Tucson Training Camp Day 3

Day 3 started a lot more positive than the first few. I woke to sunny skies but col weather. MD went for a little run but I opted to skip it. He said he is real concerned about beating Nemo at Boston and wants to hold the MRC(am) record for Boston. I'm looking to set the slowest MRC(am) Boston time...

Today's ride was from our condo, up Mt Lemmon until we hit snow, and then southeast to Colossal cave. We were planning on 5-6 hours or ride time. It was nice rolling over towards the base of Lemmon. I've probably ridden that hill 10 times and this will be the first trip that I won't be able to go to the top. The foreboding sign at the base of the hill says that tire chains are required after mile 14. I didn't bring chains for my bike tires.

To test us a little bit, I decided that we'd use the mile markers as sprint signs. Mile marker 1 was lightly contested but I was rolling about a half tire length up. It was definitely not an out of the saddle move. As we approached mile marker 2, I put a good effort on early to remove any sort of sprint. At mile marker 3 I jumped from the saddle and gapped MD by 5 yards.

After the 3rd mile marker, I thought it was only fair to tell MD about the sprint signs contest. Having taken a 3-0 lead, I felt my lead was safe enough. I was worried that if I told him at the base of the climb he might have tried a little harder. It was much easier to win when he didn't know there was a contest. MD pushed a little bit after that opening a wide gap and taking mile marker 4. I caught back on to take 5. After the 5th mile marker, we started seeing snow on the road and it was getting cold. After my triumph at mile 6, we decided to head back down.

5-1 victory for CT!


Then next adventure for the day was coming across this wash over the road. The water was probably about 8 inches deep and moving fast. MD and I were stopped on the side of the road scratching our heads on how to get through this. Should we try to ride through, should we walk our bikes or should we strip down naked like Bear Grylls, tie our bikes to our back and swim for it. I'm sure you can imagine what my vote was. Just as I was about to shed my bibs and jersey, I guy in a pick-up offered to drive us across. Tragedy was avoided for now.



The rest of the ride to Colossal Cave was uneventful. The wind was whipping up but it was still mostly pleasant then...as we made the loop at Colossal Cave and looked back west, an afternoon storm was obviously looking to spoil the day. We decided to pick up the tempo and try to beat the rain. About 45 minutes away from the house, the wind started to howl and a very cold rain came down. I'm the proud owner of a bomb proof, rain roof, barrier jacket from Pearl Izumi that was resting comfortably back at the condo (damn it!). I hate it when I do that. Anyway, the next 45 minutes was among the worst ride I can remember. Winds almost knocking me down from the side or from the front. The water was cold, lots of traffic after we got back in towards Tucson, not real good visibility and I'm slowly loosing the feeling in my hands and toes.

I finally gave up...I pulled into a McDonald's and decided to wait it out. I couldn't go on. MD pulled in behind me and we figured it was about 3 more miles to the condo. I wasn't going on. We sat in McDonald's and shivered for about 30 minutes.

"Let's call a cab", I suggested as I convulsed in shivers. MD manned up and rode the rest of the way home. Not to be outdone, I told him to go ahead and I'd be along in a little bit....


20 minutes later as I still shook MD had to come and pick me up. I'd like to point out that this is the 2nd occurrence this year of me needing a ride home from a workout because I was too cold to finish. GS picked me up from a run back in January and MD picked me up from this ride. I'm never leaving home unprepared for cold weather again.





Stats
64 mile ride 4:30