02/12/2006

This ride was easily in the top 5 of the hardest rides I've ever done!  I have never ridden so long into such high constant headwinds.  Brutal doesn't do enough to describe the wind -- it was hellish!  The weather forecast for the day was not good.  Weather.com was predicting 10+ mph winds in the morning increasing to 20-25 mph by noon, all coming from the South or South-Southwest.  The high was only expected to be 59 degrees with rain showers all day.  And I was supposed to do this ride as base miles, keeping my heart rate relatively low.

There was a light sprinkle when I left my house at 2:30am, but it stopped raining and actually started to clear up as I got closer to the start in Casa Grande.  I got there with plenty of time to get ready (for a change) and left with the group.  A couple guys took quite a long pull at the front heading out of town, which made for a nice start for me.  When Mike Sturgill got to the front he really picked up the pace which broke the group up some.  Nobody stayed with Mike, but I found myself between Mike and the rest of the group.  I looked at my Polar and I was staying in an endurance zone.  The wind wasn't too bad yet, so I just maintained my pace with Mike disappearing into the distance in front of me and the group falling farther and farther behind.

I had bundled up pretty good for the ride and had on a neck tube that I use for skiing.  Shortly after getting onto the frontage road near Picacho I decided to stop for a pee break and to take off that tube because it wasn't quite cold enough for it and I was starting to overheat.  Susan had some breakfast sandwiches waiting at the Checkpoint at Picacho Peak, but it was a bit early in the ride for me so I passed on the sandwich.  The wind still wasn't too bad, but it did start to pick up heading into Marana.  When I turned onto Sanders Road, gale force winds started and I was lucky to maintain over 10 mph.  Those wind would remain most of the day.

I always seem to have a point on these long rides where I get tired for a few miles then seem to catch a second wind.  This time it happened at around the 50 mile mark, which is way earlier than normal and probably due to the wind.  I ate two Clif bars and started feeling a lot better, but the wind was really getting to me.  I had been lucky so far and it hadn't rained until I turned onto Mile Wide Road near Saguaro National Monument, then it started sprinkling a little.  When I got to the checkpoint on Kenney Road I decided I had better eat, so I had one of Susan's egg and sausage pitas which was quite good.  Susan said someone had already called her and abandoned.  I left the checkpoint thinking about my slow speed and how long this ride would take to finish.  My brother lives in Tucson, so I could always call him for a lift...  But the rolling hills near Old Tucson offered some shelter from the wind and I started to make better time.  Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.  I turned onto Ajo and got a really nice tail wind for a short mile.  That tail wind was back for the ride down Irvington too, but as soon as I hit Mission Road I felt the full force of the headwind that would last all the way to Helmet Peak Road outside of Green Valley.  It was a slow, slow ride.  Anytime their was any kind of increase in elevation, the wind made it feel 5 times worse and I had trouble keeping my heart rate down.  Several times it went into no man's land which was way higher than I wanted for this ride.

I had tail and cross winds down Helmet Peak road and made really good time.  But that would be the last of the tail winds until after Arivaca.  I stopped at a Chevron in Green Valley to fill my bottles and had a hot chicken sandwich.  The temperature was starting to drop and the rain was becoming more frequent.  When I left the Chevron I didn't realize how close it was to the frontage road and shot past it, almost turning onto the on-ramp for the freeway.  Doh!  The high winds continued and my legs were definitely getting tired, but I kept plugging away.  It's 22 miles from the turn off of the Frontage Road to Arivaca.  I was still going 8 to 10 miles an hour, so I figured it was going to take me 2 to 3 hours to get there.  Mentally that's pretty tough to swallow.  But there was one spot along that road where you drop into a valley and I experienced a rare perfect cycling moment.  There wasn't any wind in the valley and I was turning a perfect circle.  The damp roads amplified the sounds of my tires and there is nothing nicer than riding easy along a stretch of road with a perfectly steady hum of wheels on pavement.  But as soon as I climbed out of that valley the head winds were back and rain continued all the way to the checkpoint in Aravaca.

Susan directed me down to the post office for the checkpoint so I could have some lunch out of the wind and cold.  I had a corned beef sandwich and a coke, just what I needed.  And now I was over half way and would soon be going north!  There's an 11 mile stretch before turning northward, but it was mostly with a cross wind and occasional tail winds so it really wasn't bad, but the temperature had been dropping and I was getting pretty chilled, so I stopped and put my neck tube back on.  When I turned onto SR 287 I got an incredible tail wind and flew down the road!  I think that's the fastest I've ever ridden 30 miles and probably averaged around 28 mph along that stretch -- and I was keeping an endurance heart rate.  I really needed that to refresh my legs!

Somewhere along Sandario Road I had my first and thankfully only flat.  The temperature was really dropping and I was starting to shake by the time I got my wheel back on.  It took a few miles to warm back up but I started making good time again.  It was dark when I got to the last checkpoint at the Circle K in Marana.  I bought a turkey and cheese lunchable and Pepsi to hold me over and put my reflective straps back on.  Before I left the rain started to really come down.  I was pretty concerned because I don't think I would have been able to change another flat if I had one.

The wind had calmed down which meant that I was creating my own head wind for the rest of the ride.  So I tried to ride easy along the frontage road heading back.  There were two spots where the frontage road was flooded.  The first one was pretty deep, but at least it wasn't moving.  The bottom of my bike went under and I got soaked up to my knees.  This was really cold water!  The second spot wasn't as deep, but I could see the water was moving.  I didn't get quite as drenched going through that one.  The rest of the way in I just focused on turning my pedals and staying relaxed.  Twice my chain got hung up when I down shifted from my big ring to my little ring, but I was able to clear it both times without stopping. 

Florence Street, which is the last street before the end, was completely flooded, so I got drenched again right before getting to my truck.  As soon as I stopped I started shaking from the cold, so I got in my passenger seat and stipped off my wet clothes to change.  Once I was changed I called Susan to let her know that I was done.  She said a lot of people abandoned and I can't blame them.  This was a ride for masochists or obsessive compulsive types or a combination of the two.  I need to finish a full brevet series to qualify for the Colorado Last Chance 1200k, so I was rather obsessive about finishing.  I think the only reason I finished was because I tried so hard to keep this ride as base miles and didn't try to force myself through the wind.  That neck tube also kept me just warm enough to survive the cold.  I stopped for a cup of coffee on my way home, but still had several bouts of uncontrolled shivering.  I didn't really get warmed up again until I took a shower at home.  Total time 17 hours 58 minutes to go 257.7 miles, which makes this the longest I've been on my bike in one day.