Hotter N Hell Part 2 - Hydration

Every cyclist will know that after a long ride there are some essential things that you should do to promote the best sort of recovery.

These include warming down, stretching, resting but most importantly ensuring that you replace all of the fluids that you have lost from your body.
Being a great believer in the science of physiology I take my post ride very seriously and the Hotter N Hell was no exception.

My warming down consisted of a an Irish jig under a fire hydrant, a modern rendition of Riverdance.
This was warmly received by my fellow Mules and had locals wondering if there had been an escapee from the sanatorium.

My stretching consisted of reaching right down to the very bottom of the ice chest to make claim to the coldest beer. As well of flexing my wrists and loosening off my shoulders it also kicked off my hydration procedure.

This obligatory burden continued along with the rest sequence after 'The Mules' had set up camp on a grassy knoll close to the finish line.

The Mule banner was firmly placed into the ground and the Mules banter started. We set about promoting our team and the concept of Mule riding (Check out website). We also waited to see some of our Mule wannabes come in.

(L to R Me,Taylor Bartholomew, Paddy)

Taylor and fellow Mulee Kelly McKinzie set to do the 100 miles off behind us.

Sadly Taylor took a nasty tumble and had to SAG home but Kelly and the Mules were there to cheer her up on her return.

(L to R Marion, Adam, Dave, Christian)
Adam is the newest addition to the Mules however he chose to ride with his friend Marion at a slightly slower pace for this particular ride.

Dave was doing a great job promoting The Mules by chatting up other cyclists girlfriends.

Bad Mule!!!!!!!!

Meet some Mules

Sean
Kelly

Simon Dave

Christian

Adam
As the afternoon wore on we were all very strict with our fluid replacement. It would even be true to say that due to the amount of fluid sloshing around inside us that it made us unsteady on our feet. Kenny and I being 'Pack Mules' and wishing to keep the fluids running maintained a regular Trek to the Beer tent.

Unfortunately they filled the glasses right up to the top so we had to drink a bit from every bodies before trotting back to the Mule encampment.

(L to R Me, Kenny)

We promised ourselves that when we got to the end of the ride that we would do a remake of 'Ice cold in Alex'

Unfortunately Cyclists are not always the best actors unless they are giving excuses for poor performances or why they cant ride.

After about 8 takes and close to a flat battery on my Camera we got a wrap.

I did not want to post it as it is so poor- but promises are promises i appologise in advance. Special thanks to the Arron and the other BHP extras who helped out on this production.

Original Ice Cold in Alex


MGM Mules Great Movies presents 'Ice Cold in Wichita Falls'

By 7pm most of the Mules had gone back into the stable however Dave, Kenny took our Mule Train into downtown Wichita Falls, we saw a great band and met some lovely people and got totally hydrated.

Hopefully The Mules maybe remembered fondly.

I head home on Tuesday and have another 100mile ride in Manchester on Sunday.

Whatever the weather I will be wearing my Mule shirt.

The Hotter N Hell Part 1

At 0705 hrs a cannon fired across Scott Street, Witchita Falls to set the mules off on their very first organised centurion ride. 'The 2009 Hotter than Hell'

From 0600 hrs we had queued up with 14,000 other cyclists in what must be the biggest century ride in America, if not globally.
Prior to the start we were treated to Olympic gymnast Carly Patterson singing the American national anthem and a flyover from Sheppard Air Force Base with their T38 Trainer jets.


At the start the temperature was a very pleasant 64 f .

The locals and more seasoned Hotter tan hell competitors described this as being cool.

I thought the whole thing was 'cool' but that had nothing to do with the temperature.

I thought that the temperature was perfect.

I can just imagine waiting with my bike in England at six o'clock in the morning.

At the very least I would have required a mug of steaming coffee, coat, woolly hat and ear muffs even if it was the middle of the summer.

We set off in 'the scorchers' category about one block from the start line or about 2,000 people back.

The 'scorcher' status apparently meant that we expected to maintain an average of between 18 and 20 mph.

The first few miles were very tricky with thousands of riders jostling for positions and trying to find their own rhythm.

Despite that, the Mules soon established got going with a high tempo and developed an early pace line.

We scorched up the outside of the pack at about 25 mph.

With our distinctive blue and red shirts and tight disciplined formation we looked great and soon had a stream of riders hitching a lift onto our ever increasing 'mule train'.

(L to R - Kenny, Simon, Paddy and Me)

As the sun came up the temperature rose into the high 80's f warming our limbs and casting a stream of symmetric shadows onto the road, illustrating the precision our riding.

It was like the scene from a western, alongside the 'mule train' there was the good, the bad, and the dammed right ugly.

The good was exemplified my the camaraderie, support and warmth of other riders who we encountered.

The bad was the lack of consideration by a few riders. If it was not for the individual skills and dexterity of a large number of riders there would have been literally hundreds of accidents and casualties. I personally lost count of the near misses I witnessed where riders completed daft manoeuvres putting everyone around them at risk. On two occasions I had to break so hard that my rear wheel locked up. It was only through good fortune that I did not join the 'honorable Road Rash Society'

The Ugly was the the sight of other cyclist in pain or cut and battered by the side of the road

(L to R - Sean, Kenny, Dave)

(L to R - Sean, Kenny, Dave)

(Christian)

After 60 miles we were averaging 21.5 mph and looking to set a great time, however Paddy was starting to suffer. He was still suffering the after affects of a crash two weeks previously where ha had broken a couple of ribs he was in a lot of pain.

We started to stop at all of the rest stops to give him a break and to show our unity.

It was great to see the abundance of local volunteers handing out drink, food and wet towels with a smile and supporting encouragement.

The last forty miles were completed at an easier pace and we all crossed the line together at an average speed of 19.6 mph
The finishing line was punctuated by a strategically placed fire hose that cooled us down, I needed no invitation to joint the wet cycle kit contest.

The Mules did good !!!!! Well done guys.

The rest of the day and evening were highlighted with serious hydration treatment and actively publicising the virtues of the Mules. This will be covered in Hotter Than Hell part 2 tomorrow.

Travelling to Hotter an Hell

Today we headed north from San Antonio to Wichita Falls for tomorrows Hotter than Hell 100 mile endurance ride.
Somewhere between Dallas and Witchita Falls we stopped at a Gas station and some Fella came up to me and started singing

I could not help him but did tell him all about the bike ride. I am not sure that he was overly impressed. thankfully the rest of the trip was uneventful. On our arrival we set about preparing ourselves for an early start including some last minute production details on our remake of 'Ice Cold in Alex' which will start filming tomorrow.

For all riders taking part 'good luck and safe riding' - Look out for 'The Mules' we will be assembling by our flag and our shirts are quite distinctive.We will be starting with 'The Scorchers'

Tommorrows and Sundays blogs promise to have a full report with Photos, Videos and maybe a few laughs.

Remember the Alamo

Today we were meant to start our road trip to see the Alamo in San Antonio and then onto New Braunfels.To idly float down a river for two hours being chased by a case of beer.
Culture and Coors what a great combination.
Things started well, we set off from Houston before the Sun had crowned the Horizon.
The car was full of all things associated with a road trip, Beer, Cheesy Music and slightly worn tales of previous adventures.
As I focused my Camera on anything that whetted my imaginative taste buds, humour was practised elsewhere within the vehicle.
The thing about humour is that unless your really really good at it you will never really make money out of it.
In fact you have to be very good at it, just to get an honest response.
A real laugh.
I was once with a group of people in London when a uni cyclist dressed as a clown peddled past.
I said to him 'You appear to have lost a wheel'
He replied 'Humour is difficult'.
He was right of course, and humorous.
I on the other hand was not being funny just sarcastic, trying to use another person for cheap laughs.
What is funny for one person is not funny at all for another.
Why do we often seem to delight in the misfortune of others.
As our journey continued we were confronted by a number of misfortunes.
1. 80 miles into our journey, just as the sun was starting to make the mosquitoes take cover.
Our battery failed and the car would not start.
2. Over two hours later the car started, but the vehicle control consul could not be reactivated.
This meant no Sat Nav, No Radio and No controls for the Air Conditioning
3. twenty minutes later we struck some debris in the road which wrapped itself around the rear brake of our vehicle.
We appeared to be taking in some unscheduled stops at a number of Garage forecourts.
Although the staff were extremely helpful, sympathetic and considerate, we wanted to see Davy Crockett, not Dave the Mechanic.
Eventually we got back on the road and decided to swap the order of our activities.
We remarked about how calamities came grouped together as we launched our rubber rings.
Surely nothing could go wrong in the river, we had Paddy's watertight holder to keep everything dry and there were no real rapids.
By the time our river ride had finished tensions had been loosened.
Other things had also been loosened too.
4. My shirt in the rapids
5. The water tight ability of Paddy's holder which contained my Camera (Hence no pictures today)
To hear of these events some people might laugh like drains. We did not really find it funny.
We did laugh though......people do.
Not through humour though, the laugh of exasperation, frustration the laugh of pure desperation.
At the end of the day we got to do the beer and rubber ring river routine and The Alamo. We also managed to get a look around the River walk in San Antonio during the evening.
It was amazing.


Tomorrow we head North through Austin, Dallas and up to Witchita Falls to join our Mules for the Hotter N Hell. Tomorrow is another day!!!!!!!
The Wait is nearly over

On the Road

This week prior to the 'Hotter than Hell' Paddy decided that we needed to rest our bodies and prepare our minds.

The first bit was fine by me as I sought to change the colour of my body from a Yorkshire Tan (Pale White) to something that might just stand out in a snowfield.

Paddy idea of mental preparation was a 'Road trip'. Yes by car.

This was a real novel concept to me as my own car had only done barely 2000 miles this year.

When we were Paddy and I used to watch the famous 'Road to' films staring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope with the romantic interest always provided by the delectable Dorothy Lamour. This was my first introduction into the Road film genre.

Personally I have always believed that any 'journey' whether physical or metaphorical is usually far more interesting and revealing that the point of departure or arrival.As a film genre it has always been popular with Hollywood.The genre has its roots in spoken and written tales of epic journeys, such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid. The road film is a standard plot employed by screenwriters. It is a kind of bildungsroman, a kind of story in which the hero changes, grows or improves over the course of the story. The modern "road picture" is to filmmakers what the heroic quest was to Medieval writers.
The on-the-road plot was used at the birth of American Cinema but blossomed in the years after World War II, reflecting a boom in automobile production and the growth of youth culture. Even so, awareness of the "road picture" as a genre came only in the 1960s with Easy Rider and Bonnie and Clyde. Road movies traditionally end in one of four ways:
* Having met with triumph at their ultimate destination, the protagonist(s) return home, wiser for their experiences.
* At the end of the journey, the protagonist(s) find a new home at their destination.
* The journey continues endlessly.
* Having realised that, as a result of their journey, they can never go home, the protagonists either choose death or are killed.
About Schmidt
Broken Flowers
Duel
Easy Rider
Elizabethtown
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Little Miss Sunshine
Midnight Run
Paper Moon
Paris, Texas
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Our trip takes us to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Witchita Falls (Hotter N Hell) then back to Houston. We will visit the Alamo to raise our spirits and generate a rallying call for our pedalling on Saturday.

The rest today was not totally adhered too as we did have a little ride around the beautiful 'Terry Hershey' Park in Houston.

Simon Paddy

So you want to be a Mule ?

Sometimes in life good things emerge from those that are perceived to be bad, where clouds reveal a true silver lining and the mythical Phoenix really does rise from the flames.

Way back in April of this year I came over to Texas to ride with my twin brother Paddy in the Houston to Austin MS150 charity cycle ride.

For the first time in the events 25 year history the first day was cancelled due to severe weather conditions.

Despite the tornado risk, flooding, and indiscriminate lightening strikes we decided to complete the first day regardless. Not wishing to have our official team associated with such reckless behaviour we abandoned our issued cycling jerseys and rode 'freelance' as renegade riders.

When I say 'we' there were in fact a total of four of us.

A Yorkshire man (Me), a Yorkshire/Texan (Paddy) and two Texans Dave Hill and Kenny Rhame.

If any outsider was searching for the sort of belligerent behaviour that would accompany such an attitude, they would need to look no further than Yorkshire or Texas, as belligerence is what we are weened on.

For those who may be interested the actual events of that day are featured in a previous blog (Renegade Riders).

During the course of that day the birth of 'The Mules' was devised.

As we were riding we all expressed our love of cycling and of raising awareness in respect of charitable causes.

We also loved the concept of cycling in unity and the togetherness that comes in being part of a team.

On that day we were all virtual strangers, but our collective views had brought us together.

We talked about the fact that teams were formed by big companies to support events like the MS150 and other one off events, only to be abandoned until the following year.

Surely charitable needs last everyday of every Year.

So we decided to create our own team.

The discussion was lively especially as we were dodging storms and lightening strikes at the same time.

Paddy suggested that we name it after my blog and we all agreed because of its universal appeal.

Ambitiously we perceived that people from all over the world not aligned to any team or riding club could attend charity rides and meet up with other riders in our unique club.

The concept never really evolved at the pace that we wanted it too, but it is still alive and 'pedaling' and growing steadily each day.

We have a website which is developing thanks to Kenny and we now have our own merchandise. (Non Profit Making).

Our first batch of Cycling Jerseys have been made and have sold out approx $85 each depending upon the numbers ordered.

Further batches will be ordered when there is enough demand to satisfy the minimum run requirement.

So how do you become a Mule ?

If you regularly ride a bicycle and complete one or more charity ride per year you can become a Mule.

How do you apply ?

Send us details of your name, where you are from and a short resumes of your cycling events, bike and a preferred Mule/Donkey picture if you have one.

You will then feature in our stable.

How do you get a Jersey ?

Once you are a member and are committed to purchase a jersey let us know and your name will be added to a list. Once the minimum order requirement is met, new Jerseys can be ordered.
Once the jerseys have been purchased, badges can be sown onto the depicting the countries and areas, that rides have been undertaken

Badges are not compulsory

How will the website be developed ?

A forum and features page will be set up once the numbers have grown.

members will be encouraged to share their ride experiences.

Contacts

Any further questions or applications should be made through the link 'Are you a Mule' on the website. This page is currently being developed so if the link is not working properly initial contact can be made through my blog right here

Hotter than Hell
Today we had a rest day from training after completing 145 miles in the previous three days. Being dedicated to the cause though we decided to keep our sustenance cycling related as you can see below.

The long range weather forecast for the weekend looks interesting.
Rather than being the Hotter than Hell it maybe that those flames mights be dampened by a cool snap making it more like 'Ice cold in Alex'. I have even left my arm warmers at home.
I was really pleased to observe this week that bob one of my followers was my first American to donate online to the charity I am raising money for on this particular ride. Thank you Bob !!
Please don't be shy, the Justgiving link takes American dollars too and credit card payments.