Structured, But in a Good Way

If you haven't already figured it out, I like structure.  Heck, I even alphabetize my spice rack.  This past week has been a good example of how I'm structured about my cycling.

She's Going the Distance

Last Saturday I did the rescheduled April Fools Ride in Milledgeville.  Normally, this ride is held the Saturday closest to April 1.  However, it was postponed this year because of COVID-19.  The organizers did a great job working with pandemic requirements; it was a show-and-go start between 7:00 and 9:00 AM, and food and drinks were individually packaged at the rest stops.  Also, the T-shirt was so clever!

I had planned to ride the 80-mile option, but the night before, Robert decided to come with me.  He didn't want to ride quite that far, and so we did the 63-mile option.  That was fine with me because I still got a 100K for the Virtual Brevet Post-Season Play.  Also, it was really nice to have his company instead of riding solo.

The only downside, which was minor, was that I had to make up that mileage later in the week.  I joined the Strava July Cycling Distance Challenge, which is to ride 1,250 km in July.  I've only got through tomorrow, Friday, July 31, to get the total distance.  After doing the 63-mile option at last Saturday's April Fools Ride, I had about 131 miles left in the July Cycling Distance Challenge.

I had already planned a 50K dirt road ride for past Sunday.  So, that left me roughly 100 miles to do on Monday through Thursday this week, about 25 miles per day.  (I usually take Fridays off from working out.)  This certainly wasn't infeasible, but it was slightly more than I might do during a regular workweek.  Dirt was definitely out for this week - the only way I could get my remaining mileage was to stick with road riding.

On Monday I did Rabbit Skip Loop.  I've enjoyed this route for a number of years.  As a bonus, it's exactly 50K, and so I also knocked out another 50K for Virtual Brevet Post-Season Play.  Also, by doing a few extra miles on Monday, I had slightly more breathing room on mileage for the rest of the week.

(Sorry if it's confusing to switch back and forth between miles and km - that's the price we pay for being cyclists in the U.S. with its imperial unit system in a world that uses the metric system.)

I rode 22.5 miles on Tuesday and 20.2 miles yesterday.  My 26.6-mile ride to Hillsboro Lake today put me over the top!

QOMs

Amid my Cycling Distance Challenge shenanigans, I became fixated on Strava segments.  Not on getting QOMs per se but on getting Strava segments to work on my Wahoo.  A few months ago I made a halfhearted attempt at this but set it aside.  Then, in the last few weeks, I've lost a few nearby QOMs by mere seconds.  Argh!  If I could get Strava segments to work on my Wahoo, I could fine-tune my efforts to regain these QOMs.

As I did some Strava research, I discovered its Segment Explore feature.  It turns out that there are a lot more nearby Strava segments than I realized.  I've never attempted to the get the QOM on some of these segments, and a few I've never ridden at all.  I ought to have the QOMs in my own backyard, not some out-of-towner.  OK, I admit it - I like getting QOMs.

I knew that starring a particular segment in Strava should make it show up on my Wahoo.  The problem was that my Wahoo wasn't syncing properly.  In a nutshell, I finally got starred Strava segments to show up on my Wahoo by logging out and logging back into the Wahoo app on my phone.

I found a QOM on Hwy 212 that's on the inbound portion of Rabbit Skip Loop.  This became my first foray into using Strava segments on my Wahoo.  I felt good - actually, much better than average - on Monday's ride.  I took it fairly easy early in the ride, wanting to leave plenty of energy to attack the QOM climb in the later part.  Even with seemingly less effort, my speed was good.  That boded well.

From the segments screen on my Wahoo, I could see the approaching start of the segment, just as the road began to climb from a creek crossing.  800-some-odd feet... 600-some-odd feet...30-some-odd feet...

Go get it!

It was 1.4 miles at a 4.4% grade.  My Wahoo said the time to beat was 4:54.

Push it, push it, push it!  Steady, steady, steady!  Less than 5 minutes - you can do anything for 5 minutes.

I beat the time by 24 seconds.  However, t turns out that 4:54 was my previous personal record (PR).  I tied the existing QOM, which was 4:30.  Although Strava gave me the crown, I ain't gonna be co-queens with anyone.  So, I rode the segment again the next day to get the QOM outright.  On Tuesday's ride I went even harder and beat Monday's time by 10 seconds.  (That was painful...)  Now I really feel like I got the QOM.

So, what was the deal with my Wahoo showing my PR instead of the QOM?  I did some more research and learned that you can race against a specified target, your PR, or the QOM, according to that hierarchy.  However, strangely, you can't select your preference ahead of time; you have to do it after the segment starts.  I needed more data.

The primary goal of yesterday's ride was to see how this segment toggle feature worked.  I tried a segment on which I already had the QOM.  As I started the climb, I noted that the middle button at the bottom of Wahoo read VS, i.e., versus.  I pushed it, and the segment goal switched from PR to QOM.  That was it!  

The rest of yesterday's ride included four other segments on which I wanted to get the QOM.  First was a segment on Persons Street.  We call this Heartbreak Hill on the Deer Dash 5K (running), but interestingly, I had never ridden it before, or not with Strava anyway.  I got the QOM and discovered that I had to toggle to QOM again.  Each segment defaults to PR; it doesn't remain in QOM mode even though I specified that on the previous section.  That was good to know.

Next I rode out to Calvin Road.  I've ridden this road a lot, but there was a QOM I had never attempted.  I approached the start of the segment.  As soon as the timer started, I toggled to QOM mode.

Pedal, pedal, pedal!

I punished myself for 0.3 miles at a 4.2% grade.  My lungs actually hurt at one point.  (That's great training.)  My effort paid off; I got the QOM by 10 seconds.   

Only a few miles farther was my third segment of the day.  It was the hill next to the Monticello water treatment plant.  My friend Angie had me by 1 second!  She got it a few years ago on the BBQ Bass Ride.  I figured it wouldn't be terribly difficult to improve my PR by 2 seconds to get the QOM.  I underestimated how hard this segment would be.

My Wahoo was in QOM mode.  I was struggling to stay even with Angie's time, let alone get ahead by even a few seconds.

Don't give up.  Keep going.  Keep going.

I didn't think I got it.  My Wahoo said I set a PR, but it didn't indicate a QOM.  I must have gone 1 second faster and tied Angie.  However, when I got home and uploaded my data, I learned that I actually got the QOM by 1 second.  Whoa!  That was a surprise, but I'll take it.  Thinking on it further, I can see why my solo effort was so hard.  When Angie got the QOM during BBQ Bass a few years ago, we were riding in a hammerfest peloton.

I rode through downtown Monticello and headed south toward home.  I had one last segment to tackle, Highway 11 just outside the city limits, Hugh Tucker's Hill.  Even though I ride this way frequently, I don't think I had ever tried for the QOM.

One more lung buster!  Follow through!  I got it by 18 seconds.

I wanted to ride at least 20 miles, and so I did a short out-and-back stretch near home at a moderate pace.  I was glad my hard efforts were over for the day!

Overall, that was a fun way to do intervals.  Robert reminded me about Phil Gaimon.  He's a pro racer who has had fun in the "Worst Retirement Ever" (seriously, it's a YouTube series) by going for some of the toughest KOMs in the country.  I doubt I'll travel very far to get more QOMs, but maybe I'll design some future interval workouts around Strava segments.

Double Rock Effigy Ride

As the spring Virtual Brevet Series wound down, I decided to continue doing a 200K a month.  Then, good ol' George added Virtual Brevet Post-Season Play, which runs from July 11 - December 31, 2020.  Extra motivation!  Here are the Post-Season Play categories:

The Rando Series (one ride per month)
Six 50Ks
Six 100Ks
Six 200Ks

The Super Series (two rides per month)
Twelve 50Ks
Twelve 100Ks
Twelve 200Ks

The Ultra Series (four rides per month)
Twenty-four 50Ks
Twenty-four 100Ks
Twenty-four 200Ks

Riders can mix and match distances from different categories or pursue individual distances and not others. I've set a goal of the 200Ks in the Rando Series, the 100Ks in the Super Series, and the 50Ks in the Ultra Series.

I'm also trying to come up with interesting themes for my 200Ks. Last Saturday I did a Double Rock Effigy Ride.  There are two rock effigies of birds, created by Native Americans, in Putnam County to the east of where I live.  One is Rock Eagle, and the other is Rock Hawk.  Only two such bird effigies have been discovered east of the Mississippi River, and amazingly, both are in Putnam County.  It’s not known exactly how old they are, but white settlers learned about them when they moved into the area in the early 1800s.

Rock Eagle is much better known than Rock Hawk because there is a 4-H camp and conference center at Rock Eagle.  (I went to Rock Eagle myself several times during high school for the state Latin convention - good times!)  Rock Hawk is associated with Lawrence Shoals Park, which is a Georgia Power park.

I started my ride with a visit to the Monticello farmers market.  I saw a vendor who had the item I wanted.  A woman in front of me got the exact same thing from this vendor, a pound of homegrown tomatoes.  When she finished her purchase, I said, “I’ll have what she’s having.”  Neither one got my joke.

I swung back by my house to drop off the tomatoes and continued on my route.  It was a beautiful, very warm morning.  I enjoyed the quiet rural roads.  I knew I needed to fuel regularly, and so I stopped at about mile 32.  Putnam County Primary School in Eatonton had a nice covered outdoor classroom area with benches, perfect for a snack.

The next part of my route was supposed to be out and back to Rock Hawk.  (Supposed to be...more on that in a moment.)  I went on some excellent roads east of Eatonton that I had only ridden a couple of times before.  They were so scenic, the pavement was in great shape, and there was very little traffic.  As I headed toward the community of Rockville, I was delighted to see several signs that used the Uncle Remus critters to encourage people not to litter.  Joel Chandler Harris, who penned the Uncle Remus stories, grew up in Putnam County.

Robert and I had ridden to Rock Hawk several years ago, but obviously I took a slightly different route last Saturday because I encountered an unexpected dirt road!  It was fairly gravelly, and so I was glad to make it through without a flat (good ol’ Gator Skin tires).  Before I got to the dirt road, I went through Rockville.  I remembered this from my previous ride to Rock Hawk.  I took a picture of the sign on my way through, intending to be ironic (a la REM) and take another picture on the way back.  However, the irony was that when I slightly rerouted on the way back from Rock Hawk to avoid the dirt road, I heeded REM’s advice after all and didn’t go back to Rockville.

Following my singular visit to Rockville and successful navigation of the dirt road, I made it to Lawrence Shoals Park.  I rode to the Rock Hawk effigy and climbed the viewing tower.

After another quick refueling, I headed back toward Eatonton.  I'm still avoiding convenience stores as much as possible because of the pandemic. It's easy to carry plenty of food, but I knew my two water bottles and two large containers of Powerade wouldn't be enough.  I stopped by Eatonton Presbyterian Church, a sister church to my own Monticello Presbyterian Church, and was glad to find an outdoor spigot.

Well equipped once again, I began the section to Rock Eagle.  It was getting hot, but the excellent roads were a good counterbalance.  Although I had seen a few people around Rock Hawk, the Rock Eagle grounds were completely deserted.  I had the effigy all to myself.

I sat at the foot of the stairs in the viewing tower and ate half a sandwich.  Although I really wasn't hungry and actually felt a little barfy, I knew I needed fuel.

I’m pretty heat resilient, but it was tough last Saturday (mid 90s and high humidity). I felt particularly rough from about mile 80 to 100. When I got to mile 100, I made it a true rando ride; I found some shady trees a little way off the road and lay down for a nap. I felt much better for the final 25 miles.

After I got home and took a shower, Robert and I headed to his parents' house next door for happy hour on their deck, social distancing style.  We haven't seen them much during the pandemic, and so it was such a nice way to spend some time with them.

When I told them about my randonneuring nap that afternoon, my mother-in-law reminded me of a funny story about William Fleming "Willie Flem" Jordan, a colorful character in the Jordan family tree.  Apparently, Willie Flem would have made a good randonneur.  Thank you to J.S. "Chick" Wilson for the following account from Museum Notes, his book about Jasper County history:

He dressed in old clothes as well as an old Army or Navy overcoat.  He usually carried a cane pole and was always ready to drop a hook into the water.  He could fish all day in one spot and one position.  If he tired as he left the fishing hole and walked back toward town, he would sometimes lie down beside the road for a nap.  He did that one day near the end of Eatonton Street.

A man from out of town saw him, stopped his car, and approached.  "Mister, Mister, are you OK???" the man asked loudly.  After a few attempts to get a response, Mr. Willie rose up and said, "I was until some fool stranger came along and woke me up."

There are lots of great Willie Flem stories, but I also have a personal connection to the one about him riding his horse into the courthouse.  I channeled Willie Flem several years back when I rode my bicycle into the church fellowship hall for a cycling presentation.

Willie Flem is my spirit animal.

BBQ Bass Ride 2020

Last Saturday Robert and I had our annual BBQ Bass ride.  It's a far cry from our first one back in 1998.  On that one about three friends joined us, and we rode maybe 25 miles total, stopping about halfway at Tillman's BBQ in Hillsboro.  Things have been different in more recent years.  We've added miles and friends.  Tillman's BBQ is no longer there, and we've found it's much better to eat BBQ at the end of the ride, particularly because the rides are usually more like 75 miles.

This year's BBQ Bass Ride was slightly scaled down in mileage and participants.  In recent years we've often had 25 to 30 people, but we tried to keep it smaller this year due to the roni.  People generally did a good job of not sitting or standing too close to each other.  Robert and I also tried to keep it safe food-wise.  We asked everyone to bring their own bike food, and the BBQ was served in individual containers rather than shared serving containers.  Being outside helped a lot.  We didn't advertise the ride very much but still wound up with a slightly larger group than we anticipated, 16 riders.  Also, had Robert and I known a few weeks ago that Georgia COVID-19 cases would spike, we probably would have cancelled this year's event.  But I'll focus on the the positives, which were the ride itself, the beautiful weather, and seeing some cyclopeeps I hadn't seen in quite a while.

Robert created a metric century (approximately 62-mile) route that headed east to Putnam County.  We all gathered in the Jordan Engineering parking lot and headed out at 9:00 AM.  I loved being able share our great local roads with friends from Macon and Milledgeville.  It wasn't too hot, either; temperatures didn't get into the 90s until the end of the ride.

Avery, a Jordan Engineering employee, and his girlfriend drove the SAG truck and met us at our refreshment stop, the Willard fire station.

I love this picture of Tony and Cody!

Robert urged everyone not to make it a hammerfest.  It was quite moderate before the stop.  Although it picked up a little in the final miles, it never got as crazy as in some past years.  I was glad the group mostly stayed together.

Morgan, Jordan Engineering's intern, picked up Fresh Air BBQ for us, which we enjoyed when we got back to the parking lot.

Of course, I had to maintain one of our newer traditions, having Laverne Howard's fried pies with our BBQ lunch!  I placed an order with her ahead of time and picked them up at the farmers market that morning before the ride started.  Woo hoo!  Fried pies!  A = apple, P = peach, SP = salt & pepper (just kidding! SP = sweet potato)

I heart my cyclopeeps!

Not on the sign-in list: Angie Childre, Graham Skardon, Robert, and me