, when I did the rally in Italy, the average wind speed for the day was 22.2 miles per hour. It was almost as windy yesterday: 17.9 miles per hour. I rode 100 miles in Waxahachie in 2008 and 2009, but the wind deterred me from doing so yesterday. Fortunately, there's a longish course of 77 miles for riders who don't want the additional suffering. (Believe me, there's suffering when you ride a bike in Texas; the only question is how much of it you can stand.)
I was happy to see four of my friends at the start: Joe, Julius, Phil, and Harold. (Joe's son Jason was also there, riding with a friend.) All planned to ride 77 miles except Phil, who had to do the 55-mile course so as to get home early. Phil's turnoff wasn't for 30 miles or so, so we were able to ride together (and talk) until then. The first hour had a lot of turns, and some of it was with a tailwind, so I had a good speed. I pedaled 17.86 miles the first hour. But then we settled in for a southerly grind, directly into the wind. I saw "7.8" on my speedometer at one point, which is humiliating. I was climbing a long hill on a rough road into the teeth of a vicious wind. Add heat and humidity and you get a perfect storm of suffering.
After refreshing ourselves at a rest stop, we made our way to the southernmost point of the course (near Milford) and turned east. Ahh! We finally got out of the headwind. We rode in a crosswind for a few miles and then turned north. All of us had been waiting for this moment. Unfortunately, we were tired, so we couldn't take advantage of the tailwind. But we kept a good speed until the end. I consider it a successful rally when (1) I don't have an accident and (2) I don't have a flat tire. I had a successful rally yesterday.
Statistically, the rally ranked in the bottom half of my Cow Creeks. I averaged 16.43 miles per hour for 77.14 miles. (Elapsed time = 4:41:36.) My top speed for the day was 34.0 miles per hour. I burned 4,319 calories. My average heart rate was 107 and my maximum 139. (This shows that I didn't work as hard as I could have; usually, both figures are significantly higher.) There was some pack riding early on, but, for the most part, we rode side by side and didn't get much benefit from drafting. The official high temperature for the day was 95º Fahrenheit, which is nine degrees lower than the previous week in Italy. I was done riding by 12:39, before it reached its zenith.
I stopped three times for a total of 28 minutes. The third time was to wait for Joe and lasted only three minutes, so really I stopped only twice. It was great to ride with my friends in the open country, on lightly trafficked roads, on a beautiful day. I am truly blessed to be able to do this, and hope it continues for many more years.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 