Tour of the Tucson mountains ride report.

I DID IT!!!

Ok 73 miles isn't much for some, but I'm stoked, tired but stoked.

As some of you know I have been training for this for the last 2 months. Training started out great until I found full time employment. Even with weird work schedules and every thing I continued to build up my miles but I never got much more than 50 miles.

Fast forward to this morning. I woke up at 4am to have Oat meal and a sports drink. I had gotten every thing together last night So all I had to do was get dressed and roll out. I got to the start area at about 5:30. It was a cool 50 degrees so I hung out in my car for half an hour. With a 6:30 start time that gave me time to talk to other riders which was cool cause I never get to do that.

Over all I took it pretty easy the first half of the ride. I played it safe since the start seemed to be the most dangerous time, actually saw 3 crashes in the first 10 miles. At about the 10 mile mark we hit some of the harshest roads in town, I call them the Tucson cobbles. There were some hills further into the ride but it was pretty flat.

After heading to the south side of town we took a right turn onto Ajo way. This road is flat and straight. I was able to really pick up my speed. nothing really to report here.

After Ajo we finally start heading north again. it is at this point I finally stop at an aid station to get more water. This is were I learned a lesson, the profile that was sent out by the organizers made it seem like the last 25 mile stretch was down hill for the most part. Well it wasn't. it was a solid 15 miles of uphill. ever so gradual with some rollers. this is were I cooked myself. I went to hard and alone. I could have hung on with a group and paced myself but they seemed to be going to slow for me, needless to say the passed may with 10 miles to go.

By the time I hit level ground I am at my limit. keep in mind 63 miles is already 13 more than I have ever done. every thing was going wrong, feet started to hurt, I was on the verge of cramps the rest of the way and I was beat. A few times I just thought about stopping to take a break but I didn't let myself, I had a goal I still wanted to fight for. When I got to the finish line I had to stop to hand over my time chip and I kinda cramped up when I unclipped, kinda embarrassing cause I let out a little whimper. Soft pedaled to my car, changed shoes and walked over to the results tent.

I was really sure that I had passed the 4.5 mile benchmark but when I showed them my number the handed me a silver medal(given to riders who complete the course between 3 and 4.5 hours)
I was over the moon cause that was my goal to get the silver. I also raised $265 for the charities.

All in all not a bad experience. I will do something like this again but maybe not in the near future. I earned some valuable experiences and lessons and also kinda surprised my self that i could do it.

What a day.

Fucking tragic. I was feeling good today. 27 miles in todays ride I crossed a damn fault line in the road. immediately blew the rear tube. change the tube and l keep going on my way. 48 miles in I am feeling great and planning on doing another 15 miles. then I look down and the tire is flat again(i put the new tube in badly)

At this point I am 10 miles from home and cant get a ride so I start walking home in cycling shoes. after 2 miles  some one finally stopped and gave me a ride in the bed of a pick up truck but couldnt take me all the way home. then I had to wait to till my brother can come pick me up. what a day!

Half Way Point

Week 4 of my training plan is over. Since my last post I finally found a full time job. Because of said job I have really had to make sacrifices in my riding. Weeks 2 and 3 coincided with training at work which meant I did some riding after work and then did my big ride on my day off. Week 4 on the other hand saw only 2 days of riding, but both days were big days totaling 105 miles.

Last Thursday I did 54 miles, my longest ride to date. It was a horrible ride. I started to late in the morning and ended when it was already at its hottest(did I mention its already getting well into the 80's here). on top of that I had to deal with construction. By the time I got home I was over heated, dehydrated and sun burned! I learned lot about Cycling that day and a lot about my own needs. WAY MORE WATER!!!

Fast forward to Sunday. I planned a different 50 mile route. It was another out and back that was in part a preview of the first 13 miles of the of the 73 mile charity ride I am training for. As it was my day off I woke up early, by 5:30 I was eating oatmeal and drinking water, by 7 I was on my way. This ride was a lot better on all fronts, even though I did end it a little dehydrated.

Right now I am into week 5 and I will only get in about 75 miles, 55 on Thursday and 20 miles before work on Sunday. Week 6 on the other hand, if all goes to plan should see me putting in a total of 135 miles with one ride being 60 miles long.

I am already thinking about what I will do after this charity ride. I defiantly want to work on my speed and lose some more weight. Maybe my next big goal will to ride the 105 mile El Tour de Tucson.

Ill just say its great to finally be working a full time job. Its a reliable source of income and I always found that a job help give life some structure. That said its not a dream job. Starting next fall I will finally be taking classes in avioncs and once that is complete I hope to get my dream job.

Fueled Up!

I am ready to put in a whole lot of miles.

First week of training is over. A total of 66 miles for the week. I feel good, ready to ride if the weather wasn't so bad. As far as contributions go I am up to $245 out of a goal of $350.

All about Cycling.

Just finished up my volunteering stint at kona Bikes 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. its a 24 hour charity Mountain bike race/ride. I spent about 13 hours over the weekend handing out packets to riders and then working in the exchange tent taking riders in and out times. Here are a couple links that go into detail and also the race results:       
Kona's 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo
Results
And here is a short video I took in the exchange tent:

Also I am riding in the Tour of the Tucson Mountains . Its a local 73 mile charity bike ride April 16th. I have been working on getting the fit of my bike just right and wrote out a 8 week training schedule to get me ready for this. So far I have $220 in pledges and I hope to get some more by April 15th.If you want to make a pledge let me know.
Route
And my training plan:

This is one way to ruin a good ride.

So this morning I went out and bought a new pair of cleats. Put them on my shoes, got the bike ready. I was feeling ambitious. Went out to the main rode and headed north. first 22 miles was a constant rise, a total of 2000 feet, I just plugged away. At the turn around point I got some water and ate a cereal bar.

I figured the ride home would be easy. It was but I encountered a stiff head wind that would slow me down even going down hill.

Then with about 10 miles to go I must have come to stop light and when it was time to get going again I got out of the saddle to pedal and was hit by a sharp pain in my toes. Those ten miles were torture. By the end I was whimpering at every little bit of pressure on the pedals.

But I did break my personal distance record(modest as it is) by putting in 44 miles.

Pushing The Limits

I hit the rode today getting in a whopping 37.33 miles. I felt good for the first 30, but then it was tough going after that. I hope to have the energy tomorrow to go on a shorter recovery ride.

I definitely need to get a good pair of cycling gloves  to help take the stress of my hands and shoulders.

Happy Riding...