Stop: TI Time

Less than 7 days to the start of the 2014 running of The TransIowa. I've finished all the preparation that I can for the event. This week is all about resting, massage and riding just long enough and hard enough to keep the synapses firing and the legs loose and ready. Compared to last year's preparations, I've got an additional 40 or so hours of seat time and and other 200 or so miles of distance, since I started in December instead of January. I am sure that the additional seat time and all of the winter gym work is going to come in handy at some point over the weekend.

Looking at the weather forecast, last weekend's 116 mile rain ride might have been the smartest bit of prep that I've done for the last 5 months. Sunday looks like it has a good chance of being soggy starting around midnight. If it does, it's going to really test people both physically and mentally.

The Fargo is at Rasmussen Bike Shop getting some TLC shown to the shifters, brakes and bottom bracket. For the event, I'm going to run a Porcelain Rocket Booster Rocket seat pack, along with a Tangle bag, gas can, and two feedbags from Revelate Designs. This should give me room for enough food, spare clothes, and mechanical spares to get me through the event.

No matter the outcome, the best part will be seeing and talking with everyone at the pre-race MeatUp, watching everyone arrive early Saturday morning, and then listening to every speed off into the darkess behind the Truck With No Name at 4 AM. Everything else we experience throughout the next 36 hours will be frosting on top of that cake.

Ride to failure

Coach scheduled my FTP test for today after work. It hurt. A lot. I guess I must have executed it correctly. My threshold power went up 15% since this time last year, so I'm pretty happy right now. In other exciting news, I picked up my new Thermarest today. Sleep system v1.0 is complete and ready for testing as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer.

That was easy

Coach has me on a rest week this week. Hours and effort are backed down a notch or two. I did a 90 minute indoor ride yesterday with what I thought would be hard intervals, but it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. I had a call from my coach within a couple of hours of uploading my workout stats. We were both on the same page during the call - time to schedule another threshold power test. After a two hour spin this afternoon with three tempo intervals thrown in, I get a rest day tomorrow and the FTP test sometime this week. It will be interesting to see if my numbers go up. Based on how I'm feeling right now, I'm sure they will, but I have no idea how much, but, to some extent, I really don't care. I just want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to finish in Antelope Wells in 2015. Have to keep moving the bar up and leaping over it to make that happen. Remainder of my training is going well. I'm starting to really enjoy the strength training. I'm sure that it's responsible for some of how I feel on the bike right now. Need to constantly expand the boundaries there too, and add in some different exercises to keep things fresh.

I spent some time over the last few days making decisions re: gear and filling in some holes here and there. I ordered a new light from Kerry at klite. I bought his new 1000/600 model with the hour standlight. Probably way more light than I need, but I'd rather be a little over prepared in this department. I want people to be able to see me dusty or rainy weather, along with being able to see at night. I also picked up a Kemo Electronic dyno to usb charger. It should keep my GPS and any other devices charged if I can't get power from a regular outlet. 

To finish out my sleep system, I am going to start with a women's Thermarest Neoair XLite pad. The women's pad has a slightly higher R rating than the standard pad, but it's also 6" shorter than the regular sized pad. I borrowed one from a friend and tried it out on my living room floor and I think it will work fairly well. It took me about 16 breaths to blow it up. With that amount of air, I wasn't hitting the floor sleeping on either my back, side, or stomach. 

Rumor has it that my Fargo will be shipping to the shop this week. If that's true, it will make for a happy Valentine's Day for me. :)

Cold streak

Planned on getting up and out on the road at 7:30 this AM. Despite the wine and beer yesterday, I was up well before 7:30. About then, I looked at the temp and noticed it was hovering around -2F, with wind chills around -14F. I didn't see the sense in going out for a training ride when it was that cold, so I spent the morning with coffee in front of the fire and tending to some small nerd things. 

Ended up leaving home around 1:30 or so and riding the Mukluk 40 miles to Woodward and back, passing through Granger on the way there and back. It was cold (14F) but sunny, so the ride was relatively pleasant.  I took a bit of a break at the Casey's in Woodward and had a slice of pizza, cup of coffee, and a bottle of Hydrive so I had some calories for the ride back. The ride back felt a little bit quicker, even if it actually was about the same speed. 

I put the snow goggles on and tossed my Patagonia micropuff on as an additional layer for the ride back. The snow goggles kept my face warm, but my puff, along with the rest of the layers on my core, was soaked when I got home. I had an Icebreaker merino T on, followed by a 260 weight Icebreaker LS half-zipp merino baselayer, then a medium weight Specialized coat on top. I didn't feel overdressed, as it took me quite a few miles to get warmed up once I left the house. More work is needed on riding in extreme cold and not having dumb things happen to my clothing. The puff, as was expected, shouldn't be worn at all when riding. 

Why am I doing this again?

Got up at 5:30 to try and get out of the house by 6 for a ride. I wanted to try and get 40 miles or so in towards the Rapha Festive 500 Challenge. The idea is to ride 500 km, outside, between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

I remembered that I needed to get the poultry we're having for Christmas dinner into the brine, so I spent 15 minutes wrangling a large goose and brining solution into a large bag while dressed in winter riding gear. Got out of the house sometime after 6. Halfway down the block, I realize I didn't have a helmet on. Turned around, got the helmet on and left. In about the same spot, my light quits working. Ugh, can't be having that at 6 in the morning. Turned around and swapped out batteries. Turned out of my neighborhood and noticed that my left foot isn't staying clipped in. Stop to adjust the pedal tension and check the cleat for crap. Ride another mile and stop to check the pedal tension again and raise the seat a scoshe. I'm now probably 20 minutes into my ride and I've gone all of 1.5 miles. I decide to not take this as a sign to turn around and press on westward towards Dallas Center.

Now I'm noticing the wind, the blowing snow, and the fact that my eyeballs are starting to feel more like ice cubes in their sockets. I pressed ahead in the dark for another mile and a half before I stopped and pulled my snow goggles out of my seat bag. Much better. Get to the point where I normally turn north towards Granger and head onto Woodward and decide that 40 miles is not in the books today with the temp (around 11F) and the wind (NW at 15MPH). Opt to press west to Dallas Center where I can snag some food and then enjoy the tailwind for the return leg. No more delays on the ride, other than biffing it when I hit a ice covered slope right at a stop sign. Coffee and donuts ensued at Casey's along with a side of people shaking their head at the guy on the bike. If I had parked a snowmobile out front, I bet they wouldn't have even given me a second thought.

Return leg was much more enjoyable with the tailwind and the ability to run big-ish gears. Got home just a bit before 9 AM, with 23 miles in the books. 1:41 to get to Dallas Center (7.1 MPH average), and 0:48 to get home (13.7 MPH average. Average temp for the ride was somewhere around 11F, not counting the windchill.

Not the miles I wanted, but better than nothing, and riding the fatbike sure builds leg strength. :)

Gettin' some miles

Got some miles and a bit of pain in this week. Bagged another 21 miles or so on the Singlecross on Tuesday between the work commute and a trip to Rasmussen's to pick up some parts that I had ordered in. I wanted to get one more ride in on somewhat skinny tires before the predicted snow storm arrived on Wednesday. 

The storm arrived Wednesday and threw plans into a bit of a spin. I wanted to bust the Mukluk out and ride in the first snow of the year, but I needed to be well rested for my scheduled VO2 test. Well, the snow came and we ended up with a little over 13" on the ground. VO2 test was rescheduled as the roads were really too poor to do any driving on. 

Thursday afternoon was the test. Overall I think I'm in better shape than I was in February, despite not riding extremely regularly these last few months. My threshold power is the same as last year, but I'm making it at 5 fewer beats per minute. My VO2Max is a bit lower than it was in February. A bit curious, but since I haven't been putting in a lot of intensity, I'm not terribly surprised. On the good news front, this for this round of testing, I made it through a minute at 380 watts and died during the sprint in the 400 watt range. Last year I made it through a minute at 340 watts and died at 360. I'm not a coach, but I think this means I've gained, and kept, a lot of overall base these last few months. I'm pretty happy with the testing results and they've gotten me stoked to hit the training hard the next 4 months. 

Saturday I finally got out on the Mukluk to get a taste of the snow, and to play with tire pressures. With temps in the low to mid teens, I was going to just ride 3 or 4 miles to snag some coffee and breakfast. I ended up in a groove and stopped for food at Zanzibar's around mile 12. The bike trails conditions ranged from unplowed to cleared to the concrete, with plenty of steps in between. I got home with 22 or so miles in my legs, all with the tires at around 7 or 8 PSI. 

I'm looking forward to getting out and snagging some more miles over the holiday break. I've signed up for the Rapha Festive 500 on Strava, which is 500km between Christmas eve and New Year's eve, so that gives me a goal to shoot for over the holidays. More base miles for TransIowa and TripleD. I think it's doable since I don't have a lot of other demands on my time this week.

TransIowa V9 - Here we go again.

My third assault on TransIowa will occur in April 2013. Prep started today in the form of discussions with JJ Bailey from Zoom Performance. JJ was instrumental in getting me into fighting shape for Dirty Kanza this year. (yes I owe my 5 readers the rest of a race write up) I have an O2 test scheduled for this Thursday to get training baselines set for the year. I will be interested in seeing how I compare to this time last year. I've managed to keep the weight gain off despite not riding as much - I'm only 5 lbs heavier than I was for DK.

21 miles on my Specialized Singlecross today. Let the games begin.

Catch up post

Lots of stuff going on the last month, but not a lot of typing. Gonna just slap some stuff down so the 2 people that are reading this can see what I've been up to.

Ramped up the mileage over the last two weeks and have been feeling pretty good, if a bit tired. I didn't worry about whether it was gravel or pavement. Seat time of any sort is paramount right now to get the legs in shape.

Capped things off with camping trip out towards Panora with Squirrel, Jason Bouten, Sammy, and Skidmore on Friday. 85 miles of riding with a 50 lb trailer in tow made for a good workout, even at a medium pace. Ate some brats over a campfire and drank a few beers and just generally had a good time and enjoyed the early spring weather. The Hennessey Hammock worked out well for the trip. I'm actually going to need to find trees a bit further apart than I thought at first to hang it up. I also need to work on getting the line a bit more level so I don't sink down to one end of the hammock.

Parts for my Dos Niner have shown up at the shop, other than the rims for my wheels. Hope to get it all built up sometime soon (maybe during my TI rest week).

Fargo should be showing up at the shop this week as well. A little work to get that in shape but it will be worth it. The Fargo will be my steed for the TransWisconsin for sure. There's a slight chance I'll be using it for the Cheq 100 as well, but that would be fairly slim at this point.

In other news, my low back is out, so I'm going to be off the bike for a few days. Just about the worst time for it to happen as I really need to be getting consistent seat time in for the next 2 weeks. Better to rest now than break down in the middle of no where I guess.

Spring Training in Decorah

Earlier in the year, Ben Shockey put together plans for a weekend of long hard rides in the Decorah area. Since I wasn't going to Tuscon this year, I thought that this would be a good way to kick up my training for this year's endurance calendar. I sent an email off to Ben and reserved a space for the weekend. Out of the eight or ten takers, only three ended up making the trip: Drew Wilson, Kent Carlson, and me. Kent and I drove up on Thursday morning and arrived at Ben's early in the afternoon. After a quick trip to Decorah bikes to pick up a replacement head and taillights, we headed off to T-Bocks for some pre-ride food. We saw Drew cruise by the bar around 5 PM so we rode the two blocks back to Ben's to meet him.

Local rider Gunner showed up on his Fargo and we headed out from Ben's at 6PM for what turned out to be a 30-35 mile ride. There were a couple of decent sized hills along the way, but for the most part, it was a mellow affair with total of about 2.5 hours of ride time. We got back, headed out to get some stuff for Friday's breakfast, spent some time just BS-ing, and then headed to bed.

Friday morning came and I awoke to the sounds of Ben banging pans full of bacon, hash browns and sausage on the stove. A good way to start the morning. After a breakfast we loaded up and met Gunner downstairs and headed out for a gravel metric to Harmony, MN. The first few miles were an easy pavement warm up and then we hit the first of many miles of wet, but still somewhat firm gravel. Ben threw in some beautiful scenery and gently rolling hills along the Upper Iowa river as well as a couple of brutal climbs to make sure that we remembered where we were at. The final few miles going out were spent cruising through Minnesota Amish country, including a couple of passing buggys, and plenty of wheel tracks along the side of the road. After a quick food stop, we headed back along the same route. The east wind had shifted to the south during our ride and was now our companion for remainder of the day. Big downhills became slow grinds on the way back, with one hill in particular possessing a dreadful combination of steepness and fresh loose gravel. Kent, Ben and Drew were machines on their single speeds and trying to match their pace was causing me to burn a lot of matches both physically and mentally. It didn't take me long to let them ride off and settle into a more comfortable pace and "ride my ride". My mood improved dramatically after that. The rest of my ride included some stops for photos and a lot of taking in the sights more so than having my nose to the grindstone. I finished the ride alone, but maybe only 30 minutes after everyone else. After a shower and a quick bite to eat, we hung out for a bit and then went out for more food and a couple of beers. A huge plate of pasta hit the spot and soon we were back at Ben's and prepping for Saturday's 100 mile suffer fest.

We got up early on Saturday morning for breakfast so we could leave at 7 AM sharp. We headed north from Ben's place, across the river and right up the wall known as Quarry Hill road. I let the fast guys ride off ahead and settled into a comfortable pace up the hill. At the top, we were greeted with a stiff north wind and blowing rain. I could tell this was gonna be a long day as my back had already had a couple of small spasms on the way up Quarry hill. About 15 miles in I decided to pull the plug. The route was only going to get steeper and it was obvious that my back wasn't going to handle the workout for the day. I ended up following some random roads back into town (some of them I'm sure were on TI v4) and spending the rest of the day hanging out in the bike and coffee shops around town. I went out with Ben's wife to meet the guys around mile 85 at a convenience store and waited for them to finish the ride up. After they returned we hit up the local bars and restaurants for food and drinks to celebrate the weekend of fun.

The decision to go up for the weekend of riding was a good one. The Decorah area is beautiful and challenging to ride in. Having like minded folks that are also strong riders made for a challenging weekend too. We're hoping we can get back for another shot at the century course on a nicer day later this year. Have to see how the schedule works out.

22.3 @ 16.8

Met up with Blackford, Squirrel and Reagan at Rasmussen's for some Moffit Lake loop action this morning. Only the four of us showed up so we headed out south of town on 63rd. It took about 2 miles for me to figure out that I was gonna get put in the hurt locker. Squirrel and Regan on 23c's and Rick just being Rick this year. Everyone but me on the big ring from the start. I was OTB by the time we hit Park and I stayed there the rest of the day. Once my heart and respiration rates came down out of the stratosphere, I managed to at least keep them in site on the south side of the loop. I looked up to see the three of them passing the turn off and heading out to Moffit Lake. I opted for two loops on my "big" ring and then rode back to the shop. Some guys can go right from the gun and I am not one of them. I really didn't get settled in until the first turn north on the loop. Not a lot I can do about it other than train my body to go harder from the start, or HTFU and play the hand I've been dealt. At least the fenders worked.

Nod to Epon for the post title.

3 hour tour

Left BWW at 1:30 PM today with a ton of other guys. Blackford, Basso, Waugaman, Mason, Huerter, Wild Bill, Bach, Doughty, Ryan VH, and Osborn (think that was everyone). It was Chad's ride, but he didn't really have a solid route planned. Seemed like everyone turned to me to ask where we were going and what the pace was gonna be. We headed out of town on 60th St towards Booneville Road. It was quickly obvious that my pace was a lot slower than what most people wanted to ride today. We had some regroups to make sure that everyone was following the same route. Got about 15 miles in when Bach stopped and asked me for a multi tool to fix his loose pedal. Turns out that his pedal somehow got cross threaded and it was pulling out. We pulled it out of his crank arm, got it rethreaded as best as we could, and I sent him on the short route home. His pedal ended up coming out after a large downhill, but by that time, the fast guys had caught up to him and ended up towing and pushing him back. I ended up pulling sweeper duty, catching up to Doughty and Huerter in the process. After helping Terry with a flat, we both just cruised back in for a bit until he told me to go ahead ride without him. Stopped for some coffee with the fast guys before heading home. Got 30 or so miles rolled out in about 3 hours. In the end not a terribly satisfying ride for a number of reasons. Just one of those days I guess. At least the La Cruz is clean and I didn't spend the day inside on the rollers.

Sunday .783 Metric

I left the trailhead behind the Cumming tap this morning at 8 AM sharp. No one else showed up for the planned metric century. I wasn't too surprised as the winds were blowing at 20 MPH and no one else really needs to get outdoor miles this early due to their event schedules. I pulled the bike out of the truck and got down to business. A 1/2 mile of pavement followed by a quick mile jog north got me onto the planned route. I turned west and was blasted by the wind as I crossed the freeway. This wasn't going to be a fun day. My legs were feeling a little heavy, but I finally got into a rhythm and just kept driving west into the wind. I stopped to take a quick drink and realized that I had not heard the beep on my GPS and missed my turn south. Instead of turning back, I opted to keep heading west into the wind since the roads were in decent shape. As I passed near Earlham, I opted to go into town and grab a cup of coffee and a doughnut at Casey's. About that point I realized that I had probably didn't have the legs under me to ride a metric today. I had the hilliest part of the route ahead of me and the roads were starting to get soft under the now visible sun (BTW, it's been a while since we've seen that yellow ball around here). I put my helmet and balaclava back on and retraced the now softer roads back to Cumming. The rest of the ride was uneventful other than the ache in my legs and a couple of "oh crap" moments when my front wheel started washing out on some of the soft gravel downhills. Stopped in the Cumming tap after the ride and had a couple of pints of Fat Tire before heading home.

I would have liked to have gotten a full 62 or so in today, but it just wasn't in the cards for me after the trainer workout yesterday and the headwinds today. I still managed to get a good ride in today, so that's not all bad.

Ramping up

About 45 days before TransIowa and I'm finally starting to ramp up my training. The 4 days I spent riding in Tucson were on a road bike, but the hills and climbing have transformed my legs into something much better than they were at this time last year, and better than the week before I left. After a few days off, I've gotten back into the groove with some mileage on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Not as much distance as I'd like, but it's better than nothing. I'm hoping that I can substitute shorter, intense rides for longer less intense efforts. I'm going to have to start getting in metrics and some longer rides just to get used to being in the saddle and practice fueling the machine. While I'm not completely happy with my preparations so far (especially compared to some other people I know), I think I still have time to get there. Here's hoping that everyone else's TI prep is going well, and I look forward to seeing you in May, or even sooner.

Tucson - Day 4

I woke up drained, but not sore from Thursday's ride. We headed out to IHOP for breakfast and then back to Kirby's to change for the day's ride. The original plan was to ride out to, then up Kitt Peak and come back into town. General sentiment was that we would head out there and see what happened. My plan was to ride out, do as much of the 12 mile climb as I could and then ride back into town. We met up with Lou at Starbucks near the campus again. After a brief discussion, we decided that a 60 or 70 mile loop back up through Gates pass and back into town sounded more reasonable. The climb up Gates pass was a lot better for me this time around. Some complaints from my legs made me decide to spend the rest of the day in my big chainring to give some of the muscles a break. After the descent we regrouped and headed NW for some sprint and paceline work out through Tucson Mountain County Park and north to Avra. As we turned west back towards Tucson, yesterday's effort, combined with the today's ride finally caught up to me and I fell off the back of the group. I followed West Picture Rocks road down into a valley and up a small climb through Contzen Pass. On the descent, I noticed a sharp corner sign out of the corner of my eye. As I came up over a small rise I had to hit the breaks hard to make the first of the two 90 degree corners that popped up. As I was getting ready to make the second one, I noticed 4 of our group sitting off to the inside of the corner. I pulled over to see if everyone was OK. Pig had taken the corner a bit too fast, and his back tire washed out as he was going through the second corner. He and the bike were ok, although they both left a bit of themselves on the pavement. Other than a flat tire, the remainder of the ride in was unremarkable. Pig, Sergey, Lou and I stopped at B-line for a quick drink and a snack before heading back to Kirby's. We ran through the showers, grabbed some food, and drove up to Phoenix for dinner with Kris' wife Jenny at her aunt and uncle's house. We had a great meal of salad, grilled corn, steaks and chops, some great conversation and a good time. It was well worth the drive up and back. A huge thanks to Dennis and Jenae for hosting our motley bunch.

Photos
GPS Track

Tucson - Day 3

Despite the humor in the house, I think everyone had a bit of concern about today's ride, an 80-ish mile trek out to the top of Mount Lemmon and back, 52 of which was the ascent and descent of the mountain itself. We made our way to IHOP to fuel up, double checked everything on our bikes, and then headed out to meet PJ and Lou for coffee. Just before we left, Pig glanced down at my rear cassette and asked me what I was doing. My race bike is set up for the flats of Iowa, so my smallest rear gear is 23 teeth. A look around showed everyone else running 25s and 28s. Since I didn't bring a spare cassette with me, this was going to probably make a long day even longer. We took off around 10:30 so that the temps at the top of the mountain would be a bit warmer by the time we got there. The ride out to the base of Mount Lemmon is a straight flat run from the edge of town. We ran a fairly up tempo double pace line to the base of the mountain and mile marker 0. After the first 3/4 of a mile, I already knew I wasn't going to be able to keep pace with the rest of the motors in our group. I yelled goodbye and settled in for the trip into the pain cave. About mile 3 or so, I passed Bobo and motored on, but by mile 6 he had caught my wheel and continued ahead of me. There's not a lot to say about the climb, other than it was steady, beautiful and painful. I found myself tapping my shifter and wishing that it would drop down one more gear. When it didn't I up-shifted to the 21 or the 19 and stood on the pedals to build up a little more speed and give my legs a bit of a change up. I opted for no headphones to make it a mental training day as well. This left me with a soundtrack of three Theory of a Deadman songs running through my head for the next three hours. I recall stopping for brief food and rest breaks at mile markers 8, 13, 17, 19 and 23. By mile 17, I had to break out the windbreaker due to the wind and the temperature drop. At a rest point at mile 23 a woman asked to get my photo with her 91 year old father. I felt sorry for the guy having my exhausted mug in a photo with him. At mile 25 I caught a reprieve as the road turned down towards the ski resort. I saw Pig and Rich pointing the way to the restaurant. Unfortunately this was at almost the peak of the mountain, and resulted in riding the steepest part of the climb (over 12% grade) as my body was at its weakest. I soldiered on for the next mile or so, briefly glancing down and seeing my speedometer read 4.5 MPH while I mustered what little energy I had left to make it to the restaurant at the top.

I stumbled into the restaurant, collapsed in a chair at the end of the table, and ordered a cup of coffee. From everyone else's accounts, I looked like I had a run in with a bear (or worse) somewhere along the way up. It also sounded like there was some doubt that I was going to even make it to the top. After a turkey sandwich and some warm potato salad, it was time to make our way back down. We made the quick steep descent back into the fork in the road, and started the short climb out until the real descent could begin. Sergey and I had chatted earlier and had decided we'd take it easy on the descent and avoid any potential issues. The "ride" down was fast, windy and cold. Temps at the top of the mountain were around 48 with winds gusting to 20 MPH when we left. Sergey and I kept our speeds checked to a max of 35 MPH. I hit a large rock at 25 MPH around mile 8. I managed to stay upright and pulled off to the side while the air hissed out of my tire. The rest of the ride down was uneventful. We took a minute to regroup at the bottom and then rode a fast double paceline back into town. Showers, and some well earned food, drink and ice cream finished out the day. Everyone hit the bed pretty early to try and rest up for Friday's 125 mile excursion to Kitt Peak.

Photos

GPS data - Total feet of climb is way off for some reason.

Tucson - Day 2

Got up around 7 AM, ate some breakfast and then headed out to meet Lou for coffee at the Starbucks in the UofA campus town area. Looks like there is an electric cable car that runs in the area, but it wasn't going on Wednesday morning. Plan was to head out towards Starr Pass and Gates Pass for a 40 miler with some extended climbing to warm ourselves up for Thursday's run at Mount Lemmon. Once the rest of group arrived, we'd head out for an afternoon ride with them. I opted to give my new road shoes and pedals a test, figuring that a 40 mile ride wouldn't cause me any issues if the fit was off. At 10 bells, we took off at a reasonable but deliberate pace.

This was my first time out in anything I would begin to call a mountain (and what the locals would likely just call a big hill) and I spent a lot of time looking at the houses and scenery as we headed towards Gates Pass. Part of the way out I had to stop to fix an issue with my chain. A pin had worked its way loose, and was causing the chain to pull my deraileur up. The pin was loose enough that I was able to push it back in with my fingers, so we pressed on. First clue that it was going to be a long morning. As we hit the base of the climb, my heart rate hit the 170s and I decided to back off a bit and wave goodbye to Lou, Kris and Rich. I kept soldiering on hoping that they would stop and wait for me on the other side of the pass. I had to stop again briefly to put my chain back on as it kept falling off the chain ring. Second clue. I continued the climb up towards the top of the pass, where I could see the gang waiting for me. About 200' from the top of pass, I heard a loud bang, and then suddenly I was stopped. I fell over trying to unclip and figure out what had happened at the same time. A quick glance confirmed that my chain had finally had enough. Since I didn't have a chain tool or a spare link with me, Kris called his cousin Kirby to come and pick me up before he headed to the airport to meet the rest of our group. While the guys continued on, I coasted back down the way that I came and waited for Kirby. A few minutes at Fallen Wheel bicycle had me fixed up, and I cruised back through the UofA campus to our home for the week. 26 miles or so for the morning.

Kris and Rich arrived about an hour later, having decided to head a different direction, and ending up with 70 miles for the morning. We ate some lunch and recovered while the rest of the guys unpacked and got ready for the afternoon ride. Since My mileage was a bit short for the morning, I took off for a 30 minute spin through town while we waited for Lou to show up for the afternoon ride. Around 3:30, we headed through town and then southwest towards Saguaro National Park. Lou, Kris and Rich pulled off at the edge of town so they could save something for Thursday's ride. I opted to head out for a loop through the park with the Pete, Sergey, Mark, Pig, and Pig's friend PJ. The loop through the park is an 8 mile one way road, that starts out with three miles of twisty downhill with some sharp rollers thrown in for good measure. Afterwards, there is a climb up out of the valley and then a generally flat ride back to the entrance. The climb out gave me a short taste of what might be coming on Thursday. Our loop done, we headed back into town, picked up the other three guys and made our way home. We showered and then headed out for some food and drink before hitting the beds early so we would be well rested for the Assault on Mount Lemmon on Thursday.

Photos from the rides
GPS tracks: morning afternoon

Tucson - Day 1

Woke up at 4:30 AM and left to pick up Rich and Lou to carpool to the airport for our 6:30 flight. A 2 hour layover in MPLS and a 3 hour flight to Tucson put us on the warm soils of Arizona around noon. The Tucson airport was a lot smaller than I was expecting. Evidently you're either flying into Tucson or leaving it (kind of like Des Moines). Snagged a rental car and headed over to meet Chris at Sabino Cycles. We loaded the bikes up, bought some sundries, and made a breakfast run to a nearby Safeway store. 30 minutes later we were at the townhouse we're staying at (thanks Kirby!!), putting the rest of the bikes together, and getting ready for the shakedown ride. We left around 4 PM or so for a ride out to Colossal Cave Mountain Park. Temps were in the upper 80s and we had a tail/cross as we headed SW out of town. The ride out was generally downhill, although it was hard to tell with the mountains looming off to our left. The excitement of being able to ride someplace warm hit just about everyone as we drilled it from the start and all of the way out to the park. I found myself off the back at multiple points, not being able to deliver any power to the pedals and my heart rate stuck at around 165 as long as I continued to pedal. I was definitely paying the price for the exuberance as we left town. The group took a breather at the park entrance so my heart rate could come back down to normal, then we began the ride back into town. Lou handled the pacemaking chores most of the way back while the rest of us sat in and recovered. My heart rate was averaging around 140 for the ride back in, which was a much better place for me to be this time of year. We arrived back to Kirby's around 7 and relaxed, stretched and rubbed the lactic acid out of our legs. A quick shower and a change of clothes and we met Lou for dinner and a couple of drinks at his hotel.

47 miles for the first day out here. Not having been on the bike since Thursday, my body was shocked by both the heat and the effort. I think things will be a bit more sane today. We have a morning ride scheduled with the four of us, and then a larger afternoon ride once Pete, Pig, Sergey and Bobo get into town. So far Tucson seems like an OK place. Lots of cactus, lots of dirt, sand and rock, and plenty of cacti. More deciduous trees than I was expecting. Aloe plants the size of a small group of children. Grass is a rarity here due to the arid weather. One of the best things so far are the number of bike lanes, the sign-age, and the drivers' ability to obey them. In town, we had a bike lane that was generally two bikes wide, and where it intersected with a right turn lane, we had the right of way to go straight. Quite cool, and we had no issues getting right hooked, despite heavy traffic.

Photos from the day.
GPS track