Well I had hoped to have had quite a few posts up here by now, I had many ideas and had even started to post on one of them but as you all know life tends to take the time away in a day and since this is really an extra thing to do it is the first to go. You would have all been thrilled to hear about my heroism in battling the scorpion infestation or my near death experience in my Mountain man Triathlon or just how fun my first and actually only group ride so far.
I had also hoped this writing would be after the Tour de Scottsdale which I have been training for for the last few months or really the last two. Due to circumstances beyond my control and I will blame it a little on the economy the coordinator for the event who was supposed to have had all the Ensynch participants registered just happened to get laid off the day the online registration closed. I was told my company was going to pay for it and that I could probably expense the registration and be ok. I tried to get official approval on this but did not so I simply didn't want to foot the one hundred dollar registration so I gave up on the idea.
Well late Saturday afternoon I decided that since I did all this training I ought to do the ride anyway (this probably wasn't very smart since I had not been hydrating). So I wake up after seven on Sunday and laze around a bit, grab a breakfast burrito and drink about 40 ounces of water got all my stuff ready and headed out for my adventure at about 9:20 AM. I had only an idea on where I would be riding so i started off towards Saguaro National Monument and from there I was not tired so I continued on heading towards Sabino Canyon. At Snyder I stopped at Circle K for some water and a banana and was about an hour and a half into the ride and felt pretty good, I was at almost 30 miles at this point and was very happy at this point. Once I was a little rested I headed toward Sabino Canyon, a little past and started to head back into town.
In order to get my 70 mile goal I sort of did some odd meanderings among the different streets, I stopped at Roadrunner Bicycle where I bought my bike for some Hammer Gel and to top off the air in the back tire since it felt a little soft or since I am such a big guy it put way to much pressure on the tire. At this point I was a little over 40 miles into the ride and still feeling pretty good, I I went straight back home (by way of Old Spanish Trail) I would have only been been a little over 60 miles so I had to take to the streets again.
Well bu the time I got back to Old Spanish Trail for the last leg I was about 51 miles into my ride and exhausted, I went slowly up to Saguaro National Monument and pulled in for my final rest and to refill my water bottles once again. I think I sat there fro about 15 minutes recovering and started out for the final 16 miles of which I think 10 were uphill and today I think it was against the wind.
It was a very long slow final leg with a few bursts of energy and I even passed someone (they may have been 80 tho). By the time I turned onto Pistol Hill rode for the final spurt with a mile uphill climb I realized that i would be about 3/4 of a mile short of my goal and had to make up the distance, I turned on a side rode which ended up being uphill of course but got an extra mile and a half out of the detour, so I was good to go home. Coming off the detour onto Colossal Cave Road is normally my favorite part of this route since it is downhill for a few miles and one part I can get up to almost 45 miles an hour, today however held no joy for me in this leg as I was completely depleteded of energy and had a horrible headwind, my normal fast part I could only get to 36t miles an hour and I was being blown all over the road. With as weak as I was at this point I decided not to push t either since I would have been very likely to crash. Once at the bottom of the hill I had only a mile and a half to go, mostly up hill again and I crawled up the hill standing on the pedals going only about 8 miles an hour.
Turning into my driveway had to have been one of the biggest reliefs I have felt in a very long time, even more so than when you know you should have been pulled over for speeding and the officer was not paying attention.
The only danger on the ride was right around Best Buy on Broadway when someone did a u-turn with no room to pull it off, nearly got hit, nearly ran me over then decided to drive in the bus/bike lane for a quarter mile at 10 miles an hour. The car had handicap plates and the guy looked about 80 (could have been the guy I passed later).
So all in all it was a great ride, I was very glad to have finished it, I am dead on the couch now but am hoping to make a quick recovery and get a ride in tomorrow or the next day just to burn off the lactic acid. Total ride time was 4 hours and 21 minutes and total time gone was about 5 hours and twenty minutes, not the best ride but at over a 16 mile average by myself I will take it. Definitely can't compare to an actual event but I was very happy to have finished it.
Till next time have fun and I will hopefully be back soon with something maybe a little more interesting.
Justin
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