• ½ C oatmeal, ¼ C blueberries, 1t honey
• 4 servings of egg whites with a dash of salt
• 1T flaxseed oil
• 16oz water
• Coffee as needed
After the oatmeal and a cup of coffee, I really didn’t want anything else. Maybe it was because it was so early and I was still full from the night before, but I passed on the egg whites and flaxseed oil. I also planned on consuming a handful of raw almonds, raisins, and more water on the way to Tucson too. George arrived promptly at 3:45 and we started loading his stuff and then racked his bike. We took off to meet Tyler at Desert Ridge about 10min ahead of schedule. While waiting for Tyler in the parking lot of a Starbucks (which, by the way was still closed, but had people waiting outside!) George and I made small talk about everything related to racing, training, and triathlons. One of the topics was heart rates. As it turns out, George and I have similar “higher zones.” He was laughing at me when I told him the story of visiting the cardiologist and my 13 days off 3 months out from IMAZ 2010. After Tyler showed up, we headed out. A few quick texts to James (who was riding down in Ben’s SUV) revealed that we would have to meet up with them at the start of the ride instead of caravanning down together. We hadn’t planned on making any stops, but once in Tucson, Tyler indicated that he wouldn’t mind stopping for a coffee and bathroom break. We ended up at Einstein’s Bagels and, originally, I wasn’t interested in buying anything to eat. It wasn’t until I realized that my oatmeal breakfast was about 3 ½ hours ago that I decided to load up on an egg white, cheddar, and bacon sandwich on a whole wheat bagel. In retrospect, this little move probably saved me from really hurting on the ride up. On a side note, I was very pleased with the crispy bacon on the sandwich as most places typically use soft/chewy bacon. We eventually made our way to a shopping center parking lot on the corner of Tanque Verde and Catalina Highway, that was to serve as our rendezvous point, and started unloading. I found it extremely amusing when George showed me his heart rate was 100 after simply unracking his bike and setting against a wall. “Must’ve been the coffee”, he said. About 5-8 minutes later, Ben and James rolled up and started getting things ready in their camp when Ben noticed that his rear wheel had a fairly large worn spot on it (not quite as bad as the one I had back on July 17th, 2010 (http://dansimaz.blogspot.com/2010/07/07112010-07172010.html). Luckily, George had a small piece of a tube that he keeps in his bike bag for this specific reason. Just like I used a Power Gel packet back in this post from November 6th, 2010 (http://dansimaz.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html), he used the portion of tube to reinforce the tire….not the optimal plan of action, but a very viable solution in a pinch. We just reminded Ben to be extremely careful on the descents. After Chris rolled up, we all started our Garmin’s and headed towards the base of Mt. Lemmon. There is about a 5 mile stretch of flat highway that takes us to the base that allows us to spin at an easy pace while getting the legs warmed up and stretched out. As we got closer and closer, you start to see some of the switchbacks and their 8+% grades that greet you right from the beginning. The main focus of the ride was to “enjoy it” and keep the group together as much as possible. If that meant stopping a bit longer at a pull out or slowing down for somebody, that’s what we did. The ride started out hot (maybe 90 degrees) with a touch of humidity (there was a 30% chance of t-storms & rain). About halfway up, at Windy Point, the overcast skies cleared up and the heat rose. At this point, some of the guys were searching for water, but since there wasn’t any for about 6 more miles, some “survival” tactics were used. The first was by Tyler. He spied a gallon jug of water sitting on a wall next to the restrooms and proceeded to pour some into his water bottle. I didn’t see this take place, but when James told him that there were cigarette butts in it, he quickly dumped it out. Next, it was James’ turn. He took the route of finding safe drinking water and bought some chilled bottles from a family that stopped to take in the scenery. After everybody was filled up and rested, we were off again.
Me at Windy Point:
The road gets steeper from this point and hits 11% in spots. We stopped at the only place with free running water before getting to the top and filled up again. Once you leave this rest area, there is a nice, fast, 3 mile descent before climbing back up to Summer Haven and Ski Valley. George and Tyler were ahead of me and Ben, and we were ahead of Chris and James. As Ben and I were approaching the turn off to Ski Valley, Ben kept going straight into Summer Haven (a nice downhill) while I was yelling at him to turn. For some reason, instead of following him down to let him know, I made the turn and headed up to Ski Valley. I guess I figured that he’d see I wasn’t there, turn around, and I’d see him coming up behind me at any moment. Well, that never happened and I made it to the ski lift and waited. I fired off a few texts telling him that I’d meet him down at the Cookie Cabin in Summer Haven and headed down. About a mile into the descent, I see the crew heading up. Well, looks like I was climbing back to Ski Valley again, so I turned around and got in line. Once at the top, Tyler decided that he wanted to take a dead end road another 2 miles further up while we decided to snap some pics, enjoy the scenery and then head back down to “The Cookie.”
At the top:
The crew (sans Tyler) at the top:
Once there, we decided on two sampler cookies and a large pizza. Since the cookie plates were ready right away, I started gnawing at those the second we sat down outside. The weather at the top was 70 degrees and overcast with darker rain clouds moving in. Just after the pizza arrived, I got a phone call from Tyler. He told me that he was going to have to find a ride back down to the truck because he had a “catastrophic wheel failure” that made his rear wheel lock up. At first, I thought he was kidding and was looking for him to come rolling up any second. It wasn’t until after he sent me a pic of the damage that I believed him. Since there was absolutely nothing we could do to help, we finished our lunch and headed back down.
The cookie samplers:
The pie:
The descent was fast and furious. I’m well known for not liking descending and always taking it easier, but when there are 20+ miles of a -6% average gradient ahead of you, it’s hard NOT to go fast. Later, I would see that my top speed was over 47mph. At one point, we heard rolling thunder and felt some light sprinkles too. Towards the bottom, at Molina Basin, I was rounding a hairpin turn and saw Tyler trying to flag us down from the side of the road. I gently squeezed the brakes and went from 40+ mph to 0 in about 100 yards. I turned around and went back to meet him. Turned out that he found some guys that were out mountain biking that agreed to take him back after this quick stop in Molina Basin. He indicated that he’d meet us back at the truck and I took off again to solo back. After packing up, racking the bikes, and exchanging a few stories about the ride, we hit the road for the trip back to Phoenix. Overall, this is one of my favorite rides of all time. It can be as challenging as you want to make it or it can be as fun/scenic too.
A pic of Tyler's rear wheel damage:
And the link to the ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192686517
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