09/16/13

 I had planned to ride this with Elliot, but he tends to find reasons not to go with me!  This time he took it to an extreme and had an accident on his fixed gear bicycle commute last week.  He hit some road debris while reaching for his bottle that sent him sprawling into a parking meter (hope he took pictures of what I hear is a pretty good imprint of a parking meter on his chest).  As Mike Cox pointed out, what would Tyler and Roberto think to let little things like a broken hand, cracked ribs and a few stitches keep him from riding an easy flat 200k with me?!?  I would have let him sit on my wheel the whole way if he wanted!  Seriously though, heal fast El...

After four flats last week, I wasn't taking any chances and bought some new Michelin Ironman Pro Race tires for my wheels.  I also picked up a really comfortable pair of Shimano R215 carbon soled shoes at Landis Cyclery.  I was a little concerned about wearing new shoes on a 200k, but I knew my Sidi's have had it and probably would have been guaranteed foot pain if I wore them.

There were only 9 riders at the start, including Doug and Roberta Toussaint (the couple on the tandem from Cochise last week).  They didn't show up in the Cochise results, so I asked what happened.  Turns out their friend was the one who got clipped by a car early in the race.  The woman driving the car had her cruise control set for 65 and drifted into the bike lane.  Their friend has some broken bones, but is already out looking for a new bike.  Good attitude.  Ralph Duckett, the guy I rode with, also got clipped by a car.  His support car passed him and the car behind didn't move over as it went by.  Two car incidents in one ride. Wow.

Anyway, back to the 200k...  Doug and Roberta set a fast pace on their tandem going out of town, so I dropped off.  After last week, I had no desire to push my pace on this ride, so I kept my pace down enough to allow me to maintain a recovery/endurance heart rate.  I took it easy for the first 40 mile loop which takes us back to the start point in Casa Grande.  There wasn't too much wind, so maintaining an easy pace wasn't too hard.  Going back out of town there is a REALLY rough section of road near some rail road tracks.  Right after I passed that mess I hit a small river caused by an irrigation ditch that had failed.  I rode very slowly through the water, but right after going through it my front end started feeling squishy.  Yep, my front tire was flat.  This just isn't my month for tires.

The route goes out about 45 miles or so out onto the Tohono O'odham reservation.  For a reservation, the road was surprisingly nice.  I was feeling pretty good, so I started riding in more of an endurance to aerobic zone (leaning more towards aerobic) and made pretty good time.  The wind was starting to pick up out of the south (a headwind), which slowed my speed down, but I was till making good time.  Susan (the ride host and Arizona Regional Brevet Administrator) passed me about 15 or 20 miles before the turn around spot and asked if I needed anything.  I didn't.

I checked the Weather Channel hourly report Friday night to see what the winds were going to be like and it felt like the promised 8 mph sustained winds were starting to hit me, but I just rode easy into the wind, except when going up some of the rollers, then I got out of the saddle and let my heart rate go up for a while.  Right before the turn around I saw Doug and Roberta in front of me.  They pulled into the stop a half minute or so before I did.  Sandiway Fong and another rider were just getting ready to leave when we pulled up.  I refilled my bottles, then had one of Susan's great wraps (something I look foreword to at every AZ Brevet) and a soda.  We chatted for a couple minutes, then I headed back. Doug and Roberta hadn't quite finished eating yet.

That headwind was now a great tail wind and I flew back to Casa Grande, maintaining an aerobic heart rate almost the whole way. For the most part, I think I averaged around 24 or 25 mph, but there were some sections where I maintained over 30 for quite a while.  Overall, a very nice ride!  127 miles in 6 hours 45 minutes or so (including stops), average speed (excluding stops) 20.0 mph! Not a bad average for an easy pace ride, especially after last week's Cochise effort!