09/16/13

Wow, what a nice day. The weather guys predicted mostly cloudy with some rain showers, instead it was lightly cloudy with very little wind. I was feeling pretty good, but didn’t feel like riding with anyone, so I left the parking lot at a good pace (18-20ish). About 2 miles into the ride I needed to pee. I passed a big group and picked up my pace a bit and was able to create a pretty big gap. As I was closing on the next group, I decided to pull off and hit a patch of bushes. Good thing I did too, because it was the last group of bushes for literally miles in any direction. The group behind me didn’t pass before I finished. I caught and passed that group that was in front of me before I stopped and shortly after that the number of riders really went down. There were a few people at the first SAG, but I didn’t stop. After the SAG I couldn’t see anyone in either direction.

I turned onto a road way out on the Indian reservation somewhere (about ½ to ¾ miles before the 2d SAG) and saw someone out in front of me. There was also a pack of dogs sitting by the road that the guy up the road had just gotten warmed up for their run with me! About 100 feet from them, they started running towards me, which turned out to be a good thing, because they had to reverse direction when I went by which bought me some critical time. There were two pit bulls (one of them got the closest), a golden retriever mix and a few other mixed dogs and they all gave chase. I got a REALLY good sprint workout there! Anyway, I was able to escape unharmed. I did stop at the 2d SAG and filled a bottle. I chatted with the guy working the stop for a few minutes. He said I was the 5th rider through at that point.

I passed one other rider on the way to Casa Grande, but it was pretty uneventful the rest of the way in. I had a quick lunch and started back, still feeling pretty good. There was someone out in front of me the last 30 or so miles and I couldn’t catch him. I tried a couple times, but he stayed away. About the only thing my trying to catch up to him did was put me back in a position where those damn dogs were riled up again by the time I went by them on the return trip. This time they weren’t waiting on the road. They came up from both sides of the road as I went by (they must have decided to lay down and rest for a minute after chasing cyclists all day). I didn’t stop at either SAG on the way back. Someone jumped on my wheel after the last SAG, pulled once then promptly dropped off. About 6 or 7 miles from the finish I cut my effort back and just noodled my way to the finish. The guy whole jumped on my wheel caught me, but I told him I was just going to do some easy spinning the rest of the way in. Finished in 5 hours 25 minutes, faster than I should have (again), but there wasn’t any wind (other than the head wind I was creating), so I stayed z2-3 most of the ride. I did go z4 by those dogs and when I was trying to catch that guy on the way back.
 

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Major Rides:

I’ve decided on some major rides for the year. You already know that I’m planning on doing all 4 Arizona brevets. The 600k is the weekend of April 23/24. ATC is the following week, so I’ve decided NOT to do ATC this year. But there is a ride in Redlands, CA on May 7th called the Breathless Agony Century (http://www.cyclingpros.com/onyx.htm) that I’ve decided to do instead. That will give me a couple weeks to recover from the 600k brevet. Registration for Breathless Agony opened this morning (300 person limit – gotta love big rides with a small rider limit!) and I was able to get in. I have put my name in the drawing again for the Death Ride on July 9th, but won’t know if I’m selected for that until sometime in March. I also registered to attempt the Larry Schwartz Year-Rounder Century Challenge that the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association is doing (http://www.ultracycling.com/standings/year-rounder.html). It allows 2 “make-up” months, so I can still have a couple easy months to break up my year, but I’ll want to do at least one century at least 10 months this year. With Casa Grande and the 200k brevet this month, I’ll already have one of my make-up months covered. So, my plans by month are:

January: Casa Grande, 200k Brevet

February: 300k Brevet

March: Mine Country Challenge, 400k Brevet

April: El Tour de Phoenix, 600k Brevet

May: Breathless Agony

June: None planned

July: Death Ride

August: None Planned Yet

September: Desert Mountain Tour Permanent (an RUSA ride – 319k)

October: Cochise Classic

November: Tom Mix Century, El Tour de Tucson (maybe)

December: None Planned Yet

I still need to identify at least one more ride for August or December to make the Year-Rounder Challenge, but I’m sure I’ll find something. If not, they allow you to document a training ride (personal century) that is at least 90 miles in under 12 hours to meet the requirement.

Mike