Are there any true road races in this area? I'm not sure. The driveway has a regular series, but those are crits on a short closed course. I've seen a few time trial events here and there. The people I know who race travel a lot.

This heat is bull**** and I can't stand it. I don't know wtf I'm going to do. Going in to work this morning wasn't too bad but coming home was pure ****. It was like 103 degrees, the air was lung-searing, I went through 3 bottles of water and had to stop about 2/3 of the way home to rest in the shade. My HR was at 150+ pretty much the whole time and my power output was below 150.

I gotta find some time I can ride longish distances when it's not so hot. I guess getting up even earlier.

How long have you lived here?

I've lived in TX since I was 9, barring a year or two in other places. I've lived in Austin 7 years, dallas probably like 10 years, and houston the rest. I am fine with the heat - just not riding in it. This is basically the first summer I've ridden through the heat.

I rode about 2-3 times a month last summer:
62 miles in june
123 miles in july
38 miles in august (lol)

I've ridden 380 miles so far this june - more volume than my highest month last year. So it's an improvement over previous years, I'm really shooting for about 7 hours/week (110-120 mi/week)

I just looked at the strava of someone I work with, a cat 3 racer. He has some rides in the absolute worst heat of the day but a lot more starting around 7. That might help... some. At 7 today it was only 96 and by 8 it was 93.

ahhh......

This is probably not helpful but when I was running more 2 years ago during that brutal summer, soaking my head was an immense help. Instant relief and energy. There are a couple of showers on the trail so it was easy. Probably impossible on a bike, though.

I've started getting up at 5:30 on Sunday and hitting the road ~ 6:00 AM. Need a tailight at that hour tho, but it is just getting light enough no headlight required.

103 sucks but you just have to slow down. Having an extra bottle of cold water to soak your head is not a bad idea, either.

Yeah I might have to do that. It essentially means always riding alone but I guess that's OK. Honestly how bad a ride is really has varied a lot. I went riding last saturday and it was fine (although I only got about 18 miles in before I wrecked a wheel). I've been drinking as much as I can stand, aiming for about 2 bottles/hour when feasible, one sports drink and one water.

Regarding my wheel... I went on a regular 47 mile ride on saturday, about 1/3 of the way through I ran over something hard and sharp. I insta-flatted and got off to replace the tube. I saw about a 1/2" gash in the face of the tire. I took the tube out and replaced it, without checking anything else. Kinda dumb, but sort of standard if you know the cause of the flat. As soon as I put the wheel back on the bike it instantly exploded.

Took the tire off and looked at the rim, realized I had about a 1/2" x 1/4" gash in the rim itself. Ride over. I called a cab and headed home. Got the rim replaced yesterday (I actually had a spare rim from the wheel that came with the bike). Total cost about $150 including the taxi ride. Kind of a bummer but not the end of the world.

While I was waiting for the taxi I tried to find the culprit but failed.

This is pretty much what I try to get down, a bottle of water and one of gatorade per hour. You've got the polar insulated bottles, correct? Or something similiar?
http://www.polarbottle.com/


Sorry to hear about your wheel. I had my derailer get caught in my rear wheel last week. For the second time in 2 years. Last year a dog t-boned me and must have bent my derailer in. This year I have been really careful but somehow had the same issue. I may have to switch from double chain ring to a triple if I keep having issues.

I have several of those and about a hundred uninsulated ones (they give them out like candy). I usually just grab whatever, I don't really mind warm water.

Don't think I've ever seen that particular thing happen

The guys at the bike shop were not really too surprised, so I don't think it is totally unique. I think triples are more susceptible to this than doubles or compact doubles. Getting to be an expensive hobby though, when it happens annually.

Rode tuesday with a few friends, casual/easy ride. Rode thursday with some people I really enjoy riding with, a relaxed but diligent 55 miles, mostly hanging out around 16 mph with some hard/fast sections.

Today I rode one of the Bicycle Sport Shop club rides. Not bad. I'm planning to join a racing club for the coming year, probably this one, Mellow Johhny's or Violet Crown. Kind of leaning toward Violet Crown, they seem a little more focused (BSS has several racing clubs and therefore the weekly rides are a bit more varied between road, MTB and tri stuff). For example they have 4 regular rides per week that are all oriented toward race preparation.

Anyway, the ride was pretty good, the people were mostly the kind of people I like to ride with, friendly, alert, respectful to each other and to cars/pedestrians. Kind of an interesting thing happened. We stopped midway to rest after a climb and a few people started talking about the strava segment coming up, a steep but short climb. One of the guys was currently #2 on the segment, and basically 2 other guys offered to put him in the #1 spot. I didn't get to watch the whole thing since I was suffering up the hill myself, but I think the way it worked was that guy A pulled guy B and C down the hill then peeled off. Guy B pulled part of the way up the hill and then peeled off, then guy C went for it the rest of the way. He beat the record by 1s.

I've always suspected that at this point all the strava records are either flukes (I have a few KOMs that come from amazing weather conditions) or teamwork (actually, on one of these BSS rides last week they worked together and the ENTIRE GROUP broke the record). In another year or two I think most of the records will be virtually unbreakable.

I am sore ALL OVER. Went kayaking yesterday so my shoulders and arms are a little sore. Probably going to skip cycling for the next week to reduce the load a little bit, been working out 6 days/week.

Haven't been keeping up with logging but that's not because I've been (badly) slacking off. I took off a week 2 weeks ago, and then had an involuntary week off the bike because it rained all week. I'm back to regularly lifting weights (2x/week, about all I can sustain with everything else). I haven't been logging that but I'm going to start again.

Lifts are going OK, although they're getting tough again. Had something funny happen last night. Was having trouble with bench press. Decided to take a longer than usual break between sets, and browsed the computer for 5min. Came back to do the last set, sort of forgot where I was/what I was doing, and hastily unracked the weight, not thinking about how heavy it had been. I almost insta-dropped it onto myself. Well, it seemed funny at the time.

Exercise	Reps
Bench press	5x65, 5x105, 5x135, 5x130, 5x130
Squat	5x65, 5x105, 5x145, 5x140, 5x140
OHP	5x35, 5x55, 5x70, 5x70, 5x65
DL	5x115, 5x165, 5x195

Rode bike this morning: http://app.strava.com/activities/69200274
Went pretty good, rode nice and hard, was maintaining about 19.5-20mph for the first 2/3 and then turned head first into the wind and slowed down to more like 16.5 for a lot of the rest. Ended up averaging around 18.1mph with around a 200 watt effort on avg.

I don't know why OHP is so hard for me - everyone else I know who's my size has no problems with 100lb+

I forgot to mention, I'm trying to lose a little weight. Since may my volume is way down (average of 800 miles/month to more like 350-400) but I was still kinda eating like I was riding 800+. I put on probably 5lb since then (my weight is up more than 5 but I also started taking creatine, so... hard to say)

Anyway, aiming for .5-1 lb/week. 150g protein + whatever else I want to fill the rest. Mostly lean meats and vegetables. Regarding riding I count every ride as 1/2 of calories burned and usually eat all of that during the ride or immediately before/after.

I am guessing this will make lifting harder but I'm still in the beginner phases so it might be OK.

Regarding the heat, my wife bought me one of these like two summers ago:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FROGG-TOGGS-...9873%26ps%3D54

I never tried it until I rode the TDP last weekend. I have to say, it seems to help a lot. I wear about like she has it, just inside my jersey. I thought it might be annoying because when you wet it seems heavy, but it didn't bother me on the bike at all. I used it again on last nights ride, and I swear my heart rate recovered to a lot lower level between efforts than it does without. Maybe it is all placebo effect, etc, but I will continue to use mine.

That's funny, I actually have one of those, never could figure out what to do with it, i'll try it

Give it a try, I'd like to know what you think about it.

http://app.strava.com/activities/69694261
Rode in to work today, on a totally different route - and I like it a lot. It's about 2 miles shorter than my usual route (which is not surprising, my usual route is optimized for time/convenience and not distance) but it also was way shorter in time. It was 1:07 door to door, wheras my usual ride is more like 1:20 at minimum. The moving time was maybe 5 minutes shorter than my *best* time to work on my other route, probably 10 minutes better than my average. So I think I'll stick with it.

It's also just a nice ride. Mostly through the countryside, or what passes for it here. I didn't see a traffic light until 5 miles in and didn't see my 2nd one until 10 miles in.

Friday: lifted weights. Tired as ****, basically just aimed to do about the same or a little better.

Lift	Reps
Bench	65x5, 115x5, 135x5, 135x5, 130x5
Squats	65x5, 115x5, 145x5, 140x5, 135x5
OHP	35x5, 55x5, 70x5, 70x5, 70x5
DL	115x5, 165x5, 200x5

Saturday: http://app.strava.com/activities/70223103
Went riding. It was 97% humidity and a total **** show. I went to a regular group ride but I'd invited someone. He hadn't showed when they were ready to leave so I stayed to wait for him. At 15min after the time we were supposed to meet, he wasn't there or responding to texts so I decided to go ahead and go. After like 10 minutes sweat is pouring off me and I'm soaked, might as well be raining. I get about 20 miles in and turn back. On the way down a very steep hill I get a pinch flat.

Trying to get the tire off I break both of my tire levers - it's a new gatorskin tire with a metal bead, these ****ers are so hard to get off/on. Some kind person stops and helps me get it off. I wave him on since I have all the stuff I need. I get the new tube on and try to get the tire back on, and totallllly fail. I get huge blisters on both thumbs, I'm about to cry and throw the ****ing thing into the river under me (I'm on a bridge). Someone else stops and between us we force the thing back on. I pedal home, stopping at a shop to buy more tires and new tire levers. Strava is missing 7-8 miles at the end, didn't restart after hitting the shop

Today: http://app.strava.com/activities/70463095
went kayaking for 2 hours. Tried to do 30 minutes at a time without stopping. Averaged about 3.5 mph including rests, over 4mph without. I really like it, especially alone (I put headphones in, listen to music or audiobooks)

Lifted weights monday

Lift	Reps
Bench Press	65.0x5, 115.0x5, 140.0x5, 135.0x4, 130.0x5
Squats	85x5, 115x5, 150x5, 150x5, 140x5
OHP	45x5, 55x5, 75x5, 75x5, 65x5
DL	115x5, 165x5, 205x5

Was supposed to ride today but I have a scheduling conflict so I'll ride tomorrow, which was supposed to be a rest day, and rest today.

http://app.strava.com/activities/71160757
Went for a ride this morning. Was planning to ride to work. I bought I bike rack and some panniers to take my laptop to work with, but couldn't get the ****ing thing mounted. Since I had my laptop at home I just did a ride at home, 22 miles. Went OK.

I sometimes feel bad because I have obviously lost a lot of capability since my peak in May. But I guess I'm kind of OK with it, I haven't been working hard at all. It may make more sense to compare "today" with "this time last year".

Well, last July I rode 123 miles total, in 8 hours 10 minutes, i.e. 15.63 mph
This July I rode 270 miles, in 16 hours, an average of 16.88 mph. This included a rest week where I did nothing at all, and a week where I couldn't ride most of the week because it rained every day.

I rode 425 miles this june, compared to 62 miles last year in june. 425 miles in a month is actually bigger than my largest volume month in 2012 (303 miles). And I used to think I rode a lot.

So, I guess, not bad.

http://app.strava.com/activities/71629924
Went for a ride this morning. Got a late start because I slept in. No biggie, though, since I'm working from home today. The heat definitely wears on you. A ride like this in the spring, my HR averages like 145. When it's hot like this I average more like 160.

My goal for the summer was to try to maintain somewhat. My power over long distances is about the same as in the spring, my power over short distances has dropped a lot - probably part of this is that it's just so hard to bang out a few minutes at 400 watts when it's hot/humid.

When you're at a decent level you're never going to be able to sustain your peak. What's important is that you're now at what you consider a bit of a low, yet you're still smashing last year. I love looking back at earlier training because sometimes every session feels like a grind and like you're just not getting anywhere, but then you look back and realise how far you've come.

I know sustaining the peak is impossible but I'm so far down from there it's not even funny. I'm like back where I was in, say, January. And it really only took a month to fall that far back.

Well you haven't been riding as much, and the weather sucks for riding by the sounds of it. The base that you're working off is way improved from last year so if you need to build up to a peak again you're going to be in at least as good a spot, but more likely better, than when you built up to your May peak.

Yeah I'm more or less resigned to it. I started this year in september so I am getting pretty tired of this bull**** and looking forward to a few months off (from regular cycling)