1/14/06

        Well the morning started out rather early as I couldn't sleep so I woke up and packed my stuff and got to Denny's at 4:00 AM for a good Breakfast.  I then headed down to Casa Grand and started my navigation challenges early trying to find my way through all the construction to get out of the East Valley.  Anyway,  I discovered that at 5:30 in the morning Casa Grande is a pretty quiet place and nothing is open so I took a nap.  After a short visit to Albertsons after six,  people started to arrive and I learned that the ride didn't start until 7:30.  Oh well,  at least I had plenty of time to get my bike ready.  I took advantage of the new start location by buying a new set of grips for my bike and was quite pleased with them during the day (the old ones slipped off regularly).

        It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces from last years series and quite a few new faces.   There was quite a crowd for this ride.  7:30 eventually rolled around and we followed Susan out of the parking lot.  Since I had hardly ridden for 2 months I figured I would just take it easy and hung out at the back for the first bit.  I ended up riding along with Glen (the other Recumbent rider) .   We caught up with Steve Jewell and Bruce Chandler after a bit and then the climbing started.  I was pretty happy to pretty much hold my own on the climb since adjusting my seat position.  The old position just didn't give me enough power in the hills.  The rocks through this section are always a pleasure to cycle through.  It is always nice to have good scenery around to take ones mind off the hill.  Going down the other side I nearly hit 39 mph but couldn't quite squeeze 40 out.  It was here that I was reminded of the old Japanese Proverb "Even Monkeys Fall From Trees".

    Now I am not saying I am the worlds most expert biker or anything but I do have a few miles under my wheels at this point and would consider myself a capable cyclist.  That being said I did something stupid pulling into the control.  I don't know if it was due to the fact that I hadn't ridden on the highway in several months or due to the fact that I am used to 40mph traffic from commuting but I underestimated the speed of an approaching semi and crossed the road in front of him a little to close for his comfort, and mine.  Anyway,  no matter how many miles you have under your wheels I suppose we need to remember to be alert and not get complacent.   I for one am going to be a little more cautious after this experience.

    I need to apologize to Bruce here because I took a picture as the valley below the control was gorgeous with a morning haze over it and I took a picture of Bruce but the memory card had an error so sorry Bruce!  Anyway,  Having got the card signed Glen and I moved out and started the section that heads back to the bike shop.  We kept it up at 18 most of the way and exchanged pulls.  There was cotton everywhere through this section until we passed the community college before crossing the hills again.  The trip down to the bike shop was fast and uneventful.  A quick check in to get the card signed and we were out on the road again to fight the headwind.

      This next section had a pretty formidable headwind.  I found myself pulling away from Glen at the edge of the reservation and figured he would probably eventually catch me again.  My main goal through this stretch was to get to Lunch as quickly as possible and turn around before the mischievious Chuichu wind god switched the wind on us (and yes the mischievous Chuichu wind god is more powerful than the weatherman apparently).  A couple of notable experience through this section was the crossing of the first big valley when I had this incredible feeling of freedom of the open road.  Having been sick for the last few months with one cold or another it made me appreciate the freedom to blast down the open road in the middle of nowhere at 20mph.   Another was when I was climbing the other side of the valley.  I had a pack of cyclists that were slowly catching up to me on the hill and I decided I wasn't going to let them catch me (silly I know but hey any motivation to keep pedaling is good motivation I figure).   Anyway they were almost to me when we hit the top of the hill and just as we hit the top of the hill the Scherzo from the Movie tron comes on my mp3 player (it's the music that plays when the Solar Sailer powers up and leaves the command ship in the dust) and I thought that was really funny that it should come on just as we hit the kind of road where the recumbent has the most advantage in terms of speed and I pulled away from them as I was going downhill and two I could cut through the wind better than them do to a lower wind profile.  Anyway,  after this I eventually caught up with a tandem and we would play tag the rest of the way to the control .   Leaving the mountains behind it was a real challenge to keep the speed up with the headwind and the 13 miles or so of flats.  Nothing out there to distract you from the pain (glad I brought my mp3 player along especially for this section). In the last mile to the control the tandem caught me (I had ran out of juice)  and I drafted them to the control (thank you tandem guys!  whoever you were).

    I only ate a half a sandwich at lunch so I could get turned around quickly as I had never know the wind in this section of the ride to not shift in the afternoon (last ride it was a headwind both ways).  So I rocketed off down the road at 26 mph due to the healthy tailwind which in fact did last most of the way back but did eventually shift to a headwind.  I managed to catch another rider on the way back and we played tag most of the way.  I stopped to take pictures at a few of the mountains and then got serious about getting back.  At the edge of the reservation that lovely tailwind turned around and my speed went from 22 to 13 making the last 7 miles back to town a bit of a long slog but being so close to the end it wasn't bad.  I felt bad for some of the others who had taken an extra hour to get to lunch though because an extra hour of this headwind would have just driven me nuts!   Just as we pulled up to main street Glenn caught up to us and we rode back to the bike shop along 9th street.  Got a lot of good ideas from Glenn as to food to eat.  I have been working away from the liquids a bit as I get too many liquids and it makes me need to stop too much.   Anyway,  ride time ended up just over 8 hours so I didn't get a personal best but it wasn't my slowest either so I figure that is not a bad time considering my lack of training.  All in all a very enjoyable day and a great ride to get back in the saddle on.