White Rock Lake | Biking To Live

The tale of the belt

Posted by Bryan on May 27, 2009 in Blog, My Rides, White Rock Lake | 10 comments

I’ve been absent here for a week or so while I launch an affiliate website but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped riding. On the contrary, I rode pretty hard last week and had a good ride last night.

After some of my recent problems riding down at White Rock Lake (rude cyclists and races) I’ve done some riding around the loop we use for our Monday evening training rides. It is kinda boring but there’s no traffic and the only real hazard is gettingtaken out by an airplane. The picture below is of some of the flowers on the loop. It’s actually quite pretty and is like that for the entire .8 mile loop.

loop-flowers1 I decided last week that I needed to step up my efforts in my rides because I felt like I was becoming accustomed to what I was doing. The first big change I made was to start riding on the big ring. I’m not exactly sure why I haven’t done this before now. I think I was holding back because of the hills (that I’m not used to). After the Monday evening training ride last week where we actually did some big ring work I felt more comfortable turning it.

Wednesday last week instead of doing my normal hill repeat day I decided to head to the loop and see how hard I could push myself. I did a warm-up of five miles that was probably in the 14 mph range followed by a hard 15 miles where at times I was averaging well over 20 mph a lap. In the end I rode the 20 miles at a 16.2 mph average which is huge for me.

Because the holiday weekend was over I decided to head down to White Rock Lake to get a ride in. I, again, wanted to push myself hard to see what I could do around the lake since I was riding a bigger gear now. The wind was supposed to be around 10 mph out of the SSE with gusts to 15 mph but an approaching thunderstorm had the gusts probably close to 20 mph and a steady wind of 15 mph. That’s all headwind on one side of the lake depending on the direction you ride. I rode into the headwind for the first half and pushed myself pretty hard all the way around staying in my 52T ring the whole way. All told I rode about 15 miles with a 15.2 mph average. I believe my previous best average around the lake is in the neighborhood of 14.5. I wanted to do another loop but the approaching thunderstorm didn’t look pretty.

I have to say the biggest change I’ve seen is my riding on the hills. I am now able to ride up them easier and more aggressive (I actually try to think of attacking them before I get to them). In fact, I rode all the hills last night in the big gear which really surprised me. I think I can contribute this to a couple of factors:

I’m getting used to the hills.
My fitness may be starting to improve.

I expected #1 to eventually happen but I think my biggest surprise is #2. Looking at the speed I was able to carry on the two rides I talked about above, along with the improved hill riding, I think my fitness maybe starting to turn around and be on an upward trend.

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen though is actually on my belt. I have been doing more riding the past 1.5 months (probably averaging about 70 miles a week) and have really tried to control my diet. There are days that my diet lapses but for the most part I’ve been very strict with it. I just need to tighten the belt (pardon the pun) and stick with the diet better.

Like I said, the biggest change I’ve seen is on my belt. I’ve already had to tighten it two holes and only have one left to go on this belt. When I moved out here from Florida I intentionally brought two smaller belts I’ve had for a while with every intention of being able to use them. I might be able to reach that goal in the next couple of months.

20 great miles and jerks on bicycles

Posted by Bryan on May 17, 2009 in Blog, My Rides, White Rock Lake | 10 comments

I’ve ridden several times this week but haven’t since, I believe, Thursday and that wasn’t a great ride. It was kind of a downer week at work and just haven’t felt great all week. It rained all day yesterday so if I was going to get a ride in this weekend it had to be today.

I arrived down at White Rock Lake at about 8:30 and it was beautiful. What clouds there were were starting to dissipate and it was a nice 55F. Just cool enough for a long sleeve jersey. That was good because my long sleeve jersey is the only one I have that fits well.

: Image via Wikipedia

I headed out and within about a half-mile I started to see some orange cones on the trail and lots of people. Looks like there was another race today. Turns out it was the 13th Annual North Trail Half Marathon. It looks like they didn’t mind the cyclists riding on the trail so I kept going. A little while later it got kind of crowded and I almost turned around to head back to the car. Instead I moved over to a service road to get around the crowd and that solved the problem. There were other areas that it got crowded as well so I patiently waited until I had an opportunity to pass.

Now it’s time for a rant. There were several cyclists who were not near as patient as me and used the runners as their personal obstacle course. There was one cyclist in particular who pulled a very, very dangerous move one a narrow downhill section. I knew he was behind me but I guess he got tired of waiting and decided to pass. In this particular section, there were runners and walkers on both sides of the trail. The jerk in question decided to make a high-speed pass around me, go between two pairs of runners and came very close to taking out an elderly gentleman and his wife who were out for a nice morning walk going in the opposite direction. I saw the faces of the elderly couple as he went by and he really scared them. I was so ticked off.

Unfortunately, events like that take place quite a bit out at White Rock Lake. It’s a multi-use trail that’s utilized by runners, walkers, cyclists, and roller bladers. The cyclists are always the fastest people on the trail so you end up passing a lot of people. Very few cyclists though have the common courtesy to let you know they’re passing you. They’ll simply blow by you, sometimes coming very close, and don’t say a word. It’s so easy to say “on your left” to let the person know that you’re passing. No wonder cyclists get a bad reputation sometimes.

Dallas Cyclists – get your bike ready for Bike To Work Week

Posted by Bryan on May 7, 2009 in Blog, News | 2 comments

Dart Bike To Work Week

For those that don’t know May is National Bike Month and next week, for many cities, is Bike to Work Week. I wanted to draw the attention of my Dallas readers (not sure I have any…but in case I do) to an event this Saturday that’s sponsored by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), the DART Bike and Ride Advisory Panel, the DART Bicycle Club and the City of Dallas – Parks and Recreation Department.

Bike to Work Week – May 11 – 15 – is coming up fast! Are you and your bike ready? Do you know how to use the bike racks on DART buses and trains?

“Get Ready to Safely Bike to Work Week”
Saturday, May 9, 9 a.m. – Noon
White Rock Lake – Winfrey Point

FREE
* bike minor tune-ups – proper fitting, air, and brake adjustments – from local bicycle shops
* T-shirts, headbands and wrist straps
* water and other refreshments
* demonstrations of how to load and unload your bike on the new DART bus bike racks, etc.

If I were going to be in town this weekend I’d probably time my Saturday ride to be able to check this out.

Is your city doing anything for National Bike Month or Bike to Work Week? Tell us about it in the comments.

Good hill repeat ride this evening

Posted by Bryan on May 6, 2009 in Bike Maintenance, Blog, Cycling and Weight Loss Report, My Rides, White Rock Lake | 0 comments

Today is Wednesday so I headed down to Flagpole Hill near White Rock Lake to get my hill repeats in. My ride itself was actually pretty boring. I did five repeats up the hill to start with (five miles with the recovery sections), then headed to the lake for one loop (12 miles), and then one more time up the hill (about one mile). All told I was right at 18 miles for the ride. I think my legs were still a little heavy from the one-leg drills on Monday but I needed a good hard ride.

When I road around the lake I was really surprised to see all the trash still there from the weekends heavy rains. They had cleared the debris from the trail but the trash was still there. They have volunteer Saturdays to pick up trash but with it as bad as it is I’m surprised the parks department here in Dallas hasn’t taken care of it. Maybe there’s a reason they haven’t such as money.

I also saw a couple of groups rowing out on the lake. If I counted correctly each of the shells had 8 people in them. Pretty cool.

I’m a little concerned about my bike. My rear rim is working its way out of true and making some noise again, the front brake is giving me problems and my front hub doesn’t feel right. I may forgo rides tomorrow and Friday so I can give it a good once over up at my Mom’s house this weekend where I can use my Dad’s shop. I probably need to take it in for a complete overhaul when I have the cash. I just have a feeling it needs more love than my maintenance skills can give it.

With me having problems with my rear rim again I’m becoming more convinced that I need to invest in a set of wheels that can support me better. Maybe the Velocity Deep V rims that jaxgtr keeps talking about. My rear rim was replaced about 8 months ago when I noticed a problem at the seam. I almost wonder if this new rim isn’t as sturdy as the original was. The bad thing is that the Velocity rims will set me back about $280 and I’m concerned about the rear spacing because of my bike being older. I would have to take it to the bike shop for some advice. The only problem is that I haven’t found a shop I’m comfortable with yet.

The best laid plans are…well, you know

Posted by Bryan on May 3, 2009 in Bicycle Parts, Bike Maintenance, Blog, My Rides, Nutrition, Recipes | 6 comments

As I write this I’m watching the Tour of Romandie coverage on Versus. I’m blown away by the conditioning of the riders and how fast they can ride. Equally impressive is the countryside there in Switzerland. Hard to believe how green the fields are. Just awesome.

I took Friday evening off from riding so that I could do some work on my bike and be fully prepared and rested for a hard Saturday ride. I planned on getting up early on Saturday, heading out to White Rock Lake for an early morning ride and, in the words of Phil Liggett, “suffer like a dog”. At least that was the plan.

Friday evening I did something to my bike that was long, long, long overdue. Get my point? I don’t think you do. I mean something like 8 years overdue. You see, 8 years ago was the last time that I think it could have been replaced when I had my bike overhauled and the brake cables were replaced. I’m talking about replacing my handlebar tape.

I had never done this myself but wasn’t afraid to try. I watched the video over at Bicycle Tutor and did it with no problems. The feel after I was done was amazing. I couldn’t believe I had waited so long to do it. I also gave everything else on the bike a good once over and it all seemed in order.

I got up early Saturday morning, had breakfast and headed down to White Rock Lake. I knew something was amiss when I started seeing orange cones at the entrances to the parking areas along with police offers. I stopped to talk with one of the officers and he said the lake was closed for the race….like I knew what ‘the race’ was. I could see some runners with numbers on their jerseys so it had to be a running race (yuck!) but I could see a few cyclists out there riding. I tried to find another place to park but they had everything blocked off. I finally gave up and decided to head to the .8 mile loop where I’ve been doing my group ride training. That’s when the rain started.

And it rained almost all day. There was drizzle, lightning, thunder, gully washers and wind. You may have heard about the Dallas Cowboys practice facility that collapsed. That’s probably about 20 minutes or so from where I live. There was no way I was riding on Saturday unless it was on the Ark.

Chicken and Linguini

Saturday night I put my culinary skills to use and decided to give the recipe I saw over at Cycling Tips a try. It’s super simple and turned out great if I do say so myself. It’s linguine topped grilled chicken, avocado, tomatoes and olives. There’s a picture of the dish to the right.

Sunday morning dawned overcast but it wasn’t raining. It was chili too at only 58F. I suited up and headed out to the lake. In the parking lot I was putting my bike together when a runner went by and said, “You’re brave riding today.” I asked why and he said because of the wet roads. I said I need to get it in and he responded that that’s the right attitude. I agree.

Spillway at White Rock Lake

I headed out and within about a half-mile noticed a big problem. The huge amount of rain we had gotten yesterday had caused the lake to swell overnight. The water wasn’t a problem because it had receded but the debris it left behind was. I’m talking big tree limbs, small limbs, slush, and trash. Huge amounts of trash. I couldn’t believe the trash. Totally unreal. There were three of four spots where this debris covered the trail and you were really taking a chance riding through it. I did with no problems but could have easily dumped myself too. The picture to the left is of the spillway at the South end of the lake. It’s hard to see but the water was seriously moving over the spillway and throwing up a good spray and a lot of noise. Totally cool.

The rest of the ride around was no problem but I decided to only do one lap so I didn’t have to mess with the debris again. It was a short 10 miles but tomorrow is group ride training day. Looking forward to that. And suffering like a dog.