Good morning and happy Monday!
The Hills are Alive
A small but hearty group of riders assembled on Saturday morning to do our training ride. It was a wonderful ride - quite cool because of all the cloud cover, and lots of wildflowers still around because of all the rain. The Punisher put together a great route that was somehow 90% uphill - Ammann Rd, Upper Balcones, Toutant Beauregard, Scenic Loop, and Babcock. A few folks peeled off and did Kyle Sealy, because at that point, what was one more set of hills? As much as I like this route, we'll have to reconsider doing it the same way in the future, because of all the new development encroaching on portions of it between Valero HQ and Boerne.
Heart Rate Monitors
I did this ride with a heart rate monitor, which I've been wearing during my last few rides. I bought a low-end Polar earlier this spring to use during the spin classes I've been doing. This is great piece of technology. Strap the sensor across your chest, and it communicates wirelessly to a watch on your wrist where you can monitor your exact heart beat at any point in time, plus record the high, low, average, median, etc. Your heart rate doesn't lie - it's the single best measure of how hard you are working during exercise. What Donna "Bubbles" Escobar and the other spin instructors have taught me this year is the concept of exertion and recovery during a ride. With the monitor, you can see your heart rate go up as you scale a hill or lead a pace line into the wind, then you can see it go down again as you head downhill, or move to the back of the line and begin drafting. By carefully managing the transitions between exertion and recovery, you can do the long rides like the Valero MS 150 Bike to the Beach without wearing yourself out. Plus, watching the heart rate monitor gives me something else to do while I'm on a long ride - it's one more data point I can track, like average speed, RPMs, max speed, etc. (Yeah, I know - simple minds need simple thrills.) Highly recommended.
The Katy Flatland is three weeks away on July 15th. A number of team members will be doing this ride again this year. David Sloan will be our Ride Captain for the event; contact him at david.sloan@valero.com if you are interested in joining him and the others. We'll have the Official Valero Bike to the Beach truck then, and David plans on driving it to Katy to promote the ride. The Katy Flatland doesn't require any fundraising, and has distances from 30 to 100 miles. It's only $20 to register if you do so before July 1st. (NOTE: I'll be camping out in the Davis Mountains with my son's Scout troop, so I won't be doing this ride.)
SAW New Rider Program
As mentioned last week, this summer we're going to try something new for you beginning riders on the team. For the first time ever, Velo Valero is partnering with the San Antonio Wheelmen (SAW) on our new rider program. The 6 week program begins 07/28; the cost is $25. For more information, click here. Send an e-mail to bikeeducation@sawheelmen.com if you are interested in joining. Space is limited, and the class is already 65% full, so if you're interested, please contact them soon. After you complete the course, Velo Valero will offer 6 weeks of additional new rider events to prepare you for the Bike to the Beach!
El Hefe Has Left the Building
I'll be out of town until Tuesday, July 3. I'll be at a conference in San Francisco, then I'm driving up and down the Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible PT Cruiser for a few days. I'm leaving the team in the very capable hands of Patricia "the Funky Pirate" Jones. Please contact her at patricia.jones@valero.com if you have any questions or concerns regarding Velo Valero!
See ya' on the road!
- EH