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3/15/2009

 

What a difference a week makes! No cough, no congestion and I felt like I was riding like myself again! I didn't exercise at all during the week to recover from that stupid cold. Ok, I did ride my hi-wheel around the neighborhood two days, but that was only a couple easy miles each day.

I got to the start in Superior at 7:30 and had plenty of time to check-in at registration, pull on some arm and leg warmers (it was in the high 40's at the start) and use the facilities. There was a good Bullshifters turn-out for the ride. I went to use the facilities and chatted with a fellow Bullshifter (Cory) while waiting. This was his first Mine Country, but he had done the Taylor House Century and felt ready. Taylor house has a pretty long climb past Sunset Crater and is a really nice ride. Personally, I think Mine Country is a bit more challenging, but that's just opinion.

When I finished in the rest room, the Bullshifters had already departed. It was a few minutes before 8am, so I milled around until the official start, then headed out. I found the check-box in my 5.9 bike profile to turn on power, so I actually had a power reading for this ride! My goal was to stay under 300 watts on the climbs. For the first hill I stayed between 260 and 300 watts and, for a change, my heart rate was were I expected it to be (nice to be healthy for a ride!). I passed Cory a few miles out of Superior and another short pace line of Bullshifters a bit farther along. I picked up one guy who stuck on my wheel to the top of the climb, but he never came by or said anything, so I have no idea who it was. There was a larger group of Bullshifters at the top waiting for the rest of the group. I promised Annette a date and needed to be finished with the ride by 2pm, so I kept going.

I had a fast descent down to Miami/Globe and dropped the guy who had been on my wheel. I was in my tight tuck for fast descending for most of the ride down. When I sat back up I noticed my power reading was gone. So I tried to rescan for it. Nothing. THAT was disappointing. I pulled into the first sag stop, ate a half PB&J and a half a banana, pulled off my leg warmers, then tried fiddling with my Garmin again to see if I could get the power reading back. Nothing I worked tried, so after 3 or 4 minutes of tinkering with it, I left again. The wind was starting to pick up some, but since I had my 5.9SL, I just sat in my aerobars and set a nice tempo through the wind.

It warmed up nicely on the climb up El Capitan and I pulled my arm warmer down. I didn't take them off since I knew I'd want them for the descent. I brought my 5.9SL on this ride because I'm thinking about retiring my 5200 and getting a new training/climbing bike. My 5200 has a triple and my 5.9SL has a compact crank. This is a great route to decide if a compact crank has the gearing I want for longer rides with significant climbs. I was pretty fresh on the first climb out of Superior and there aren't any super hard sections up that climb. El Capitan offered the first extended 6-8% climb. The compact crank was just fine for that grade and I reached the top without feeling drained from the effort.

As expected, there was a brisk wind at the top, so I pulled my arm warmers back up. They had nice ice-cold water, so I drank a bottle, then refilled both bottles before heading out again. The descent down the other side of El Capitan is always fun and allowed me another compact crank test -- where would I "spin-out" on the descent (where spinning the crank doesn't increase speed anymore). I was a bit disappointed. It was right around 41-42 mph and 125 RPM. On my 5200 I spin out at about the same cadence, but my speed is closer to 46-47 mph. It makes a difference. There was a headwind, so my max speed on the descent was 46.9. I should have been able to hit that will spinning and gotten a higher overall max speed.

There was construction going on through the canyon on the way to Winkelman and one lane was blocked off. So they had a traffic light letting cars know when it was their turn to go through. I didn't know how long the construction was and didn't think I'd get through as fast as a car, so I was at risk of coming across on-coming traffic regardless of what I did, so I just kept going and ignored the light. But I rode on the closed side of the road as much as possible. It was hard packed dirt in several sections and I did have to move into the other lane where there was a landslide blocking the lane I was in. Made it through without any issues.

They had Subway sandwiches at the stop in Winkelman, so I had a ham and cheese before heading out. It had warmed up, so the arm warmers and glove liners came off first. When I got back on my bike, my power reading was back. Weird. I pretty much stayed in my aerobars all the way to the start of the climb near the strip mine. Then I slowed way down and set a slow tempo to save myself as much as possible for the "end of the world" climb. I stopped at the last sag to fill my bottles, but didn't eat anything there. The last section of that climb is 10% for a quarter mile or so. I found myself REALLY wanting my bail out gear from my triple. The compact crank just didn't let me spin fast enough.

The "end of the world" climb is 10-11% for 1.5 miles and you hit the start at around mile 85. It's a hard climb. With the preview I just had, I took my time getting to the start. Then it was pretty slow going (4-5 mph) most of the way up. Several times I was tempted to stop, but I didn't. I kept my head down so I wouldn't get depressed by how much farther I had to go. I really wanted my triple. Part of it is probably just phsychological, but part of it is real. You just have more gearing options with a triple. I'm a fan. The next bike will most definately have a triple. For me, the compact crank is good for up to about 8% grades, but beyond that I need a better gearing ratio. I'll be doing some business travel in Colorado and Utah (I know, horrible places to ride!), so I'm thinking a Calfee Tetra or Luna with couplers is in my near future!

I put my arm warmers back on at the top, then recovered on the descent. I had a good ride back into Superior and felt pretty good overall. I finished in 5 hours, 47 minutes including all stops. I think that's a bit better than I've done that course in the past. My Polar files show one time before that I did it in 5 hours 40 minutes, but I think it was paused when I was stopped. Normally my total time is around 6 hours 20 minutes or so. It was a good day on the bike! And I finished just before 2pm, so I was able to get home and cleaned up in time for my date! :-)

 

     

Copyright © 2009 by Mike Enfield. All rights reserved.
Revised: 09/16/13 12:59:27 -0600.