CG 200k 3M

MMM  =  Me and the Minnesota Maidens.   I suppose I could say Minnesota Maidens with legs of steel or titanium or something like that.   It's always a bit intimidating riding with folks from out of state as they usually do a lot more of these than I do and today it showed a bit.  For one,  you really do get a lot of endurance built up doing those things.  You may not be able to ride superfast but you can at least hold your speed alot longer than someone who might not do as many of these.  Anyway,  I suppose I should backtrack a bit.

It was interesting showing up at the shop bright and early.  It seems like I don't recognize as many people these days (some have moved,  some just don't come out anymore) but it wasn't too long before Lara recognized me from the ride we did on Mines to Pines a year or two ago.  She has a real good ability to recognize people.  I remembered her of course,  after she mentioned where she knew me from,  but if she hadn't have said anything I wouldn't have probably thought about it.  

Susan said her piece about 20 after and then cast us all off trusting us to know the way.  No motor drafting,  no one to trigger the lights for us on the way out of town,  why,  it was almost like she expected us to be self sufficient or something.

I always feel really good the first 5 miles or so.  I tell myself what an awesome cyclist I am the way I am keeping up with all the fast guys.   How it seems like nothing to just pedal along behind everyone.  Of course,  once the five miles is up that typically marks the end of the warm up for the fast guys and I get a reality check as the speeds ratchet up to superhuman.

My bike computer got left on my commuter bike so I had no idea how fast we were going.  I'd later learn it was around 25mph.   Of course I did my best to hold on.  Last time I did this I was able to hold them most of the way up the pass but last time I did this I was in a lot better shape.  Today I would find myself running out of air huffing like a steam engine about halfway up the main drag to I-10.  I was thinking that I should probably drop off somewhere in here when I saw someone drop off the back.  Figuring if I tried to man it out the only result I would get is a lot deeper in oxygen debt and be out there trying to recover alone.  If I dropped now I not only would not need to recover as much but I would at least have someone else to ride with.

Enter Lara.  Yes,  year before last when we rode the Mines to Pines we rode pretty much the same speed along with Tom Baker and interestingly enough, it was to happen again today.  We worked pretty good together.  Heading up to the pass above Coolidge we spotted a group behind us and kind of hoped they would catch up but they never did.  One person of the group did and passed us but by the time we started heading down the otherside we would pass him and would be off to the ruins.

Lara surmised the other group was about 2 minutes back and sure enough after we got our cards signed the group showed up 2-3 minutes after us.  One of Lara's friends from Minnesota was there and she did a lightning turnaround and headed off with us and so it was the Ladies from Minnesota ,  who I must say are pretty strong riders for being from a  place with a more difficult cycling season this time of year, and I. 

In my experience,  the CG 200k is an interesting beast.  It doesn't have a lot of climbing but the winds are the issue.  If one takes too long to get out to the turnaround one might find that the headwind they fought all the way out turns around and becomes a headwind all the way back.   If you work a little harder to get out to the lunch stop faster though you might have some tailwind on the way back.  So we worked a little extra hard on the way out and got a little payout.

I have to say these Ladies worked my poor legs ragged.  I thought the lunch stop would never appear.  Not having a bike computer makes it hard to know how far things are and I didn't want to get into asking "are we there yet?" too much and becoming a pest so I just pedalled on.   About 5 miles out from the stop I was thinking I was seeing a mirage ahead that looked a lot like a rider.  The wind was becoming a real nuisance.  Enough of a nuisance that the rider in front of us,  who was not a mirage, nearly got caught before we arrived at lunch.

Enter Brian.  We had a good lunch and I think I ate too much as the stomache was not happy about an hour down the road.  Anyway,  Ryan decided to ride back with us and so we were a group of four.  Well,  3 and an anchor,  although to be fair I did take my pulls until about 13 miles from the end when my stomache started to act up and my legs just wouldn't churn out the revolutions anymore.  Fortunately everyone was patient with me and pulled me the last ways in.  This is what I meant by perhaps endurance being a bit higher for folks that do a lot of these.

The wind in the last 13 miles shifted to a nasty headwind  (but the tailwind was very nice while it lasted).  I entered zombie mode and just kept pedalling as best I could.  Lara asked me if I had been drinking and I replied "no,  I had not been drinking".  Then I realized she was talking about water.  I had been drinking water but the stomache was not very happy.  I probably should have been drinking more water but Michelle's comment about a bike bottle full of Vodka made me laugh.  Mirth is good when your dredging the wells.

The pavement eventually turned to utter crap and of course, this means you are getting close to home.  For some reason Casa Grande must not have a very large street maintenance budget.  I'll have to ask my friend about that come to think of it,  he's a city planner down there.  Being in that dark place of suffering and delirium I steered us past the turn and we had to go back and find it.  We didn't get far but if we had just done the first turn like we were supposed to we might have finished with more than a minute to spare before hitting 8 hours.  As is, we did in fact beat 8 hours.  My goal was to beat my first time on this course of 8 hours and ten minutes.  I would have been happy beating my worst time of 8 hours and 30 minutes but 7 hours and 59 minutes is more than acceptable.  Not my fastest time,  but not my slowest by quite a bit.  All in all it was a good day with good riding company.  Who can ask for more?

Keeping up with the Two Wheel Jones's......almost.

As many of you may know,  at least those of you who are omnipotent, my boy's are on a junior's cycling team as they will be racing age next year.   The team is run out of a bike shop called Two Wheel Jones east of us a few miles.  They have a weekend ride that meets there and this Saturday I found myself in need of a stiff ride and they were headed out to Canyon Lake and beyond so I decided to hop on thinking they might not be as crazy fast as the Brumby's and perhaps even had a 'B' group that wouldn't be too slow.

Yep,  pulled up behind a fine set of riders out on baseline heading over to the same ride I was.  I even caught up to them.   Felt pretty good about myself at that point I must say.   We chatted it up all the way out to Signal Butte Road and then signed in and waited for the ride to start.  Since we were such a large group they were splitting into an A group and a B group.  B group was supposed to wait 1 minute Tricia said as she sped off to catch the A group 20 seconds or so after they left.  All of us of course thought she was leading the B group so we sped off after her and humorously enough,  the B group caught the A group after a few lights.

I believe we caught them because of the headwind they were fighting,  or maybe that is why we stayed with them.  That being said once we turned the corner I found myself on the back after a few folks dropped off and the old familiar Yo Yo action started up and I was getting winded fast.  I had to bridge a few gaps that formed in front of me and before long I was cooked.  Just like with the Brumbys.  Except I actually had started being able to hold the Brumbys before my training sloughed off.

I spotted a couple of folks in my rearview mirror and I softpedalled until they caught up.  It was one of the kid's from the blue team (older faster kids, mine are on the orange team).  This was his first time out to Canyon Lake on a bike.  Needless to say I was impressed.  In fact,  he outclimbed me on every hill.  Not by much mind you, and truth be told I was holding a little something back for EOP,  but for a 15ish year old,  that was pretty darn good.

Sorry I never finished The last post,  this week was similar to last week,  there were around 50 riders most of them of good fitness levels,  I held on until the hill at Usery Pass and then I was off the back.  Funny thing was I thought I was last once the 4 or five people behind me passed me up but I passed them going down the other side and they passed me up again before we got to the beeline.  I passed one lady and told her I was thinking of turning up to Four Peaks for a few miles if no one was up at the beeline.

There was a regroup up at the beeline though and as we waited with them I discovered there were quite a few people behind me.   I guess we were sort of an A- or B+  group that formed in the wake of the fast guys.   Someday I'll be back up with hanging with those fast guys but today it worked out pretty good.  I ended up riding with Walt.  Walt's the dad of one of the kids on my boys cycling team and we had a good discussion about that,  randonneuring (yeah I was flying the colors on my jersey that morning) and whatnot.  I emailed him the info on the brevet scene down here and maybe will have another recruit on our hands? 

A few times I found myself struggling to hold onto him but I think I am not too far behind his fitness level.  It was really cool having someone to ride with.   I think I'm going to make this ride a weekly thing.  Their meeting place is a bit closer than that of the Brumby's and there is the fact my kid's are on the team and it's cool to mix with the other parents  out on the road as opposed to watching the kids practice.

Next week is the 200k in Casa Grande.  It's been a few years since I did it but I am looking forward to it.  Susan posted the 2004 results on the website and my time was 8:10.   That was both the first Az Brevet for AZ Randonneurs and my first Brevet.   8:10 was lot longer than the sub 7 hour I did year before last.  That's my goal though.  I'd like to think I am in better shape than I was in 2004.   I haven't trained much,  but seeing as I finished the Mt. Lemmon 200k a month or two ago I think I probably can do it.  Hopefully there will be someone my speed out there.  Hard to believe it's been 8 years.   I've also started bike commuting since then of course so that will help too.

Let's play, finish the driver's sentence.....

I could never ride a bike in traffic but......

• I could risk my life and others sending a text to my boyfriend/girlfriend about the last song I heard on the radio or how terrible all the other drivers are.

• I could risk my life by watching an in dash dvd player,  which likely enough has a movie that involves a villain who risks or harms people's lives.

• I could almost ram another car in my zeal of yelling at a cyclist.

• I could risk my life and others in passing a cyclist unsafely to save 10 seconds of drive time.

• I could spend 3 minutes of my commute following and harrassing a cyclist that otherwise would have cost me 20 seconds of lost time.

• I could swear and throw a tantrum over having to deal with a peloton of cyclists costing me a minute or two, not thinking that if they were all in cars like I am, I would be exponentially screwed out of much more time.

• I could risk my life and others by driving into the sun when I couldn't see, instead of stopping and cleaning my windshield (-but I couldn't see him officer!  The sun was in my eyes!    officer-Do you often drive while blind Sir/Mam?).

• In heavy traffic I could use the bike lane to queue up behind a long line of cars for a right turn despite having just told a cyclist to stay in the bike lane.

• I could blame a cyclist for taking up 4 feet of road space despite having made the decision to drive a vehicle bordering on the maximum legal width and fully suitable for driving my  posse to the Love Shack.

Feel free to add any of your own in the comments,  just keep in mind to keep it kid appropriate...

Mt. Lemmon 200k Brevet

I did the Mt. Lemmon 200K Brevet Saturday.  It was another great ride.  I rode slow since as you know I have not had time to train this fall.  It has been a long time since I did a climb of this magnitude and I must say it has been too long.  I have grown soft but by the time I arrived at the top the old will had again manifested itself.   I did make a video of the experience which I have attached below.  I managed to beat my last time on this ride.  Of course I wasn't dealing with a bum knee and crazy headwinds all the way up the mountain this time (they were there in parts but not contunuously).

Am I getting repititious?

So it has been awhile since I did a Brevet.  I helped with one in Sep but couldn't ride since I didn't get Friday off for a preride. The last one I did was the Route 66 300k.  Other than that I have done permanents but have not had much of an organized Brevet year.  Perhaps it was a latent grudge against not being able to do PBP once again?  I think the biggest reason was I've been trying to bike with the kids a lot more and that interferes with training.  I have hopes of doing more rides next spring.  We have been told by my Son's therapists that Mom and Dad need to put on their 'Oxygen Masks' first so to speak so I am upping my "Dad Only" rides again.  We'll see how we juggle it around the Boy's race schedule next year.  With so many Brevet's being offered I think things should work out.

This brings me around to Saturday morning.  I had the dream again.  I don't know how often this happens to you before Brevet's but after I have had a long hiatus and am looking at a ride the next week,  I have the dream.  The dream usually starts out with me getting ready for the Brevet and then I can't find something or I run out of gas and don't make it to the start line.  The other variation is that I do start but then I get lost and can't find a control or I miss it or I'm too slow, or any number of stupid things happen.  So Friday Night I had the dream.  I invited a bunch of friends on the Brevet and they made me late.  Maybe it was my brain just telling me,  "don't even think about someone else,  this ride is for you and you need the outlet".   At least it wasn't a show up to the Brevet naked dream I guess.

Saturday's Brevet is the Mt. Lemmon Brevet.  Mt. Lemmon is one of the top climbs in the country.  Since you've been following this blog you probably know my training has not been optimal.  In fact I haven't strung more than 60 miles together in over a month.   I figure I can count the Tandem as double miles.  So I am a little trepidatious.   I did manage to do over 3000 feet of climbing over 43 miles Saturday morning in Las Sendas.  Yes,  little Las Sendas.  How does one get 3000 feet of climbing in Las Sendas you may ask?  Well,  you repeat yourself a lot.  You also dig up side roads like "Range Rider" that feature slight variations but no one rides them since they don't connect to anything.  

My saving grace is I could have done much more as I felt fine so I think if I spin I should be ok.  As far as distance goes, by the time I rode with Josh and Adela in the Afternoon, and Joseph late at night,  I had over 80 miles in.  I was sleepy but the cycling muscles weren't overly exhausted so I think I should be good.  Now to figure out how to get some fenders on the bike.  There's a chance of rain.  Maybe it might even snow up on top.  If it does rain, the Coy Mistress will miss out on a climb up Lemmon while the commuter shines in it's element.

Full Circle....Again......

It's a good thing actually.  I feel like my work locations cycle.  I worked in Tempe just south of the big water bucket on the butte once upon a time,  then I moved out of tempe to a job in north Phoenix,  then by the airport,  then to just North of the big water bucket and I started bike commuting.  From their I left again and went to Chandler where I still commuted albeit a little long I continued by bicycle,  then it was up to Squaw/Piestewa peak area and commuting was noticeably harder due to the distance and eventually stopped.  The past week I moved.  The new location is just North of the big water bucket.  You may ask,  Paul, have you started bike commuting again?  I may reply,  does a fish return to water first chance it gets?

Since the last time I had to commute down the Broadway corridor a few things have changed.  There are now bike lanes down Main Street/Apache Trail which weren't there before so I don't have to go north to University and ultimately the rio salado parkway.  So though my work is farther as the crow flies,  I am able to actually have a shorter commute mileage wise since I don't have to go as far north to avoid the terrible terrible road that Broadway road is through Tempe.

I decided to resume commuting last Wednesday and was pleased to find that since last time I was a much faster rider being able to catch the holy grail of a 20mph average with rack trunk and traffic lights everywhere.  I don't know if it is safe to go much faster than that due to the number of traffic lights and the annoyances of urban riding.  Still it was a pleasant surprise.

This new route may not have beautiful scenery like Camelback mt and Squaw peak in it but it is a much more doable distance so it will happen a lot more.  My father in-law works only 5 miles away so the ride home is taken care of.  Things have worked out quite well for me.  It's good to be back until the circle decides to take up the cycle again.

Isn't that a long way to go for a 45 mile ride?

Cochise County Cycling Classic

Friday was an interesting day.  Our trip started out with me remembering a few things we forgot after I got the kids in the car and while I collected them Joe got bored.  Joe's kind of like the incredible hulk in a way,  don't get him bored, you wouldn't like it when he's bored.  First starts irritation, he irritates people ceaselessly, then when people get mad at him he lashes out and gets violent.  Well,  the doctors told us the next time it happened take him to Phoenix Childrens emergency room where he would spend the week in their pediatric psychiatric unit getting his meds regulated and that is just what my wife did.  That left Josh, Adela and I to head down to Cochise County one rider shy.  I have to say,  it took a lot of stress off me having him out of the picture, not that I don't love the little guy but when his other side comes out it can be a long time before the genie goes back in the bottle so to speak.


So off we all went in the bikemobile down to Douglas.  We stopped off at Kartchner Caverns and the Bisbee mine tour on the way and the kids loved them both.  We actually managed to time things quite nicely,  we managed to slide into the Douglas Fairgrounds at 5:20 to check in and attend the bike patrol meeting at 5:30.  I chatted up Wayne Churchman who recognized me before I recognized him thanks to a new moustache, he commented Douglas was a long drive for a 45 mile ride.  I told him we were bike tourists.  Then we picked up our packets and t-shirts including Joseph's and went to listen to Sheila in the bike patrol meeting.  Sheila is an old friend that used to go to our church when she lived up in Mesa.  Enter Fuji.  Fuji is Barbara's dog and of course, all dogs love kids or is it vice versa?  So it seems they found something to entertain them while I was instructed on the finer points of bike patrol.

The kids it turned out,  had become psyched about the spaghetti dinner after all and so all thoughts of Dairy Queen were out of their minds.  Before dinner though we needed to run to Walmart since we had left Adela's backpack behind,  I mean it wasn't like there were any distraction going on when we departed huh?  So,  one pair of shoes and new outfit later, and also a brief delay waiting for the border overflow traffic to let us through (lot's of folks trying to get back to Mexico at sunset), we were off  to enjoy our spaghetti dinner.  Had a good talk with Patty and Ajai.  Ajai was doing the full enchilada,  the big early, the double stuffing,  the big ride, the reason it is the Cochise "COUNTY" Cycling Classic.  Kid's loved talking to them.  Kid's loved talking to everyone actually.  Cochise is one of those rides that is the equivalent of life in a small town.  Everyone pretty much meets everyone and much of that happens at the dinner.  They were the only kids there really.

Josh and Adela's Spaghetti dinner

Back at "Six Motel" as Adela puts it, and after a brief trip into Middle Earth the kids were asleep and it was time for me to become "Bicycle Repair man!".   Well, actually there wasn't much to repair as opposed to prepare.  I just love the skit by Monty Python, it's a good watch on youtube if you ever get the chance.  It took me about an hour to get the bottles, handlebar bag full of scooby snacks (candy), and all the race numbers pinned, twisty tied, and stuck to the various paraphenalia that would be used on the ride. 

I prodded the kids to get up around 6:15 and headed out to the front of the hotel to take pictures of the 157 and 92 mile guys as they went by.  They were ready when I got back and we packed up and headed to the start line where they made no delay in finding Fuji and Barbara.  I wandered around a bit and then we all lined up and I decided to tuck my pullover under one of the traffic cones and chance the cold morning.

Josh hurried out with the pack despite my wish to hold back but I figured he'd blow up within a mile or two anyway and then we could hold a more practicle pace.  Sure enough,  after turning off the Pan American Hwy there he was and we caught him fairly quickly.  It wasn't too long before we were taking our illustrious position of being the last riders.  Being bike patrol I felt that since I wasn't around to help anyone I would at the very least pickup all the event related garbage along the route which mostly consisted of empty gel packs.  We did find a 2004 El Tour shirt though which came in handy later on.

The Long Road back to Douglas

  

Being in back meant we got to have the broom wagon keep a watchful eye on us and offer us fruit and so forth.  Being so cold we really didn't need much water but ate a few bananas.  After halfway Sheila took up the broom wagon duties and watched us as we went into the flatter and faster portion of the course.  I use the word 'faster' loosely though.  9 year olds just aren't that fast I am afraid but that's ok. 

The kids had remained surprisingly upbeat until Adela had to go to the bathroom and we discovered that there were not any on the last 15 miles of the route.   We eventually were forced into a rather pastoral area by the road where relief was found as well as a good use for that t-shirt we picked up.  Just before we stopped there Josh proclaimed he "quit"  but after the break he was ready to finish after having what must have been a pep talk from Sheila. 

I am often surprised how one gets extra energy from somewhere when the last few miles of the ride starts.  Josh bolted across Douglas looking for that finish line.  We pulled in at one minute after one with a time of 5 hours and 1 minute.   Josh's bike computer showed 4 hours and 22 minutes of riding time and mine showed 4 hour and 10 minutes of riding time (we got to ride faster when we would catch up to him after picking up garbage).



Um, can't remember why she looks like she's crying,  probably something her brother did..



We hung around the finish for awhile while the kids entertained the PBAA staff.  When Dan rode in (100 mile world record holder, 10 time Cochise winner, yada yada yada) Josh was calling out to him like they were old friends which seemed to catch Dan off guard a little but after he had had a minute to recover a bit (234 miles is quite aways to go in 11 and a half hours after all) he came over and started talking to Josh about Josh starting to race next season and how he knew some of the Two Wheel Jones guys.  Dan's a class act for sure.  Cochise is one of those events where everyone gets to rub shoulders so to speak and it was very cool  it really made Josh's day.

Can't say anything of interest happened on the way home.  Had Pizza,  had ice cream,  had a long drive where Josh pulled a switcheroo on me while I was filling the tank and stole the gummy bears I had hidden away just so he wouldn't get to them.  Impulsivity disorders and medications that give you the appetite of Scooby Doo are not a good idea in my mind,  need to talk to the doctor about that come to think of it,  before he blows up like a balloon.

Yes it was a long drive for a 45 mile ride.  If you look at it from a 9 year old's perspective though, it may as well be a century.  It's also a wonderful opportunity to meet the folks behind the scenes when they don't have 9000 cyclists milling around them.  Time well spent.