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[ornoth_cycling]

A lot has happened over the past two months while I was gathering real-world experience for my blogpo about the Austin cycling scene… A lot that is worth sharing, but which isn’t strictly Austin-specific. So I figured I’d share a bit of that while I continue exploring the town and gathering data.

But if you need a short summary of what Austin has been like so far, here’s the lowdown. The weather is stellar. The roads are, as you’d expect, hit-or-miss. There’s a good variety of flat and short, steep hills, and I’ve done a fair bit of exploring. The drivers have been surprisingly tolerant. Fauna has included actual roadrunners and actual vultures. The bike shops each have significant issues they’re trying to work through. There’s tons of clubs and club rides, but they’re heavily biased toward early mornings, rather than daytime or evenings. There’s not much of an online community, and I’ve found shockingly few centuries and major organized events. But I’ve met several riders, who have all been reasonably welcoming. Overall grade: B-minus.

In terms of other developments, the biggest thing of note is that since I bought my new bike on February 23rd, I’ve ridden nearly every single day, either outdoor or on the indoor trainer. For 63 days from December through February, I did virtually zero riding while moving to Austin and then replacing my old bike; but I compensated for that by riding 68 days in a row! After a catastrophic start, my fitness is back to a normal level for late spring.

The new bike has performed almost flawlessly, save for a quadruple-snakebite flat that prompted an unplanned and expensive Lyft ride home. And a slightly-bent rear derailleur hanger when the Texas wind tipped the bike over while I’d left it leaning against a tree. I’m really pleased with the new bike, and I’m looking forward to putting it through its first century. In the meantime, I do have to replace my old heart rate monitor.

Between the indoor trainer and riding outdoors, I’ve put 2,550 KM on the new bike. 1,176 of those came in March, which was more than I’d ridden in any single month (winter or summer) in the past two years! Between winter weather and Zwift’s annual Tour of Watopia, I spent more time on the indoor trainer than I would otherwise have chosen to do, but I’m totally focused on outdoor riding now.

Speaking of Zwift, I’ve had fun with a new Zwift feature: 16-second video captures of my avatar riding around their virtual world. That matched up nicely with the short video feature that Strava introduced last summer, so now both my indoor and outdoor ride summaries can include video highlights… Very cool! And I’ve been making my way through Zwift’s new XP levels, from Level 53 to 56.

That’s all the factual shit; but the overall gestalt is pretty happy. I’ve got a nice new bike, an interesting new town and environment to explore, and incomparable weather. Although age has significantly reduced my top-end power and speed, my fitness and endurance are back up to normal levels following that long two-month hiatus off the bike. I’m pretty happy right now, and it’s only early May, so there’s a long, hot summer still ahead of me to (hopefully) enjoy.

And you can look forward to my Austin cycling scene blogpo in the next month or so.

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