For his New Year’s resolution in 1988, Larry Schwartz decided to start riding a bicycle for fitness. It was a perfect match.
Over the next 14 years, the electrical engineer became a big dog in distance cycling. He put more miles on his bicycle than his Honda Civic. Last year, he pedaled about 26,000 miles.
He not only did the 100 miles at the Hotter 'N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls each August – a benchmark for many Texas cyclists – he rode the 170 miles between the event and his Wylie home.
Almost as amazing, he did it all without an accident until 8:05 a.m. Thursday morning, when he was knocked off his bike on FM1461 north of McKinney. The right-side rearview mirror of a passing school bus hit him, causing severe head and neck injuries.
Mr. Schwartz was flown to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where he died Sunday, shortly before midnight. He was 42.
I am really sorry to hear about this. I cannot imagine logging that many miles in one year. That is roughly 71 miles per day, every day. Man this guy was a cycling machine for sure. He must have commuted to and from work every day. That really takes a lot of commitment, especially in the winter months and cold rainy days.
On the flip side though, with so many miles, I have to wonder how many were done on roads that had no shoulders and didn’t provide a lot of safety to a cyclist. I have seen many cyclists over the years ride on roads I would never consider riding because of the high car volume. IMO if you ride these roads long enough, someone is bound to hit you. I am not trying to excuse the bus driver for sure. I just see cyclists many times bike on roads they really shouldn’t IMO. Sometimes though there is no other route to ride, so your reduced to trusting your luck. Luckily in my years of cycling I haven’t had any really bad experiences, but I have known many people who have. The most common problems seem to be trucks with wide trailers and drunks. Drunks are the wost though, since they can show up anywhere, even on roads that have perfect cycling conditions. Most of my bad experiences cycling have dealt with high school kids throwing stuff and yelling (Arrgg).
Training for an Ironman though does take you on many roads that have no shoulders where cars do sometimes come a little close for comfort. Usually I am cycling on these roads early on the weekends when the car volume is lighter. Many times when cars pass they really gas it to get by. I often wonder why the heavy foot, I guess me being out there makes them nervous.
I really wish when they put new roads in they would make them extra wide to provide a safer environment to cycle.
I generally agree with your post. Two weekends ago I was hit on Friday and then nearly hit the following day, all while riding in the bike lane in my 25 mph neighborhood! I have had a Computrainer for some time and use it extensively but there are days when you just feel like taking a short spin outdoors. (I do all my long rides on Van Fleet Trail West of Clermont, Fl.)
The roads are simply unsafe because today drivers have too many distractions. They have cell phones, radios, hamburgers, computers, fax machines, and I won’t even mention the various and sundry sex acts being performed while pretending to drive! Driving seems to be almost incidental to the other tasks being performed.
Also, in Florida, almost 40% of the drivers are UNINSURED! If you are driving here without uninsured motorist’s coverage you are nuts. Get at least $100K of coverage if you ride the roads frequently. I’ve been hit 6 times in 13 years. Once I was thrown 30 feet when hit by a woman without a license or insurance driving a pickup. She is an alcoholic/drug addict with 5 DUIs. I still have a bad back and one short leg as a result of that accident. Thank God I was insured and fairly fit!
If you don’t have a wind trainer, get one. This poor, romantic soul probably thought he was safe on the road after all those miles.
And, by the way, school bus drivers are some of the worst drivers in Florida. A news article in the Orlando Sentinel indicated that quite a few of the drivers had arrest records and very poor driving records. I frequently am passed by school bus drivers exceeding the speed limit IN A SCHOOL ZONE! I can’t imagine Texas being any better.
Bri: The Van Fleet Trail is 14 miles West of Clermont on Rt. 50. It has NO cars except for a truck used by the park ranger who drives about 5 miles per hour checking for old farts who died of a heart attack or were mauled by bears or 'gators. :), No hills. It is the perfect training venue for IM Fl. for me. Fifty-eight miles round trip and really only three top signs that you have to slow for almost completely. (I’ve never had to unclip.) The wild life is phenomenal as well-sort of a throwback to the way Florida used to be. It has mile and km markers and a bathroom/water at the start and at mile 18.6. A perfect place for a brick. The only down side is it becomes a hammer fest and is a bit boring.
The oxygen level is phenomenal as well. We don’t realize how little real oxygen we’re getting until we get into a feral sub-tropical forest. SWEEEEET!
We usually go Sunday early or Thursday late. If you want to join us feel free to email me. We do about 19-23 mph on average. This Summer we will be doing some ball-busters preparing for “THE BEAST”!
I’ll be spending more time on Van Fleet this summer gearing up for IMF. What better way to train - 60 miles of flat “nothingness”. I exagerate, of course, as last time I saw some turtles, a gator and even got to chase a deer that got stuck on the trail for 100 or so yards. He outran me.
I did Van Fleet a few weeks back with one buddy where we did a “team” time trial alternating 1/2 mile pulls at an insane speed that I could not hold alone. We saw only one other cyclist that day.
Robert: Dominic (my training partner) and I refer to the IM as “THE BEAST”. Yeah, he almost got run over by a gator last Thursday. The gator jumped out of the water right in front of him. He didn’t have time to brake, but he missed him. The closest call I’ve had is from a wild pig! TRUE! I am not making this up!!! He was snorting away on the trail so I slowed way down until I got close to him then tried to outrun him. He thought it was a race! :), He took off in the same direction about 20 mph, scared to death. 80 lbs at least… Looked like good barbecue though.
One week day I went out there by myself and all the squirrels had decided to have a “SIT IN”. Jeezh! There must have been a thousand squirrels on the path for about two miles. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP PEOPLE!!! Must a been an orgy or something… :), Lotsa fluffy tails… :),
Anyway, I’ll take the wild life to the SUVs any day…
We’ll have to schedule some group training sessions out there a few Sundays. Bring a wife or two and a bunch of food to eat after we kill ourselves in the heat. A keg sounds nice…
-Robert, who is off to Gulf Coast Half on Saturday.
I’m embarrassed to say that my only scary encounter with a wild animal, while on the bike, was an armadillo. I startled one while on the trail, braked hard, and then he started running at my feet in the direction I was riding. It was one of those moments where your body reacts before your mind does. I took off like a scared rabbit, seconds later breaking down into a great laugh. Me, afraid of an armadillo . . . the poor thing was probably petrified of me.
Have a great race at GCT. I raced it last year. Had a quality bike split, followed by my perennially pathetic run, just like two weeks ago at St. A’s.
The armadillos are really brazen. They are NOT afraid of most humans out there. But the squirrels are the worst. I’m positive they all watched that commercial featuring the two squirrels who send the car careening off the road.
Did you break 2:30 last year at GCT? Dom wants to break 2:35, and I’m hoping to get close to 3 hours. Anything faster for me and I’ll be toast on the run.
Probably no wetsuits at GCT this year. The water is warming rapidly and looks to be a bit rough. Since swimming is my strongest event (if I have one) then I guess shouldn’t complain. :),
Nope. My goal was to break 2:30 - 22.5 MPH. I fell apart the last 7-8 miles coming home. No excuses. It was sooo brutally hot and the wind was directly off shore, dead in our face, at about 15 MPH. I recall looking down at my speedometer at mile 50, after averaging over 23 through the turnaround, and my current speed was 17. Boy did that hurt. I finished at 21 MPH. Now St A’s was my baby - no wind and flat, with the only speed killer being the 30-plus turns. I averaged 23.2. That was a good ride; and then I turned around and blistered the run course with a whopping 54-minute 10K!!!
Robert: I heard the course was tough last year because of the wind. That’s a great time considering the conditions. If we have those kind of winds this year, I will be closer to 3:15, for sure. Gotta save something for the run!
