Rosebud.....

Well, I've never been a fan of Mr. Jacksons music. I have been thinking of the parallels of his life to that of the guy portrayed in Citizen Kane lately though. Supposedly they both regretted the loss of their childhood. Wonder what his last words were? Was it the name of his sled as a kid? Maybe the name of his bicycle? The world may never know. In the meantime here's the write up of this mornings ride.

Yucca plants in bloom

I didn't get to bed until after 11:30 last night and I needed to getup at a quarter after four. Lets just say a new bike is a powerful motivator. I hid some cinammon rolls I had bought yesterday from the kids and ate one on my way out. I had the bike all setup and ready to go so all I had to do was shove the pump in my jersey pocket fill the water bottles and go.

There wasn't a whole lot of lovin going on in the legs this morning. I think I hadn't quite recovered from the extra mileage last week and I also think that I may have been behind on a few calories as well. I normally take Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays off but I rode on Wednesday this week plus I did over 50 miles on Tuesday. Whatever the cause I was struggling to hold the group back up into the Superstitions but towards the bottom of the first hill things slowed up a bit. I managed not to be the last guy up the hill. But I was the last guy that went all the way to the end of the pavement.

Ocotillo in bloom

I am still getting used to this compact crankset. You have to muscle up the hills a little more with it as the gearing is not quite as low as a triple. The back of the pavement is a brutal hill whatever you have really. I decided I was going to not do a repeat today. I was planning on doing a 200k the week after next but on this ride I though perhaps I will cut the day short a bit and try and get a century in up at my Sisters house in Springville next week including a trip up Mt. Nebo in there. Now I just have to figure how to pack the new bike into the back of the van so that it won't vibrate against anything and the kids can't goof with it (would just take the folder but I am a little eager to take the bike out onto a big boy climb, Mt. Nebo features a 5000+ foot climb over about 20 miles). Wish I had a roof rack.

Yours truly in front of the view at the end of the pavement.

I cheated and stopped to take few pictures on the way up to the top. I figured there wasn't much of a group left anyway since the paceline heading up here this morning wasn't that big (about 15 -20 riders) and over half of them had turned around at Tortilla Flat. Besides I had decided I was going to take it a little easier today since I would be doing a big ride next Saturday.

Whats wrong with this picture?

It started to get hot climbing up to the end of the pavement. My thermometer read low 90s when it was in my shade. I stopped in Tortilla flat to put move all my steerer tube spacers under the stem to give me a little less agressive position on the bike since my back was hurting. I think I am going to have to work on my core strength more before I can ride along that low. Anyway, I decided to get some nice cool water out of the machine there before I left. I stuck a dollar in, it wanted two. I put a second dollar in, it forgot I put 1 in already. The third dollar was the charm, I paid $3 for a 26 oz bottle of cold water with just a bit of slush in the top. It was good I'll admit but $3 is a ripoff.

At Canyon lake marina I doused my head and face in water to get the salt crystals out of my eyes and to cool down a bit. I refilled the water bottles, bringing my count up to 5 bottles I would consume through the day. Having taken care of the water situation I was off for what would be a hot climb out of the canyon.

Descending down the last big hill I suddenly had a sinking feeling and my seat slid back. I figured I was close enough to the Needle vista area I would just stand and pull in there. I hadn't been into the needle vista since Susan, Bruce and I had been back in there during our first running of the 'Legends, Superstitions, and Ruins' permanent. I made quick work of redoing the seat and hoping I had gotten the torque right headed off.

As I headed up the next hill my thighs were hitting the seatbag, not remembering that happening before I realized I hadn't slid the seat forward when I had levelled it out. As I stopped to fix it the last of the Brumbys that had done repeats on the EOP came by and asked how I was. I said fine and he headed off. I actually caught him a few miles down the road though.

I passed him within a few miles of the dash in and he hopped on. When we turned onto Brown he mentioned he didn't feel too good and felt like he was going to Yak. Having an aching back and deciding this was more of a less intense ride I held back a little so he could hold on. He was hurting bad. He was the guy who went down on the bridge a few weeks ago. This was one of the fast guys and for him to be needing a pull like this meant he was in a world of hurt. I sat back and made the biggest wind break I could as we rode across Apache Jct. He took a pull for a bit but I ended up pulling again after the light. I didn't mind. It was 90 degrees, the wind seemed cool to me, and I was actually not doing too badly, besides it was nice to have someone to talk to. I ended up riding with him a little farther than I had intended but it ended up putting me at a nice 80 miles when I got back after parting ways with him at Greenfield road. I figure with 3 miles left he was good and I needed to get back around 10 and I was going to be a few minutes late if I turned around when I did (I ended up being 5 minutes late as I kept really good time up Broadway). 5 hours of riding 82 miles, just under 4000 feet of climbing. Not to bad for a bad legs day.