Wouldn't It Be Cool If ...

Endurance sports can be a lonely endeavor.  There are very few people I can call and say, "Hey, I just rode Gold Hill in under 15 minutes," and have it mean something to them.

Of course the internet has made it less lonely, and I could share with internet friends, "Hey, I had a PR or KOM."  But, unless they're ridden Gold Hill, they don't really understand.

This is a view from Gold Hill

Lately I've been riding with a friend of mine who is new to the sport, but eager to get into it.  I've been showing him my favorite local routes and when he pauses to appreciate some view or vista, it makes me see it all over again.  And living where I live, one of the biggest pluses in the cycling category is the stuff you get to see!

Last night I bought a bottle of wine, to celebrate and reward myself for a monster week.  I put in over 230 miles on the old bicycle this week and am feeling very great.  As wine often does to me, I woke about 3 AM.  I wasn't sick or hung over, just not sleeping.  Ugh.  I started on of my favorite hobbies under such conditions, imagining different routes and courses.  I got to thinking, what about a Tour?

You know ... a tour, like several days, covering the challenging and scenic routes in the county.  Maybe it could be a week long, maybe spread over a few weekends.  I started thinking and planning, how would it work, wondering if it would work, wondering if I really cared that it would work, it might be awesome to do alone anyway (though company would be better).  It would be a come one-come all type of thing, amateurs would really be the focus.  I remembered reading in a magazine how people were getting very tired of spending $120 to run or ride a race ... yeah, it goes to charity, supposedly, but whatever.  The article was showing how there was a trend of small groups getting together and running their own events at the actual cost of the support for the event.  Applying that idea, here's what I came up with:

• The Santa Cruz County Cycling Tour would take place over four weekends, including seven total rides and a party.
• Minor support would be provided, but each rider is essentially responsible for themselves. 
• Riders could participate in any portion of the rides, but a point system will be assigned.

While it would be a Santa Cruz County Tour, not all rides would be 100% contained inside the county.  After all, this is the smallest county in the state!  Here's how it would work:

Weekend 1:  Date:  TBD
Ride 1:  Pena Blanca to Kino Springs to Josefina to Pena Blanca  (90 miles)

This ride obviously needs a better name!  This ride contains some incredibly scenery and challenging terrain and quite a bit of climbing.  The ride begins at Pena Blanca Lake, which includes a Cat 4 climb, that is way harder than any Cat 4 I know of!  After the Cat 4, it's a fast and smooth downhill for about 7 miles, before hitting some rolling hills and then Gold Hill, which is a Cat 4 climb as well.  This would undoubtedly be a much higher category if it weren't for an incredibly steep quarter-mile down hill right in the middle of the whole thing!

After Gold Hill, there's a fast downhill for another 5 miles or so before the winding Cat 4 climb heading past Kino Springs Golf Course to the village.  Then the ride shoots down the very fast and smooth River Road before entering the Rio Rico area where the ride hits a Cat 3 and a Cat 2 climbing on Camino Josefina.  The ride finishes by returning to the starting point at the lake.

Elevation Profile, Categorized Climbs Inaccurate Here

Weekend 1, Ride 2:  Patagonia - Elgin (50 miles)

90

Day 2's ride is shorter and easier than the first day's ride.  The ride starts in beautiful and historic Patagonia, Arizona, loops through and around Sonoita and Elgin and then back to Patagonia.  There are no categorized climbs on the day, though the scenery is stunning.  Sonoita and Elgin are rich in agriculture including livestock and vineyards.  On a lucky day one may spot prong horn!

Weekend 2, Ride 1 (3rd total):  Whipple Visitor's Center to Madera Canyon (63 miles)

The second weekend of riding will begin at the Whipple Observatory Visitor's center, as pictured above.  The ride will begin very fast as the course will drop down to the valley below some 300 feet in about 7 miles.  Then the ride will make it's way up the most significant climb of the entire tour as it winds up Madera Canyon (category 1 climb).  It's common to see wild turkey and sometimes coatamundi in the canyon.

The route will descend from the canyon and return back up to the observatory's visitor's center, which is a category 2 climb.

Weekend 2, Ride 2 (4th total):  Tumacacori to Tubac Loop (22 miles)

Time trial!  Flat, fast and beautiful!  Tumacacori and Tubac are beautiful and very interesting.  After the short ride there's plenty to see and do. 

Weekend 3, Ride 1 (5th total):  Amado to Arivaca (46 miles)

This out and back begins in Amado, goes to Arivaca and returns.  This ride weaves in and out of Santa Cruz and Pima counties.  The route is full of winding road, rolling hills, interesting properties and majestic views.  The ride is challenging but fast.  There's one significant climb, though it is uncategorized.

Weekend 3, Ride 2 (6th total): Parker Canyon Lake (60 miles)

 This is the only ride I've not personally done, on a bicycle.  I've ridden it on a motorcycle several times, as well as in cars.  It's a beautiful ride.  There's quite a bit of climbing, several categorized climbs.  The software MapMyRide uses to calculate elevation is highly inaccurate, so I'm not sure exactly the nature of the climbs, but it's a hilly ride.  Certainly not as tough as some of the other rides in the tour though.

Weekend 4, Ride 1 (7th total):  The Santa Rita Mountains Loop (115 miles)

This route loops around the Santa Rita Mountains.  It is by far the longest ride on the tour.  It's a beautiful route, lots of rolling hills and scenery, including two very prolonged downhill segments!

By the time it's all said and done, the tour will have covered about 450 miles in seven rides

Can't Control the Outcome

Today didn't go as planned.

That's okay.

A friend of mine has started riding a road bike and has asked to join me on some rides.

Awesome.

Misery loves company!

Today I had planned on my favorite middle-distance route.  It's fifty miles, but a lot of climbing. I think it has three categorized climbs, plus a lot of steep, but short, hills.  Anyhow, it's scenic, hitting all of the great segments in the area.  In the shot to the left, which I stole, you can see the road below.  Fast and fun one way, grinding and painful the other!

The morning was beautiful, even a touch of fog.  So, of course, it was humid.  I rode from my house to a local gas station, met up with my buddy and we headed out.  On the climbs I noticed that my derailleur was rubbing my spokes when in the top gear.  Ugh.  I had to stop several times to adjust it.  I finally got it adjusted, but at the expense of the chain being a little noisy in that gear.

Then, at about mile twelve, my friend's chain started to fall over the top of his tallest gear, almost causing him to crash.  I was able to adjust the stop screw, mess with the adjustment barrel and get his bike operating correctly.  During this time I noticed his front tire was a little low.

I had just one tube, he had none.  He didn't have any air, I thought I had just enough to fill up one tire and then perhaps top off another.  We were a good 7 hilly miles from cellphone signal.  I took a chance and inflated his tire.

Of course, his tire had a more significant leak than expected and we ended up swapping the tube anyway.  I was worried that the remaining air canister I had would be insufficient, but we were able to get him back on the road again.

The work we had done was at a boat launch at Pena Blanca Lake.  There are "facilities" there, namely, an outhouse.  I went in to get some toilet paper, to wipe the grease from my hands.  The world's largest wolf spider jumped out of the toilet paper roll, positioning himself beneath my hand as if to guard his kingdom.  His legs nearly spanned the entire roll of paper!  I'm not afraid of spiders, but holy crap!

We climbed back out of the lake-area, and hit some rolling hills ... they're really not rolling, more like straight up and straight down, about 100 yards each, five total hills.  They're fun if you're fresh, but rough on the body if you're tired.

They got him.

We decided to pull off at a gas station before the tough part of the ride and he was toast.  He almost crashed on his bike.  I ran in to get some food and water, and when I returned he was pale, slumped over and in obvious misery.  We agreed to take an easy route back and cut the ride short. 

Anybody that's ridden has bonked.  It sucks.  I've been there too many times.

It's really my fault.  I should've selected an easier route for the first try at this distance.  But, we rode a difficult section of this route on Tuesday without issue.  The difference was that Tuesday was just 20 miles or so.  

So we're limping home, grateful for the downhill ride back, when about 4 miles from the finish, his tire blows again.  This time, with an audible pop.  No more spare tubes, he had to get a ride.   (I didn't abandon him, but the details are a bit extensive and ultimately, uninteresting.  Just leave it to this ... the rescue attempt didn't go as planned either!)

I hit the remaining ride hard and felt good.  I think I'm almost healthy.  Lungs are clearing up and legs are feeling stronger.  It's going to take another few weeks to get back into shape so I can start training hard, but hey ... I'll take it!

The funny thing on the ride was we had talked about how we cannot control the outcomes of our efforts.  He shared that in his experiences, when he lets things happens he notices great things happening around him.  Today, I figured he'd struggle, but between the humidity and the lack of experience (he didn't drink enough on the route), he bonked.  Still, though, I had a great ride and a great time.

I'm looking forward to next time.  Plus, this way, I can ride again tomorrow.

On a side note, I was entertaining the idea of running a marathon in January.  I ran twice this week and my left ankle has a lot of soft tissue discomfort.  Unfortunately, it's not just when I run, it's all of the time.  I'll be patient, let things run their course, but at this point, I'm not sure I'll be able to participate in the two half marathons I've already paid for!

What was that about letting things happen again?

Rejuvination

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Yup, that about says it.

My plans for May were simply to pound out some mile running since I would be finished with the bike race I'd trained for.  My body had different ideas.  I got sick, started getting weird problems like an infection in my ear lobe where I used to have it pierced.  It all pointed to one logical conclusion...I needed some down time. 

Reading some accounts of various people who didn't listen to their bodies and suffered monumental complications because of it, I decided to just take the month of May and enjoy life.  I did participate in a bike race last weekend, and did have a vigorous hike the weekend before that, but I'm taking it easy.  I'm sleeping in, mostly, eating loosely, and just not worrying about stuff. 

This week I managed about 14 miles of running, but two of those runs were excellent.  The first was on the treadmill (it was almost 100 degrees outside) where I just kept increasing the speed to get the workout finished.  I ended up running the last mile with a little incline in just over 6 minutes.  The second run was with the running club where we ran four miles with splits of 7:57, 8:00, 7:46 and 7:15.

And riding went well, too, though again, with low volume.  I had a strong ride on Monday and another Wednesday before joining about 90 other participants in the Ride of Silence. It was quite a strange experience riding along very slowly for about 6 miles in total silence with police escort.  The loudest thing I heard was my hub whirling as I coasted.

In the picture, taken from the local newspaper, you can see me in the white jersey, behind the person in the recumbent bike.

I've been watching the Tour of California and it's been very inspiring.  So, today I decided to get up early and hit the road on my bike before dawn.  I often have high aspirations in the afternoon that seem to be misplaced sometime during the night.  Last night was no different.

My uncle from Minnesota was visiting and a potluck was hosted at my grandmother's house.  While there, my cousins and sister busted out this very fancy portable espresso machine, so I had some.  The end result was that at 11:30 at night I laid in bed jittery.  The morning came quickly and I almost postponed my ride.  But with a projected 104 temperature, I decided to just get it over with.

My first experience riding predawn was great.  It was neat eating breakfast on the road, coasting hands-free in the cool desert morning air.

Today's ride was 50 miles of hills, with a few very difficult, but short climbs.  All told, the route had me climbing 2850 feet.  I saw one other cyclist and just a handful of vehicles. 

I spooked some javelina and listened to a podcast on "fastbacking."  How cool would it be to hike the Pacific Trail?  Dang ...

Because of the race last weekend, I figured that hitting some hard hills at the tail end of my rides would be a wise course to promote some strength and improvement on the bike.  So I ended today's ride with a jaunt to Pena Blanca Lake.  It's one of my favorite routes because it's scenic, remote, minimal traffic and challenging. 

The picture to the right is from a picnic area that overlooks the lake.  I'm taking a picture in the opposite direction where you can see the road as it slips between a few hills.  Eventually, the road winds up those hills.

On today's ride, I hit just over 56 mph on the hill that in the picture below.  Unfortunately you can't get a sense of the grade from the photograph.  But trust me, it's steep, lots of fun on the way down, lots of pain on the way up.

Another thing that has happened this week is that I suddenly feel fantastically comfortable on my bike.  I've owned it since early January and it's been a long time tweaking this and that, trying to get it dialed in perfectly.  But now, I'm confident to say, it's dead-on.  When I climb on the saddle and clip in, it all feels fantastic.

The bike is a 2010 Lapierre Sensium 400.  The bike comes nicely equipped with SRAM Force components, including brakes.  The bike is carbon fiber, but the handlebars and seat post were not.  I found a steal on some Easton EC90 handlebars that were special ordered and never picked up at a bike shop, and bought a gently used EC90 seatpost on eBay.  The wheels are Fulcrum race 5's, which are sufficient, but probably the next upgrade.

And one thing that really made me smile about the bike is pictured below:

That said, I'm going to enjoy my last week of easy workouts before getting serious in June and July.

Thanks for reading and I hope you and yours are happy and healthy and well.

Funktown - Burned Down

It felt as if the wind had personality, and was angry ... at me.  It whipped me, pushed me, slapped me around for 80 miles today.  I took it, all of it, and never faltered.  I never thought of seeking shelter, calling home for my wife to come get me.  The wind punished me over the 3200 feet of climbing.  Climbing up the second to last big hill the signs warning of a winding road ahead rocked back and forth.  The trees bent steadily to the wind's insistence.  I loved it!  At mile 70, when I finally turned so I had a tailwind, I slammed down the gears, finishing mile 75 in under 3:00 on dead legs. 

Funktown -- burned down! 

I burned that funk to the ground...or, maybe I shouldn't take credit, but it's burned and that's the important part. 

Maybe it is because I had a hard, but yet relaxed ride Thursday, that reset my perspective.  Maybe it's because it's my anniversary and I'm very happy about that.  Yesterday we celebrated, low key, as is our fashion.  We went to the movies, saw The Hunger Games, with our youngest daughter.  Funny, but we've gone out as a family for our anniversary three of the past four years!  We just get along, I guess.

Maybe funktown burned down because of pent-up emotional energy.  This week our dog died unexpectedly (perhaps an owl got her).  My oldest daughter joined the National Guard (they can provide an avenue by which she can be a veterinarian), and has her first drill this weekend.  My wife had an upper GI scope done Monday and luckily her gal bladder is fine and she just has an ulcer.  

Anyhow, because of a stiff back and a very humbling route planned today (I love and hate this ride), I took yesterday off from all exercise.  I checked the weather last night and the forecast called for headwinds both ways of an out-and-back 80 miler.  Seriously.  Fifteen mph winds with gusts up to 20 heading east until 10 am, then from the south for a short time, then from the west from 11 on, all day the speed picking up.  Wow!

Maybe the funk is busted because I mentally focused last night, running through a check list of goals, items of focus and especially steeling my nerves for what lay ahead today.

Regardless, my average pace was very slow, 16 mph, but my effort and focus were as good as I've ever had on a ride.  I'm pretty charged up!

I did manage to take a few pictures today.  You can see them all here.  

The picture above is one of my favorite stretches of road.  It's on Arizona State Highway 82, just west of Patagonia, Arizona.

And old stone home I always love looking at.  It was built long before the two-lane highway existed.  How upset do you think they must've been when the route went right THERE!?

Yup, there's wine in Arizona...even a 5K that the wineries host where you get to sample various wines after the race!

An old abandoned ranch house north of Nogales, Arizona.

Some of the wild life!

The Santa Cruz River.  Not much water this time of year.

The picture above is taken just before an OSOM stretch of road, when headed this direction.  It's about 4 miles of down hill....think 40 mph on a bicycle down hill. 

The picture below is Mt. Wrightson, which my brother-in-law and I will be climbing on May 5th.  I'm super-excited about that!  I've been wanting to climb that thing my entire life, just never have.

Here's how I set up the display on my Garmin 405 for riding.  A lot of cyclists apparently hate it, but this shows me what I need, HR, cadence, and speed.  A HR of 108 means I'm obviously not working real hard while taking pictures! 

Abort! Ok, good. Glad it happened because I saw a mountain lion!!!

This morning I tried another short run.  I was able to run the last few but today leg wouldn't loosen up.  It took me 10 minutes to reach the bottom of the hill, which is 3/4 of a mile away.  I stretched, did some dynamic stretching too, walked a bit and tried again.  Still tight.  Oh well, the sunrise was FRIGGIN' CRAZY, so I watched that and walked home.


I iced it, then wrapped it for work.  After work, I went to the gym and lifted weights.  I decided to try running again.  I was getting into the flow and things were loosening up when the power went out.  Ugh.  When the circuit breaker was flipped I tried again but the leg was tight.  Oh well.  I'm no longer upset or disappointed, I'll take what I can get.  When I return, I'm gonna kick some butt!

So, I ended up running a total of about 2 miles and walking 1 today.  Not nearly enough cardio.  A bike ride was in order. 

I've been wanting to do take my favorite ride for a while, but hadn't been able to because of forest fires, closed roads and then crazy heat.  The route is just 30 miles, but a bit more intimidating than riding another 70 mile route I've frequented.  The ride offers everything; good winding roads, virtually no traffic, significant hills, fast descents, crazy scenery and of course, wildlife!  I attribute training on this route to my progress as a rider.  I went from not riding at all, being WAY out of shape, to finishing a 73 mile race in an official 3:45 with a torn hamstring!  Enough of that...

I was coming down the second fastest hill and there's a hard left turn that I have always, in the past, braked on.  Today, I decided to stick the turn and fly through it.  I'm glad I did.  I'm glad I didn't run today.  I'm glad I was FLYING around the corner.  I'm glad I was wearing my prescription glasses and not my sunglasses. 

On the shoulder, on my side, sat a large animal facing away from me.  I thought it was a dog.  When it stood I knew it was a cat and figured it was a bob cat.  Two things jumped out at me...the size and the tail.  I thought it was a GIANT bob cat.  And the tail was a weird color, so was the body.  I've seen a few bob cats, and one real close and personal!  Then I remembered that bob cats are not called bob in short for Robert...they have bobbed tails, duh!

By this time, the cat had hopped into the bushes and I was afraid was long gone.  I stopped the bike and hung a u-turn.  He was about 300 yards away a dry river bed.  We watched each other for a while.  I took some pictures with my iphone, but unfortunately, it's a version 3 and the cat looks like a rock.  :(  I tried to get him to move so I could get a better picture, but no dice. 

Aside from that cool stuff, I kicked butt on the ride.  Even with the stopping for the mountain lion, I finished 10 minutes faster than my previous best time!  The hills were no big deal.  There are two major climbs...the long one wasn't much at all, I didn't even need my highest gear.  The other that's super steep but short I powered through.  Sweet action indeed!

Anyhow, had I been upset about not being able to run I probably would've run through the pain and hurt myself.  Then, I wouldn't have been on the ride.  Then, I wouldn't have seen the mountain lion. 

All in all, that's an all time ride!

Here's a picture of the route and here's a link of the route, for your viewing pleasure.