To Serve and Protect

In the last week, I’ve had a couple of pleasant, short interactions with police officers doing their work. The first one was last Thursday, while I was completing the last of my threshold intervals on Riggs Rd. It looked like the Gila River Indian Community Police had a speed limit operative on this section with about 6 squad card spread over a 1-2 mile stretch, but it was 10 in the morning and the traffic was low. They had one “client” on the other side of the road and as I went by with my head down trying to get through the last seconds of my interval, one of the officers jumps out of the car and yells…”you are doing 26 MPH!” I gave him a thumps up and kept going. He waved, smiled and got back in his car.
Then Today, I was riding to work on 347 and right before Riggs Rd again, two  officers from the Arizona Gang Task Force had pulled a vehicle over on the shoulder and were searching the vehicle with all doors open, therefore, I would have to merge onto 65+ MPH traffic or stop and walk around the right side. As I was starting to slow down, one of the officer saw me coming, tells the other officer and they quickly closed both  doors and moved to the front of the car then waved me to keep going. I thought it was really nice of them.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

Happy Holidays!

Those Three-Hours Rides

I had two 3-3.5 hour rides for Saturday and Sunday. I didn't start to get ready for my ride until close to 11 am on Saturday, then when I got to my road bike, I discovered that my rear tire was flat (which is becoming a norm now that those tires are getting close to 4000 miles...yeah I need new tires). After a putting a new tube and doing other stuff, I finally rolled out the door past noon and as soon as I got to the end of the block I knew I was in for a treat. The flags were pointed straight to the Northeast. My planned route had me going South then West then South again, so that meant I had a head wind with gusts up to 20 MPH all the way. There were two occasions where the wind gusts blew me off the shoulder and onto the dirt. Thankfully it was somewhat smooth every time I went off road. With a lot of the fields freshly plowed, there was a lot of dust blowing which didn't help. After a little more than 2 hours of slow going against the wind, I decided to turn around and cruise home. And cruise I did. Now with a tail wind I was able to maintain 28+MPH with little effort. Unfortunately the wind change a little before I got home, so I had to battle with it for a couple more miles before getting home, however it took me a little over one hour to cover the same distance I had in 2:15.

That evening we went to Jay and Melissa's home for an early X-mas party. Lots of food and treats not to mention lots of bike talk. Thanks to Jay and Melissa for hosting a great party.

The next morning, the wine and eggnog effect prevented us from opening our eyes before 9 am. James and Katia had called the day before and wanted us to meet them at White Tanks. I called them as soon as I got up to confirm. Thankfully they were just leaving Prescott, so we had some time to get ready and head to the other side of town.

On the way to White Tanks I realized we had not only forgotten my riding jersey and my heart rate monitor, we also forgot our snack box with all the treats. We got to trailhead and I changed onto my bib and base layer outfit then realize it was too chilly, so I put a green long sleeve t-shirt on top to go with my red and black short (Very well coordinated). Norma and I rode part of the course while Katia and James got there.

My plan was to explore some of the other trails in the park. James was in childcare duty, so he didn't ride. As Katia and Norma headed for the competitive track I rode to Mesquite Canyon and rode a similar route to what Art, Brian and I had ridden a few weeks ago. Once at the top after 1.5 hours of climbing, I decided to turn around and follow Ford Canyon. The first few miles were fun. Tight single track. Sharp turns and steep little climbs, however once I hit the Ford Canyon wash all the fun went away. The sandy open sections were too soft to ride then the rocky sections were impossible to ride. Then I got to the White Tanks. Huge granite water reservoirs impossible to ride and very dangerous to walk on, especially on cycling shoes. On some sections I had to lower my bike then slide on my stomach to get down from one part of the granite slab to the next. This went on for over 1 hour of which I only rode 5 minutes at the most in increments of 30 seconds. Eventually I made it to the lower portion of the trail and was able to ride a little more. Hungry, cold, thirsty and tired, I made it back to the car just as Norma and Katia were finishing their third lap of the course. Note to others. Don't bring your bike to Ford Canyon trail. In fact don't even try to hike it unless you are an experienced hiker.

 

So on the drive home I was thinking, I hope something out of these two rides help me shave off a few seconds here and there during a race, so when I stand on top of a podium next season, I could look at rides like those and felt good. For now, I just want some food and warmth because it was cold out there today!

 

On a separate note, the Vikings were in town and beat the Cardinals, so that was good, however we had to deal with all the traffic leaving the game, not so good!

 

Out!

Dawn to Dusk

Once again, Norma and I teamed up to participate as a coed duo. Unlike last year's, the weather this time was really nice, except for a little chilly start but nothing that a pair of arm and knee warmers couldn't solve.

The plan was to have Norma do the first lap, then I would two back to back and so forth. Coach had recommended to do the first two laps at race pace then settle into Zone 1 or 2 for the rest of the race.

Here is Norma in her pink jacket at the start of the race

Norma's first lap was a little shorter because we exchanged at the team area, which was about 2 miles before the start. I used that portion to get warmed up then let it rip for the rest of the lap. The gradual climb was really busy with traffic starting their second lap, so I did a lot of passing, usually on the least rideable portion of the trail, so that completely toasted my legs. Actually my legs were already toasted from the gym exercises that week, so I only had somewhat good legs for 3/4 of a lap. The gradual down hill was fun however after going around a few times it got kinda old going over the many logs on the trail.

Norma went on her second lap while I tried to recover from the all out effort. Initially I thought I would have a hard time staying in the prescribed zones, however when I went on for my 3rd and 4th lap, I discover that I was so tired I could barely hit those Zones. Needless to say those two laps were slow. Norma kept her lap times pretty steady, so we had plenty of time for me to go for one last single lap before the cutoff. Surprinsingly, my legs partially came around on that last lap.

It got chilly again as soon as the sun went down

In terms of results, we never know where we were. At first they had us in the wrong category which I asked to fix about half way into the race, however we never checked the results again. We just knew we weren't in the top three, however Art and Wendy did as they were racing in our same category and scored a 3rd place. Congrats to them and the rest of the Adrenaline Team out there. There were at least 15 of us in the race.

Here are Dan, Darrin, Art, Wendy and Robert relaxing and recaping stories after the race.

On Sunday, we checked the results and realized we finished in 7th place out of 15 or so starters in our category. Not too bad considering our goal was to have a good time and get a few hours on the bike. Not to mention we did double the laps from last year for a grand total of 8.

During the awards they also recognized the winners from each category from the Dust Devils Series and Norma had won hers, so get got a pretty cool gear bag. We'll see if she ever let me use it.

That was probably our last race of 2008. The next season gets underway early in January with the first MBAA race just five weeks away.

For now, I just have a few more weeks of leg draining work at the gym then it's time to focus on the bike 100%.

Pura Vida!

Turkey Week

Last week was an easy week for me in terms of training time, however there was plenty of stuff going on with Thanksgiving dinner at home with family, gym workouts, Black Friday stuff at work and some riding.
We hosted family on Thursday, so Norma and I spent the previous night and most of Thursday getting food ready. Everything turned out pretty good. Turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, baked yuca, fresh salad, wine and empanadas. Needless to say I probably ate too much but on Friday I found a way to burn it off.

Yes, that's a turkey suit. I wore that thing for a little over 3 hours on Black Friday. When your department supports the retail and credit side of the biz, it's obvious you have to work that day, however this year our support was in the form a comedy relief by walking around in the custome, taking pictures, playing silly games and all kinds of shennanigans. It was fun, however I am pretty sure I lost more sweat than on a regular 3 hour ride.

Talking about riding, on Saturday I joined Art and Brian for a ride at White Tanks. First we rode the course backwards, which was pretty cool, then we went to explore some other trails in the park away from the competitive track. We rode Mesquite Canyon up. The first mile or so was really rocky and mostly unrideable either up or down then at the top the trails completely change and allows us to ride some awesome trails. It almost felt like we weren't in Arizona. There were several miles of hardpack singletrack that went from one ridge to the next and the next...until we had to start heading down then we had to do a lot of this...
Here are Brian and Art walking their bikes. After this section we hiked for about 30 minutes during which we would hop on the bikes and ride for 30 seconds then walk for 5 and so on. It proves that you have to earn your singletrack.

On other news, I just found a video clip of the cyclocross race from the previous week, so here it is for your enjoyment. As you can see, I didn't lie when I said that I had no problems with the barriers.




This coming weekend Norma and I are racing the Dawn to Dusk as a coed team. Hopefully the weather won't be anywhere nearly as bad as last years. Now I just have to confirm that my bike is ready. I dropped it off at Landys Cyclery, so they could check an oil leak on the fork.

Pura Vida!
Jeff