Merciful June

Back of the pack

I hopped on with the Brumbys this fine morning in June. It was a beautiful summer morning with cool temperatures and a forecast high of 94. Some Saturdays in the summer it's 90 degrees when we start out at 5 AM. Not today. Most of the sadistic fast guys were on the other side of town today riding back to Bartlett lake and up a mountain. So today the pace was a little slower than it was a few weeks ago heading across town. The group probably had 30-40 riders this morning.

I managed to stay with the group today and was not even the last one up a lot of the hills to boot. I didn't feel particularly strong and I have put on a few pounds over the last few weeks but I managed to stick with the group for the most part (or at least get to the regroups before they left).

Hill going up to the end of the pavement.

Only about half of the group pushed on past Tortilla flat. I figured I go to the end of the pavement and then head back since I was coming off a weeks rest and I had not felt overly energetic this week. I left canyon lake with the group and made it to the regroup just before dropping off the last hill. We formed a paceline of around 7 or 8 people heading back to Apache Junction. I think I got 2 pulls by the time we got to Crismon road.

Just after 9 I was feeling spunky and had another hour left of time so I thought I would tack a trip around Usery Pass on so I left the group at Crismon road. I could feel some fatigue but I still kept a pretty good pace for the most part. Climbing up King Kong was a bit of a grind but it was over before I fell over gasping for life so it was all good. I took it easy heading down Power back into Mesa. I was over 80 miles now and I had a hip and a knee that were complaining not to mention my back (I haven't been doing my core strengthening excersizes the last few weeks and I can really tell). Pulling into the driveway I had 90 miles, 4600 feet of climbing, and an average speed of 17 mph. Not too bad for someone that wasn't feeling too energetic.