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August 2, 2015

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Bike training on the Dam(n) Loop: July 18 & 19

It’s official! I’ve set up my fundraising page for the Rock’n Hot Bike MS Ride and made the first donation, so now you can too! I’ve been training for this ride for most of this summer and I’ve got 6 weeks left until I ride from Little Rock to Hot Springs, Arkansas and back. The ride is an out and back with the Saturday overnight in Hot Springs. 70 miles each direction with 3800 ft of climbing.

This year I’m riding in memory of my godmother Barbara Hoffman who passed away from Multiple Sclerosis in December 2014.

On the weekend of July 18 & 19 I rode a total of 93 training miles. On Saturday, I rode a particularly hilly 60 mile route known locally as the Dam Loop although this time I modified it to take Southwest Parkway instead of Bee Caves road to add some miles.

Me and my shadow on Loop 360:

The cliffs are stained from all of the rain this spring:

Bridge over Lake Austin:

Such a pretty day:

Nice fountain and view from 620:

The lighthouse:

You can just barely make out the lake in the distance. It’s so nice to see it so full!

Crossing in front of Mansfield Dam:

On Sunday I rode a route south from home and picked up the Southern Walnut Creek Trail. First I was greeted by a terribly torn up road, miserable to ride on:

View of Decker Lake in the distance:

The trail:

Handful of sunflowers:

A bit overgrown in places:

Very modern house next to a very run down house in east Austin:

Sunday’s ride was 33 miles.

Check back soon for my latest ride update!

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July 29, 2015

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Bike Training: July 11 & 12

After two weekends off from bike training due to vacation in Saint Martin (rough, I know), I finally got back home to Austin to put in some good miles on my bike. Bike MS Rock N Hot Ride is only 6 weeks away! My fundraising page will be up soon, I promise. On Saturday July 11 I planned a route mostly east from my home, 64 miles in total with a 15.7 mph average. The morning started out thankfully without much sun so the temperatures were mostly pleasant. I rode part of the Southern Walnut Creek Trail:

On the north end of the trail, it just ends and you have to ride through grass / gravel to get back on the road. I assume that has something to do with property ownership, but it’s super annoying especially if it’s muddy.

Visibility wasn’t that great for the first part of the ride – usually I get nice views on this road:

Then the sun came out and it got hot.

I like this old abandoned farm house out in the countryside:

And the sunflower field next to this cute little olive green house:

Railroad bridge!

Tree tunnel on Littig Road:

A train was blocking the road, not moving. It moved slowly out of the intersection as I approached. When I crossed the tracks I could see the engineer dressed in a long sleeve button down bright green shirt with white polka dots and a red hat. I guess if you’re a train engineer, you better dress the part!

It was a lovely day for a photo of this Asian temple I see coming back into town on North Lamar:

On Sunday I did an around town ride of 30 miles, but the GoPro battery failed me again… Stay tuned as I continue to catch up on my bike training posts and get my fundraising page in order!

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July 19, 2015

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Bike training: June 20 & 21

It’s official! I’ve registered for the Bike MS Rock ‘N Hot Ride in Arkansas, which goes from Little Rock to Hot Springs and back in September. It’s been on my Bike MS bucket list for a few years, so it’s time to check it off. I’ll be sure to share my fundraising page as soon as I get it put together and make my donation!

I realize this bike training update it a bit late. I thought I’d work on it while we were on vacation in Saint Martin, but that did not happen. It was vacation after all, and I did blog about that trip, mainly so we could remember what exactly we did while we were there.

Anyhow, way back in mid June we went up to Oklahoma City for a wedding, with a pit stop in Fort Worth. On Saturday, I got to ride 66 miles straight north and meet Carl in Salado. From there we continued driving to Fort Worth. It was, of course, windy out of the south so I got a nice tail wind which helped me keep a high pace. With all of the charity rides I’ve done out of Georgetown, many of the sites on my route were familiar.

County church on Cameron Road:

The flatness with a smattering of trees:

Cool pond with some cute miniature buildings in it:

Historical marker about the handful of graves you can barely make out in the middle of the field:

This seemed to be some sort of water park, probably for waterskiing:

Longhorn!

Pretty purple flowers along the roadside and white picket fence:

Low water crossing. Thankfully it was open!

Mix of old and new cemetery:

Biergarten in Walberg:

Deer along the side of the road:

On Sunday I headed out from my in-laws to do a shorter 28 mile ride on the Fort Worth trails. Overall, this ride was much better than a ride I did around Fort Worth a few years back. One of my first sites was a large Fort Worth church to contrast with the country church from the day before:

I had to ride for a while before making it to the Trinity Trail, Fort Worth has this terrible way of marking all lanes with these rounded white domes that could certainly eject you from your bike if you’re not careful:

Shortly after getting on the trail, I had to cross to the other side of the river. The low water bridge was partially covered by about an inch or two of water. I’m not sure I would have tried the crossing bridge if I hadn’t seen two cyclists cross it in front of me:

Close up view. I had to get off my bike and step over some of the logs.

After not very long, I came up on a running race on the trail. It was a 5K / 10K / Half Marathon. And it was hot. These runners at the furthest point were running the half. I question the judgement of the group that decided to schedule a half marathon in the summer in Texas.

The Trinity Trail has had a number of improvements lately, including this cool looking bike sculpture which likely also doubles as a bike rack.

It was a bit of a pain to continuously pass runners, especially when they were running in both directions.

Cute little food truck area along the trail.

Nice pedestrian bridge.

In a couple spots the river flooded over the trail and there were alternate routes, including just riding on the grass.

The spot where I got off the trail had a bike share station.

Downtown Fort Worth had some nice bike lanes.

A nice historic neighborhood that I rode through.

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June 21, 2015

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Bike training: June 6th & 7th

My bike training updates will skip weeks here and there due to a bunch of travel I have coming up, but I definitely will fill you in when I get out to ride! On June 6th I rode 66 miles mostly east from home, on a lovely day. It was my first really hot ride of the season, and the last ten miles or so were rough. I was beginning to get heat exhaustion, based on the goose bumps I had while riding and my red face when I got home. Our cooler than normal spring hasn’t helped me acclimate to our typical level of heat. Regardless, the ride was nice and I was able to average 16.4 mph.

On Sunday June 7th, I rode 32.5 miles in an out and back route on loop 360 to get in some hill training. My GoPro has been having battery issues and it immediately turned off on my Sunday ride so I wasn’t able to get any photos 😦

Not too far from home, some sort of horse competition arena. No idea what those things are really called.

It always makes me sad to see dogs in the middle of country roads.

Railroad bridge with debris from flooding underneath.

Railroad tracks along the road

Littig road is one of my favorites to ride out east

Bridge hidden in the trees

Old farmhouse

Intersection of Hog Eye Rd and Ingrid Dr. Hi Ingrid!

Pretty views

So many old cemeteries, this one is Littig Cemetery

I believe this is a dog racing track, with the long skinny pens

Another cemetery, this one in Manda TX.

The old Manda schoolhouse, now a community center.

Best country church ever, the New Sweden Church

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June 5, 2015

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Bike training May 30 – 31: 2015 Atlas Ride!

For the fifth year in a row, I rode the Atlas ride, the kickoff ride for the Texas 4000. The Texas 4000 is a 70 day bike ride from Austin to Anchorage undertaken by approximately 70 UT students. Texas 4000 cultivates student leaders and engages communities in the fight against cancer. They share hope, knowledge and charity in the fight against cancer through their 4,000+ mile bike ride from Austin to Anchorage. The students can take one of three routes: Ozarks, Sierra, or Rockies.

This year, the ride was part of my training plan for the Rock’N Hot Bike MS Ride I plan to undertake in September. I like this ride because it goes from Austin north (often with a tailwind) to Lampasas and ends at a winery.

At the start of the ride, this year’s Texas 4000 riders line up in front of the group with alumni from previous years behind them.

Starting line

it was a beautiful day for a ride. It started out cloudy with some chance of rain but that quickly transitioned to sunny skies. The temperature was pleasant and while the winds were slightly out of the north, they were light. For the first 18 miles I was in a pace group averaging 19 mpg. Shortly after one of the riders behind me crashed, I decided to hang back and let them lose me so I could ride by myself. Well, that and the crazy pace they were taking up the hills was a bit too much after a while.

White yuccas along the side of the road

Blue skies with some dark clouds along the horizon that sort of resembled a mountain range in the distance.

New bridge on the left, old bridge on the right

Toppa Joppa Too Ranch

Lots of white yuccas along a small road

Big sky country

Coming into Burnet, little church

Old shack on a private ranch road

Private ranch road

Horse and a fuzzy donkey

More ranch road. This was the best part of the ride. No traffic. Hardly even other cyclists. Beautiful views and perfect weather.

The ride end was moved this year from the Texas Legato Winery to a park in Lampasas due to the heavy rains we’ve been receiving. The last mile of this ride is always the hardest, no matter the distance. People can sponsor signs of their friends and family that have or had cancer. I try to read each sign and it always makes me tear up. It really underscores the great fundraising work these UT students are doing on their ride to Alaska.

In Lampasas, one of the in memory / in honor signs

Little cheering squad at the finish

I rode 68 miles in this year’s Atlas ride.

This year’s ending was at a fun little sculpture park

On Sunday, I rode out Parmer Lane for a 34 miles total. Not much new to see, but Brushy Creek Park was definitely flooded!

Brushy creek, east side of Parmer

West side of Parmer

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May 25, 2015

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Bike training season is here!

It’s official, I’ve decided to fundraise for the Bike MS: Rock’n Hot Ride in Arkansas which takes place September 12th and 13th. The ride goes from Little Rock to Hot Springs and back. I’ve always wanted to spend some time in Hot Springs, so hopefully we’ll get to do that in September.

I’ve been riding a good deal, weather permitting (and sometimes not permitting), this spring to start getting ready for training season which I officially kicked off last weekend. I’ve done three event rides: the Easter Hill Country Tour in Kerrville, the Red Poppy Ride, and the Real Ale Ride, all of which I highly recommend.

The Easter Hill Country Tour is a 3 day ride with a variety of lengths that takes place every Easter weekend. This year, we talked some friends into accompanying us out to Kerrville and we had some great riding.

Our first day riding was Friday and it started out quite gloomy.

Sheep

But after awhile, the sun came out and treated us to some gorgeous hill country riding. And that was the last time we saw the sun that weekend, but at least it never rained on us!

Randy

Ranch road

Goofballs

Jo and a Texas ranch

Carl

Jo and Randy coming up a big hill

Randy

Carl

On Saturday, it was even gloomier and kind of cold. I rode by myself since I planned to ride 60+ miles.

Small dam in a river

Oh yeah, it was windy!

We took a short drive over to a replica stone henge, complete with Easter Island head replicas in Ingram TX.

Sunday was quite gloomy as well. Carl and I rode the short loop together and then stopped for lunch in Fredericksburg with Randy and Jo.

Carl

I also rode the Red Poppy Ride again this year. Much nicer weather this time around, if a bit windy of course.

Yellow wildflowers

Fields of Indian Paintbrushes and Bluebonnets

The orange flowers are Indian Paintbrushes

So much yellow

Roadside pink winecups

Small Texas road lined by wildflowers

Big white prickly flowers

Purple and yellow

On a nice weekend in May, we took a ride up to a winery in Comanche. I rode my bike straight north, shadowing 183, to Briggs Texas where my husband picked me up. It was a great day to ride north, with a 20 mph tailwind. Apparently I just missed a good little rainstorm in Austin. I saw the dark clouds as I was headed north west.

Way out on Ronald Reagan Blvd

I love the white flower stalks (a type of yucca) – they have bell shaped flowers on them.

Very large red yucca

Old, falling down stone house near Florence

White and yellow flowers

My GoPro unfortunately ran out of batteries for the Real Ale Ride, but I did get one important shot to prove I was there. Carl and I both got flats on that ride, and then I went ahead and followed that up with another flat the very next day. Hopefully flat season is behind us!

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April 26, 2015

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Unboxing my new Public Bikes cruiser and a bike training update

Well, I finally added a new bike to my fleet. The right number of bikes is always N+1, where N is the number you currently own, right? I’ve wanted a more laid back bike for slow, short rides that I can just wear normal clothes to ride. Somehow I came across a Public Bikes sale online and knew that I found my next bike. I plan to outfit it with an electric assist wheel along the lines of the Copenhagen Wheel.

The experience of getting a mostly assembled bike straight to your doorstep is pretty great, so I wanted to share it.

While I’m on the subject of bikes, I decided to postpone this year’s Bike MS ride until September because I’ve had a lot of trouble scheduling my training rides. So that’s why there haven’t been any bike training updates. But don’t worry, I’ll be back at it soon!

The first part I noticed was the awesome box covered in biking quotes.

Then I pulled the mostly assembled bike out of the box. There was a second box that held the fancy bike basket.

The basket is handmade and came with a hand written number on it.

The bike came with a nice pedal wrench and bike sized Allen wrenches to help with the few assembly tasks.

The only assembly required was to put the handlebars in the stem, adjust the angle of the handlebars, and screw on the pedals. Oh, and put the fancy basket on. What a beauty!

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February 28, 2015

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Bike MS 2015 training is in full swing!

Well, it’s official. I’ve signed up for my 8th annual Bike MS ride and started training 3 weeks ago! For the second year in a row, I’m doing the Sam’s Club Round Up Ride in DFW on the first weekend in May. I had originally planned to choose a different ride, but our schedules this year just didn’t allow it. Plus, they’ve changed up the Sam’s Club Round Up Ride so that it ends in downtown Fort Worth’s Sundance Square on Sunday, rather than ending at the Texas Motor Speedway both days. Thanks to you, I achieved top fundraiser status last year, so that should make this a good year. I haven’t yet set up my fundraising page, but I did have an interesting training ride last weekend that I wanted to share. We were in Dallas to tour some breweries and I took my bike and explored the paved hike and bike trails in the area. There are many miles of bike trails in Dallas, but almost no bike lanes. We stayed right downtown at the Magnolia Hotel and I took off from there Saturday morning. You can see my 41 mile route on Garmin Connect.

I rode along bike routes, which were sharrows, not dedicated bike lanes, down past the American Airlines Center to pick up the Katy Bike Trail.

The Katy Trail was a popular place to be on a Saturday morning. Luckily, it had two paved sections for most of its length, half of which was for pedestrians only.

After coming to the end of the Katy Trail, I rode on the streets for a while and passed through Southern Methodist University (SMU).

Next I came to White Rock Lake, a nice lake with hiking and biking all around it just north of downtown, with some very nice houses over looking the lake.

Houses along the lake:

At the north part of the lake, I exited onto the White Rock Creek Trail. It was nice and new in some sections and quite old in other sections. It was fairly flat and not that crowded.

Saw the Dallas train a few times – the DART.

After a while I split off on to the Cottonwood Trail, which was a new trail.

The Cottonwood trail took me under intersection of interstates 635 and 75.

At the top of the Cottonwood trail, I cut over on some streets to Valley View Park to pick up the north end of the White Rock Creek Trail. I saw a Mini Convertible that had a bike rack just like the one I used to have – including bike and beer stickers on the bike rack!

The While Rock Creek Trail returned me to White Rock Lake right where I left. The trails along the lake switched between open and closed road and paved trail.

It’s small in this photo, but I could see downtown Dallas from a number of places along the lake.

I left the lake for the Santa Fe Trail by the White Rock Lake Dam. It was a long sloping dam.

The trails often had these happy little bike signs reminding people of proper etiquette when sharing the trails.

The Santa Fe Trail took me to Deep Ellum, a neighborhood just outside of Dallas that totally reminded me of East Austin. The trail obviously used to be train tracks at one point.

After the trail ended I had just a mile or two left to get back to our hotel. I found a bike lane on one road, but mostly sharrows. Luckily there aren’t many cars out in downtown Dallas on a Saturday late morning.

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July 26, 2014

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Checking out the new Southern Walnut Creek Trail

I don’t typically post about biking when I’m not training for a Bike MS event, but I still ride multiple times a week. This weekend I decided to incorporate the new Southern Walnut Creek Trail into my route, which just opened. It’s a paved 7 mile long hike and bike trail, one of a few such projects the city is working on right now, which includes the Northern Walnut Creek Trail very close to my house. I think the grand vision is for these two trail systems to connect, but it’s not funded or designed yet.

I rode to the southern end of the trail, which begins in Govalle park, to get on the trail. It was strange – the trail head wasn’t marked at all and you couldn’t even see it from the street. It was marked by one small green bicycle sign once you were in the small park.

The trail is unfortunately paved like a sidewalk – cracks and all – and that doesn’t make for very smooth riding on a road bike. Kathunk, kathunk, kathunk… It was worse in some places than others.

The trail has many bridges and you ride along the creek in a number of places.

And you go under some bridges, including this railroad bridge:

The trail is nice and shaded in some parts, more so on the southern section of the trail. The northern end gets quite sunny.

The trail was quite overgrown by vegetation in parts, leaving only about half of the path actually rideable. A number of places had lots of dirt and sand on the concrete, making for a slippery ride. I assume the city will soon clean those places up and maintain the trail for maximum use. Construction has only recently ended.

The trail goes into Walter E Long park, but I turned off before then because I wasn’t sure where it went after that. Looking closer at the Walnut Creek Trail system page, I see that the Manor trail actually is partially constructed, so I could have ridden that trail instead of riding along the busy Decker lane. Next time!

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April 28, 2014

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Last Bike MS training update, April 26: Red Poppy Ride

This past weekend was my last training weekend before the Bike MS: Sam’s Club Round-Up Ride in north Texas next weekend! The ride goes from Frisco to Fort Worth with an overnight at the Texas Motor Speedway, 105 and 67 miles respectively. This is my 7th year participating in a Bike MS ride, fundraising for the National MS Society in honor of my godmother and other family members that have been affected by Multiple Sclerosis. If you can, please consider making a donation in support of my participation.

I just finished tallying up my training mileage for this Bike MS. I started training at the beginning of February and so far I’ve ridden 1,183 miles. I think I’m ready for next weekend 🙂 Last Saturday, I rode the 10th annual Red Poppy Ride up in Georgetown. This year I actually saw red poppies! It was a nice but windy ride with a bit of mist almost all day. I rode the longest route, 102 miles. Despite the wind I was able to average 16.6 miles per hour so I was very happy but exhausted. While I was out riding, my husband did the sweetest thing anyone could do for me after a long ride – he went all the way down to south Austin to pick me up my favorite treat – a hand-dipped chocolate covered banana from Bananarchy! It was the most amazing food I’ve ever eaten, covered with graham crackers and toffee…. yum!

And now for my ride recap.

I saw the guy with the yellow recumbent bike again.

I saw my first red poppies early in the ride.

Walburg, Texas. An old biergarten.

A couple of red poppies and cyclists.

I think these are poppies too, but they were more of a purple color.

This ride has quite a large contingent of motorcycle escorts. They were very helpful, keeping an eye on things and helping us cross some of the busier intersections. This guy was like my own personal escort for much of the ride checking in on me a number of times.

Wildflowers and I-35.

A llama and his pal the donkey were just hanging out watching us go by. Isn’t he the cutest?

This ride had the bumpiest roads I’ve ridden this year. It was like riding on gravel in some cases.

Red poppies at the rest stop!

The rest stop was in Schwertner, Texas – a little town with a big heart apparently.

It has a big church, of course.

The little towns we rode through mostly felt like old ghost towns.

In Granger, I saw an old city hall with a lion statue in front of it.

Across the street, a matching lion guarded the park.

It had an old hardware store.

And of course Granger has a big church!

Randomly, I saw a large metal rooster in a field. And I mean really large, this photo doesn’t do him justice.

So many bluebonnets!!

Bluebonnets and yellow flowers.

A country cemetery.

Luckily, the ride went in a loop so I was only in the wind for sections. A few times I found some groups to draft off of and it was wonderful. I thought you might enjoy seeing what I looked like after riding 103 miles – check out that hair! I was sporting my new Ireland bike jersey, a birthday gift from Dad and Ellen.

On Sunday my husband and I rode our bikes to check out the Mueller Farmer’s market for the first time. It was quite nice and we bought lots of great food. It was an 18 mile round trip and I used my commuter bike and panniers to bring home our goodies. I think we’ll do that again.