02/12/2006

Last year's 300k brevet featured a day of riding in the rain -- a steady drizzle all day with occasional showers and heavy rain fall.  This year's featured head wind, lots of head wind.  I would estimate 65% of the ride was into the wind, 25% was a cross wind and 10% (being generous) was a tail wind.  In fact the only tail wind I can remember was going down Oracle and Ina roads, which is a fast descent even without a tail wind.  You tend to forget discomfort over time, so when I finished this ride I told Susan I would take the rain over that wind.  I went back and read my 300k report from last year and would still say I think I would have preferred the rain over that wind!

I had two goals for this ride.  First, I wanted to set a personal best time for the course.  Second, I wanted to try to maintain the same average speed that I wanted for my Arizona record attempt in May.  With that wind, I probably got more similarity than I wanted since the wind usually comes out of the west and I expect to be riding into a headwind during my record attempt.

The ride started at 5am.  It was dark and quite brisk (my Polar shows a low of 37 degrees).  I think Susan had a record turn-out with what looked like over 35 riders at the start.  I started the ride chatting with Derek Slife who was out doing some base training miles since it's still a bit early for RAAM training. Susan escorted us through town and the group started breaking up, so Derek and I moved up near the front, but the pace wasn't too bad.  Susan pulled off at the last turn out of town and let us go by.  I wasn't paying too much attention to the front, but when I did look there was one lone blinking light way off the front.  Mike Sturgill was already off at a fast pace.  The gap was way too big so I settled in to ride with the group.  Shortly after going over the freeway Mike rejoined the group because he wasn't sure about which road to turn on.  When we turned onto Woodruff Mike went off the front again, but this time I was paying attention and joined him.  He was setting a really fast pace, but it wasn't bad in his draft.  But when he pulled off to let me take a turn pulling I realized his pace would be taking me out of my comfort zone.  He was really moving!  We traded pulls for about 30 miles or so, but I could tell they were taking a toll on me and I wouldn't be able to maintain that pace the full distance.  The guy is just too strong!  The wind was also picking up quite a bit, so anytime I went to the front I was riding at lactate threshold, not good.  Of course it was too dark to keep an eye on my heart rate, but I could definitely tell it was too much for me so when we turned onto SR79 I let him go.  Watching his little red blinking tail light disappear into the distance really reinforced that it wouldn't hurt to lose another 20-25 pounds!

But now I was riding in my comfort zone again and wasn't making bad time.  Not as fast as Mike, but I wasn't stressing my body anymore.  Mike was just getting ready to leave when I pulled into the checkpoint at the Tom Mix Monument.  The sun came up a little after 7am and it was warming up.  So I filled a bottle, switched from full fingered gloves to short gloves w/ glove liners then hit the road again.  When I rode SR79 last December I was treated to a tail wind but that slight incline was demoralizing.  This time I had a head wind the whole way plus that slight incline.  After being dropped hard by Mike and riding up that hill into a head wind my morale really needed a boost!  And a boost I got when I turned onto Oracle Road.  The wind became a cross / tail wind and I flew down the hill maintaining a pretty fast pace all the way down Ina road to the freeway.  Then the wind seemed to shift around again and I felt like I was pushing through a head wind all the way to Gates Pass Road.

As I started the climb up Gates Pass my energy level really started to drop, so I opened a Clif bar and started to eat it while slowly making my way up.  I was chewing on a mouthful of Clif bar when Carol Chafee breezed by and asked if I was doing the brevet.  I sputtered "yep" through that Clif bar.  She said "me too!" then spun easily up the hill leaving me floundering along trying to get my energy level back up!  After the ride Susan told me Carol set the Colorado South to North cycling record in 2005 (she rode 310 miles in 17 hours 15 minutes! Impressive!).  That Clif bar helped and I started feeling better before I got to the steep part right before the top of Gates Pass.

When I got to the lunch stop on Kinney road Mike Sturgill was just pulling out and it looked like Carol was only a couple minutes behind him.  I took some time to shed my arm, leg and feet warmers, put on some sunscreen then had an egg salad pita and a coke.  I stayed there a few minutes longer than I should have because my legs weren't happy when I left.  That headwind was back and there was a bit of a hill after the lunch break, so climbing after being stopped for a while was a bit painful.  It took a half mile or so before I was able to settle in to a good rhythm.  There's an airport at the end of Sandario road that has three flags.  Those flags were all straight out and pointing straight at me! Boy I was getting tired of that wind!

Avra Valley Road curves around quite a bit, so I actually got some brief tail winds, but mostly cross winds and of course another head wind when I turned onto Trico Road.  Carol was at the next checkpoint (a convenience store on Trico road), but Mike was already gone.  She left shortly after I got there.  I bought a "Monster" energy drink and a bottle of water to fill a bottle with, then headed out.  A little over a mile after that stop is another turn onto Trico Marana Road.  I had adjusted my Queue sheet and mis-read it, so I went past that turn.  The road got really rough and I didn't remember that from last year, so I looked at the queue sheet again.  "130.7 R (E) on Trico Marana Road."  Wait a minute... I'm over 131 and I didn't make a turn...  Oops!  Luckily I didn't go too far out off the course before realizing my mistake!

The route follows the frontage road along I-10 between Marana and Picacho, turning off at Picacho School road.  The were quite a few railroad maintenance crews out working on the railroad tracks along that stretch.  Good thing too because there was a really bad looking accident right at the Picacho School road turn.  Emergency crews hadn't gotten there yet, but guys from a railroad maintenance crew were checking on people in the cars.  An ambulance passed when I was heading along SR 87 to La Palma.

Carol was relaxing in a chair eating an ice cream sandwich when I pulled into the last checkpoint at the La Palma market.  We compared notes on the wind, which had gotten worse, then I headed into the store to get a Baby Ruth and an Orange Crush soda.  Carol was already gone when I came out of the market, so I sat in her chair to enjoy my candy bar.  15 miles to go, with a cross wind that occasionally actually felt like a ---gasp--- tailwind!  So I made pretty good time for 5 miles or so, then decided to back it down to a recovery pace for the last 10 miles, spinning my legs and enjoying the final miles.

I could have done without the wind and trying to keep up with Mike for as long as I did was a mistake.  But I did meet my personal best goal knocking just over an hour off of last years time, finishing in 11 hours 27 minutes.  Average speed on the bike was 17.7, but it would have been under 17 including the time off the bike.  My goal for my Arizona crossing is to maintain a 17 mph pace (including any stops), so I should have finished this ride in 11 hours even, so I was a bit off.  If I hadn't used so much energy at the beginning of the ride I probably would have been able to do it.  Hindsight...