EL Tour de Tucson

John, Sheri, and I left Cardston about 3 or 4 hours late (thanx John) on Tuesday - and then began the journey south. We arrived in Cedar City, Utah at about 5am and woke Bart up so we could get what we euphamistically referred to as "sleep." It was a long drive, but an Ipod loaded with 3,000 some odd songs makes for some great "name that tune" moments.

Wed John, Bart, and I went for a ride. Boy, did I feel rotten! It was 18 miles of climbing (about 4,000 feet. From a starting altitude of 6,000 feet and finishing at 10,000 feet.) I don't know if I've ever felt that rotten on a ride before. I was seriously concerned whether or not I was going to be able to even finish the TDT, never mind my original goal of sub 5 hours. The descent down was frightening. Not because of the speeds, but because of the cold. Once the sun went down there the temps dropped fast. At one point Bart checked his thermometer and it was about 35F. I had sweated aLOT on the climb, as I was really suffering. (I won't go into the details, but the stats were really ugly.) I was shaking so hard that I had to stop because I was scared I couldn't keep the handlebars straight anymore. Finally I got cold enough that I stopped shaking and continued the dash for daylight. Took me awhile to warm up when we got back to Bart's, but I was okay. (Hot chocolate never tasted so good!!) It felt like a tough ride to me, and I pointed out that it sure felt tougher than the climb to Brian's Head had - Bart and John told me it wasn't, and that my thinking so was all because I wasn't feeling good.

Lesson learned so far?? Well, John and I simply didn't have much time to train for this ride. Our longest, most recent ride was Triple Bypass in July. The longest ride I did since then was I did one tailwinds ride into Lethbridge of about 2 hours. I just checked my journal, and I only did 3 other rides outside - and for the last 2 months John and I have managed 3-4 computrainer rides a week. Fortunately, we were doing T-max interval rides 2 times / week, so the intensity was high. We're hoping that it's gonna be enough, but after the ride with Bart I'm having serious doubts. Bart and John tried to convince me that it was just the travel and lack of sleep, but I'm really wondering.

Thursday we travelled to Phoenix. John's sister lives there, so we crashed at her house. I didn't sleep very well (it was very hot in their basement, and I was very uncomfortable.) - I think I finally fell asleep about 6:30 or 7am. Not a good start. Because of that we didn't get up in time to head over to JulieB's place to ride with everybody and share in RaleighDon's pie.

We jammed down to Tucson and headed straight for the convention centre. While getting our stuff there we ran into Z'man and chatted for a few minutes before he headed back to get his bike and deal with the Trek guys on it.

RustyRoadie knows us well, as he was able to walk right over to where he figured we'd be setup and find us. He lead us over to where the rest of the Bikejournal gang was gathering, and we went over and chatted for abit. Was good to meet a few new faces and a few old friends. I finally got to meet FastEddie (and he IS fast, as he proved at the TdT ride.)

Finally off to bed - and now, the actual RIDE REPORT.

John and I got up early - but not early enough to be right at the front of the Gold group! We actually got to the line about 4:45 and were probably 100 feet back. Saw RustyRoadie a litte further back.

I was just wearing my arm warmers and leg warmers - so it was a little chilly at the beginning. The start finally came and we were off! The start was FAST. I could see that there were alot of people in this group that shouldn't have been, and that there would be some crashes. I made a mental note to stay alert.

I saw DecafBeanBoy, and he let me know when we were getting close to the first Wash - for those who haven't done this ride before, this is not a simple creek crossing like I was originally led to believe. This is a "pick up your bike - don't ride it or push it along, as flats are VERY common along here - and carry it for what will feel like 20 miles (it's really only 19)

At the end of it my cleats were packed pretty solidly with sand. It meant I spent the next mile pounding my foot onto the pedal and trying to get it to clip in. Finally got both of them clipped in and continued to hammer. I had cleat covers, but somehow they got lost. Speedplay's don't do well in sand.

I got onto a quick paceline - more like a pack. Probably close to 200 riders in it. We were moving pretty quick and I was enjoying the ride. I saw FastEddie with this group. Ol' FastEddie was doing more than his share of pulling up front, and I made my way up to give him a hand. I made a couple of pulls, and felt pretty good - then I'm not sure where everybody went to....

First hint of trouble happened around mile 15 or so - don't remember for sure. My calve muscles started to cramp. I continued through and the cramping eased up, but I should've taken the warning and done something about it.

Suddenly we were at the second Wash. This one was worse. Forced single file. I heard lots of flats going off all around me. I was grateful for the advice I'd recieved earlier from an experienced TDT rider, "Do NOT, under any circumstances, think that you can ride this stuff - even if you manage to stay up with the deep sand, you'll end up with a flat tire. It's just not worth the risk." I saw that time and again.

I laughed when I saw the "wall" I'd been warned about. I didn't check what the actual grade was, but it couldn't have been more than about 12% for maybe a couple of hundred feet. Nothing that killed me.

A little later, while climbing a short little rise I felt my quads cramp - HARD. And then all strength left me. I knew right away what had happened, and I was very mad at myself. I was hitting the wall. I hadn't had anything to eat yet. 75 or 80 miles into it, and I hadn't eaten anything. Yes, I'd polished off a full gatorade bottle, but no food.

This was my first attempt at doing a century riding straight through, and so the first time that I really needed to concentrate on eating. Normally I just eat something at each rest stop. In this case there was no rest stops for me. I was hammering. "Was" being the operative word.

I pounded back some gel - I have no idea how much. I washed it down with more gatorade - and I crested the hill to see FastEddie pounding away at the front of the group and knew there was no way I was catching back onto this one. I looked behind me... oh oh. There wasn't anybody back there. I slowed. Finally after 6 or 7 miles of pounding along on my own another paceline came by - I jumped on, felt rejuvinated, and on the next downhill found myself coasting up to the front. Suddenly I was at the head of the paceline at the base of a hill. I decided to see what was in the legs and pounded up this short 2-3% grade. We crested and I started to drop back. Pants of "nice pull" invigorated me again. I hung on for awhile longer - and then the cramps hit me again.

With 25 miles left to go, we headed back into the wind. As another paceline came by me this guy calls out, "jump on, don't get dropped here, it's into the wind the rest of the way." I tried to jump on - I stood and up and felt my legs spasm hard - it almost threw me off the bike. Somehow I managed to get on for a little while. I soon fell off, though. I checked the time, checked my average speed, checked the miles left, and realized that if somehow I could pick it back up I could still make 5 hours but it would be close.

My speed dropped. Another paceline went by me and I couldn't even manage to catch it. I was really struggling to hold anything close to a decent pace.

At mile 100 and change I realized that I would be able to get close - maybe within 6 or 7 minutes, but I was not going to break 5 hours, so the next rest stop I went by I stopped and fuelled up. I dumped a couple of water bottles on my legs to help cool them off, and hopefully get the cramping to stop. It seemed to help. Another paceline came by and I managed to get on. I even gained enough strength to help pull a few times. But, I was cooked and I knew it. At this point it was just about finishing - and finally I did.

My time was 5:17 - I had about 10 minutes of stopped time at the one rest stop. I learned alot about eating on the bike and what I need to do for rides like this. I wished I'd have gotten it through my head earlier, but at least it's there now! I also need to find a way to do longer training rides - and definitely need more time on the bike!

I don't know if I'll be going back next year, but I will go back. I found the support at this ride incredible. EVERY intersection was manned by police. People lined the streets and really made the riders feel like they were wanted there. In discussing it afterwards with John and Sheri they agreed that there was amazing difference between riding the Salt Lake City Century and the TDT - and it's in the way we were treated by the organizers. I'll be sending a letter to the TdT and letting them know how much it was appreciated, and that because of that I'll be back.