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.