This weekend was the “Dirty Mogollon Mormon Madness 205k Permanent”, a ~130 mile mountain bike adventure that started in Clint’s Well, AZ (near Happy Jack) and took fire roads and OHV roads down to the Mogollon Rim before heading back up to AZ87 and crossing over to head up to Mormon Lake. I’ve never done this route before, but did read Paul Layton’s ride report. Sounded like a hard ride. But hey, who can pass up riding in cool weather through the woods!?! Apparently quite a few people. There were only three of us at the start. Paul Layton, Mike Sturgill and myself.
Should say "Summer!"
I have to admit Summer has not been good to me from a training perspective. There’s a cycling team called “Old Guys who get Fat in Winter.” I don’t have too much trouble staying in some kind of shape through Winter, but summer in Phoenix can be tough. Too much travel or weekends with non-traning plans and not enough focus on maintaining my base mileage. And my “big” goals for this year actually aren’t cycling related (weird). I’m planning a Rim to Rim Grand Canyon trip with my Uncle Robert and I have a series of 30k trail runs planned so when I have made time to exercise, it’s typically been going out for a trail run. Which means I really wasn’t very well prepared for a ride that is much harder than I thought it would be.
But I kind of knew that going into it so I examined my topo maps to find the places where you could bail out and cut the ride short. I didn’t realize I’d be doing that MUCH sooner than expected! I was up at 4:20 am for the drive up to Clint’s Well. Getting up that early is always a kind of shock to the body and I wasn’t able to ummm… go. Until I got to Payson, then I really had to go, so I stopped at McDonald’s and was surprised by the wait for the men’s restroom. Apparently lots of guys have to go when they get to Payson! That put me a bit behind on my travel time, but I was still able to get to the start at about 5 minutes to 7am when the ride was planned to start.
Mike and Paul were pretty close to ready when I pulled up, so I quickly changed my shoes and got myself together and we rolled out a few minutes after 7am. Not bad. Paul led us up AZ87 to FR141. Man FR141 is a scenic road, but it’s mostly a pretty tedious climb. Mike Sturgill said there weren’t any really hard climbs on the route, but he had just come back from a Colorado high country 1200k (750 mile) event. His idea of hard climbs and my idea of hard climbs don’t exactly mesh at the moment, especially since we were going up a 5-6% grade at that time! He said there was about 9,000 feet of climbing over the course. Ok, that’s not so bad…
Near Clear Creek
The problem is that it’s the kind of climbing that has never suited me well. Short, steep climbs with moderate descents. Or long, slow 2% climbs that sap your motivation. Most of 141 was a gradual climb. There were a couple times where it leveled out or even dropped, but for the most part it was up. Not only was it generally up, but there were several shorter 8-12% climbs! Mike and Paul would drop me on the climbs then I’d pull myself back on the descents. But those climbs were some harder efforts. I noticed that my heart rate wasn’t dropping on the descents like it should be, not a good sign.
Mike stopped to wait and take photos a couple times along the way, then he would ride away from me. Right after turning onto FR300, there was a pretty long climb. All in all, I’m a pretty good ascender (that word is for Sue!), but I could tell I was getting tired already. I mentioned to Mike that I wasn’t in the best shape and I probably wouldn’t be doing the full 130 miles, so they should just continue without me. We dropped down to General Crook’s cabin, which was the first check point at about mile 18, and I told Paul the same thing.
Wow, only 18 miles into a 130 mile ride and I was already faltering! But I didn’t dawdle (again, for Sue), just answered the check point question and started the climb back out. I started to get a few twinges in my legs that generally indicate a cramp is coming on, so I backed off and watched Mike and Paul ride away. Mike was waiting again taking pictures at the turn for the long descent down FR95 to Clear Creek. When I passed, Mike rode away from me again, but I was able to catch them again once along the descent somewhere. At about mile 26, there are three short steep climbs that just sapped the rest of whatever strength I had in my legs. On the last of those three climbs my right quad started to seize up in a cramp, so I had to stop and recover a bit. I ate some food, took some electrolytes, drank, rested. And felt a bit better and made it to the top of that climb and started the LONG descent. It was steep and fast! I liked it! I tend to back pedal a quarter turn to put my feet horizontal at times. That’s just a super bad habit! You should always forward pedal. When you back pedal on a bouncy descent, your chain may bounce right off the big ring and get jamed up in the derailluer. Trust me, I know this from personal experience on this descent! I had to stop and work on unjaming that chain without damaging anything. It took a few minutes, but I finally got it and finished the descent. Of course, by then Mike and Paul were long gone.
Cooked!
I didn’t stop at the bottom, just started that next climb. A long 2 mile, 6-8% climb. And me with no leg strength left! Yes, I stopped. Multiple times. Any time I tried to get out of the saddle, my right quad would complain. I looked at the time and realized there was no way I’d meet the cut off time for the Blue Ridge Ranger Station checkpoint. So I texted Mike Sturgill to let him know I was calling it a ride.
Once I got to the top of that climb it didn’t take too long to get back down to 87 and the ranger station. But I pulled in at 11:40 am, 40 minutes past the checkpoint cut off time. Ouch. I called Annette to tell her I was done, then sat at a table and re-hydrated. My legs were pretty much toast at this point, so I decided to take 87 back over to Clints Well. Only 9 miles back! Except for that nasty little 2 mile 6-8% climb that started at mile 42. THAT one hurt. Yes, my right quad finally decided it had enough and let me know in a painful way. So I’d ride in my granny gear for a bit, then sit and rest my leg for a bit. Super slow climb to the top.
Luckily the last few miles were flat or down, so once I was over that it was a relatively easy ride to the finish. All in all a good day out on the Mountain Bike (when isn’t a ride a good ride??). I’ll need to get a LOT more time on my Mountain Bike before the Tour of the White Mountains 60 mile event in October. But this ride was a good indicator for me of how much form I’ve lost over the summer, so now I know what I need to do to be ready for my bigger events in the Fall. To be ready, I’ll need to actually make training a priority and block out some time. Training is no longer optional!
Saturday, April 9th was the Dawn til Dusk Mountain Bike race just outside of Gallup, NM. I previewed the course when I was visiting my dad over Christmas last year. It’s a hard course. It’s a 13 mile loop with almost 1700 feet of climbing. One big climb at the beginning and a lot of short steep climbs scattered across the course. I’m relatively new to Mountain Biking, my only other real event being the 2010 Tour of the White Mountains in Show Low, Arizona. And I only did the 35 mile version of that event. Quite a big jump for me to attempt a 12 hour epic event!
The weather forecast for Saturday was pretty dismal. High expected to be 44, Low in the low 20′s, strong sustained winds expected to be over 30 mph with gale force 50+ mph gusts and rain expected in the afternoon. Ouch. But I’ve ridden my road bike quite a bit in similar weather, so I was concerned, but not concerned enough not to give it a try. I took Friday off of work to drive down to Tucson to pick up my brother Leo and we stopped in Show Low to pick up my brother Joe. They would be my pit crew during the event. But that made a long day driving around the state. We pulled into Gallup just after 5pm MT and stopped by the course to check things out. It was windy, but the course looked dry and people were already setting up. Since I’ve never done a 12 or 24 hour mountain bike event before I didn’t know what to expect, but it looked like people were setting up pit areas along the course, so that’s what we planned to do. We then headed over to the historic El Morro Theater for packet pickup. They were very efficient and we were in and out in record time.
We stayed at my dad’s house and had dinner there. My brother Reuben came by for dinner then we all went to Sammy C’s bar and grill for a drink. I didn’t want to drink too much before a big event, so I avoided the strong stuff and just had a glass of wine. We just stayed for the one drink, but it was a pretty neat bar. It’s built in an old historic building that use to be a J.C. Penny’s way back in the day. Old bricks with lots of arched entryways. Reuben introduced us to Sammy and his wife. They’ve done a great job decorating the bar with signed sports and music memorabilia. If you are in Gallup looking for a place to spend an evening, Sammy C’s is a pretty nice place. Not really the best place to go the night before a 12 hour mountain bike event though! But we didn’t stay too late, just long enough for one drink / glass of wine.
We planned to get up at 5am to ensure we were at the start with enough time to setup and get to the pre-ride announcements at 6:40. Dad got up at 4:30 (that’s 3:30 for us AZ boys) to start making some oatmeal for breakfast. My dad is not exactly the quietest guy, so we were all pretty much awake within a few minutes of him getting up. Leo and I had some fully loaded oatmeal (with craisons, almond slivers, etc…), Joe opted for just a cup of strong coffee before heading to the start. There were already quite a few people setting up and we didn’t get a great parking spot, but walked over to the solo area and noticed a big unused spot. I asked the guy setting up there if he minded if we setup next to him and we were good. Moved the car over to a prime spot and started setting up. I had a canopy to put over a small table and Leo brought a tent just in case the weather turned bad. It was pretty brisk at the start, probably in the mid-30′s, but at least it wasn’t too windy yet.
I walked over to the start at 6:40 and listened to the pre-ride meeting. Some folks apparently were scared off by the weather, but there was still a pretty big turnout. The morning was expected to be relatively nice, but bad weather was in the forecast for the afternoon. We were told to check in at the main tent if the weather got really bad. Then I rode up the hill to the start line. They start the race down a long dirt road to spread things out a bit before getting onto the single track loop. My first tactical error was thinking I was stronger than I really was and I slowly made my way closer to the front going down that road. There was a turn down another dirt road that had a pretty long 7% climb that put me back in my place. When we turned onto single track, I was in a group that was way faster than me and I was working hard not to slow people down. I should have immediately pulled off, but I kept my place for quite a while, but eventually pulled off to let the fast guys go by.
After that I rode in a bit of a recovery mode, but you don’t easily recover from that kind of mistake. I felt pretty good when I got to the pit on that first “lap.” I was overheating a bit with the jacket I had on, so I stopped to switch to a vest and I also switched gloves and put on some toe covers before heading off for my second loop. The climb to the top of the mesa is tough. I don’t have enough experience for a couple of the steeper sections and had to walk a few times, but honestly I did better than I thought I would and didn’t have to get off my bike nearly as many times as I did in December when I previewed the course. The wind was steadily picking up, but it wasn’t too bad and the course itself is spectacular. I had a good second lap. I was probably still working harder than was wise, but was having a good time. The only real issues were that my feet were still cold and my lower back was starting to bother me.
So I stopped again on the second lap to refuel really quick. Joe suggested using some chemical warmer pads for my shoes. GREAT suggestion! I didn’t need to toe covers anymore so left them. I also switched gloves again trying to find a pair that were comfortable and warm. Then I headed off for lap number 3! I was having a good morning all in all, but I knew I was working a bit harder than I should have. The wind had really picked up by my third lap. Dust was starting to become a factor and I was noticing it a lot more when I turned into the wind. Luckily on the way up it was blowing me away from the cliff edge! But I had to stop several times on this lap to catch my breath and let my heart rate go down. Elevation may have played a factor as well because I wasn’t recovering as fast as I normally do.
On the backside of the loop there is a pretty good descent. While going down that descent a really strong gust of wind hit and the rider in front of me was blown up against a large rock next to him. He got going again and made a turn on a switchback when another gust hit. This time he was literally blown off his bike. I asked if he was ok, but he said he was fine and I kept going. Several more strong gusts hit and a couple of them knocked me off the trail, but I stayed upright. That was some really strong wind!
I pulled into my pit area and the canopy had been taken down. The wind was damaging it, so Leo and Joe were huddled in the tent. I knew I didn’t have the experience or bike handling skills to deal with that kind of wind, so I decided to hang out in the tent for a bit to see if it would calm down. Then it started to sprinkle. I wanted to check the status of the race so I got on my bike and went through the finish area to officially clock my 3d lap and check things out. The race was still on and a lot of people were starting new laps. Hmmm…. I went around to my pit area to contemplate things. The wind died down a bit, but the rain picked up. Leo checked the hourly forecast and the wind was expected to not only continue, but to get stronger as the afternoon progressed. I changed into a dry jersey and dry vest, but the temperature, which had gotten up to the mid 50′s, was dropping fast and I wasn’t warming up. Cycling is a very mental sport. There’s no reason I shouldn’t have continued. I’ve done road rides in worse weather and have skied in worse snow conditions. But for this ride I was done. Just done. The weather delivered a one two punch between the high wind and the sleet. If I had just kept going when I finished that 3d lap I probably would have been ok. But when I stopped, my core temperature dropped and that’s probably what led to my decision to stop. I was frickin’ COLD!
There was a light rain when we started packing up and the snow started to fall just as we were finishing. On the drive back to dad’s place, it started to snow hard. I was happy not to be out on the course. I figured they would have cancelled the ride given the weather, but the Dawn til Dusk is a hard core event, so they kept going! For 5 more hours after the snow started falling! Wow! They did wind up cancelling it two hours earlier than expected, but those guys are hardcore! Check out the AWESOME pictures of the event from Brian Leddy. The majority of riders kept riding. I was one of a few that called it due to the weather. Ouch. But I’ll be back next year, although instead of doing it solo, I’ll probably be looking to ride with a 2 or 4 person team. The course is fantastic, the people organizing the event did a great job. By next year I’ll also have a bit more experience and won’t be quite so intimidated by high wind and foul weather.
I wasn’t planning to do El Tour de Mesa (name changed from “El Tour de Phoenix”) at the beginning of the year, but I attended the kickoff meeting for “Uphill into the Wind” a non-profit organization dedicated to the memory of Bob Griffiths. Uphill into the Wind provides loaner bicycles to individuals who would like to participate in charity related bicycling events. My kind of charity, so I decided to register for the event to support Uphill into the Wind. Jeff McKenna, one of the guys in the office who is relatively new to cycling had already registered. We’ve tried to connect a few times to ride together and this was a good opportunity to do that. I didn’t have any time goals this year and Jeff was shooting for a “Silver” placing with a finishing time between 4 and 5 hours. Sounded good to me. Since I only live a mile and a half or so from the start, Jeff parked at my place to avoid the start line madness and we rode over together around 5:30am, still pre-dawn so I had some blinky lights on my bike.
PBAA had a record turn-out this year with 1300 cyclists expected to be at the start. We got there early enough to get in with the back of the Gold group (those shooting for a time under 3:45). It was a pretty nice morning for the ride. Not too cold with a clear sky and light wind. The ride started at 6:15am, so we had a bit of time to wait. With that many cyclists it takes a minute or two before crossing the start line, but we got off ok and set a pretty good pace. We didn’t try to move ahead, just stayed with the group we started with. The course starts slightly down hill with a tailwind, so we were moving along at a good 26-28 mph clip. The size of our group would thin out as people tried to jump gaps to the groups in front of us or swell as groups behind caught us.
Jeff McKenna at the start
6 or 7 miles into the ride our group became dangerously large. There was a touch of wheel a few riders directly in front of me and someone went
Me at the start
down. I yelled “Riders down!” and started moving to the right to get out of the way, but the crash had a domino effect, unfortunately to the right. The farther right I tried to go, more guys were going down blocking me. I was almost at a stop when someone rolled into me and I did a bit of an end-o. Yep, hit the ground, but not too hard. My left brake lever needed to be moved back into place and I had a little scratch on my knee, but otherwise no damage. Jeff was able to stop before hitting the pile. A couple guys who went down at a higher speed were bleeding pretty good, their rides were probably done, but Jeff and I were able to continue pretty quickly after the crash. Just needed to do a quick check of my bike and body and we were good to go.
After that, I avoided the bigger groups. We picked up some riders behind us along the way, but I maintained a pretty consistent pace and some of them just rested a bit, then tried to jump the gap to the next group. We pretty much had our own little pace line going until we stopped at the SAG before the climb on Shea. I rode ahead a bit and thought I’d have time to get a couple pictures, but Jeff kept a good pace and wasn’t as far back as I expected, so I only got one picture and missed him finishing the climb. There’s a nice descent on the other side that provides some recovery and the initial bit on Beeline is also a descent, but we made pretty good time overall. We stopped at another SAG on Beeline. Jeff dropped back a few times on the climb. Beeline is a long, tedious 2% grade that is just mentally draining. But overall he did pretty good. We stopped once more just after the turn onto Bush Highway, but didn’t stay too long.
Riders coming up the top of the Shea climb
We recovered a bit on the ride down to Saguaro Lake. I told Jeff there was a pretty good hill right after it and to try to get some speed up on the last part of the descent so he could use some momentum getting up the other side. He capitalized on that and his momentum carried him around me for a few seconds on the climb. Luckily it’s pretty short, just really steep. We made more good time along Bush Highway, but I had been working Jeff pretty good most of the morning and he did drop back a bit before the turn up Usery pass. We made a last stop at the SAG on Usery Pass then headed up the hill.
About midway up I saw rider #1! Rich Pierson, owner of Pierson Construction who has been a PBAA sponsor for many years. I rode up to Mr. Pierson and thanked him for his support of PBAA over the years. It’s generous people like him who make these events so great. Another rider and I chatted with him for a couple minutes, then I noticed Jeff had dropped pretty far back, so I let them go and soft peddled until Jeff reached me. He was definitely fatigued. Usery Pass is a long 4-6% hill that will take a lot out of you. It starts at 4% for a mile or so, then jumps to 5-6% for a bit, then starts to taper off. We saw a couple people stopped on the side of the road. The temperature was in the high 80′s and there was a pretty good head wind blowing, which made the climb a bit harder. About 1 mile or so from the top Jeff said he needed to stop, but I told him it would be really tough to get going again and we were almost at the point where the grade dropped back to 2-3%. We slowed the pace to let his heart rate come down and took our time getting to the top. He demonstrated great will-power getting over that hill! Without stopping either!
Finished with a well earned Medal!
I didn’t mean to, but I dropped Jeff on the descent on the other side. I thought he was on my wheel, but he wasn’t when I looked back, so I coasted for a bit. Then he’d catch me for a few minutes, then drop off for a bit. It’s pretty much downhill the rest of the way once you get over Usery Pass, but that climb really did him in, so he struggled a bit staying with me. I remember when I struggled like that when I got back into cycling. But he pushed through it. There was one more SAG stop about 8 miles from the finish, but Jeff wanted to just finish this ride, so we didn’t stop there and just kept plugging along.
We went over the finish together in 4 hours 11 minutes. Jeff set a very respectable time for someone who hadn’t ridden the course before. My Garmin Connect details are at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/77500692.
Super Randonnuer! This past weekend Leonard Zito and I completed the fourth brevet in a set of four and are now qualified to ride in the longest running cycling event in history — Paris Brest Paris! Randonnuer’s USA’s description of PBP:
First run in 1891, the 1200-kilometer Paris-Brest-Paris, or “PBP” as it is commonly called, is a grueling test of human endurance and cycling ability. Organized every four years by the host Audax Club Parisien, the Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneurs is the oldest bicycling event still run on a regular basis on the open road. Beginning on the southern side of the French capital, it travels west 600 kilometers to the port city of Brest on the Atlantic Ocean and returns along the same route. Today’s randonneur cyclists, while no longer riding the primitive machines used a hundred years ago over dirt roads or cobblestones, still have to face up to rough weather, endless hills, and pedaling around the clock. A 90-hour time limit ensures that only the hardiest randonneurs earn the prestigious PBP finisher’s medal and have their name entered into the event’s “Great Book” along with every other finisher going back to the very first PBP. To become a PBP ancien (or ancienne for the ladies) is to join a very elite group of cyclists who have successfully endured this mighty challenge. No longer a contest for professional racing cyclists (whose entry is now forbidden), PBP evolved into a timed randonnée or brevet for hard-riding amateurs during the middle part of the 20th century. The event is held in August every four years.
300k
200k
By riding a full brevet series (200k, 300k, 400k, 600k), we’ve also earned the designation of “Super Randonnuer.” We also get some pretty sweet medals for each event and can wear the exclusive Super Randonnuer jersey! This was Leonard’s first attempt to complete a brevet series and he did great!
We got a bit of a late start heading to the “Day’s Inn” hotel in Eloy on Friday night and didn’t get to bed until close to midnight. That made the 4am alarm a bit harsh. Felt like I had just closed my eyes when the alarm went off. But we were pretty quick about getting ready, checked out and headed to the start in Casa Grande. I don’t know what was going on that weekend, but all the hotel rooms in Casa Grande with two beds were booked. I like Leonard, but not enough to share a bed with him! Hence the hotel in Eloy. Anyway… we put our reflective gear on for the visibility check and got our queue sheets for the ride. It was relatively warm, so I opted not to put on my arm and leg warmers. We were ready to roll about 10 minutes before the start. Good timing!
600k
400k
About 4 miles out of town Leonard realized he didn’t have his water bottles. Were they stolen? Left in the car? hmmm… Where did he last see them? The refrigerator in the hotel room. D’oh! Luckily, the Day’s Inn was about 1/2 mile off our route, so we dropped off the group we were riding with and made a quick detour for his bottles. It had really cooled off when we got out of Casa Grande, so while Leonard went up to our room to get his bottles, I decided to put my arm and leg warmers on. Boy am I glad I did that! We got rolling again and the temperature steadily dropped until it got down into the high 40′s. Brrrr….
There was a bit of a head wind heading down the i-10 frontage road, but we still made pretty good time and got to the Circle K in Marana while quite a few riders were still there. I bought a couple bananas, an egg salad sandwich, a bottle of coconut milk with pineapple juice and some water for my bottles. We took our time, but still left before several of the other riders. The light headwind would continue pretty much all the way to Green Valley. I stopped at the turn on Mile Wide Road before heading into Tucson Mountain Park to strip off my arm and leg warmers. I caught Leonard shortly after the top. We made good time through the park and stopped at the Circle K on Kenney and Ajo to refuel. Don’t recall what I bought at that stop, but I’m pretty sure it included coconut milk.
The ride up mission road is always tedious. 1 to 2 percent uphill grade with a light headwind. It’s just a long mentally draining section of the ride. When we got to Helmet Peak we started passing groups of racers who were competing in the Tucson Bicycle Classic stage race. Those guys were MOVING! The sound of the packs going by was also quite impressive. Makes you wonder what a Tour de France stage sounds like when the main pack goes by. Pretty impressive I’m sure.
Trevetti Restaurant in Green Valley, AZ
We stopped in Green Valley for lunch at the Trivetti restaurant for lunch. They assured us they could get us our food in 10 minutes. Great! They let us put our bikes in the office in back, very nice! We ordered the three course special. Homemade Minestrone soup, Lasagna and a slide of super sweet cake. After ordering I went and washed the salt off my face. That felt pretty good. It took a bit longer than 10 minutes to get our food, but it was REALLY good. Then the problems started. Apparently they were having some problems with their computers. It probably took a good 45 minutes if not longer to pay our bill. We were probably there an hour longer than we should have been. Steve Kinney, a fellow Brevet rider from Canada who wasn’t doing the 600k walked in and said HI! (Sorry Steve, I think I called you Paul… for some reason I keep mixing you up with Paul Danhaus, so sorry to both of you!). Steve was supporting a friend who was participating in the TBC. Several 600k riders walked in while we were trying to pay our bill and they were able to put their bikes in the main dining room. The folks at Trivetti were really nice, too bad about the computer problems to pay.
We caught a good tailwind all the way to the turn to Sonoita. On the way up Sahuarita Road I told Leonard to look back. You could see the climb up Helmet Peak Road off in the distance. One of the final climbs we’d face on the way back. We also stopped at the RoadRunner convenience store on Houghton Road to refill our bottles before hitting the climb up to Sonoita.
Climbing is a very individual activity. You have to find your rhythm and just ride your own tempo to the top. So Leonard and I split up on the climb. He wasn’t doing too badly, but it’s a super long climb. Probably the hardest climb he’s ever done and he had to face it with over 100 miles already on his legs. It’s been a while since I’ve done that climb, but I told Leonard there were 4 or 5 “false” summits, where you think you are reaching the top, but as soon as you crest, you see the road going up even further in the distance. That part was true, but I also told him there were a number of big rollers, then a 4-5 mile descent to Sonoita. That was just plain wrong. There was one long one mile 6% descent that was fun, but that was before the rollers and it’s a pretty flat ride into town.
Leonard cresting the LONG Sonoita Climb
We stopped at the convenience store in Sonoita and I had a ham and cheese sandwich with potato salad. That was just what I needed. It was starting to get dark by the time we were ready to leave, so we changed the lenses in our sunglasses to clear, put on our reflective gear and put on our vests because the temperature really plummets up there after dark! We stopped once on the climb out of Sonoita to check the distance to the Elgin turn. We really didn’t want to miss that! Susan had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup waiting when we got to the Elgin lodge. We both had a sandwich, but passed on the soup. It was a slow ride to AZ83, the road to Tombstone. But once we made that turn, we had a strong tailwind and a gradual descent which made for a really fast ride! People started passing us going in the other direction. They were several hours ahead of us. But our goal was to finish and we just took our time.
The temperature had really dropped by the time we got to Tombstone. We both opted for some Chicken Noodle Soup at the Circle K in Tombstone. I also got some chocolate covered pretzels. Those were tasty! Unfortunately Leonard forgot his sunglasses on top of the ice box outside of the Circle K when we left. But he flagged down a couple riders who were still headed into Tombstone and asked them to look for them. The ride back to the Elgin Lodge wasn’t too bad, but we were back to that tedious headwind with a slight climb. That slowed us down a bit. I told Leonard the temperature would really drop when we made the turn towards Elgin and I wasn’t wrong. It dropped down into the low 30′s. That was cold. We got our brevet cards signed, but didn’t stay to eat. We had another 9 miles to the Sonoita Inn and we were both ready for bed. Those 9 miles seemed to take forever. It didn’t help that I had to stop for a natural break along the way.
When we got to the Sonoita Inn, we found food waiting for us! A carafe of red wine with cheese and crackers was on the common room table, so I helped myself to a glass (or two) and some cheese. There was also a small fridge with orange juice, yogurt, muffins, bagels, cream cheese… mmmm…. We ate are fill then headed up to the room for showers. We were ready for bed by 2 am with a 5:30am alarm set. Ouch.
When the alarm went off we decided to wait another 45 minutes before getting ready to leave. Packed up our overnight bags and brought them downstairs for Susan to pickup then had some breakfast. Leonard also called Susan to check on his sunglasses. They were found! Thanks to whomever picked them up in Tombstone! There was another rider eating and we chatted for a few minutes before heading out.
It was a bit brisk, but we had waited for the sun to come up, so it wasn’t too bad on the rolling hills heading out of Sonoita. We had finished about 235 miles with another 140 to go. The quads were a bit tired on the climbs. Leonard said he was going to take it easy on the long descent to Sahuarita road because he didn’t have his sunglasses to shield his eyes from the wind, but every time I looked back he was pretty close to me. That is one fun and fast descent! I didn’t have to wait long before Leonard pulled up to the turn onto Sahuarita road. He said he couldn’t resist enjoying the descent.
We stopped at the “RoadRunner” convenience store on Houghton for breakfast. We shared an avocado and both had a “Big Boy breakfast wrap.” That was really good. We took our time at that stop and met a pretty strong cross wind when we headed out again. But we were still able to make pretty good time. The climb up Helmet Peak road is similar to the climb up Mission road the previous day, just a bit steeper 2-3% with a cross wind that just makes it mentally draining. Leonard stopped once for a natural break but when he remounted and tried to stand, his knee gave out. I’ve had that happen before, it’s not a fun experience! It forces you to stay in the saddle way longer than you want to. Everytime you try to stand your knee just won’t take it. We still had 70 or 80 miles to go! Not a good time to have knee problems. He took the rest of the climb pretty cautiously. Susan caught up to us and gave Leonard his sunglasses and refilled our bottles (Thanks Susan!) about mid-way up the climb.
At the top we had a nice strong tail wind when we turned onto Mission road, but with Leonard’s knee issue we weren’t able to capitalize on it too much. But easy spinning is great for overall recovery and I’m sure that helped with his knee and allowed him to finish the ride. Mission road has some really nasty sections of road. I was going relatively fast and wasn’t paying enough attention to the road in front of me and hit a pot hole that gave me a pinch flat on my rear wheel. I told Leonard to continue while I quickly changed the tube. Then I really started moving, maintaining over 30mph until I caught Leonard outside of Tucson. On one of the nice smooth newly paved sections I noticed my rear wheel didn’t feel right… almost like it had a flat spot. When we got to the Circle K in South Tucson, I took a look and noticed I had cracked my rim. It was ride-able, but it definitely needs to be replaced. If the road wasn’t really smooth I didn’t notice it.
The counter lady said they didn’t have a public restroom, but let me use it “if I was quick.” So I was, then picked up a can of chicken noodle soup and some coconut milk. When I finished that I realized I was a bit too quick, so I went across the street to the Diamond Shamrock to use their facilities and to get a pickle. Leonard made his way over and we headed back out. The temperature had really gone up. While sitting in the shade, my Garmin registered just over 100 degrees. As soon as we started riding it dropped back into the 90′s but that’s still pretty hot.
The majority of the climbing was over, but we still had to get through the big rolling hills of Tucson Mountain Park. Leonard dropped back a bit to take it easy with his knee. As I approached Old Tucson I realized I needed to use a restroom again. Odd. I figured I’d stop at the Desert Museum on the far side of the park. But as I rode along, that call of nature got much more urgent. Then demanding. So I had to make an emergency stop! For the first time I had to break out the emergency roll of Charmin I’ve carried on these long rides for probably 6 or more years!
Leonard had gone by while I was off in the bushes, but I caught him just before the descent down Mile Wide Road. I explained what happened and he reminded me of the scene in Cast Away. Who knew that coconut milk is a natural laxative!?! I won’t be drinking that in large quantities anymore! We had to stop again at a Chevron on Sandario road so I could use the facilities. This was not good. I drank a bunch of ice water and had a “Big Poppa” pickle before we headed out again. We still had a tailwind, but it was starting to shift around a bit.
We stopped at the last official checkpoint at the Circle K in Marana where I used the facilities yet again and resorted to some Imodium. With my stomach feeling the way it was, I just filled my bottles and skipped eating anything. The rest of the way to Casa Grande we pretty much had a cross wind or cross/head wind. The frontage road stretch on the way back just seems to take forever, but we eventually made it to the turn outside of Picacho. Leonard was holding up pretty well with his knee, but was starting to bonk a bit so we made one last stop at the Circle K in Eloy, about 13 miles from the finish.
I pushed the pace a bit to the finish in an attempt to get there before dark. We got there before dark at 7:02 pm, just over 38 hours after the start. Leonard showed great determination finishing this ride and is a Super Randonnuer!
Wow, has it really been over a year since I’ve posted anything?? Man time flies! I did have a bit of technical difficulty, but certainly should have fixed it sooner than I did. In my last post (from Feb 2010(!)) I mentioned that 2010 would be a year of cross training and down time. That’s pretty much how it turned out. I didn’t do any ultra-distance events, although I did finish several centuries on my road bikes. One highlight was the 2010 Multiple Sclerosis “Bay to Bay” Tour. This was the third year my company has participated in the event. For 2010 we had 36 people on the team who raised over $55,000 for the MS Society! NetApp was also an official sponsor for the event. Good times! For 2011 we’re shooting for 100 riders working to raise $100,000! Contact me if you’d like to join us or you can DONATE to help us reach our goal.
Ride Marshal at the 2010 Multiple Sclerosis Bay to Bay tour
I also did a couple half marathons with Annette and shaved 45 minutes off my Tucson Marathon time! It may not sound like it, but I really did take quite a bit of time for recovery and relaxing. I needed it, my motivation at the end of 2009 was lacking.
2010 Tucson Marathon Finisher!
Finishing the 2010 Tour of the White Mountains in Show Low, AZ
In terms of cross-training Mike Cox at Curbside Cyclery hooked me up with a sweet 2009 Cannondale Rize 2 mountain bike. I have to admit I’m really enjoying single track riding! I bought an annual pass for Usery Park and have been hitting the trails there quite a bit. Blevins trail with Moon Rock trail is my favorite loop there, although I’ll occasionally throw in Cats peak trail when I want a bit more intensity. I’ve only done Pass Mountain trail once, but need a bit more experience before I try that again! My only mountain bike event for 2010 was the Tour of the White Mountains in Show Low, AZ. I originally signed up for the 65 mile event, but after getting some feedback from friends who have done it before, I wisely decided to back down to the 35 mile version. That was a tough ride, but I finished strong and plan to do the full 65 mile event in 2011!
Speaking of 2011, I’ve been off to a pretty good start! My buddy Leonard Zito decided he wanted to do the 2011 spring brevet series.
Me and Leonard Zito after 200k Brevet
He’s done a few centuries over the past couple years but hasn’t done any ultra-distance events. So I decided I’d serve as a domestique and pace him through the series. A brevet series consists of 4 rides of progressively longer distance. So far we’ve done 3 of 4 events and Leonard has proven himself to be quite a good ultra-distance rider. He’s done an excellent job capturing images and details of the events on his blog.
Leonard climbing Gates Pass on the 300k Brevet
The series starts with a 200k (126 mile) event. No sweat, well maybe a little sweat, but not too bad. The second event is 300k (190 miles) which is a bit more challenging. The 400k (260 miles) is always a challenge and this year was no different (these links go to Leonard’s blog). It was truly epic and very reminiscent of the 2005 400k Brevet. Leonard’s blog on the 400k is a quick read with some great pictures. The final 600k (380 mile) event is this coming weekend (March 19-20).
In between the 300k and 400k Annette and I ran the Lost Dutchman 1/2 marathon. We shaved about 12 minutes off our time from last year and set a new “couples” best time (our personal best time running a 1/2 marathon together, nothing official just our own tracking of our completion times…). The Lost Dutchman course is very scenic without too much climbing. I highly recommend it! If you’ve never done a 1/2 marathon, the Lost Dutchman would be an excellent choice!
That pretty much brings us to this weekend. For various reasons I haven’t been able to train as consistently as I’d like, so I was starting to get a bit worried that I’d be ready to pull Leonard through 380 miles. Leonard is excellent about recognizing his capabilities and adjusting. I’ve ridden with some other friends who have turned themselves inside out before telling me I’m going too hard. But Leonard has a good feel for his “ride all day” effort level. I use power meters on my bikes, so I know how many watts are being created at a given effort level. During the 200k, Leonard would tell me when to back off and I found that if I maintained about 180 watts, Leonard stayed comfortable. I generally ride at 220-240 watts, so that was well within my comfort zone. It worked well for both of us. Riding based on watts is great because it negates the effects of wind or climbs. 180 watts is 180 watts. So we’d slow down on hills or in the wind, but our effort level remained roughly the same.
Back of the Enfield Chalet in Show Low, AZ
Anyway, back to the concern about the lack of consistent training… Mesa Schools are out for spring break next week, so Annette and I decided to spend a few days at our “chalet” in Show Low, AZ (Chalet is the architecture type, really … and I’ve been told cabins don’t have garages).
Enfield Chalet in Show Low, AZ
Jake had a commitment Saturday night, so we were planning to drive up on Sunday. I didn’t have any plans for Saturday, so, what the heck, I decided to ride my bike up. I’d done the Scottsdale to Payson ride several times as part of the “Answer to the Challenge” but had never turned right in Payson onto 260. I’ve been wanting to try to ride my bike to Show Low ever since we bought the chalet and this seemed like an ideal time. So that’s what I did.
I didn’t have any time pressure, so I left Mesa around 7:30am with my bike loaded with my standard long Brevet setup (generator hub light, couple rear flashing lights, reflective straps, trunk of extra food and clothes…). My course was over Usery Pass to Bush Highway. Bush Highway to Beeline. Beeline to Payson for that right turn onto 260. 260 to Show Low. Simple. It took about an hour to get to Beeline from my house. There’s one steep climb right before Saguaro Lake. I definitely felt the extra weight on my bike going up that hill! I got into a zone and set a good pace to the Beeline. Apparently I passed Leonard somewhere on Beeline where he was stopped to change a flat. Leonard put in a nice 101 mile training ride that morning. I didn’t even notice him, I was in my cruising mode.
It’s amazing how much you forget about how hard a ride is when you haven’t done it in a while. There is some serious climbing to get to Payson along with some super nice descents. I set my high speed for the day at 50.9 mph on the first big descent. Nice. I took my time on the hills and stopped twice for natural breaks. The temperature at the start of the ride was around 58, dropped into the low 50s through the Salt River section, but jumped to 78 near Rye. That was pretty warm. Sweat was pouring off of me on the climb up Rye hill. That is one LONG climb and I was starting to bonk about 3/4ths of the way up. I ate some food, but my energy level was still off. It took about 5 hours to get to Payson. Not too bad considering it included over 7,600 feet of climbing! I stopped at Cousin’s subs for a sandwich and to relax for a bit. One sandwich wasn’t quite enough, so I had a second! I felt MUCH better after that!
Checking the label on the Coconut Milk w/ Pineapple juice. Mmmmm...
With renewed energy I make my way out of Payson, but stopped at the Circle K in Starr Valley to get some coconut milk. If you haven’t discovered coconut milk yet, give it a try! A single serving has more potassium than 2 bananas. The Coconut w/ pineapple juice (pina colada!) is my favorite. Most sports drinks tend to taste nasty when they warm up. On this ride I decided to test the coconut milk and stuck a box (yes, it comes in a box) in my jersey pocket before I left Mesa. It. tastes. good. warm. For some reason Circle K stocks this miracle beverage, so if I see a Circle K, you know I’ll be stopping for some Coconut milk!
With the turn out of Payson I picked up a tail wind that would stay with me most of the way to Show Low. Nice!
Quick stop on the climb up the Mogollon Rim
Made the 5-8% grades just a bit easier to deal with, but the climb up to the top of the rim really kicked my ass. That’s just a super tough, super long climb. It was really slow going. I did stop once for a quick pic (hard to show how steep the climb is, but notice the angle of the trees).
I was wiped when I got to the top! And it was freakin’ freezing! Should have taken another photo of all the snow. I had to stop again to put on my arm and leg warmers! I started again, but pulled off once more after about a mile to put on my full finger glove liners. Wow, that was cold! But now I was ready to ride! From the top of the Rim to Heber is primarily down hill. With that tail wind I started making really, really good time. The easy spinning also allowed my legs to recover from the climb up the Rim.
There’s a Circle K just outside of Heber that I stopped at to replace my now empty box of coconut milk and to refill my water bottles. The ladies at the counter asked how I was doing and I said “I’m tired.” They didn’t seem too surprised that I had ridden up from Mesa, guess other people have made the trip by bike. Anyway, I enjoyed the ride down into Heber then started the climb to Overgaard. It was about 5:30pm so I decided it was time for dinner and stopped at Subway for a footlong ham and cheese with avocado. That was just what I needed. I called Annette and we talked about the remaining 35ish miles. Neither of us expected it to be too bad.
Nasty looking jersey!
The worst was definitely behind me, but there were still several 5-6% grades between Overgaard and Show Low. That friendly tail wind became more intermittent as the road zig zagged along causing it to become a strong crosswind at times. I can honestly say I was getting tired of the climbing by the time I saw the lights of Show Low. Of course there’s a nice long climb to actually get into town, but it wasn’t too bad. Neither was the final climb up to the Chalet. It peaks at about 18%, but it’s a pretty short section. When I got to the chalet I looked in the mirror and had to take a picture of the dried sweat on my jersey. That’s what almost 18,000 feet of climbing does! Leonard said to just scrape it off and use it in my next electrolyte drink! LOL!
Ok, so I haven’t been updating this site in a while and I haven’t been posting anything on examiner.com, so what’s up??? I’ve actually been pretty busy, but haven’t gotten around to posting any updates. For the “off” season I’ve been focusing on running. Strange, I know, but Annette discovered that she actually likes running and I _LOVE_ spending time with my wife, especially when it involves exercise! Those endorphins go a LONG way! So, we did the Phoenix 1/2 marathon and the Lost Dutchman 1/2 marathon. I did throw in the Casa Grande century in the mix in January, but it was a pretty uneventful ride. I rode hard. At the beginning I wanted to ride easy and started with a slow group, but two guys past me and I couldn’t resist that draft, so I jumped on the back.
We worked well together and started picking up other riders. At the first stop a few of us stopped to re-fuel, but by the second stop there were only 4 of us at the front. There was a pretty good cross wind blowing and I didn’t have nearly enough base miles in my legs to maintain the pace that was being hammered, so I dropped off. Never saw those guys again. At the lunch stop I saw a bunch of Bullshifters pull in, but I was getting ready to leave. There was a strong head wind on the way back and I was by myself most of the way. About 5 miles from the finish a big group caught me and I pretty much drafted into the finish.
After the Casa Grande century I shifted gears to focus on running for a bit. Annette and I planned to do the Phoenix 1/2 marathon AND the Lost Dutchman 1/2 marathon, which are not too far apart. I was disappointed in the Phoenix marathon. There were a TON of people, but the course… sucked. It wasn’t very scenic and had hills near the end that just killed my right knee. We wound up walking the last few miles. The Lost Dutchman 1/2 marathon on the other hand is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! They changed the route since I did it last year and it’s a lot flatter over all — and the course is extemely scenic! Annette and I set a personal best “couples” time of 2 hours 34 minutes doing a run/walk.
So we’re done with running for a while. I’ve decided to make this year a “rest” year and haven’t defined any specific cycling goals. I’m just going to go with the flow and see how that works out. I’ll be doing Mine Country Challenge in March and a friend wants to get Gold at El Tour de Phoenix, so I’ll ride that with him, but otherwise, no cycling on the schedule. Weird. Annette and I are thinking about doing the Napa 1/2 marathon in July, but haven’t committed on it yet. There are a few other rides like the Taylor House century in Flagstaff that I know I plan on doing, but I haven’t written down any specific goals for the year.
Ultimately I think this will be a year of cross-training and down-time. I’ve been going pretty hard for many years now and am looking forward to some changes. The running is definitely a change! Annette and I just bought a cabin in Show Low, so I’m thinking I may try to add some mountain biking into the mix. Stay tuned for that!
Annette and I had a great time at the Las Vegas Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon, but doing that the weekend before the Tucson FULL marathon wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had! Nor was going to a “standing room only” concert at the Realto Theatre in Tucson on Thursday night. Standing for 5+ hours waiting for then watching a great concert (Five for Fighting and Train – Annette’s favorite band) didn’t help resting my legs in preparation for a 26.2 mile run!
But I was still feeling pretty good Sunday morning when I got up at 4:15am to get ready for the shuttle to the start of the race. It was a pretty brisk morning, but not quite as bad as it had been in Las Vegas. Our bus got to the start a full hour and a half before the start of the race, so everyone just sat on the bus and waited. The guy I was sitting next to had attempted a full marathon in Florence, Italy a few months before this race, but went out too hard and had to abandon due to knee pain. He had been going for a 3 hour time and pushed too hard. He was going for a 3:30 at Tucson and planned to run with the 3:30 pace group. Don’t know how he did in the end.
Anyway, I timed getting off the bus to make one last porta-potty stop just about perfectly. With the lines for the porta-potty’s I was ready to go about 5 minutes before the start. I told Annette I wanted to finish in 5-5.5 hours, but really I was hoping for a sub 5 hour time. The start was similar to the Lost Dutchman, where there weren’t any official starting corrals like in Vegas, so people just started milling at the starting line with people who wanted a fast finish pushing to get closer to the front. I stayed about 3/4th back in the field of about 1500 people.
The start was a pretty steep down hill run. Running down a steep grade is actually pretty jarring and hard on the body. That first mile was down hill, then we hit steeply rolling hills from miles 2-9. You lose 2700 feet overall over the course of the marathon, but that first 9 miles is pretty hilly. The elevation profile on the route sheet appears to have a lot of those rolling hills smoothed out, so I was surprised by them. But I was keeping a pretty good sub-10 minute pace going. At Vegas I wound up with a small to medium sized blister on the arch of my left foot. About 6 miles into this run I started to feel that blister. I could tell it was getting bigger…a lot bigger. There was one long out and back section of the course that wen up and down a good sized hill. I made it over the hill ok, but on the way back I walked up the last part of the climb.
After that, the course was generally down hill. Split times show I hit 6.6 miles in 1:04:24, averaging a 9:46 mile pace. I was doin’ good. My split time at 10.8 was 1:47:03, averaging 9:55. Still doin’ good! I hit the half marathon 13.1 marker in 2:10:00, a personal best for a half marathon, knocking almost 1/2 hour off my Lost Dutchman time! Woohoo! I was cruising!
The wind had picked up quite a bit and we faced a head wind with some pretty good gusts. I started trying to draft off people for a bit when they went past me. Around mile 17-18 my upper thighs started to get pretty tight, so I walked for a bit. Then I started to use the strategy Annette and I used in Vegas, running for a bit then walking. But my thighs still felt tight. So I finally stopped to try to stretch them a bit by pulling my foot behind me to my butt and leaning back a bit. Wow, that felt GREAT! I was able to run again! So I’d run for a while and when I started to feel my thighs tighten, I’d stop for a quick stretch. 19.2 mile split time shows I finished it in 3:29:35 with an average pace of 10:55. That was slowing me down a lot!
Somewhere betwen mile 20 and 21 I went to do that thigh stretch and over-extended my right knee (the same knee I’ve been struggling with all year). When I finished the stretch, I felt some discomfort. Not intense, but not good. But it didn’t take too long before that discomfort became pain and I started walking. After mile 21 I think I walked more than I ran. But I was still able to run some good stretches.
At about 23.5 miles I decided to take it easy and mostly walked from there on, my knee just couldn’t take the pounding any more. Of course anytime I came near someone with a camera I toughed it out and ran! LOL! Vanity! About a mile and a half from the finish I heard the voice mail beep on my phone and checked it. Annette wanted to know where I was so I called her to let her know. She and the kids weren’t quite at the finish yet, but were on their way. With my walking pace, they were sure to get there before me!
There were probably 3 camera guys in the last mile that I forced myself to run for! I’m sure those shots are just beautiful! The finishing stretch was really sandy. I had decided I would run once I made the last turn, but as soon as I stepped on that sand, my knee screamed at me. Jake saw it and told Annette he thought I just cramped. Not a cramp, just very intense knee pain! But I moved to the side where it wasn’t so sandy and ran slowly towards the finish. The announcer called my name and home town as I approached the finish line, but said it looked like the guy behind me would pass me before the line, so of course I put on a last ditch burst of speed to get over that line first! That hurt.
Final time was 5:16:58 to go 26.2 miles, losing quite a bit of speed at the end with a final average pace of 12:06 minute miles. Walking those last few miles really cut into my time, but I finished and that was my ultimate goal. It probably wasn’t the brightest move to put in a personal best time for the first half. That probably had something to to with the tightness I felt in my thighs. The knee problem was a result of stretching it too much while it was tired. And that blister is about 2 inches on the arch of my left foot. But the pain is already fading I’m registered to be back to do it again in 2010!
On Sunday, December 6th Annette ran her first ½ marathon with “Team Challenge” in support of the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America (it’s not too late to make a donation!) at the inaugural Las Vegas ½ marathon! I joined her to do it as my second ½ marathon. We drove up to Vegas on Saturday and rushed over to the Mandalay Bay for packet pickup. Annette had a team meeting scheduled for 5pm and we pulled into town around 3:30, so we didn’t have much time to wander through the Expo. Still we were cutting it close and left the expo at 4:30. It was a LONG walk back to the parking garage. As we walked, we overheard someone ask another person for the time. 3:30. What?? We didn’t realize Vegas is on Pacific time, so we saved an hour. It would have sucked to have walked down to the start on Sunday morning an hour late! At least we weren’t rushed after that.
Phew!
Team Challenge had a dinner that night. Over 900 people from all over the country were there supporting the CCFA. Together they raised over $3.5M for the charity! The top fund-raiser raised over $39,000! Impressive! One of the speakers was a professional running coach. His advice was to remember to listen to what the coaches said about how to run the race. Pretty close to “start slow and taper off.” He said everyone is good about telling others how to do an endurance event, but don’t generally listen to themselves and do something stupid. I can attest to that from personal experience!
Aren't we cute?
Annette and I were up at 4:15 am to get ready for the start. We expected it was going to be cold, so we had purchased cold weather clothing in anticipation. Annette was particularly happy with her ear warming head band and gloves. It was COLD. The Phoenix team decided to walk through the hotel to try to get a bit closer to the start before walking outside. Unfortunately, we got a bit turned around in the hotel and wound up on the opposite side of the MGM Grand, extending our walk by at least ½ mile. At least we got the “everyone does something stupid” over with before the start!
Annette's looking GOOD!
Because this was Annette’s first ½ marathon, she had no idea how much time it would take to finish, so she guessed 3 hours 30 minutes, which put her in starting corral #28. There were only 29 corrals, so we were at the back of the field. The race started at 6:15am, but we were behind 17,000+ people, so it took over 40 minutes before we got to the start line. That gave us plenty of time to watch the front of the race go by in the other direction. There were some CRAZY people in that front group. Several people ran without shirts and one guy just had a speedo on! I did mention that it was freakin’ COLD didn’t I?? Nuts! As we got closer to the start line, Annette jumped out of the pack to hit a porta-potty. We were a bit too close to the start, so I had to move off to the side for a minute or two until she got back.
We started running when we crossed the start line. There were a LOT of walkers in front of us, so we spent a lot of time going back and forth across the road trying to get around people who were walking. Annette’s plan was to run/walk, but not at fixed time intervals. So we ran for around a mile at a time then walked for a couple minutes. That worked out really well for me because I never really had to push myself. I did go out front a couple miles into the run to hit a porta-potty myself (cold weather always does that to me).
Even with the run/walk, we were still passing hundreds of people. It was amazing. Just a mass of people in front of us and behind us as far as you could see. Annette grabbed a Cytomax drink at the first water station, but had to get a cup of water too because it was way too sweet. I just stuck with water.
Good times!
The sun came up and I expected it to warm up, but running down the Las Vegas strip, we were in the shadows of the casinos and it actually felt like the temperature dropped a bit after sunrise. The website said there were a number of weddings along the course, but I didn’t see any of those. I did see a LOT of Elvis impersonators and there was one woman who ran to each band, then danced in front of them for a few minutes.
The course pretty much went straight down the Las Vegas strip, had a big loop at the end and back. There were 7 or 8 bands playing along the course. Pretty cool event overall. Annette was getting a bit fatigued towards the end, but decided to run the last mile and pushed it through to the end! She really did great. And I felt pretty good at the end, so I think I’m ready for the Tucson marathon this coming Sunday. I did hurt my knee at Cochise, which caused me to miss some of my longer training runs, so my goal for Tucson is to just finish, so I’ll probably employ some of the run/walk strategy that Annette used. It works well! Interestingly, Jacob’s teacher Mike Nowotarski and his wife Melody were also doing the 1/2 marathon. After the race we decided to stop at the Starbucks in the MGM Grand to get something hot. Guess who was standing in line two people ahead of us? Mr N.! What are the odds?!? 17,000+ people doing the race, a huge number of people in Vegas and we run into the two people we know after the race! Anyway, I splurged for a “couples massage” at the MGM Grand after the run, then we went to a nice dinner and watched the Blue Man Group over at the Venetian. What a great weekend!
I was originally registered to do the Mount Lemmon 200k Brevet on Saturday, but changed my mind when I scheduled a business trip that would take me to Denver on Thursday, then Salt Lake City on Friday with a late night return flight to Phoenix the night before the event. Luckily, there was another option that didn’t require a drive down to Tucson! So I changed plans and registered for the McDowell Mountain Century. Even though this century is pretty close to home, I’ve never done it before.
My flight back from Salt Lake City was delayed, so I didn’t get home until around 11:30pm. Of course I didn’t have anything ready for the ride, so I was up at 5am to ensure I would get to the 7:30am start on time. I actually got there about 45 minutes early, so I had plenty of time to check-in and get ready, then sat and tinkered with my phone for a while. About 7:25 I got on my bike and started looking for the starting group. Hmmm… plenty of people were milling around, but there weren’t any groups getting ready to leave. Then I overheard someone ask someone else if they were doing the century or metric. The answer was that the century group had already left! What?!? Crap! I didn’t even notice a group forming!
So I headed off on my own. The beginning part of the course winds through Scottsdale, so I had to deal with a number of stop lights that impeded progress. About 10 miles into the ride I started catching other riders, but still couldn’t see the main group. I wasn’t pushing myself to my limit, but I was riding at a very steady hard pace. When I pulled into the first support stop I asked how far the lead group was in front of me. The answer was that they just pulled out and probably weren’t even to the next light yet!
So I immediately left. When I made the right hand turn after that light, I could see a group of 10 or so not too far off in front of me. I kept that steady pace going and caught them about 25 miles into the ride. There were a number of other Bullshifters at the front, but I was sitting at the back. The pace was slower than I expected, which explains why I was able to catch them. Riding on the back of that group, my heart rate quickly dropped into an “active rest” state.
I rode with the group for a few miles, but that pace I had set earlier felt pretty good and I decided to ride my own pace, so I went to the front after a stop light and rode my own pace. Two guys stayed with me for a bit, but one guy dropped off pretty quickly. That left me and Brian from Colorado. I’d take the front on flats or down hill and he’d pull me up the hills. Somewhere in Carefree we started passing people doing the metric century. We worked well together through the Carefree to the second Support stop.
We only stayed at that stop for a few minutes, then headed off again. Brian pulled me up the long Dynamite road climb then I went to the front for a relatively fast descent. Just once I’d like to enjoy the 9-mile descent without facing a head wind! We took a break with the pace through Rio Verde and chatted a bit. Brian said the lead group left just afer 7am — almost a 1/2 hour early! No wonder I missed them leaving! They spent quite a bit of time at the first support stop, which is probably the only reason I was able to catch them. Anyway, we picked the pace back up again when we left Rio Verde.
There are only a couple significant hills along this route. The first one is just before reaching Fountain Hills. I had taken a pull right before that climb, then Brian kept the intensity up going up the hill. I’d like to say I wanted to protect my knee and just rode easy up the hill, but really, I was red-lined and popped. I couldn’t maintain his pace up the hill and dropped off. He was riding easy at the top, waiting for me to catch up. Nice guy!
We didn’t stay too long at the last support stop before heading toward the next set of big climbs — the 10%+ section on Sunridge Drive followed by reversing two of the three sisters along Palisades. I still couldn’t maintain Brian’s pace up the steeper climbs (I’m really not built to be a climber), but he was waiting at the top of Sunridge Drive. I was able to get some good speed down through the dips along Palisades that I was able to carry most of the way up the climbs, so I wasn’t too far behind Brian when he got to Shea.
We worked well together down Shea and through Northeast Scottsdale. About 6 or 7 miles from the finish, Brian went to the front and hammered the rest of the way to the finish. We finished fast and strong! He was using this event as a last “tune-up” ride before El Tour de Tucson where he plans to finish with a Platinum time. Given how strongly he rode, I’d say he’s got it nailed. My total time was 5 hours 11 minutes, including all stops to go 97 miles. Not too shabby.
The Heart of Arizona is a great century and 200k brevet event hosted by the Bullshifters. It forms a big loop in south-central Arizona though scenic and very remote country. Mike Sturgill has a pretty good description for finding the town of Congress (the start location):
- 37 miles Southwest of Nowhere, AZ
- 39 miles Southeast of Nothing, AZ
- 89 miles East of Somewhere, AZ and
- 67 miles Beyond Hope, AZ!
So now you know exactly where Congress, Arizona IS located! The start just says “Congress, AZ” because the town is so small, the specific location to start at is obvious when you get there!
I was up pretty early and got to the start in Congress, AZ with plenty of time to get ready. It was expected to be in the low 50’s, but with the sun shining it felt pretty nice out and I opted to just use arm warmers for the ride. With the knee problems at Cochise, I decided to just do the 104 mile century option and not the 125 mile Brevet. I know from doing this ride before, those extra 21 miles include some long climbs. Even without those, the century option has over 6,000 feet of climbing.
I did have my knee looked at by a sports medicine doctor after Cochise and he said it looked really good and the pain was probably soft tissue irritation caused by that misplaced cleat on my shoe. It hadn’t bothered me since Cochise, so I wasn’t too concerned, but I still planned to take all the long climbs at an easy pace. But the start is gradual climbs and some long descents. Those I hit pretty hard. I had a personal goal to be able to hold an average of over 300 watts for 3 hours before Cochise. I didn’t have a power meter for Cochise, so I don’t know if I achieved that goal. But with a spanking new Quarq power meter on my Trek, I was going to find out on this ride!
So I led the century group for most of the first 20-30 miles, hammering pretty good. I was watching my watts trying to stay between 250-400 watts. I only stopped long enough to fill my water bottle and eat a couple roasted red potatoes (boy, those really are my new favorite ride food! Wish all events had them!) before heading off by myself after the first SAG.
After that SAG was the first major climb. So, I backed off and started spinning. I also upgraded my cassette to an 11×28 to go with my SRAM 900 compact crank that came with my Quaq. The 34×28 combination is pretty close to the lower end of my triple on my Calfee. I’d still want the full range my Calfee provides with the triple for REALLY hard climbing events (>~10,000 feet cumulative), but the 11×28 is going to be great for the majority of my rides.
Near the top of that climb, we turn and go through several miles of rolling hills. Somewhere along there I glanced down and saw that I was 3 hours 19 minutes into the ride and my average watts showed 309! Goal met! At that point I just started to enjoy the ride. A couple guys past me and joked they wanted to wait to use me for the long descending / flat section that we’d encounter after the second SAG. But I was now enjoying the ride and let them go.
I’m not one for standing around at SAG stops, so at the second stop I just filled my bottles, had a snack and headed out again. Those two guys weren’t kidding and left right behind me. We worked together a bit before the next long climb, but that one is probably 10 miles of 4-7% grade, so as soon as we got near the base, I dropped off and started spinning again.
Several people passed me going up that hill. There are a couple false summits, but I was prepared for them and just kept chugging along until I got to the top for another quick stop at the third SAG. I left by myself again and had a good fast descent before hitting a very deceptive, very long 2% climb. It actually looks like you are descending or riding a flat, but it’s really a very steady climb. I just maintained a consistent pace, catching and passing a few of the people who passed me on the climb.
The wind was also starting to pick up pretty good. It was only supposed to be sustained at around 9mph, but it sure felt stronger and there were definitely some strong gusts. I took a bit more time at the last SAG stop before turning towards Peebles Valley to rehydrate and refuel. After the turn is another long climb that I had actually forgotten about. Once again, I geared down and started spinning. A couple small pace lines passed me going up the hill. Near the top another group of three went by and I jumped on the back to get some protection from the head wind we were facing. We worked pretty good together all the way to the start of the climb up to Yarnell, then I dropped off again and geared down for some more spinning.
That strategy works pretty good for me and even with the hard effort earlier in the day I felt pretty good when I pulled into the finish where the Bullshifters had hot dogs, hamburgers and homemade chili waiting! I had a cheesburger with a bowl of chili then went back for a chili dog before heading over to my car to change before heading back home. All in all a very good ride! I highly recommend this event both for the fabulous support the Bullshifters provide and for the remote, low traffic course.
This weekend was the “Dirty Mogollon Mormon Madness 205k Permanent”, a ~130 mile mountain bike adventure that started in Clint’s Well, AZ (near Happy Jack) and took fire roads and OHV roads down to the Mogollon Rim before heading back up to AZ87 and crossing over to head up to Mormon Lake. I’ve never done this route before, but did read Paul Layton’s ride report. Sounded like a hard ride. But hey, who can pass up riding in cool weather through the woods!?! Apparently quite a few people. There were only three of us at the start. Paul Layton, Mike Sturgill and myself.
So, we did the Phoenix 1/2 marathon and the Lost Dutchman 1/2 marathon. I did throw in the Casa Grande century in the mix in January, but it was a pretty uneventful ride. I rode hard. At the beginning I wanted to ride easy and started with a slow group, but two guys past me and I couldn’t resist that draft, so I jumped on the back.
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