A first time for everything.

Well, it was an interesting ride all told. I managed to get 7 hours of sleep the night before which was really nice. I hurredly got breakfast and headed out of the house. Over the next hours drive I would slowly become cognizant of little things I had forgotten. The biggest of which was my floor pump. So 5 AM found me using my itsy bitsy little topeak mini pump which I had bought as it only weighed 50 grams thinking it would get me on the road again in a dire emergency. Well, I think it is going to go up on ebay next week to another rider who has the weight weeny fever, in the meantime I think I am going to return to the good old trusty Road Morph (funny how we have delusions of Grandeur and get sucked in to snazzy equipment that works in theory but not in real world applications). Anyway, I don't know if I got my tires up to 120 like I wanted but like it or not I was off into the night where I was perplexed by a flickering headlight. "Shazbot! What is up with my equipment today? It was working great before!" I thought. Anyway, after getting Mr. Scary looking guy at the circle k to sign my card I set about pondering why my light was acting up which upon close inspection of the circuit (down the road and in the dark of course as I waited until it went all the way out to try and trouble shoot it, luckily my headlamp was in fully functioning order). Turned out it was broken connection in a wire which I forgot to resolder, I twisted the wires together and was off with a nice bright headlight once again (mental note to self, fix that before you remove your generater or it will bite you again down the road in a few months). I was finally off and enjoying the nice warm morning, in fact, I was a little over dressed but it was still too cold to pull the jacket off. Eloy found predawn light appearing in the east. "Dang" I thought, "that daylight savings time switch is really goofing me up, ......wait a second Arizona doesn't have daylight savings time!" It was about here I realized that the early dawn was due to the 5 AM start time of the 600k this year as opposed to the 4 AM start. This led to a few interesting things, the dogs were awake as I passed Picacho. Heading down Milligan two come after me, one that could keep up and one that couldn't. The one that could was almost ready to cross the road at me when two cars came from the opposite way.
"Well Pooch, I know what your thinking, are those cars going 40 or are they going 50,.... well, in all the hubub I kind of lost track myself, so I guess you better ask yourself this question, Do I feel lucky? Well do ya mutt?"
The "mutt" stayed and didn't get turned to street sausage lucky for him. Down on the turn on Vail I saw two more dogs but these dogs were still yawning and didn't feel like chasing anything before breakfast so we were all good and I called them good dogs.
Somewhere around here I took a picture of Picacho peak in the mist. Yes, it was a rainy day ride. I had been lucky to miss a set of showers thus far and would continue down to Picacho peak.


Past Picacho Peak was another story. A large thunderstorm cell had just moved out and most of the streams that flow across the road, were flowing, and some had large deposites of sand left a long ways up the pavement, meaning if I had been an hour or two earlier I would have been facing hip deep fast moving water. As is I had to navigate beaches that were made of of 8-12 inch deep sand, mud and other refuse. Somewhere along this strange stretch we call the frontage road I found another amusing sign.

"Looks like Mr. Incredible has had to do some freelance to pay the bills."

After managing to get through the frontage road without a flat (miracle of miracles) I got my card signed at Marana and was off only to notice a disturbing construction sign on the side of Sanders that said Sandario road was closed and to take the detour. Well, I decided I would see for myself and luckily I was pleasantly surprised to find out they either had not closed it yet or they were closing it further down than Mile Wide road. Hope it is the latter for the people riding this weekend.

The stretch through the Tucson mountains was pretty as always and went fairly quickly. I took a brief stop at the Circle K on Mission road for a drink and to fill the bottles and was off up Helmet peak road heading into some showers. Before I got to the rain I was passed by two roadies in matching kit setup for time trialing. They were a lot faster than I was and decided to let them go as the two of us were on very different rides. Not too far after they came screaming back down the hill and I found out why in a few minutes, it was raining. I put on my jacket and continued on up the hill and finally got to the top and made sure to go straight. Surprisingly the hill on the way to Duval mine road seemed just as hard as last year despite my lighter rig. I think I was fatiguing a little faster than I would have liked to admit though I was keeping my heartrate in the lower end of zone 3. Anyway, I got to the Continental control and decided to buy a pizza to get the old furnace going again. It worked for a bit but I was getting some crazy headwinds here and kept noticing that to the north where I was headed there was a monster of a thunderstorm. I took a little comfort in noting that the last few days had the storms tracking north and in fact it had moved out just before I got to Sahuarita. Unfortunately it had left a wake of crap on the road. I was forced into the car lane many times due to things in the road and by the time I got to the roadrunner market my tire was squishy and I was freezing. That storm must have been a cold front as well as the temps since Helmet peak had been lower than they had been at the start line. Roadrunner market marked a time to reflect on my situation as I mulled over a cheeseburger and a bottle of fuse. I evaluated the following conditions-

• Light was jury rigged and undependable
• Temps were considerably lower and this was still 2000 feet below the elevations I would need to ride at most of the night.
• I was cold and wet and not too far off from being uncontrollably cold.
• Tire was flat and the roads ahead were likely even worse due to storms visible up in the higher country as I cruised down the Nogales Highway.
• I was really tired for some bizarre reason, my eyesight was getting a little funky.
• I was all alone out here and Elgin control was not an option for getting warmed up, Help would be a few hours away.
• 1 flat could be enough of a pause to start hypothermia and the chance of flatting was increased due to the recent storms.

Perhaps it was the warm store, but I rather think that with all the little things coming together I decided to do something I had never done before and that was to end a ride prematurely. I guess it happens to everyone sooner or later. Of course this decision would affect my goals for the rest of the year since this ride was my booster to a longer ride this summer but sometimes things are just not in the cards. Maybe next year. I called Susan to let her know and to get Bruce Chandler's cell phone number (Bruce had offered assistance when I did the 400 solo if I had problems and I hoped his offer held good for the 600). I happened to get ahold of Bruce just as he was walking out of the office and he was fine with picking me up (I have to tell you, even if you aren't riding with them it is good to have friends nearby when you are in a jam). Between my incoherent talk of Sahuarita road and Bruce's questions we managed to confirm my location at the RoadRunner market which Bruce knew and the rescue wagon was on its way (well actually it was the rescue sedan but I am not picky). It was nice to get into the car out of the wind. I was kind of bummed most of the night. It was a little difficult to deal with my first DNF. Not that I ever looked down on someone else who DNF'd but it was a new thing for me and it was sort of something I had to come to terms with. Sometimes there are things we haven't planned for, sometimes our bodies throw us a loop, sometimes the equipment (or the memory that was supposed to remind us to fix it) goes on the fritz, sometimes the weather is against us, and sometimes, on rare occasions, they all come together and stop us in our tracks. So, I will look on the bright side, the Long Distance riding season is over for me (yeah, just going to do those little century things now for a bit) and I can now catch up on all those things around the house that I have forsaken (like the retaining wall I need to build in the back yard, just what I need too, more upper body muscle mass, ugggh!). Oh well, it has been a good season, I think I have had enough of long rides alone for a bit. Maybe Bruce and Steve will let me tag along on a century one of these Saturdays, might even have to break out the upright bike again.

A short? training ride before work.....

Looking south towards Sacaton.

Well, since I haven't been riding much the last week (always seems like one thing or another has come up). I decided I should do my "long" commute before work as today is the last day for a good training ride since next week will be tapering. So with that in mind I was up at 4:10 ready to be on the road by 4:15. Except it didn't really work that way. For one thing, I had to get the water bottles ready. For another I couldn't find a thing to eat, until, having a sudden college dorm flashback brought on by desperation I put some Hersheys chocolate syrup on two pieces of bread and ate it. It actually wasn't half bad, not better than jam, but not fully bad either. After pumping up the tires and fetching the arm and leg warmers I was on the road at 4:35. I was fairly warm most of the way out of town until I started approaching Queen Creek. That is where there is a bit of a valley. The headwind wasn't helping either. I was keeping around 16 mph. I figured I would pick up speed when I turned toward Coolidge (which I did). Making my way past all the new little develo-burgs that are springing up down the hunt highway I was to Coolidge before the sunrise was over. Going from Coolidge to Chandler I was in the low 20s most of the way. It was a beautiful morning, no rain, no headwinds, just a nice pleasant morning and the legs were jazzed as I was working on drinking better. I managed to stay strong all the way in until I rolled into work a few minutes before nine. How is that for timing? 4 hours and 15 minutes of riding and 78.2 miles, not too bad for a morning commute into work.

Just before getting into work I got to ponder on the name of the team Liqui gas (cycling team in europe). Having just had some Liqui Gas of my own (glad it was toward the end of the ride) I determined it must be a non-profit comany figuring out ways to help cyclists who suffer from Liqui gas.

Well, thats it for the 600k training! We'll see how we do next Friday!

Three kids and a Dad at Le Grande Tour XX

Well, Saturday I took three of my kids down to Casa Grande to ride the 10 mile version of Le Grande Tour. The two 4 year olds would be riding and the 3 year old would be supervising from the trailer. Brutal headwinds would dog the first 4 miles and a few adults dropped out that I know of. But once we got around the corner the boys did great.

Pre-Race team strategy meeting.

Our future Heras warms up.

These guys don't look so tough.

Three to get ready and four to......

Well, they haven't quite grasped the Paceline idea yet but it will come.

To the victors go the spoils.

Ok, enough resting.

Well, the resting Heartrate has .been back in the upper 40's for the last two mornings, and the legs are feeling better so I thought today would be a good day to pick up the commute again. It was a cold morning with frost on the roof but warmed up quickly. I took it easy but managed to average 18 mph on the way in. It was nice to be on the bike again and the legs still had the faintest tinge of fatigue but not enough to worry about. Looking forward to riding the family ride portion of the Le Grande Tour Saturday with my two 4 year old sons (they have done 12 miles before so I figure they are up to it) and my 3 year old daughter (she is riding in a trailer as she is not quite big enough for the Trail-a-Bike yet). It should be fun. My wife thinks we are crazy driving an hour to participate in a 10 mile bike ride but I think the kids will be really excited when they see all the other cyclists.

A mixture of experiences

Well, the 400k was Saturday (at least for me as I am helping out on the real event next week). I didn't get a whole lot of sleep the night before so I was drowsy already at the start. Not a good thing. I pulled into the lot at 5 to 4 at the same time as Mike Sturgill (he was doing the same thing I was, just a lot faster ;) ). First thing that was noticeable was that it was COLD outside. I am glad I brought all my warm gear, the only thing I could have brought that I forgot was shoe covers as my feet got cold.
Mike Sturgill didn't have a receipt yet so he took off to go get one while I finished getting my gear setup. I passed him while he was in CIrcle K getting a receipt but he soon caught up to me and passed me. I would see his taillight ahead of me down through Eloy but That is the last place I saw it. Other than the bitter cold it was actually a nice morning. Winds were low and there wasn't any traffic to speak of. It was a good morning to just lean back in the seat and ride.
I managed to get through Milligan and Picacho without getting caught by a train. I was surprised to make it to Picacho peak still under the cover of darkness. Usually it is getting light when I get here. I guess it is due to the fact I was about 20 minutes ahead of what I usually arrive at coupled with the fact we are running this a few weeks earlier this year. All in all it was a little depressing to ride out of Picacho in the dark. I don't know why it seemed that way it just was. I was a good ways down the frontage road before the first crack of dawn happened and then I noticed a funny sign I had never noticed before (or maybe it didn't strike me as funny before)

"Hey Natasha! Where we find top secret Missile Base to kill Moose and Squirrel?"

"Boris Darling! Look, there is sign showing way to top secret Missile Base!"

But seriously, isn't it just a little obvious to name a road "Missile Base road"? Or maybe that is just a decoy. Hmmm. Anyway, I was in Marana before the sun peaked over the horizon and the day was going ahead of schedule. I didn't really have to stop anywhere other than to take pictures so I just kept moving on up to Saguaro national park.

"Master Rando Ninja!"

Turning up onto Sandario road there were some Balloons flying about. I was only able to catch two of them in a frame at a time so here is the best picture of those.

Balloons over Marana High school

Recalling last year I enjoyed climbing Sandario road without nuclear headwinds. I was doing great on liquids and things so I decided to forego the stop at Picture rocks and push on to Mission road. I stopped to snap a picture at the edge of Saguaro National Park and moved on.

The Brevet Mobile at Saguaro National Park

I did really well gearing down through the next hills to make sure that I didn't go out of zone 3 on the heart rate this time. It saved the day in the end since other problems would make things difficult later on. At any rate, it was really nice to have extra energy riding through the Tucson mountains and not having to recover through that whole section.

The south end of the Tucson Mountains

On mission road I took my first rest stop at the Circle K that is a control on the return on the 600k. It was nice to sit and take a break for a bit.

I steeled myself down for the long slow climb up Mission road to Helmet Peak which I think looks more like a lazy dog laying down but oh well. I stopped near the top to snap a picture of an interesting shack I always think I should get a picture of every time I pass it.

Love shack, baby love shack. Tin roof! Rusted!

And to the Victor go the spoils

Interestingly enough I didn't get my highest speed of the day coming down Helmet Peak road but I did get up to 35mph. I was still feeling pretty good here and made good time going down La Canada. I stopped at the gas station next to the Frontage road and bought some chips and gatorade (which I think started my problems). After finding the correct entrance to the frontage road after almost going on the freeway I was on my way (I think they have realigned the frontage road to go west of the Gas Station now instead of east of it but maybe I am just remembering things wrong). The Arivaca stretch is where things started to get rough on me. I was having some stomach problems and I just wasn't getting the energy I needed out of my legs. On one of the hills my chain over shifted down and Ripped my headlight off the front of my bike. I was able to secure it but then the same thing happened again down the road. But using 2 of my last zip ties I was able to get it on there again and soon I was over the climbing. I have to confess to something here. I uh, broke the speed limit twice heading into Arivaca, I came cooking into town at 40 mph in a 35 and 28 in the 25.

Arivaca Mercantile

After getting food and my card signed I sat down and realized I felt like crap. For a minute I thought I had caught one of my kids colds. I was dizzy, my stomach hurt, and I had really bad Gas. If there had been a ride there I probably would have DNFd but there wasn't and I figured since I didn't feel as bad while I was riding the only thing for it was to get back on the bike (it was around 3:30 by the way). Just down the road the chain overshifted (I really need to adjust the derailleur one of these days) and the light ripped in half. It was a good thing I wired the 4 LEDs in two parallel series as one of the wires was severed but the other one (on the side of the light that broke off) was still attached. So I used a zip tie to hold it on and figured I would figure something out before it got dark and I should be to Robles Jct well before dark. I wasn't counting on the headwind that I encountered when I turned north. Between the headwind and the stomach thing I was only able to keep 13-15 mph so it took me a lot longer to get to Robles and I hit a pretty low point mentally in here too (funny how headwinds play with your mind). Sunset caught me about 5 miles outside of Robles Jct so I put my helmetlight on and aimed the remaining LEDs as best as I could until I could use Electrical tape from the store to fix them up. Robles Jct has to be another of my favorite stops as it also has a table (like La Palma except this table is a little less improvised). The store actually also sells Picaddilly pizza. Now I know, if you were having stomache problems you likely would not think pizza was the best idea but it looked so good and I just couldn't resist and it turned out to be just the thing I needed. Incidentally I think most of my problems came from mixing Gatorade (uses Fructose) and Maltodextrin as fuel sources. I think in the future to allow for variation in Drinks I will go with Water and Gatorade and solid food. I just can't drink one thing for over 14 hours straight.
Heading out of Robles Jct my energy picked up and so did my speed. I managed to stay up at 18-19 for most of the rest of the ride with drops down to 15 along the frontage road in a few places.
Along Sanders road I had two dogs come at me. When I yelled "stay" one of them stopped. The other one came over and started circling me, I couldn't figure out what he was doing, and then It occured to me he couldn't figure out a place to bite me since my legs were up in the air and butts were for sniffing not biting in the eyes of a dog. So I moved on and left him puzzled in the darkness behind me.

Between Marana and Casa Grande I kept fantisizing about stopping and sleeping in a hotel room either in Picacho, or Eloy, even off of Peart rd in Casa Grande. I was extremely Drowsy. I hadn't been able to catch up on sleep too much the week before and Friday night I got to bed late due to having to get everything ready since I hadn't had time Thursday or Wednesday.

I kept telling myself I was almost back though and kept pressing on. I managed to miss the trains at Picacho/Milligan this time around (which was good because it was FREEZING out there). The ride to I-10 from Eloy was long as always but surprisingly enough the victory lap from I-10 to the end seemed long too due to the fact that I was really tired.

After getting a receipt from a Scary looking guy at the circle K. No, lets pause a minute on the scary looking guy. This guy was a dead ringer for the scary guy in the jail cell with Fletch if you have seen that movie. I mean if I was an armed robber and walked into this Circle K to rob it I would turn tail and run as soon as I saw this guy. Anyway, he was nice enough, just had the perfect looks for a convenience store clerk on graveyard shift.

So I get back to my car thinking what a wonderful thing it will be to fire up that heater and go take a nap at the rest area. I prop the bike up against the car, unlock all the doors as I don't want to have to take the keys out and turn the car off while loading my bike up. Put the keys in the ignition and twist, and nothing happens. "No no no no no, this can't be happening" I think. Of course it was. My battery was dead due to my radio deciding that today was the perfect time to break and not turn off (snd due to the dome light being on all day I am informed by Mike Sturgill). In case you were wondering how likely it is for a very peculiarly dressed person who is very visible to flag down a car in the middle of the night in Downtown Casa Grande, it is not very likely. The police department said they couldn't help me other than calling a tow truck. The nearest help would be walmart 3 miles away. I was seriously pondering trying to get a car battery in my seat bag (I think that would be a bit too much for it now that I am in my right mind again). When I thought I would have another go at flagging somebody down. Lucky for me a Mother and her daughter (the angels of mercy) came cruising through the parking lot and passed me but then I think they saw my bike and assumed that I was probably still a weirdo but a harmless one. I had Jumper cables, they had a running car, and we were back in business in 5 minutes.

So, since I had also been fantasizing about hamburgers all the way up Jimmie Kerr Blvd I pulled around the corner and, I am ashamed to say, pulled in to Whataburger and ordered the Angioplasty special. Yes, the triple meat, triple Cheese, with a large fry, and I washed it all down with a quart of the Strawberry milkshake drink I bought at Circle K. At the rest stop down the road I fell asleep setting the alarm on my watch and woke up 2 hours later totally disoriented with a watch that was all screwed up since I had been holding the buttons for 2 hours. After that I managed to make it home OK but I think that is the tiredest I have ever been.

This too was darkness....

Decided that this morning was the morning to do the Usery Pass rede up to the parking lot before the dam at Saguaro lake and back as it would give me long hills like Helmet Peak, and also some rollers similar to the ride up to Arivaca so although it would only be a 34 mile ride I figured it would at least have the stuff I need in it. To add icing to the cake I got off at 5:40 am in a pleasant state of predawn darkness. Nature determined that I needed a little extra training and supplied a rather brisk headwind to make the hills a little harder. From my house it is a continual climb up to Usery Pass resulting in an 800 foot elevation gjain. It starts out easy just as Mission Road does heading to Helmet Peak road. Then it slowly steepens and soon you are going under 10 mph (at least when there is a spanky headwind). I was hoping to give my lights a good near 40mph test heading down the back side of the pass but dawn was just peaking over the hills as I entered the final 4 mile slog of the climb. I notched my light down a tad and noticed I could see the road far ahead a lot better. Guess I had my light set a little high, good to figure that out before the 400k. By the time I reached the top I had shed my gloves and unzipped my jacket. It was getting light but not so light I couldn't see the effectiveness of my headlight which did just fine near 40. My hands without gloves on the other hand got quite cold. I had to put the gloves on when I got to the bottom of the hill. Figuring that since it was winter the boat traffic would be light I turned East and headed back towards Saguaro lake to ride the rollers for awhile. I made it back to the turnaround pretty quick and was happy there was facilities there as searching bushes and vegetation for a place to go is no fun. By the time I got back on the road again I had cooled down unfortunately but managed to warm up again fairly quickly. Arriving back at Salt River Recreation I determined a climb back up Usery Pass would likely be better training for me than the Thigh Master of a hill "King Kong" . It is a lot closer to the Mission Road climb so I figured I would get the extra climbing in for a total of over 2000 feet. Climbing the backside of Usery Pass I saw a rider up ahead who I was approaching from behind. I couldn't believe I was actually gaining on him. After a bit he started to walk. As I went by I asked if he needed help and he said no. Heading back up the hill I thought of the first chapter of "Heart of Darkness" where the captain says "This too was darkness" Implying that England was once a wilderness to others such as the Romans, comparing it to deepest darkest Africa but many years previous. I pondered on how I used to think the 27 miles around the Usery Pass Loop from my house was an insanely long bicycle ride and how I had to walk up Kong that first time I tried it, indeed "This too was darkness".

Odes to Randonneuring

Ok, don't laugh at me gentle readers (to borrow a term from Bruce Chandler). I don't claim to be any sort of Poet but do enjoy laying down a verse or two once in awhile and hear are a few about Randonneuring-

Freedom

The freedom of the swift, is the joy of life,
To quickly glide along down the road,
Is enough to calm the troubled soul,
And temper the descending strife,

To pedal a ceaseless rhythm, approaching zen,
Flying like an eagle, over the ground,
Stroke by stroke through,town after town,
And stopping for respite, now and then.

To be free from walls, and tiny spaces,
Randonneur glides, cross fields and lands,
Working their magic, as fast as they can,
Moving in time to far off places.


The Randonneur

A Light in the darkness,
An arrow in the rain,
Across the desert starkness,
Perseveres through pain.

Moving down the highways,
Through hour after hour,
Passing endless byways,
Rationing his power.

Sitting aside a rainy road.
A rider fixes his broken steed,
He keeps his tools amidst his load,
To use in time of need.

A tired soul at end of day,
Pedals slowly along the streets,
moving feebly along his way,
the end of brevet he greets.

Sometimes I dream

Sitting under a flouresent glare,
I gaze out the window and ponder,
How I wish to be out there,
on my bike, to pedal and wander.

My attention outside the window,
Has on an ocean started to drift,
To roads beyond the city glow,
Where troubles and joy, slowly rift

To ride! Amid the cactus and hills!
To glide, cross valleys and plains,
To ride the rollers and endless rills,
forget my sorrow, and soulful pains.

Yet trapped behind a reinforced wall,
I must bide until the time arrives,
To cast off the malaise and pall,
freeing my bike down endless drives.