Training Camp: day 8
I’d ridden 300 miles since Sunday as of this morning. Today’s plan was a long ride with a short transition run. Since I was at 300 miles, I wanted to ride 100 today to make it an even 400 for the week – a little more for the whole trip.
I talked to a guy who was planning to ride 5 hours today in preparation for Ironman Arizona. He wanted to get started early. I met him just before 7 at his house. We had just started riding and hadn’t even got out of the neighborhood when his free-hub started spinning in both directions. He didn’t have a spare wheel, so I drove back to my hotel to start from there. This means that I rode all 430 miles of my training camp alone. Not to mention the swimming and running, as well.
I didn’t want to get caught out on a 5+ hour ride in the desert with no water. I decided to do the same loop that I had done twice before and add on a trip to Madera Canyon. What I didn’t realize is that riding to Madera Canyon is a big climb. It starts of very gentle and by the top of the mountain (where the heck was the canyon?) it is REALLY steep. On the way towards the mountain it looks perfectly flat. However, it was about the same grade as climbing Mt. Lemmon. It looked like I was on a flat road. It was really frustrating. I was in the 42X25, my easiest gear, with my heart rate running high, and going 10 miles per hour – ridiculous. Once I got to the mountain (or canyon, yeah right) the road started to turn up pretty steep. For a couple of miles I was zig-zagging back and forth across both lanes just to go 5-6 mph with my heart rate through the roof. But, I made it to the top right at about the 40 mile mark of the 100 total miles. The descent was a relief and a quick stop on the way back down got my spirits renewed. I finished up the loop by flying over the really hilly section, again, this time with a good tail wind. One more stop at Helen’s store kept me hydrated. I felt really strong all the way home. Because of the difficulty of the terrain, I would call the intensity of the whole ride upbeat.
Wouldn’t you know that I rode 420 miles with no flats and get a flat with 10 miles to go. I rode over so much gravel road, broken glass, and rough pavement and flatted on the smoothest section of road when I was going fast and hit a small rock. I have never seen so much broken glass in my life. This is a testament to the Continental Gatorskin tires.
Off the bike I did a quick 15 min easy run. While I was running the Navy’s Blue Angels were putting on an air show. I got some water when I was done and went and sat in the parking lot to watch. I don’t care who you are, when they come screaming over at a couple hundred feet it is awesome.
The guy I was supposed to ride with this morn told me about a half-marathon in Tucson on Sunday. I am supposed to do an hour and a half run tomorrow. I went to the registration 10 minutes before they closed and signed up. I think it will be a good fit and get me motivated to have a high quality run. We’ll see…
