SpencerWon

Spencer has been itching to ride some of the LIVESTRONG Challenge 45 mile course. We wanted to do it to build confidence, ease fears, and find any rough spots. I had high confidence based on our past rides that he has the stamina and will to do the course, so we went ahead and picked what I think are the hardest 25 miles of the 45 mile course.

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Rachel and Jacob were driving SAG for us with plans to meet on Creek Rd after they stopped for lunch and played at a playground in Dripping Springs. The wind was from the SSW so it was helpful during the first part of the ride (Pump Station Rd, Mt. Sharp Rd, Mt. Gainor Rd), a little challenging when we turned west (Creek Rd), but almost irrelevant as we slogged up the hills heading to the south (Pursley Rd) since we were going so slow. On the way up Pump Station and Mt. Sharp, passed a pair on tandem and two solo riders. Spencer was strong and maintaining a good pace (about 12 MPH rolling average). No problems as we continued along Mt. Gainor Rd so I called Rachel and told her to skip the planned stop and meet us on Mt. Gainor Rd near the end of Pursley (about 22 miles into the ride, just to replenish food and liquid and consider how far we could keep going.

Spencer was nervous about all of the cattle guards on Pursley Rd (I lost count, but it’s around 10), but after he did a couple he started loving them and did a great job making a controlled approach without slowing down too much and avoiding torquing while going over the metal. He’ll do fine on ride day, probably better than most of the adults. He attacked the hills on Pursley and, although I heard occasional whines and grunts, he stayed ahead of me until the last few hills. At that point, I decided to rabbit for him and stayed ahead right at the edge of his doable pace.

By the time we got to Rachel, he was jazzed again and we rode 3 more miles along Mt. Sharp so we could go past where rest stop 2 will be on the Challenge and take the first turn after it. He wanted to keep going, but Jacob was bored out of his skull in the SAG vehicle so we called it quits.

After today’s performance, we don’t need to ride the course again, but we agreed to head out Friday or Monday (school closed for teacher work days) and ride the rest of Mt. Sharp Rd and all of Jacob’s Well Rd (which Jacob tells us he built all by himself - he’s quite proud of how smooth it is and how good the low water crossings are).

Please donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation to support Spencer’s ride.

I promised I would talk about the training plan for the LIVESTRONG Challenge, so here it is. The LAF have kindly made a LIVESTRONG Challenge 40 mile training plan available for riders. Spencer and I are basically following the plan. The two changes. First, I am making our weekend rides longer since we are riding at a slower pace than the plan-maker likely assumed. This will let us get closer to riding the full distance and thus be more prepared. Second, I am mostly ignoring the “ST” marks which are days to build in hill training. Instead, I have been working in plenty of hills in our regular neighborhood rides and we are planning for our week 10 and 11 (and maybe 9?) long ridesto be on the Challenge course.

This week we are on week 7. We two one hour rides around the neighborhood, both with average speed of 11 MPH. We are trying to do the 45 mile in under five hours of ride time, so we’re plenty on target.
Today was a new longest ride ever for Spencer with another trip to the Austin Veloway. We did 7 laps, totaling 21.7 miles in 1:56:36. Best lap was 14:25.4, worst was 17:47.6 (which included a clipless pedal mishap, might need to tighten the pedals a little). Average pace 11.2. Overall slower than our last visit to the Veloway, but still on target for speed and no problem tiring Spencer out even after almost 22 miles.

As a side-effect of signing up for the LIVESTRONG Challenge bicycle ride, we got entries into the 5k on October 25. I decided I would actually go ahead and do the training program they have at the My LIVESTRONG site. I don’t really figure I need Spencer to do this; the bike riding is enough demonstration of his fitness. I’m the one who needs to get in shape. This week that started calling for running. Normally, I only run when I am being chased, but I’m making a special exception. As a result, I’ve gone for four runs (or walk/runs) in the last two weeks.

Let’s tell it like it is: I suck at running. My form is marginal. I’m far too heavy. I’m incredibly slow. Last night, I managed to do 1.5 miles in 16 minutes. I am not at risk of being competitive in a marathon. But you know what? I like it. It’s making me feel, much more concretely than bicycling does, that I am doing something for my health. I can already run longer and faster than I could two weeks ago. My walks are getting easier, too. I might make this a habit.

Anyway, I’m off for a one hour walk. Later today Spencer and I will do a one hour bicycle ride.

This week, the training plan has us building up ride times with two one hour rides during the week and an hour and a half over the weekend. Jacob was home sick Monday and Tuesday, so we didn’t get to ride either day. Today we got in the first hour.

We rode out to the main street through our development, did three laps of that (3.5 miles each) and then headed home. Total ride time 61 minutes for an 11.1 mile course with 3 stops for water.

Spencer was using his clipless pedals for the first time on the solo bike. He had a couple of spills at stops, but not from the pedals. He keeps trying to keep the bike totally vertical when he puts a foot down, so a tiny loss of balance topples him. I’m trying to teach him to lean it a little. Besides that his bike handling skills are excellent. He’s better than a number of adults I’ve seen.

We’ll probably hit the Veloway again on Saturday - time depending on the weather and our plans. Can’t be interfering with the Clone Wars birthday party (time TBD) for Spencer’s friend Oliver….

We did a training ride at the Austin Veloway today. Spencer kicked butt and took names. He absolutely rocked. The Veloway is a 3.1 mile cycling and inline skating loop. It’s got minimal ups and downs and one steep, but very short, hill. Thanks to Hurricane Ike, we had stiff winds from the north-northwest (by my estimate based on where we seemed to face the stiffest headwinds and easiest riding). On the first lap, a man probably mid-30s tried to pass Spencer, but had to abandon him and draft for a while. Way to go 8 year old boy!

We did 5 laps for a total of 15.5 miles. Each lap after the first, we stopped for 20-40 seconds for water (Spencer isn’t comfortable enough yet to drink while riding) at the start of the loop. Lap splits and average speeds:

1. 14:04.0, 13.2 MPH
2. 14:55.2, 12.5 MPH
3. 17:02.4, 10.9 MPH (we stopped an extra time for water mid-lap
4. 15:56.4, 11.7 MPH (we had an off-clock stop for a 4 minutes to talk to some other riders about the LIVESTRONG Challenge)
5. 16:16.3, 11.4 MPH

Wow! Overall average speed 11.9 MPH. Our target average speed for past training rides (more reports on that later) has been 10 MPH. With all the stopping and restarting for intersections on neighborhood streets, we have been pretty tight on that goal. I may need to revise our goals upward. I am beginning to think that I will (quite happily) lose this year’s bet with Spencer about ride distance and time.

Spencer handled the steep hill without difficulty. The first lap I warned him when it was coming and told him some people have to walk it. He told me the legs with the headwinds were much harder than the hill. With today’s winds, I agree.

Spencer finished tired, but reenergized quickly. On the way home we stopped at Spin City Cycling and picked up Spencer’s new handlebar stem which is a little shorter and seems to already make him more comfortable reaching for the hoods or riding sitting up straight. In the parking lot, he started riding laps for speed. Clearly he’s got the stamina to do more.

From here on, our weekend rides longer than an hour will be somewhere other than our neighborhood. We’ll either do the veloway or Parmer Lane out by Brushy Creek Lake Park

This is my first training report. Later, I will come back and summarize our plan (from the LIVESTRONG Challenge web site) and recent training (since we started following a plan). You can look at just our training rides by looking at entries with the “training” tag.

Lance Armstrong is returning to cycling, but I think we’ll find it is different this time. His focus is on bringing the survivorship message of the Lance Armstrong Foundation to a global audience. I am looking forward to hearing the details on September 24, but until then, Spencer and I put together this video with Spencer’s thoughts on Lance and a little bit of a challenge to him.

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Now that the web site is up, it is time to officially kick off Spencer’s fundraising for the 2008 LIVESTRONG Challenge Donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation to support Spencer’s ride. Spencer is training to ride the 45 mile course through the Texas Hill Country solo this year. We’ll be posting maps of our training courses, video updates, fundraising notes, stories about cancer, and more over the coming 7 weeks as we raise money and train for one wild ride.

You can catch a bunch of Spencer’s story at Riding for Roses the blog where we kept friends and family up to date on Spencer’s treatment. I’ll be rewriting and summarizing some of those stories here.