Shootout

We woke up at 6:30 AM to get ready for the Shootout, which rolled out only a few blocks away from our hotel. Tori left at 7:15 to do the "old guy" shootout, and I stayed around for a relatively small group ride normal shootout, as the 24 hours mountain bike race started today at noon, and as well there's a big road race in Phoenix this weekend. Unfortunately just as I was leaving town where the pace would start to pick up, I saw Tori fixing her tire, so no old guy shootout for her.

I decided to work hard and steady and get a quality workout in for myself rather than sitting in and trying to hang on the longest with the fastest pack. For the first third, I was one of the front three riders for a huge portion of time. I slowed down by one of the climbs and popped/got dropped while I was trying to take my windproof cap off  from under my helmet... good TT effort till that point though. Took a few minutes to recover, then I just tried to reel back in as many other popped guys as possible, which was fairly easy (ie. I popped because I was wasting an inordinate amount of energy at the front, and the guys I was now catching popped from a drafting position at the back). Just after the final stage of the climb, I got up to the first part of the chase group and we held together for the whole downhill.  Some guy thanked me for working together with him to chase back to the group, and I just said I was here to burn as much energy as I can, not to out think myself on a February training ride. Nice of him to notice though I guess.

I rotated through with about 6 others the whole way back at the front, trying again to do as many and as long/hard of intervals as possible. Of course when we got 150 m from "the sign" this didn't do much for my chances for a sprint, but I didn't really care. Considering it's downhill the whole way back, I think you can more or less coast the whole way back to set up for the sprint. Maybe if I did the shootout every weekend that'd be something to think about, but just pedaling hard felt way better.

When I got back to the hotel, Tori was here, hadn't ridden. Problems with tubes/tires/patches. I showered, got a bagel sandwich, then drove her to where she stopped before (and had cabbed back), then let her do the loop. I drove the Corolla around in the desert - I like driving, I like that little car, and I like the solitude of the desert. I waited for Tori just past the top of the climb, and when she came over to see me she wiped out on the gravel going pretty fast. Not what I had hoped... so it took a little while to calm down, then she rode just to where the road makes a T to the busier downhill straight highway back to town, where I picked her up so we could go to Safeway and buy bandaids and such. I've bought more bandaids with Tori at Safeway than with anyone else in life I think. Legs seem fine, elbow is scratched and puffy. Elbows don't move much on a road bike, so probably will be fine.

After she was patched up, we relaxed, had a snack, then started phoning places for last minute dinner reservations on Valentines day. Not much luck, until I shifted google maps down to South Tucson. South Tucson is a lot less english, and a lot more basic in general appointments. We ate at "Little Mexico", which had all the trappings of being very authentic family restaurant. Grandpa, wearing a tan blazer and cowboy hat, saw us to our table. Food was good, and pretty darn cheap. Can't beat that.

It felt good trying to ride hard today. I haven't seen sustained power output files recorded for a while with that sustained power for me, so that's good.

Tomorrow is sleep in, and ride Mt. Lemmon. Somewhere in there I need to fit in a bunch of work. Wouldn't be a long weekend vacation in another country if that weren't the case.