In an effort to keep my saddle time up, I looked on http://www.wheelbrothers.com for another bike rally this weekend. I found the Cow Creek Country Classic.
This ride, in its 29th year, is held in Waxahachie. It has distance options of 10, 17, 36, 52, 75, and 98 miles. While 75 and 98 would have certainly be doable, I opted for the 52 miler, as I didn't want to be gone all day, as I'm traveling starting tomorrow.
Last night the thought crept into my mind...I should "no-stop" this ride. If I'm going to race a 70.3 soon, I need to make sure that I can ride 56 miles non-stop. Over the past few rides, due to the need for nutrition and sore neck and back, I've utilized rest stops. I planned to go without today.
I arrived with plenty of time to spare, and popped a couple of Endurolytes. I filled my bottles with Gatorade and was ready to go. The weather was awesome. Cool and cloudy with no big wind to speak of.
The riders were released in stages, based on planned distance. So, about 10 minutes after the 75 and 98 milers left, we were off. The 1st several miles of this ride were goofy, as there were several turns, and we wound through several neighborhoods. As result, it was congested and difficult to build up any speed. Things finally thinned out a bit and I was off. As planned, I blew past the 1st rest stop. I was making decent time, although, I was only pacing at about 15.5 mph through the 1st 20 miles. I continued to ride past aid stations, and I was diligent about taking 2 Endurolytes and a Gu each hour.
I visited with a couple of other cyclists on this one, including a woman connected to Trident. We talked Tri's for a bit...mental note: research 70.3 in Sonoma (Vineman 70.3). She said it is awesome.
I continued to push hard and skip rest stops. I made the decision early to attempt to stay in the big chainring all day. I caught up to a woman at one point that was wearing a Waxahachie Cycling Club Jersey. I made some crack about "home course advantage" that led to us visiting for awhile. Little did I know that she and I would see a lot of each other over the last 25 miles or so.
My 2nd 20 miles was much faster, as I averaged a little over 16.8 mph. At one point, my new friend from Waxahachie caught up to me and made a crack that it had been fun chasing me for the past several miles. That was all I needed to push hard for the next few miles...well north of 20 mph. As a matter of fact, mile 44 was my 2nd fastest of the day, at 23.9 mph.
She and I rode together to the end, and visited a bit. The end of the ride was through downtown Waxahachie, which was cool, but, it led to some vehicle congestion, stop signs, and, right before the end we got stopped by a train. As we rolled through downtown, about a dozen assholes that were a little too excited about a t-shirt ride sped and weaved through traffic at about 30 without announcing their positions...idiots.
I finished strong...mission accomplished. No stopping, all big chainring. I got back to the Jeep and was disappointed I didn't bring my running shoes (planned to, but, forgot). I really wanted to crank out a 3 - 5 mile transition run.
So...
The goods:
- fairly flat, fast course (1545 feet of climbing, per Strava)
- hard, fast surfaces (surprisingly, not much chip seal)
- good start and finish location, with lots of parking
- not too congested of a ride
- good volunteers
- tech shirt
The bads:
- lots of unattended intersections
- several stop signs that were unattended (I got fortunate and was able to roll through all of them)
- The congested nature of the downtown area
I'll be back for this one next year.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/1047783581
https://www.strava.com/activities/334148381/overview
proud #notdead #waytoownit
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