Time to rip n' rock, n' beat the clock...

Time is a tyrant in all our lives. Not only is it always aging us, it tells us what we need to do and when to do it. And usually, we buckle under and follow the schedule put before us. We go along with the program because, as far as we can tell, things will work out better for us if we do.

But more often than not we bristle under the daily dictates of time, and feel like slaves to it. We can’t help but think of what else we’d rather be doing if we weren’t on anybody’s schedule but our own.

(Hey, I’m going to go on a bike ride!)

So when we’re able to experience the oh, so rare time when we feel like we’ve gotten the upper hand with time, we feel pretty good about ourselves -- if only for a little while. Then, BAM! a few minutes go by and it’s on with the schedule!

I regularly do a ride from my home that is 51 miles round trip on a bike trail along the American River. It totals about a little over 1,000 feet of climb, so it’s mostly flat. And I’ve come to treat this ride as my personal time trial. It’s a way to stay fit when doing my favorite kind of riding – climbing – isn’t in the cards.

Going for speed keeps the boredom at bay for this trek, which lately I’ve been doing a couple times a week.

Wringing as much speed as I can out of this ride makes me concentrate all the way. The payoff is a great workout, and once in awhile I beat my previous best time. At those times it feels like an accumulation of hard work paying off.

With my Garmin bike computer, I break the ride into seven splits, and keep track of my times individually and cumulatively as I ride.

Last November I rode my fastest round trip by eight minutes, in 2 hours 43 minutes or so. It was a cold air day, and I remember crediting my speed to pedaling as fast as I could to keep warm. This riverside ride, which goes northeast on the way out and southwest on the way back, often features tailwinds, side winds and headwinds, and only rarely, little or no wind at all.

After getting that pretty fast time in November, I figured it would be really hard to beat. All the splits were fast (for me), and getting them to all line up like that takes strong legs, and no small amount of luck. The first split and the last are identical two-mile stretches through signaled intersections and traffic and a crowded college campus on the way out. And coming back it’s the reverse -- through the campus and then traffic. When those two splits are slow, which many times they can’t help but be because slowdowns are necessary, the total ride time isn’t going to be in the faster range.

Most times these stretches take between eight and nine minutes to wade through.

So depending on my time after the first split through traffic and wandering phone addicted students, I can tell whether I have a fighting chance of a strong overall time for the ride. If I finish the first split at 8 or 8:30 minutes, I dig in to make time on the next split, which is 14.7 miles. Then, getting a good overall time means riding fast splits, one after the other, which is easier on some rides than others.

Variables affecting speed after the first split are the relative freshness of my legs, wind, and temperature. When the air is cool, I usually ride faster than when it’s hot. (Maybe that wouldn’t be the case if I hydrated correctly. See below) And I can trim down time if I happen along another rider to trade drafting with.

A couple of weeks ago I strung together fast splits all along the way, and to my surprise, whittled my 2:43 personal record time to 2:41, a 19 mph average for the whole ride. I was helped by a tailwind on the way out, and not much wind on the way back. I had started at noon, later than I usually do, and noticed the wind was higher on the way back when I left a few hours earlier. I wasn’t able to draft behind anybody, but my legs felt relatively strong.

So after that ride, I thought, hey, no way am I ever gonna beat 2:41. But “never say never,” is what I need to remember!

This week, I did beat that time, by 40 seconds, tucked just under 2:40, a 19.1 mph average for the whole ride. I looked at my split times, all of which, for me at least, were very fast.

But I found the key to the extra speed was in the 8 minute first split – which is much faster than I usually ride it -- and the 7:40 minute last split, which was by far the fastest I’ve ever ridden that split. Most times, those are between 8 and 9 minutes each way. But there was a good reason! School was out at the university, so instead of having to weave my way at half speed through clots of phone-stoned students, I sprinted through. I picked up the 40 seconds needed to beat the overall time on the last split. Love to break down the ride data. It tells the whole story.

So now it’s clear. If I want to beat 2:40 for the full ride, the campus will have to be closed, just for starters! Then, I’ll need fresh legs keeping a strong cadence on the flats and small rollers, a little help from the wind, aerodynamic form in any headwinds, and the fastest climbs and descents I can manage. So there will definitely be some luck involved, no doubt. But I won’t say it can’t be done. It can!

But to break your own course record, when you know it will be a tough nut to crack, maybe even too tough, will definitely make your day.

It is on that ride, when everything falls into place for speed, a new personal record will be made! No small feat! Because when we manage to do that, we can be sure of one thing: We’re riding at a high personal fitness level. And whose to say we can’t ratchet it up even higher? That’s a sweet feeling to have on the bike, no?

Drink up!

I talked last time about remembering to drink enough on a long ride, hot or not, which is something I often forget to do. I’m slowly learning to remind myself to drink enough water. Here’s some good info on the subject. Love this guy’s accent!

Til next time, remember to always strap on your helmet before every ride. And then, you know what to do after that: Keep the rubber side down at all costs!

-- Mark Eric Larson

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 
http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelfHis blog of personal essays is at: http://marksmuzings.blogspot.com/