Ride Notes for December 20th, 2014

OK - I have to admit, today I wimped out. Twice, actually. Oh sure, I went on a ride, but it wasn't the ride that I had planned to do. Perhaps I should explain...

Today the folks from Sabino Cycles were going to do their foothills route starting from their store. Because the weather is much colder than normal, they scheduled the start time for the ride at 8:00am. With that in mind, I got up at 7:00am and I started getting ready to go. However, when I looked at the outside temperature, it was 39 degrees Fahrenheit, so I said to myself, "There's no way that I'm riding in temperatures that cold."

I knew that the temperature was supposed to warm up to 60 F degrees, so I decided to wait until the temperature was at least 50 F degrees or so before starting out. Several hours later the temperature was in the mid-50s, so I got my things together and headed out into the desert. (Although I paused briefly before I left the house to re-pair my cadence tracking hardware with my Gamin.)

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I hadn't ridden the Pistol Hill Loop in a while, so I thought that would make a good trek for the day. I contemplated doing the loop twice, which would be a 50-mile ride, but I decided against that while I was on the ride. (I'll explain why later.)

The first 4.5 miles of the ride is the same route that I travel when I am riding to Saguaro National Park; it's a gradual uphill, but nothing too bad. After that, the next couple of miles are mostly downhill to the bottom-most point in Jeremy Wash. Once you hit that point, then you start the long, uphill ride for the next seven miles. As I mentioned before, it had been a few months since I had ridden this course, and overall the climbing was much easier than I recalled. (The hills haven't gotten any better, of course; I'm simply riding a little stronger.)

In any event, the last push uphill to the high point on Pistol Hill Road was still difficult, but I was riding much better than I had in the past. (And my ride time shows that; I completed the entire Pistol Hill Loop in 20 minutes less than my previous ride.)

The temperature had warmed up nicely, and it was over 62 F degrees by the time that I reached the high point on Pistol Hill Road. Unfortunately, the sun went behind some clouds, and the temperature dropped amazingly fast. Within a few minutes the temperature had dropped almost 10 degrees to 53 F, which feels like a lot more when you're on a bicycle. This made me very uncomfortable as I rode downhill from Pistol Hill Road along Camino Loma Alta and back to Old Spanish Trail.

When I ride around the Pistol Hill Loop twice, I always turn around at Saguaro National Park to begin my second pass rather than riding all the way home. But as I rode up the hills toward Saguaro National Park, the temperature was still hovering in the low-50s. Since it wasn't getting any warmer, and it was already around 3pm, I decided that I would just do the loop once and head home. This would give me a metric half-century for the day instead of an imperial half-century, but I was pretty cold so I didn't care.

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 1:23pm
    • Distance: 31.6 miles
    • Duration: 1:54:57
    • Calories Burned: 1136 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 1280 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 16.5 mph
    • Peak Speed: 30.6 mph
    • Average Cadence: 78.0 rpm
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 57.7 F
    • Minimum: 53.6 F
    • Maximum: 62.6 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 156 bpm
    • Maximum: 171 bpm

Ride Notes for December 13th, 2014

If I was forced to choose one word to describe today's ride, that word would be "wet."

By way of explanation, it rained during today's ride. It rained a lot. The weather forecast predicted a 60% chance of rain, and I guess that I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to encounter several rounds of that 60%. Nevertheless, I pushed on and rode a little over 50 miles.

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Today didn't start as planned, though. I had intended to go out with the folks from Sabino Cycles again, who had planned to ride out to Starr Pass on the west side of town. That being said, I usually drive to the bike shop and head out from there, but today Kathleen needed our car, (we only have one), so I decided to ride my bike to the shop. As Kathleen aptly pointed out, I am usually looking to add extra mileage to my Saturday rides, so it made logical sense to ride the 6 miles to the shop to start the ride. Along the way I noticed that my cadence was not being tracked my GPS, which is the second time that has happened to me, so I will have to investigate that later.

The ride was scheduled to start at 7:30am, and I knew that it would take me around 20 minutes or so to make the 6-mile journey from my house to the shop. With that in mind, I wanted to leave our house as close to 7am as possible, but my departure was delayed by two factors: I tried to figure out a good way to bring my rain gear with me, and I had to remove my dual-water-bottle cage from my seat post because it was falling apart. (Yet again.) I eventually decided that it would be too difficult to bring my rain gear, and I got on the road at 7:15am.

I knew that I was running late, but I knew from previous excursions which route the Sabino Cycles folks would take to Starr Pass, so I figured that I could just catch up with them if I missed the start of the ride. I made good time the whole way to the shop, and even though I was a few minutes behind schedule I was sticking to my plan. That is, until I noticed a bunch of riders from Sabino Cycles headed in the opposite direction as I rode down Tanque Verde; my guess was that the rain on the far west side of town forced the group to reconsider the originally-scheduled ride and head east away from the rain. But I had no idea where they were headed, and by the time that I would be able to make a U-turn in traffic on Tanque Verde, the group would have been long gone.

Because of this predicament, I decided to go on my own ride. I chose to start my ride with a route that I have used before: north on Sabino Canyon to Cloud, then east to Larrea, then north to Canyon Ranch, then west on Snyder to Sabino Canyon, then north to Sunrise, and then west to Swan. (Side note: the big hill on Sunrise near Ventana Canyon was much easier for me this time around than on previous rides; either I'm more in shape or I simply wasn't paying attention.)

I decided to change up my route by riding south on Swan to Rillito River Park, which I rode westward all the way until it dead-ended at I-10. Somewhere around the 25-mile mark it began to rain, which grew progressively harder as I continued to ride. I could have turned around or stopped under a bridge or pulled into a store somewhere, but the truth is – I've been in much worse situations during my time in the military, so I just pressed on. (As did several other cyclists and joggers along the trail who looked equally as determined to stick to their respective workouts.) That being said, it didn't take long before everything that I was wearing was soaked through. The temperature was around 50 F for most of the ride, so thankfully my soggy condition was not compounded by cold temperatures.

I turned around when I reached I-10, and then I rode east all the way to Craycroft. As I rode along the Rillito River Park, I mulled over which way would be the best route home. I knew that I would have somewhere around 50 miles for the day, so distance was not a contributing factor in my decision-making process. I eventually decided to ride north on Craycroft to River, then east to Sabino Canyon, and then retrace something of the same route back to our neighborhood. The rest of the ride was uneventful, for the most part, but my bicycle was incredibly filthy from all the mud and other assorted road grime, so I spent a fair bit of time cleaning off my bicycle when I got home. (And then I took a long, hot shower to warm back up.)

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 7:16am
    • Distance: 52.3 miles
    • Duration: 3:14:50
    • Calories Burned: 1589 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 1536 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 16.1 mph
    • Peak Speed: 29.3 mph
    • Average Cadence: n/a (see notes)
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 50.2 F
    • Minimum: 48.2 F
    • Maximum: 59.0 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 146 bpm
    • Maximum: 172 bpm

Ride Notes for December 9th, 2014

Today was another of my usual rides from my house through Saguaro National Park (SNP) and home again. As I mentioned a few days ago I have been trying to complete the entire ride in less than an hour and circumnavigate SNP in less than 30 minutes. Once again I was very close to both goals; I was 42 seconds over the 30-minute goal for SNP, and a mere 9 seconds over an hour for the whole ride.

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However, today was a really good ride for the most part; I was riding pretty well, and I really should have met both goals today. So the logical question is - what happened? I think I can explain that in one word: cars. Today there were a lot of cars in the park, which required me to have to continuously re-adjust my pace. Of course, the park is for everyone, not just me, so it goes with the territory.

However, there were some particular annoyances with today's car traffic. First of all was the car that I ran into as I approached the very first downhill in the park; I had to back off on my speed, although I was able to pass the car as we made our way uphill on the opposite side. Shortly after that I ran into another car which insisted on stopping in the middle of the road to take photos. (Grr.) While I realize that the park is for everyone, it would be nice if those kinds of people would pull to the side of the road.

There were several other cars who were driving quite slowly through the park, which forced me to slow down time and again. As I approached Javelina Rocks, a large pickup truck was crawling along the road around 5mph with another car following close behind. The truck eventually pulled off the road, so both the car and I passed the truck.

But then I faced the worst automotive transgressor of today's ride: when the car pulled around the truck, he knew that I was behind him, and he positioned himself so that I could not pass. He drove slowly as we headed downhill, thereby intentionally impeding a section of the park where I usually pick up speed and make up for time lost on the big hills. Once we reached the bottom of the hill, he glanced at me as he took off, just to let me know that he was doing it just to be a pain in the butt.

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 2:52pm
    • Distance: 16.9 miles
    • Duration: 1:00:09
    • Calories Burned: 669 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 822 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 16.8 mph
    • Peak Speed: 31.1 mph
    • Average Cadence: n/a (see notes)
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 66.6 F
    • Minimum: 64.4 F
    • Maximum: 73.4 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 158 bpm
    • Maximum: 175 bpm

Ride Notes for December 6th, 2014

Today was an okay distance ride; it wasn't one of my best from a speed perspective, but that wasn't really my fault. By way of explanation, I rode with the nice folks from Sabino Cycles again, which is becoming my normal Saturday morning ride. I like going on their rides because my normal courses were getting more than a little repetitive, and I need to continue working on my group riding skills.

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That being said, the ride started at the Sabino Cycles shop at 7:30am, which is a much better time for me. I rode the first 30 miles with the group, then 3 miles with another rider, and then the next 12 miles alone. The ride with the group was good; I had done this route with them before, and the ride uphill on Freeman is nowhere near as bad as it was when I first started distance riding. (I still hate riding down Houghton, though; that road will be great when it's repaved, but not soon enough.)

I struck up conversation during the ride with one of the other riders; he's originally from Detroit and loves the Arizona weather. (But who doesn't?) He's retired, and he's only been riding for a few years. Once we were done with the group ride, the two of us went for a short ride around the Tucson Country Club; I hadn't been there in three decades – it was kind of weird.

After we rode back the shop, he and I parted ways; he went home, and I set off on another ride. I followed a route that I had taken before: I rode east on Cloud to Larrea, then north to Canyon Ranch, west on Snyder to Sabino Canyon, north to Sunrise, then south on Kolb and Sabino Canyon to the shop. That being said, I don't think that I'll ride Kolb again; it had no shoulder, so I was forced to ride with traffic, and it was an incredibly rough endeavor since the road was so worn.

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 7:36am
    • Distance: 45.4 miles
    • Duration: 2:52:10
    • Calories Burned: 1429 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 1631 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 15.8 mph
    • Peak Speed: 31.8 mph
    • Average Cadence: 68.0 rpm
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 51.2 F
    • Minimum: 44.6 F
    • Maximum: 55.4 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 143 bpm
    • Maximum: 171 bpm

Ride Notes for December 2nd, 2014

Today I was soooooooo close to two of my goals.

You might recall from previous blogs that I have been trying to achieve to primary goals during my usual ride from my house through Saguaro National Park (SNP) and home again: the first goal is to complete the entire ride in less than an hour, and the second goal is to make it around SNP in less than 30 minutes. Well, today I completed the entire ride just one second over an hour, and I made it around SNP in three seconds over 30 minutes. (Darn. Darn. Darn.)

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That being said, the ride was pretty good. For some reason, there were almost no cars in the park, which helped immensely. There's not too much else to say about the ride; the temperature wasn't too bad, which was due to the sky being overcast. I felt pretty good throughout the ride, and I knew that my pace was pretty good. Had I known that I was mere seconds away from my goals, I am sure I could have pushed myself just a little faster. ;-)

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 4:23pm
    • Distance: 16.9 miles
    • Duration: 1:00:01
    • Calories Burned: 648 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 822 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 16.9 mph
    • Peak Speed: 32.4 mph
    • Average Cadence: 72.0 rpm
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 62.3 F
    • Minimum: 60.8 F
    • Maximum: 69.8 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 155 bpm
    • Maximum: 171 bpm

Ride Notes for El Tour de Tucson 2014

So today I rode 104 miles in the 32nd Annual El Tour de Tucson, for which I had been training for the past five months. By way of explanation, El Tour is an annual bicycle race held in Tucson to raise money for charities. (This year's event apparently raised $7,000,000 for a variety of charitable organizations.)

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I began training for this ride at the beginning of July, and since that time I have ridden an average of 80 miles per week, for a total of 1,500 miles. That being said, I still wasn't sure until a week ago if I would go on this ride, even though I remained committed to training as though I was going. What's more, if I was going to go, I couldn't decide whether to go on the 75-mile or 104-mile ride. The furthest that I had ever ridden was 75 miles, and that was the previous week, so I had doubts as to whether I could complete the 104-mile route.

On the last day of registration, I finally made up my mind - I decided to go, and I registered for the full distance, which encircles the city of Tucson.

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On the night before the ride, I stayed up late - which should be no surprise for anyone who knows me - although I had originally intended to head to bed early in order to have plenty of rest before the ride. But I stayed up late writing an application for my Windows Phone that tracked my location using the phone's GPS system and uploaded my location to a website that I set up for the race. (By using this application, Kathleen was able to watch my progress on her laptop as I raced around the city.)

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Before heading off to bed, I went over my pre-cycling list that I had created after I had forgotten to bring my water bottles on a ride a few weeks ago. This was quite helpful, and after I had all of my usual things together, I made my final decisions for which specialty gear I was bringing with me. I knew from the weather forecasts that it was going to be very cold in the morning, and one of my cycling friends here in Tucson had lent me a bunch of cold weather cycling gear. With that in mind, I knew that I would have to carry anything that I brought with me for the duration of the ride, so I needed to balance staying warm before and during the ride with the limited space in the pockets of my riding jersey.

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I eventually decided on a light jacket (which I could remove before the ride), a vest and a baklava (which I could remove once it warmed up), my pull-over sleeves (which I can pull down during the ride), and knee covers (which I could remove if necessary). My friend had advised me to only bring two water bottles with me and to refill at the various stops along the way. This would save on weight, but since I got my seat-post-mounted dual water bottle holder working earlier in the week, I chose to bring four water bottles and bypass all of the stops. Once I had everything ready for the ride, I climbed into bed around midnight.

I woke up at 2:00am, which was only two hours after I had gone to sleep, and for some reason I was unable to get back to sleep. I had my alarm set to wake me up at 4:30am, but by 4:00am I decided that any efforts to lose consciousness were going to be fruitless and I reluctantly got up. Since I had packed everything before going to bed, I just had to load everything into car and head out across town. (Along the way I dropped by a McDonald's to pick up an egg white McMuffin for breakfast.) The outside temperature was 45 degrees, so I decided to acclimatize during the drive by opening up the car vents and turning on the cold air in the car. My teeth chattered the whole way, but I knew that it was going to get worse when waiting for the ride to begin.

I arrived at the Tucson Community Center (TCC) in Downtown Tucson shortly before 5:00am. I chose to park at TCC because it's around the corner from Armory Park, which was the start and finish line for the race. There were several other cyclists getting their bicycles ready as I pulled into a space in the TCC parking lot, and once I packed my gear for the day onto my bicycle, I rode over to Armory Park to get in line.

2014 El Tour Ride Day Fiesta Map

Cyclists in the race are lined up by category: Platinum riders must have completed the ride in less than five hours in previous races, and riders in that group need to have a VIP pass that designates their Platinum status. Gold riders complete the ride in five to six hours, Silver riders complete the ride in six to nine hours, and Bronze riders complete the ride in nine hours or more. With that in mind, I knew that I would never qualify for Platinum, but I might qualify for Gold. I normally average just under 17 miles per hour for my distance rides, and completing 104 miles in six hours would be a small fraction faster than my usual pace. The El Tour event guide said that people begin lining up for the Gold category around 3:30am, and by the time that I pulled into line around 5:00am there were several hundred riders already queued.

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The line of cyclists in front of me around 5:20am.

Just by coincidence I got in line next to a couple of cyclists who have been riding with the folks from Sabino Cycles. We recognized each other, so we spent the next couple hours chatting before the ride began. As the morning progressed, an announcer began describing the schedule for the ride. He informed us that around 9,000 riders had registered for El Tour, with around 2,700 riders for just the 104-mile ride.

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The line of cyclists behind me around 6:15am.

It was bitterly cold for most of the time we were waiting, but everyone was thankful that it wasn't raining like it was for the previous year's El Tour. But still, the temperature was around 35 degrees for much of my time in line, even as the sun was slowly rising in the East. (See the Ride Statistics later in this blog for the final temperatures.)

As the time approached for the race to start, all of the cyclists began to shed layers of clothing, so I folded up the jacket that I was wearing and packed it away in one of my jersey pockets. Some of the other cyclists were wearing "disposable clothing," which was an interesting discovery for me; apparently clothes that are left near the starting line are gathered and donated to charity, so a bunch of cyclists wore clothes that they intended to donate, and they tossed those aside before the ride.

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In the last few minutes before the race began, the announcer introduced the Mayor of Tucson, who helped count down the time to the race start. In the final few seconds, I quickly pressed the start button on my Garmin GPS and I launched the GPS application that I wrote the night before so Kathleen could keep track of my progress during the ride. As the race began, we all looked like a bunch of penguins as we collectively waddled our way up to speed, and then I was savagely amused as I heard the sound of hundreds of cycling cleats locking into their pedals and the beeps from dozens of GPS devices starting up as we collectively took off in a massive sea of cyclists.

Video from the start of the race.
(Note: I go speeding by at 0:53 in blue and yellow.)

I was concerned that the start of a race with thousands of cyclists would be chaotic, but it was actually very organized; I guess most of the other riders were just as concerned about not hitting someone else as I was. That being said, within the first couple miles the knee warmers that I was wearing had fallen down to my ankles, where they remained for the rest of the ride.

I started out at a great pace - averaging 19 to 20 mph, even though I knew that I still had a lot of riding to do. This was painfully obvious to me, because I was continuously calculating how many miles I had left. (I started my calculations during the first mile.)

A little over 20 minutes into the ride we hit the 7-mile mark, which was the first of two river crossings that require all cyclists to dismount and carry their bicycles across through the sand. (Thankfully the river was dry.)

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Lugging my bicycle up the far side of the river.
(Notice how red my knees were from the cold, while
the knee warmers were uselessly hugging my ankles.)

The race organizers added a nice touch for the experience - a large mariachi band was playing on the opposite side of the river, which was a lot of fun.

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The next 22 miles were pretty straight-forward - we rode the long way around the south side of the Tucson Airport, then along the frontage road south of I-10, and then around the Air Force Base. I was 1 hour and 45 minutes into the race when I reached the Pima College East Campus, which meant that I was passing the campus 15 minutes after the riders had started the 75-mile race. This made me think, "Wow - if I had decided to do the 75-mile ride, I would be just starting out, instead of having completed 30 miles of riding after two hours of freezing."

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To help alleviate my self-misery, there were dozens of well-wishers cheering us along. Actually, there were hundreds of spectators shouting encouragement for most of the race, and the Tucson Police Department was nicely blocking off traffic for cyclists.

After I made it past the college, I faced one of the first real challenges of the ride: we had to ride up the steep hill on Houghton road past McGraw's Cantina, then we continued to climb the hill along Escalante road to the highest point in the race.

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After that, we turned past Saguaro National Park and headed down Freeman road, all of which was coincidentally in my part of town. As evidenced by my blogs, I ride through this part of town quite often, so I made up for time lost during the hill climbs by speeding down Freeman road as fast I was comfortable. (Which I prefer to be less than 30 mph.)

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After riding down Freeman, the route took us down Houghton to Snyder, which quickly led to the second river foot crossing over Sabino Creek. Once again, the race organizers had hired a mariachi band to serenade the pack of weary cyclists as we made our way through the dry creek bed.

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A group of friendly volunteers was handing out water and sliced fruit as we arrived on the opposite side of the creek, but I strolled past all of that so I could get back on the road as fast as possible.

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After I got back on the road, we faced a short-but-serious climb up Snyder road. As I was slogging my way up the hill, the cyclist next to me exclaimed, "It's a good thing this climb is so short!" To which I whole-heartedly agreed. As we started down the far side of the hill, I saw a cyclist wipe out badly in my peripheral vision; the accident sounded terrible, but I'm not the kind of person who feels compelled to look, even though the other cyclists around me craned their necks to see.

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I should point out that I spent most of the race as a solo rider. I would often pass a group of cyclists or solo rider, only to have them pass me a few miles later, or they would pass me and then I would pass them. Either way, I would repeat this scenario with other groups of cyclists or solo riders throughout the day; no one seemed to be riding my same pace throughout, and I couldn't find a good group where I was comfortable for the whole ride. There may have been wisdom behind some of the groups' decisions to negotiate parts of the course at a slower pace, but I can't be sure.

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As I passed the 50-mile mark, my left calf felt like it was forming a charley-horse, and I thought to myself, "Oh no... this cannot happen. Not today." But I kept pedaling anyway, and eventually it seemed to work itself out. This was great, of course, because a charley-horse could have ended my ride. (And I would have had to try and figure out how to get home since I drove our only car to the starting line.)

As I pulled onto Sunrise Drive, I was thankful that I had ridden that route several times before, so I knew what to expect - there's a big hill just past Kolb road, and several more hills before reaching Swan road. Once we reached Swan, we were treated to 13 miles or so of mostly downhill riding, and I took advantage of the time to make up for some of the time that was lost during the hill climbs.

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One thing that helped greatly during the ride was the recent addition to my riding arsenal of an Ivation Beacon, which is a Bluetooth-enabled, bicycle-mounted speaker.  With this in mind, I brought an interesting mix of music with me: I had several songs from well-known artists (Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, King's X, Extreme, Rush, Sammy Hagar, The Who, and Van Halen), but I also had a mix of less-known artist that I like (Angelica, Dave Beegle, Gary Hoey, Gideon's Press, Neil Zaza, Novella, Paul Gilbert, Stavesacre, etc.) Listening to music helped me to keep from focusing on how much pain I was in; my muscles were aching, of course, and my road bike has no way to dampen the bumps and cracks in the road, so I was taking a lot of abuse throughout the race; I can't think of how difficult the ride would have been without some good music to keep me company.

As I pulled onto La Cañada, I faced four miles of climbs. According to the ride profile, this was supposed to be the steepest climb of the race, but to be honest - it didn't seem that different than most of the other steep climbs. (Although it still wasn't fun, of course.) While I was riding through this part of the course, I started doing the math, and I realized that it would be nearly impossible for me to make the Gold level for the ride. Nevertheless, I continued pushing toward my goal pace.

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Showing faux enthusiasm for the
ride despite the pain and exhaustion.

After I pulled onto Moore road, I was treated to ten miles of gradual downhill riding. I can't lie, after 70 miles, that was a really nice change of pace. I tried my best to duck my head down and pedal hard, but my right upper arm was really starting to hurt, so I couldn't stay in that position for long.

When I got to I-10, I began the long, 25-mile, continuous uphill climb to the finish line. I knew about the climb from having studied the route profile before the ride, but knowledge of the gradual climb was even more demoralizing when I realized that I was in Marana. For 20 miles or so the route followed the frontage road to the west of the interstate; this may have significantly reduced the number of traffic lights, but for the first time in the race I actually had to stop for traffic lights. The police officers assigned to the race course were doing their best to prevent cyclists from having to stop, but I was often riding alone, and solo riders were usually forced to stop until a larger group of cyclists arrived. Just the same, many of the cyclists (including me) tried their best to thank all of the police officers who were directing traffic for us.

My registration number for the race was 2621, and numbers were assigned depending on the length of the ride for which each rider had registered. (Riders who registered for the 104-mile ride were assigned numbers 1 through 3999, riders for the Fun Ride were between 4000 and 4999, riders for the 75-mile ride were between 5000 and 5999, riders for the 55-mile ride were between 6000 and 7999, and riders for the 40-mile ride were between 8000 and 9999.) The tags that riders were required to pin to the backs of their riding jerseys were also color-coded, which meant that you could quickly tell which length any rider was travelling. (104-milers were white, 75-milers were yellow, 55-milers were green, and 40-milers were blue.) Of course, this meant that as I neared the end of the race, I would see a rider from the 55-mile or 40-mile race passing me, and I would comment under my breath, "Oh yeah? I've been riding for twice as long and twice as far, so suck it, dude."

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Notice the long hair flying in the breeze...

As we approached downtown Tucson, the race route departed the frontage road, and after a quick jaunt around the base of "A" Mountain on Mission road, we turned onto 22nd street and headed east into Tucson. My GPS showed that I had passed the century (100-mile) mark, so I knew that my part of the race would soon be over. Nevertheless, the ride along 22nd was terrible; large splits in the pavement had most of the cyclists cursing this part of the ride.

As I turned north onto 6th avenue, I could soon see the finish line ahead of me, which was a welcome sight; there's something about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel that gives you an adrenalin boost.

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Riding the last few hundred yards to the finish.

A group of cyclists were clustered at the finish line as race workers were marking the numbers on each riders' jersey with their final race standing (Platinum, Gold, Silver, etc.) While I had hoped for Gold (under 6 hours), I realistically expected to finish the ride in 7 hours. With that in mind, having finished the race in 6 hours and 17 minutes of continuous pedaling was a time that I could be happy with.

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Walking away from the finish line.
(Amazingly enough, my legs still worked.)

After I exited the race course, I found my way through the myriad tents that were set up throughout Armory Park to the area where they handed out the medals for each rider. Oddly enough, all of the medals appeared to be bronze - only the lanyard for the medal listed the actual Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze standing.

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Once I picked up my medal, I noticed that I had received a text message from Kathleen congratulating me for having completed the race. It seems that my Windows Phone application had worked perfectly for the duration of the ride, so Kathleen had been tracking my progress and knew that I had just finished.

2014-11-22

I wandered over to the tent for Sabino Cycles, where I said "Hi" to a few folks that I knew, and I had a few of the snacks that they were graciously providing for cyclists. One of the cyclists at the Sabino Cycles tent was one of the guys with whom I had been waiting that morning; we had seen each other periodically during the day, although we never seemed to be riding the same pace, and he crossed the finish line a few minutes after me. I asked another of the riders whom I knew from my Saturday morning rides to take a quick photo for me to send to Kathleen.

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The race is over, so now the smile is real.

After a few minutes of visiting with a few folks, I hopped back on my bicycle and rode back to the TCC parking lot, where I packed my gear into the car and started the long drive back to the east side of Tucson where Kathleen and I live.

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 6:59am
    • Distance: 104 miles (102.6 miles on my GPS)
    • Duration: 6:17:15 (6:15:06 on my GPS)
    • Calories Burned: 2729 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 3173 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 16.4 mph
    • Peak Speed: 31.4 mph
    • Average Cadence: 83.0 rpm
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 51.2 F
    • Minimum: 32.0 F
    • Maximum: 68.0 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 149 bpm
    • Maximum: 170 bpm

Ride Notes for November 18th, 2014

There's really not much to say about today's ride: I went for my usual 17-mile ride from my house through Saguaro National Park and back home again. I was perhaps two minutes behind my fastest time for the ride, which wasn't too bad.

2014-11-18

The training technique that I have been focusing on recently is keeping my cadence rpm between 80 and 90 and letting the mph take care of itself. At first glance that might seem to be be the cause of riding slightly slower than my fastest time, but to be honest – my final time was about average for my short rides, so I don't think that my cadence really played any part.

There were a few cars in the park today, but they all played nicely with cyclists and moved over when I needed to pass. (And thankfully no one had parked in the middle of the loop for a change.) There were also a few cyclists around the park, but they were mostly sightseeing so I didn't find anyone to ride with.

I was trying out a new seat-post-based dual water bottle mount today, (since my old seat-post-based mount failed miserably). This one seemed to be great, until I had ridden within a few miles of my house and I noticed that my water bottles were nearly horizontal. I quickly moved the water bottles into my jersey pockets and resolved to examine the mount when I got home, but it completely fell apart less than a mile from my house. Apparently the bolt which secured the water bottle cages to the main part of the mount had loosened during the ride, and it fell out completely as I neared home. (I pulled over to find all the pieces, which probably hurt my ride time.)

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 2:41pm
    • Distance: 16.9 miles
    • Duration: 1:02:21
    • Calories Burned: 638 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 823 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 16.2 mph
    • Peak Speed: 30.3 mph
    • Average Cadence: 73.0 rpm
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 66.4 F
    • Minimum: 64.4 F
    • Maximum: 69.8 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 154 bpm
    • Maximum: 173 bpm

Ride Notes for November 15th, 2014

Today's ride resolved the question of whether I would be able to complete the 75-mile El Tour de Tucson which is rapidly approaching. This was really a two-part ride: I started out the day with a 36-mile group ride from Sabino Cycles, and then I continued on for another 39 miles as a solo rider.

2014-11-15

For today's ride I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be hitting the energy wall, so I made sure to pack lots of Gu and Clif bars for the ride, but I also switched from Gatorade to a drink mix from Cytomax for the ride. This drink mix contains a lot of the same electrolytes as Gatorade - with less sugar - but it also contains carbohydrates, so I'm replacing more of what my body is burning during the ride. Between the three of these items, I kept up my energy levels for the full 75-miles. (Of course, I was in pain from five hours of abuse when the ride was over, but I felt significantly better from nutritional standpoint.)

These past few weeks I have tried to go on the group rides with the good folks from Sabino Cycles; now that their rides start a little later (at 7:00am) I feel more inclined to go. (In the summers they start at 6:00am, which is waaaaay to early for me.) For this week's ride, they were starting from the store and riding west through town to Starr Pass, around the short loop at the resort, and then back to the store.

On our way westward I was the source of temporary entertainment: as we pulled up to a stop sign, I couldn't get my shoe out of the clip, and I fell over. I wasn't hurt - I'm actually pretty good about falling; I simply roll with the fall and I generally come out unscathed. Nevertheless, I laughed loudly at myself as I was lying in the street to let everyone else know that I was okay and that it was okay to laugh along with me.

There's not much else to say about the 36-mile ride: it was at a very slow pace, perhaps 12 mph or so. (I'm not sure why it was so slow, other than lots of stop signs and stop lights.) I met some interesting people along the way: I had a long discussion with a couple of guys who go to Calvary Chapel on the eastside, which is where Kathleen and I went to church for a while. I also met a C-130 pilot from the Air Force who looked to be around the age of my daughter Rachel; Tucson is her first duty station, and I told her that she moved to the perfect town for cycling.

Once the 36-mile ride was over, I stopped briefly at the car to swap out my two depleted water bottles for two more that I had ready-to-go, then I hopped back on the road. I followed something of my same route from last Saturday - I rode north on Sabino Canyon Road to Cloud, then east to Larrea, then north to the Canyon Ranch Estates.

During last week's ride I turned around when I reached the Canyon Ranch Estates, but I had been studying the maps for the upcoming El Tour de Tucson, which indicated a path through the Canyon Ranch Resort. With that in mind, I memorized the area and I rode that during today's journey - sort of. I missed a turn, and as a result I found myself slogging my way up Rockcliff Road, which has one of the worst climbs in the area. (Note: that part of the ride really, really sucked.)

After I had finished my misadventure on Rockcliff Road, I headed north on Sabino Canyon, then west on Sunrise to Swan, then south on Swan to River, and east on River to Craycroft. These past several miles resembled a lot of the previous week's ride, but when I arrived at Craycroft I hopped onto the section of The Loop that runs through Rillito River Park. I rode this trail westward all the way to Interstate 10, which is somewhere around 12 miles, and then I turned around and headed east back to Craycroft. My total time riding along the Rillito River Park was 1½ hours for 24 miles; that averages out to 16 mph, which is perfectly acceptable for that distance even though it is slightly below my average 17 mph pace for short rides.

Once I arrived at Craycroft, I headed east on River to Sabino Canyon Road, then south to the Sabino Cycles shop. When I pulled into the parking lot near the shop, my actual riding time was a few seconds over 5 hours, although my total time from start to finish was just over 5½ hours. (Note: the total time includes stopping for red lights, swapping out water bottles, lying on my side after falling over, etc.)

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 6:49am
    • Distance: 75.3 miles
    • Duration: 5:00:13
    • Calories Burned: 2187 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 2304 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 15.1 mph
    • Peak Speed: 29.2 mph
    • Average Cadence: 78.0 rpm
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 59.9 F
    • Minimum: 44.6 F
    • Maximum: 73.4 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 142 bpm
    • Maximum: 175 bpm

Ride Notes for November 11th, 2014

I have written in the past that I have two goals for my regular Tuesday/Thursday 17-mile route from my house through Saguaro National Park and home; these are:

  1. To complete the full course in less than an hour
  2. To complete the 8-mile loop around Saguaro National Park in less than a half-hour

As of today, one of those goals has been accomplished, and the other was very close.

2014-11-11

Earlier in the day I took my bicycle to Sabino Cycles for a new fitting, and after spending a little over an hour working with Jason at the shop, I had a readjusted bicycle and some good riding tips for me to work on during my next rides. (Note: I wanted a new fitting because my hands are still growing numb during my longer rides, which is very troubling, to say the least.) To counter the physical problems that I have been seeing, Jason adjusted my saddle and cleats, and he replaced the stem with a new one.

Once we were done, Jason recommended that I try out the fitting for at least 10 rides before following up with him. With that in mind, I made sure to do my usual 17-mile ride today, but I'll need to complete several more rides before I pass judgment on how the new fit is working out for me.

I rode my usual route, but I tried an experiment that other cyclists have been mentioning; instead of trying to keep my mph above a certain level and trying to keep from downshifting from my top-most chain ring, I tried to keep my cadence rpm above 80 for the entire ride, regardless of the mph and the gear. This may have been the cause for my completing the Saguaro National Park loop in 29:46, which was 19 seconds faster than my previous personal best. (Note that I completed the entire ride in 1:00:25, which is a few seconds faster than my previous personal best of 1:00:33.) That being said, I was breathing quite hard as I rode through the most-difficult section of Riparian Ridge because I was pedaling faster than normal due to being in my bicycle's lowest gear.

There were a few cars in the park today, and as usual I had to pass a lot of them on my way around the park. Cars have a 15 mph speed limit – and I don't – so I tend to pass a lot of cars. However, it is incredibly frustrating when vehicles stop in the middle of the road to take photos, because this gives me almost no room to pass on the narrow, one-way road which winds through the park. Although, as I rode up the three hills which I refer to as the "Three Sisters," an SUV came up behind me. This isn't surprising since I am typically riding slower than the speed limit while climbing hills. However, what was troubling was that he was tailgating me quite dangerously, and even though I pulled to the side to let him pass, he did not choose to to so. Eventually he had to stop for a motorist who had stopped their car in the middle of the road, so I lost him.

Once I completed my loop around the park, I hopped on Old Spanish Trail for the ride home. I was losing daylight rapidly since the sun sets by 5:30pm these days, but I managed to make it home just as the sun dropped behind the Tucson Mountains and darkness began to dominate the landscape around me.

Cycling Life Lessons:

One of the tips that I picked up was based on my admission that I've been very close to bonking on my last few long rides, (see the Life Lessons section of my previous blog for more information). With that in mind, Jason at Sabino Cycles recommended picking up some carb-loading drink mix for my rides, so I'll be filling up on carbs as I drink. If I combine that with Gu packets and Clif bars, I should (hopefully) put an end to the low-energy situations that I have run into.

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics:
    • Start Time: 4:37pm
    • Distance: 16.9 miles
    • Duration: 1:00:25
    • Calories Burned: 675 kcal
    • Altitude Gain: 822 feet
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 16.7 mph
    • Peak Speed: 31.7 mph
    • Average Cadence: 75.0 rpm
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 68.1 F
    • Minimum: 66.2 F
    • Maximum: 73.4 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 159 bpm
    • Maximum: 177 bpm

Ride Notes for November 8th, 2014

Today was another experiment with group riding. If you've been reading my cycling blogs, you might recall that a couple of weeks ago I went on a 30-mile group ride which was organized by the nice folks at Sabino Cycles. That had been my first experience riding with a large group, and I enjoyed it enough that I was willing to ride with them again. Thankfully the sun is rising later each day, so the scheduled start time for this ride was 7am, which works much better for my usual "Night Owl" schedule. (I can never manage to turn off my brain at an early hour, so 2:00am was the best time that I was able to force myself to go to sleep. But the sound of my 5:45am alarm was still a shock to the system.)

Hoping to never repeat the debacle of forgetfulness from my last group ride, I changed a few things for this outing. First of all, I prepped most of my gear the night before, so most of my things were ready-to-go near the door when I got up. Second, I made myself a list of everything that I needed to bring for the ride, and I went over the list a couple of times before heading out. As I had done for the previous group ride, I stopped by a McDonald's on my way to the start point and picked up an egg-white McMuffin for a little carb-loading, although I'm starting to learn that its measly 250 calories are insufficient fuel when I'm burning 1,700 calories on a ride. (More about that later.)

2014-11-08

The starting point for today's ride was the Sabino Cycles store near the intersection of Sabino Canyon and Tanque Verde. I arrived at there a little early, and since it was quite chilly outside, (~40 degrees!), I decided to go for a nine-minute / 2.4-mile warm-up ride from the store to the intersection of Sabino Canyon and Cloud. By the time I arrived back, the group was ready to go, and the ride's organizer (Steve Wetmore) started the pre-ride briefing. After telling everyone the basic route that we would be riding, he promised everyone that it would get warmer once the sun came up. (And he followed that comment with an admission that he always makes promises, even though keeping them is a different story.)

The group got on the road a few minutes after 7:00am, and as we were headed down Tanque Verde I got behind some other cyclists, so I didn't see some low-lying, plastic road barriers as we approached the bridge where Tanque Verde splits with Wrightstown. I swerved to miss those, which would have resulted in a nasty accident had I hit them, but that put me on the wrong road. Fortunately there was a way to rejoin the group in a hundred feet or so, but still… that could have been very, very bad for me. (I commented to another rider that my brief experience had definitely woken me up.)

We sailed down Tanque Verde, then down Bear Canyon, then turned east onto Snyder past my old High School to Melpomene Way. We rode through some residential neighborhoods, and we stopped at one point to allow everyone to regroup. I quickly downed a packet of Gu, and I stored the empty package on my bike frame as I normally do. Unfortunately, I apparently did something wrong, so the package fell from my bike frame after the group started riding again, and I apologized to the cyclists around me for littering. Truthfully-speaking, no one probably noticed except for me, but I still felt badly about it. (But there was no way to stop or turn around inside the gaggle of cyclists without causing a major accident.)

We eventually turned onto Broadway, which we rode to Freeman Road, which was the main destination for this ride. By way of explanation, Freeman Road consists of a long, uphill climb which goes on for several miles. When I was first starting out with distance riding several months ago, I rode up the hill on Freeman Road a few times, and I thoroughly hated the experience. So much so that I only rode that way perhaps three times at the most. With that in mind, I was dreading this part of the course. But it was also one of the reasons why I went on today's ride – I always need to challenge myself to do more. That being said, I hadn't ridden Freeman in the past several months, during which time I have been riding the hills in Saguaro National Park and Pistol Hill Road a few times every week, so I was amazed to discover that the hill on Freeman Road wasn't as bad as I had remembered. (I may have to start working Freeman Road back into my routes in the future.)

Once we crested the top of the hill on Freeman Road, the group stopped at the water station near the entrance to Saguaro National Park to regroup for a few minutes, then we headed down Escalante to Houghton, and then turned onto Old Spanish Trail past my neighborhood to Harrison. We turned north onto Harrison to Speedway, then we cut through the neighborhoods near St Pius X church back to Tanque Verde.

As we neared the Sabino Cycles store, riders began to head off in separate directions for post-ride relaxation at Starbucks, Eclectic Café, Tucson Tamales, etc. Whereas I, on the other hand, turned north onto Sabino Canyon Road.

My GPS listed the ride at 28.9 miles, but I wanted more. I decided that I would ride to Cloud Road, then turn East and ride to the end of the road, then turn north onto Larrea Lane and ride to the end of the road in the Canyon Ranch Estates, (where several of my friends from high school lived 30 years ago). After that, I thought about riding back to Sabino Canyon Road, then turning north and riding to Sunrise Drive, then to Kolb Road, and then back up Sabino Canyon Road to the Sabino Cycles store.

I had ridden around 36 miles by the time I arrived at the intersection of Cloud Road and Sabino Canyon Road, and I noticed a small group of four cyclists who were headed the same direction as me. They caught up with me at a stop light, when a woman from that group and I recognized each other from the larger group ride earlier that morning. She explained that they wanted to add more miles to their ride, and I replied that I was doing the same thing, so they invited me along. Their plan, however, was to ride along Sunrise Drive all the way to Swan Road, then turn south to River Road, then turn east to Sabino Canyon Road, and then back to the shop. This added considerably more miles than I had intended, but I decided to push myself and ride with their group.

The ride along Sabino Canyon Road to Sunrise Drive was fairly normal, but the ride along Sunrise Drive to Craycroft Road had some difficult hills that were no fun. The group was comprised of riders who were slightly above my riding level, but I managed to stay close to their pace. Sometimes I caught up to them at a stop light, and once or twice they pulled over to let me catch up. (Which was very nice of them, really, since I was just tagging along.) Oddly enough, my problem with keeping up with their group was not hill climbing; I seemed to do fine on that. Where they lost me was on the flats, where they were averaging 2 or 3 mph faster (which makes a big difference on a bicycle), and coasting downhill. My Fear of Mortality (as I like to call it) kicks in around 30 mph – I don't like to ride much faster than that. I will occasionally hit 31 or 32 mph, but I start to apply the brakes and slow myself down. That being said, the rest of the group seemed comfortable riding downhill at 34 to 35 mph, which made me very nervous.

As we pulled onto River Road, I had forgotten how much I hated riding a bicycle on that road because it's so worn and bumpy and has no bike lane. I had ridden the same route along River Road a few weeks earlier, and at the time I was riding my hybrid bike which has front shocks and wider tires to absorb jarring from the road. But I have no such luxuries on my road bike, so I felt every nook and cranny as we made our way eastward to Sabino Canyon Road.

Once we turned north onto Sabino Canyon Road, it was a short 1.5 miles or so back to the shop, where my GPS listed my distance at just over 50 miles.

All in all, it was a pretty good ride for the day.

Cycling Life Lessons:

I learned a new cycling term this weekend: "bonking." I had never heard of that in reference to cycling before, so I had to look it up. Bonking is a shorthand reference to Hitting a Wall; or more appropriately, completely running out of energy. In my specific case, I am taking on a few hundred calories before my rides, but I am not taking on enough calories during my rides to fuel my muscles adequately. As a result, I have arrived at a dangerous point during a few rides where I can feel that my physical systems do not have enough of what they need to keep performing in the way that I am pushing myself, which feels considerably different than normal muscle failure.

With muscle failure, your muscles physically cannot do what you are asking them to do. With bonking, it's like someone has pulled the plug on your body, and even though your mind and muscles are telling you that they can keep going, everything else is telling you that it can't. It's hard to explain, but I have felt that on a few different rides, and it's rather alarming when it hits you. Usually a pack of Gu is sufficient to turn that feeling around within 10 minutes or so, but I can do the math for the calories that I am consuming and expending during my rides, and it is becoming readily apparent that I need to be taking on more calories during my longer rides than I have in the past.

To paraphrase someone from a cycling shop a few months ago, I don't want to be the guy they find lying by the road one day because I didn't have sufficient sense to bring enough calories or water to ride safely.

Ride Stats:

  • Primary Statistics: (note: I also include the statistics from my warm-up ride)
    • Start Time: 7:05pm
    • Distance: 50.5 miles (plus 2.4 miles)
    • Duration: 3:08:18 (plus 9:07 minutes)
    • Calories Burned: 1,733 kcal (plus 37 kcal)
    • Altitude Gain: 1988 feet (plus 56 feet)
  • Speed:
    • Average Speed: 15.9 mph
    • Peak Speed: 31.2 mph
    • Average Cadence: 70.0 rpm
  • Temperature:
    • Average: 55.6 F
    • Minimum: 39.2 F
    • Maximum: 73.4 F
  • Heart Rate:
    • Average: 153 bpm
    • Maximum: 175 bpm