Uggh

Started riding Mt. Lemmon this morning. Whole group, plus Alison Testrote, whom I rode with, Dallas and Mckee were going hard, Devin was going a bit faster too. Unfortunately I didn't feel well, last night I was really hot going to bed, so I went out and soaked my legs in the cold pool to adjust my body temperature. Things didn't turn out too much better in the morning, I felt ok for only a bit on the climb. I should have noticed sooner, but 200W is an easy climb, conversational, but definitely shouldn't be 155-160HR for me. Turned around and went back down, muscles aching and feeling chilly, not pleasant. Took a cab home. Had a hot shower, then slept for 3 hours sweating and shivering under a thick blanket. Had a big headache, fever, and put ice bag on my head.

Felt a tad better after dinner, and am feeling respectable now. From talking to Trish, sounds like I may have had what she had on Tuesday, a 24hr fever thing. She was fine next day, I hope for the same.

Turn it way down

Today was a rest day, and it felt good. Coffee, bike shop, lunch, pool, and commuting by bike in between the aforementioned at less than 115 heart rate. Got to check out an S-Works Epic at a bike shop, looked snazzy as can be. Cruised campus a bit, saw some chick wearing cowboy boots, lowrider jeans and huge earphones commuting home on a cruiser, it's always funny what you see. I only have days this easy about 4 times a year, it's so nice just to be idle. Even the air was completely still, so sitting by the pool felt extra peaceful.

Dallas went out to Phoenix for a crit with Danielle Kenney and Alison Testrote, rest of us saw a little too much driving in that plan for our taste. Sounded fun though from the post race report when they got home at 10:30.

Off to Mt. Lemmon tomorrow again.

Accumulated Fatigue

We explored the "northwest" direction of Tucson generally yesterday, 111km with some harder efforts for a 4 hour ride. Headed up over gates pass, down to Saguaro park, then stopped in at the park info center. A lady sold me $5 park passes for the 4 of us for a road loop in the park that eventually someone told me was gravel, so I got that refunded pronto. Headed north on Sabino up to an airport, east to the interstate, paralleled the interstate for a mile or so on a frontage road, then on Tangerine over to Oro Valley for lunch. Oro Valley seems to be an upscale burb of warm weather seekers.

Everyone is helpful to bike riders here, it's remarkable. At lunch, our waitress took all our bottles and filled them with ice water. The local cop came by and talked bikes with us for 15 minutes. A retiree lady on the youngish end of the retiree spectrum came and offered us a bike map. "I think it's in my car, I'll get it for you. But if I left it at home I'll drive and get it for you.". Then the adjacent store owner came by and talked bikes for a while too.

Of interest, the policeman said it's legal to ride 2 up on all roads other than national parks. This place has such a desireable mindset compared to motorists and the city at home. There's municipal signs on light poles that say "Cycling Friendly Community".

Dallas and Mckee showed up (herein referred to as "the animals") last night, so we had the full on group meal out by the pool. Lots of airforce activity from the base in town, cool to see low flying aircraft.

I'm thoroughly tired, last 4 days has been 2 hours, 5 hours, 7 hours and 4 hours for riding, which is a pretty good stackup for this early in my season. Today is rest, maybe 2 hours easy punctuated by coffee shops in town, a bike shop visit and some people watching, all connected by small ring spinning only. Tomorrow is Mt. Lemmon again (with the animals here no less), Friday should be another hundred miler out to Kitt's Peak observatory, the Saturday is the Shootout.

Wind has stopped, it's mid eighties all day, mid sixties at night. Nice!

Big Day

We decided to ride Mt. Lemmon today. The climb to the end of the road (Mount Lemmon Ski Valley) is 26 miles from the start of the climb, and that's where we set our sights. Getting across town is about 30km from our place, we stopped for a water fill on the east side before heading up. As we approached the base, there's a sign that warns of extreme wind. Considering how strong the wind was yesterday, this worried us. Today it was just Devin, Gerry and I... Trish wasn't feeling well and took a day off.

We settled into a pace that seemed suitable for a 2 hour climb. The pavement is perfect, the grade is gentle, and the scenery is fantastic. We only battled wind for the first few miles, after that you get back into the mountains and it proved to be a non-event. After an hour and a half of climbing, I was feeling weak. We pulled over to put on our windbreakers and such, and saw a guy coming down the hill who was wearing more clothes than I wear riding in -10C weather, seriously. The north facing slopes on the top of the road did have snow, but it wasn't that cold. Your hands got a bit chilled without gloves, but you could ride for hours in that temperature without losing significant amounts of body temperature. I think that guy just was used to feeling the surface of his skin at plus 40C all the time.

We trudged up to the ski area (actually, Devin didn't trudge, he powered his way up). Ski area peak is 9,157 feet, Tucson is labelled at 2,584 feet. The road to the ski area doesn't go to the peak, but there is some up and down on the road. All in, I'd say it was a 7,000 foot climb (not including the climb to our house perched up in the mountains on the west side of town). This was the last day of operation... had I made it there earlier by an hour I would have sought out some rentals to give it a try. Looks like a good learning hill, it's may be a little bigger than twice COP. We were the only two in the restaurant, and service was impressively prompt. We both ordered meatball soup (just what you need after climbing), and it was on the table n 45 seconds. Our Cokes came out fast, and I pounded my first glass right away. The waiter came out with a second glass, plus a pitcher of Coke, plus a pitcher of water. Quite insightful for a heavyweight guy who doesn't likely ride a bike. Food was great, it fixed my bonk and we put on all our clothes for the first cool part of the descent.

The downhill was fun - very little traffic, perfect pavement, mild enough grades that no brakes were needed for any turn. Took an hour to descend, but probably could be done in 50 minutes or less, as we stopped at a few tourist lookouts for some pictures. This is the road map, and disturbingly, American geography is a bit off on this picture, last time I checked Banff is in Alberta. My new bike is by far the most stable descending road bike I've ever owned, there's simply no frame flex detectable. Here's my test, I tried to take a no hands picture of the spedometer over 60kph, but the grades weren't very steep, so every time I sat up to aim the picture I'd slow down with air resistance. 57.4kph is close enough.

The route across town was uneventful and easy with a tailwind. We chatted to some other cyclists, but eventually I did end up missing a good photo op. As we crossed some railroad tracks just east of the University, a yoga chick was doing some pose with one foot on the ground and the other behind her head infront of a derelict building right in the middle of the railroad tracks. A professional photographer was taking pictures... I should have snapped a souvenir shot of my own just for the sake of recording the chance sight.

All in, the day's ride was 162km, a perfect Century, with saddle time 7 minutes short of 7 hours for me. Devin easily scrubbed off a half hour on the climb from my time.

Heaping plates of pasta all around for dinner out by the pool. The few days of wind seem to be over, it's still and warm and beautiful.

Dry, Windy

To state the obvious, Tucson is dry. It isn't even really that hot out, and we stopped for water twice before we even got out the east end of town. Less obvious, to me anyway, is how windy it was. We battled eastward into the wind for a few hours toward Colossal Cave park. I have to admit I was a little disapointed that we didn't make it right to the cave, what could be cooler than something named Colosal Cave anyway? To ride 20kph was small ring hard work... bike getting pushed all over the place, and doing like 250 Watts.

We turned south again to brave a ridiculous crosswind. When we stopped to navigate with our maps, it was literally difficult to stand. When I walked my bike leading it with my hand on the stem, the rear wheel would slide sideways through the gravel until the frame was at a 45 degree angle to the front wheel. When we picked up our bikes by the top tube, they'd blow out to something just a little less than a 45 degree angle. I can't recall the last time I've been in wind like that. The good thing is, I'm still in the phase where wind doesn't bother me. Sometimes it does, but right now my mind doesn't consider it an annoyance. It's good training, and I enjoy it. I'm sure mid-summer when I've done nothing but ride in the wind for 3 months I'll have had enough, but right now I'll take it as it comes.

The good thing was, we headed back to Tucson on the interstate, with the wind nearly 100% at our backs. We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time... and at one point I tried to go as fast as I could for one minute. I was spinning my legs at just a hair over 130 rpm, but couldn't hold it very long. The result, with my 53x12 gearing was 75kph on flat ground. Sweet!

All in, we rode about 5 hours and 120k. Jumped in the glacier water swimming pool for a minute, stretched, "machined" a little chunk of plastic into a washer that helped get my rear brake working better (the R3 seatstays are so thin and the brake hardware wasn't really designed for something that thin). Had dinner at El Charro, Enchiladas Banderas and a Margeurita in a big boot mug. Apparently this restaurant has been around since 1922.

Looks like a good day for riding...

Tucson Bound

We started off a little shaky this morning, airport lineups were long for all the first US bound flights. The airport greeter granny put us in long lineups, by the third switch to the back of adjacent lines she had it right. Not really fun standing for the first 45 minutes and making no progress. Despite this being a United booking, Air Canada was flying us to Los Angeles... aargh, the evil empire again.

After clearing US customs, I have to open my bike box for the magic wand examination. Then I go to put it on the baggage coveyor. Guy wants me to leave it beside so he can load it. I let him know I'll probably hang around to see it go, saying I've had really poor luck with Air Canada. "Recently?" He asks? No, pretty much always. "Yeah, they're the worst. Good luck." He says as he loads my bike. Not the vote of confidence I need with my new baby at the start of a bike vacation.

We do the security check, more lineups, and I have to get my carry on double-checked by the staff. They go right for the pocket of my bag with a Cliff Bar in it, take it out, use the wand, and seem satisfied. Odd.

Devin comes through carrying all his stuff in a pile, so we stop at a bench for him to get his shoes, belt, etc. back on again. I gaze out the window, and down on a road on the tarmac see a lone suitcase in the middle of the road, that had undoubtedly fallen off the tractor. Bad omen. Someones's screwed, and it's not me (yet). I seriously don't understand how the rates of lost and delayed baggage I've experienced in travelling is even remotely acceptable. It's ridiculous.

We did a long-ish walk across terminals at LAX and went trhough security... almost. When I was rearranging my packing last night, I put my new cycling shoes in my carry on bag. Unfortunately, sometime earlier in the evening I put my Leatherman in my shoe. Oddly enough it wasn't noticed leaving Calgary, but it was here. Guy wasn't even remotely fazed or alarmed - "no worries man, people forget things". Two choices - go check bag or throw out $90 Leatherman. Being fond of gadgets, and of not wasting money, I headed back to check one bag. Of course that lineup wasn't very short, airport lines never are. They gave me some speil about checking my stuff 45 minutes before I board, I'm not sure it sank in that I wasn't planning it this way. The guy in front of me was doing the same routine as his shampoo bottle was too large for carry on.

I made it through security the second time, and up to the boarding area with one minute to go before scheduled boarding, only to have everything delayed by a half an hour.

Once boarded, a United staffer came on board looking for "Mr. Bake"... Once I identified that I was there, she didn't even ask me anything, just walked away. The fellow sitting next to me said "I bet you don't pronounce it that way, do you?". Nope, but I've heard it enough in life to recognize it. He said "Bakke, famous name, people should know that. What brings you to Tucson?". Turns out he's a big cyclist. We hit it off, he's 62 and is helping out as man number 2 on his buddies cycling company tours. Also, he's got a couple of bikes available for rent should Air Canada not come through.

I have to admit, once we deplaned and made our way to the baggage carousel, I was EXSTATIC to see my bike box come off right away. And my luggage, and my last checked backpack from LA. I've never been so happy having just my basic, pre-arranged service needs actually met. Everything's looking good!

2 hours of beautiful riding, great dinner, life is good!