04/06/09

Ok, so I lied when I said that Mesa to 9 mile hill ride would be my last century of the year.  We decided to head down to Tucson to spend Christmas at my brother's house and I decided to just ride down.  I've always wanted to try the route and this seemed like a good time to do it since Annette would be driving down anyway.

It turned out to be a pretty nice training ride.  My streak of flat tires on century rides officially ended and I made it down to Tucson without having to stop to change any tubes!  The previous weekend I rode with the Lifesport group on an out and back from Superior to Winkleman.  Not 2 miles out of Superior I had a flat.  Jeff came back and took a look at my wheel and tube.  The tube had punctured near the valve stem.  He looked at the wheel and saw the rim tape was worn out.  So the tube was rubbing against the metal edge.  Duh.  He put a piece of handlebar tape over the valve stem to provide protection and I haven't had a flat since.  Neat trick.  I'll be carrying a little extra handlebar tape from now on!

I stopped in Florence for my normal Ham, Turkey and cheese lunchable, which really hits the spot for me.  Traffic wasn't too bad, but the 40 mile hill between Florence and Oracle Junction got old.  It's not a very steep hill, probably less than one percent.  Just enough that you can feel you are climbing.  and climbing.  and climbing some more.  It's more of a mental problem than a physical problem -- when will this $#@^ hill end!?!  I had a tail wind most of the way, so I really didn't have to work too hard.  Take a look at the image I attached with the route profile and you can see the hill.  If you want to test your morale, just ride that hill!  It really gives a whole new perspective to 9 mile hill.  9 mile is a little steeper, but hey, it's only 9 miles!

Annette and the kids caught me about 15 miles from Oracle Junction and Annette was surprised I had gotten that far before they caught up to me.  She wanted to know when to expect me at Leo's house, so I told her to look at the time, reset her trip odometer and figure an average of 20 miles an hour.  I kid you not, right after she left, that wind shifted around and I was only able to go 12 mph!  Crap!  Ok, so I would be later than I told her, but just kept plugging away, occasionally hitting 15 mph.  Woohoo! not...

Once you hit Oracle Junction, it's a pretty nice descent down into Tucson, so I made up quite a bit of time.  My only scary incident happened while going through Catalina.  I was on a descent, going about 32ish, riding in my aerobars and I glanced down for something - I don't remember why really, maybe looking at my gearing or resting my neck for a few seconds. Anyway, when I looked up a truck was crossing right in front of me.  You don't really know how far your hands are from your brakes when using aerobars until you really need them fast!  I yelled and locked my brakes, swerving around the back end of the truck, but it was closer than I like to think about. Yikes!

I ran out of Fluids right around Tangerine road, so I pulled into a Mobile station to refill a bottle.  The ride down Ina was nice and the rest of the ride went pretty good.  There's one short, but steep climb right after Ina and Thornydale that I didn't really appreciate that far into the ride, but I got up it ok.  I told Leo and Annette that it would probably take 6 to 7 hours to get to my house to his, but I wound up finishing in 5:54 (including stops).  My average speed was 19.8 (not including stops).  Not too bad considering that 40 mile hill.  All in all, a nice century to finish 2005!

On a non-cycling note, Annette and I took the kids up to Sunrise Ski Resort on Wednesday 12/28 for their first experiences with skiing (my second favorite sporting activity).  Sunrise makes their own snow, so even though Arizona doesn't have any natural snow, Sunrise opened with a whopping 18" of packed powder on 4 green runs.  Not really good ski conditions, but ok for new skiers.  Danielle and Jake went through a half day lesson and really seemed to enjoy the experience.  Danielle did outstanding and graduated from the bunny hill to a green run before the end of the day.  I took her up twice and she made it down both times without any face plants!  Jacob also did great, but had a couple crashes that shook his confidence.  But he kept going up the bunny hill to try again!  With a year off my skis I can confirm that skiing uses different muscles than cycling.  My calves were sore Thursday morning.  How's that possible?!  Of all the muscles I would expect to be sore, it certainly wouldn't be my calves!