Well, that blew: Part 2

I took advantage of a slow day and some accumulated leave to bug out early from the office and turn the bike commute home into a training ride instead. Started at the Santa Cruz River, went up Anklam, and finished atop Gates Pass. Just a lovely ride.

Why do you think it was that I never clicked into my road bike's little ring? Was it because:

(a) I was well rested and had not just ridden hard the day before.
(b) It was 15 degrees warmer than the last time I went over the pass.
(c) My wife had finished her singlespeed ride and was waiting for me at the top.
(d) There was a 20mph tailwind.
(e) All of the above.

The answer is (e). There were multiple motivations to crush the ascent.

Sunday, I'd gone up and over Gates Pass to the G5 parking lot and then right back over, and this was after putting in about 30 miles on a Mission and South Tucson road loop the day before. I hadn't planned well in scheduling the Sunday ride. It seemed warm at 4:00pm so I threw on the strip and pedaled off. Despite some lingering fatigue from Saturday, I had to spend the latter half of the ride hammering to beat the sunset so as not to get caught out after dark with shorts, a paper-thin, short-sleeved jersey, and no lights. Desert rats never seem to take cold very seriously.

Back to today. Its always nice to know that your own personal tifosa is waiting at the top. Beans had taken her Nzumbi out for 10 miles of dirt around Tucson Mountain Park from G5, past Kinney and along the Ironwood Trail, with some side-trailing and exploring thrown in. I came across her while I climbed; she was driving home from her ride. She turned back, motored up to the parking lot ahead of me, and yelled allez! or venga! or something unintelligible at me until I gained the summit.

Tailwinds - a gift from the Bicycling Gods. Tucson was experiencing one of its rare south/southeast wind events. Its pushing out in front of what may be the first storm system in a long time. Damn, we need some rain around here. Anyway, at the pitch where I usually bag it and drop to my granny gear, I upshifted, stood, felt the wind shove me, and just went right on up. But just to prove that I can always find something to complain about, I actually had to hammer on the way back down Gates Pass Road. The strong tailwinds on the climb were equally strong headwinds on descent. The same wide body that acted as a sail on the way up was an equally large impediment to gaining any speed, even fully tucked. Stupid large frontal area. I'm holding at 252 pounds, for whatever that's worth.

Other bike-related news. It appears that Ssweatleaf may be back on the guest list for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. I've never met the guy, but was nevertheless disappointed when he had to back out from the roster. His I Heart Singlespeeds blog shows him making some big New Mexico climbs with but one ring and one cog. I went 1,000 vertical feet with gears this afternoon; this dude does triple that on a singlespeed and finishes at 10K. The Seven Bitches will be like speedbumps to a Human Lung like this. Plus, his profile says he likes good beer - always a good trait.

What else? How about a shameless plug for the top Doctor of Optometry practicing in the East Valley? Dr. Frank M. Akers II is a contact lens specialist and knows what the two-wheeled crowd needs to be able to see well and avoid excessive eye goobies. Please respect his credentials and do NOT ask for a bro deal. Think about it - why would you want cut-rate vision care? Do you have discount eyeballs? If so, go down to Nogales, Sonora and start asking around at the bars.

Misc: The rufous-phase red-tailed hawk is still making his rounds over at the Santa Cruz River. An impressive bird and essentially absent from the Southwest during summer. Give it a gander if you can. And the Santa Cruz is a real live river right now, by the way. For a week or two now, there's been a leak in the treated effluent line right near the Saint Mary's Boulevard bridge. Its pouring down the soil cement banks and flowing downstream a good 10 meters. Treated effluent is, of course, poopie water. Don't laugh, we Old Puebloans will be drinking that shit someday. Toilet-to-tap. Mmm. Bet its still better than the warm swimming pool-tasting water those poor bastards in Phoenix have to drink.

Enough for now.

A great ride!

Just returned from pre-riding the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo race course with wife Beans and friend Veelz. It was one of those rides where everything went perfectly, and I had a big, stupid grin on my face almost the whole time. Started out in shorts with the air just crisp enough to need arm warmers. By the time I'd finished making breakfast for the Seven Bitches, it was time for shirtsleeves. If this postcard weather happens again during the race, I'd expect to see the stupidly-fit soloists and fast teams to be getting lap counts on the far side of twenty.

The trails were in great shape and the high point singletrack ascent seemed to flatten out in front of me. Just as I'd hoped, my rigid fork was perfect for the non-technical course. My wife rode the circuit stronger on her singlespeed hardtail today than she did on her full-suspension gearie last winter. Her training and caloric discipline is paying off, big time. That, and she now runs bar ends, a singlespeeder's secret weapon. Veelz, as usual, dropped me badly anywhere the trail sloped downward. He had to peel off post ride for some familial obligations while Beans and I made the requisite stop at El Charro norte. Everyone should get to know Carne Seca.

Saw a fair amount of wildlife from the saddle. A boar, sow, and pigling javelina (Tayasu tajacu Linn.) crossed the trail somewhere in the vicinity of the 3rd or 4th Bitch. There were all kinds of wintering sparrows flitting about. I have a hard enough time IDing little brown dickie birds standing still with binoculars, let alone naked-eyed, winded, and bouncing along on a trail. A spectacular red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis Gmelin) circled its way up the valley above the start/finish just as we were wrapping things up. Saw one covey of Gambel's quail but no scalies. I also heard a few booms from shotguns - I hope the bird hunters and their dogs had as good of a day as we did.

All in all, its looking good for the race. Next step: pre-ride at night!

Two Hours in the Old Pueblo

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday the 13th.

A pre-ride of the Willow Springs race course is happening tomorrow. Veelz, Beans, and yours truly are going to take a mellow lap to get a feel for the course and see what another year of overgrazing, torrential monsoon rains, and a bone-dry autumn and winter have done for the place. We'll be at the once and future site of Twenty-Four Hour Town, Arizona ca. 9:30am. I'm sure plenty of other local yokel cyclists will be there, too. The Seven Bitches, Junebug, "Puta Ocho", High Point, Sassy's Grave, the Slickrock WooHoo and its bypass - its all there for the taking.

There will definitely be no chin-to-the-stem racer geek stuff for us. I'm coming off 5 straight days of riding (23 miles on the road last Sunday and then to and from work Monday through Thursday on the tank-like commutant bike. I threw a bunch of weight lifting into the mix just to make it cruel and unusual. Veelz says he hasn't turned a crank in weeks My wife is the most well rested of any of us at this point, but she spent all of this morning with me doing yard work and hauling green waste out to the street for pickup. I see a three-way tie for DFL in the making here. I'm not even sure why I bothered to shave my legs.

So yeah, if I'm riding with Veelz, then it must mean that contact has been reestablished between the bloggers Baja and Bovine. The executive producer of Cows Suck has generated his first content in two weeks, and its yet another job announcement for a damn fool with a onespeed who wants to bike down at the big race in February. You know the one. Click over there if you're down. Critical mass is eight; could it be you?

Looks like its about time for bed, given what I'm doing tomorrow. Laters.

Well, that blew.

OK Tucsonans - how did you like all that wind?

Most of my outdoor-based, leisure-time activities are foiled by excessive wind; cycling, fishing, disc golf, even birding suffers. I guess I could hike, but a few billion cubic yards of airborne dust particles to irritate the lungs make even that a bit trying. Rain already, dammit! I'm also married to a contact lens wearer, so neither of us have much patience for gale-force winds.

And so it was that I didn't get on the road bike at all Thursday, as I'd planned. I'd wrapped up some morning birding at Fort Lowell Park and Pantano Wash and returned to my pickup truck just in time to get sandblasted by the wind howling across a barren area with a lot of fetch. Wasn't doing that when I started and yeah, no, I'm sure not going to ride in it. This morning was more of the same, worse actually, so I went ahead and did a fairly hard workout. Four hours later it was calm and clear, but too late to start a road ride of any meaningful duration. My wife's idea: NIGHT RIDE! Good one.

The evening excursion on the home trail went off pretty well, though my better half stacked on a rocky descent, banged her knee on a big rock, and twisted her saddle rails. Still finished the ride, though. She's kind of core that way. The knee will heal, though it looks like one of those dings that will inexplicably hurt for months. The saddle is likely toast. I was pleased to have finally re-conquered one gravelly little climb that I'd been unable to flash since going back to a rigid fork on my onespeed. Its no epic ascent, just a semi-steep little pitch, but it was getting frustrating going zero for 3 since I built up the new ride. Turns out I just needed a little more momentum. Restoring one's rigid fork Zen requires time.

The coming weekend represents the last gasp of my winter vacation. I'm aiming to get last few outdoorsey-type adventures in before work starts back up. I sure hope the weather obliges.

So what's up?

Seems I'm in a week-long information blackout as to the status of my sister teams for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. Veelz's call for racers went out and there were a few faint replies, but I'm not sure if we're four and four singlespeed, 5-person co-ed open, or what. Willing one-speeders should mosey on over to Cows Suck if they're interested in riding this thing.

But no matter. Since the team composition will undoubtedly work itself out one way or another, I've been keeping at it with the training. The weather here in the Old Pueblo has been perfect, I'm still on winter break from work, and I've got my head cold 99% whipped, all of which have allowed me to get back to some more cardiopulmonary-type activities. My weight training never really suffered the illness but a thick neck won't help me ride a bike any faster. Well, maybe it'll help me rock the helmet with my Light and Motion Solo headlamp mounted up.

Anyway, about the cycling, I skipped the champagne and spent New Year's Eve night riding at a local underground sort of trail. Yesterday, I rolled up a 30-mile road ride at an all-out race pace (or my version of it). I've also given trail running a try. Dog walks, hiking, birding; something every day. Tomorrow should see me on the skinny tires again.

In addition to running around like a headless chicken, I've been eating better, or at least eating less, and have almost excluded soda from my diet. Beer too, but again, almost. The latter one hurts. Something must be working because I've started dropping weight fairly steadily; coupla'-three pounds a week. I'm now a full 20 pounds lighter than during the 2005 24HOP. Still got a long way to go but the progress thus far has been pretty encouraging.

More important than the poundage will be if I'm able to reduce my lap times and/or pull more of them. A pre-ride at Willow Springs is in the works but my wife's (and teammate's) lingering version of my head cold has put the kibosh on that for now. My return to work next week will cut into the serious ride time but it'll also give me the opportunity to stomp my 40-pound, pannier-equipped, overgeared singlespeed nerd-bird commuter bike up Ironwood Hill Road a few afternoons each week. The heavy bike will make the Chameleon feel like a feather with a granny gear. Just hope office life doesn't make me re-develop my desk-bound butt too quickly.

I'll close by wishing everyone out there a belated Happy New Year.

Bike down.