Return to the North

I've been back in Canada for almost two weeks now and haven't been able to make a single ride outside. We were teased for a couple of days with spring like temperatures but we had to quickly batten down the hatches in preparation for another winter wallop.

Traveling during the winter can really be a double edged sword - on the one hand you get to go riding in warm weather and break up that indoor training lull. On the other hand you have to go back to it. Which is more difficult I'm not entirely sure, the first time in Tucson when I was able to step outside without a jacket is so liberating. Going back to indoor cycling only is like being in prison for several months, having a week of freedom, and then choosing to lock yourself back up. The situation wasn't improved by my broken bike, not having it meant I had to find an alternate steed for the rollers - only as a last resort will I go back on that damn trainer..

Before I move on, here is a comparison for comparisons sake...

Here is what the driveway looked like in Tucson. 25 degrees and not a cloud in the sky

 

And here is what my driveway back home looks like. -15 degrees and a dumping of 15cm of snow throughout the day

If I sound like I'm complaining, I apologise, it is not my intent. I enjoy snowy weather very much (especially when I have my WRX but right now it's in the shop) but rather to show the disparity of riding in warm weather versus an winter weather... (the latter being you CAN"T(and don't give me that Fat Bike shit))

It is also difficult to ride when your bike is un-ridable. You might recall that the frame of my Specialized Venge cracked while riding up Mt Lemmon. When I had a chance, I took it back to Skiis and Biikes to see what we could do. After our rep had contacted Specialized, I was told that they wanted my frame and fork back. Before shipping it though, it obviously needs to be stripped down to just the parts they want. Well, it's my bike and as a former mechanic everyone says you do it. So to the shop I go!

Stripping the frame down takes no time at all, most of my time is spent catching up with the boys. For a frame as light as this it's kind of unbelievable to hold it in your hand and believe that it could ever support your weight. It feels so incredibly fragile without all the other components attached to it and it's only once the bike is completely built up that you believe it could support your weight. We weighed the frame + fork + headset and it was 3 pounds, 3 ounces all together. Freaking light as hell and it's not even the lightest out there. Here's a quick pic

So what am I to do without my road bike for training? The best practice is to use the same equipment in training as you would during a race. My Devinci Wooky is my only other mountain bike, but how are you going to get it on rollers with off road mountain bike tires?

The answer is don't use MTB tires as in addition to a rough ride, you'll strip all the knobs off and leave your grippy tire ruined. For those of you who don't know, 29" wheels and 700 wheels are the same size, their widths vary greatly but it is possible to get road tires onto a 29er rim (I don't know about putting 29er tires on a 700 rim though, I've never tried...) So I found some old 700x23C road tires and went to work. The end result looks horrifying

But functional! Seriously though look at that wheel gap! The tire is the exact width of the rim so sometimes you can't even tell there's a tire installed and it all blends together. But like I said the whole getup is functional so I have my ride for rollers. I had to change the wheelbase on the rollers as well. My Venge actually calls for the lowest setting on them because it has such a short wheelbase. The Wooky maxes out the length of the rollers and then exceeds it by like a milimetre or something

Training right now is the first week of a 3 week block. The usual kind of stuff for building for a season. After the 3 week block I'm away on business and will have to resort to hotel gyms. Hopefully I'll have my new road frame by then and all built up


All for now, I hope you've enjoyed this horribly written post that I did very quickly because my woman is bored at work.

 

Tucson Training Camp Day 7: Last Day

So here we are on day 7, the last day of training before I head back home. Adam and Emily have departed for the US Cup in Texas so for today it's just me and Kaitlyn. On Adam's recommendation we head for Gate's Pass - probably the most picturesque route I've done while here in Tucson.

We started the day with sleeping in :D

With us calling the shots today we get rolling much later, start time today was around 11:00 instead of 9:15. Our route to Gate's Pass again took us through the Univeristy of Arizona - the campus was a bit more hustle amd bustle than the last time we rolled through. It really is a pedestrian/bicycle friendly campus, bikes are litterally everywhere. Lots of students are out and about between the classrooms and just enjoying the sun. The temp is around 25 at this point which makes me laugh when I see people wearing hoodies. I swear people here complain about the "cold" whenever it's under 30 degrees. No joke I heard a woman say the other day that it "got chilly." It was 23 degrees with a slight wind. I am in awe

Once you turn onto University Avenue, the road smooths out and you come into no-car zones

I wasn't joking when I said bike friendly - this bike parking lot extends for an entire block and it's not the only one around. There are numerous tents set up today alongside the strip. Some are bike checkup tents and others are refreshment tents that offer drinks and hotdogs.

Once you get past all the academic buildings, you arrive at the party street. Restaurants galore along this strip with tvs aplenty. It's not even noon yet and some of them already have their patios packed. As much as I'd love to stay for beer and fried food, our journey to the Pass takes us outside the city

The road goes from super smooth to super suckage as we near the mountains. The good part is that we pretty much have the roads to ourselves. Since I've been here, I've seem numerous signs about "Watch For Ice" or "Bridge May Ice" and I can't help but wonder, when the hell are these things ever relevant? We're in mid February and it's still warm at the highest altitudes, not that there's ever any percipitation around here anyway. There are numerous dry river beds in Tucson.

The front side of Gate's Pass is a cinch to climb - maybe a couple of miles of easy grade and it certainly doesn't pose a threat after slaying Lemmon. Once over the pass we're greeted by some beautiful views...

The line of mountains drop away to the valley floor. The road to the right of this picture is the one that leads back up the pass. For our ride today, we're continuing to the left. It's a gentle down that winds through some more desert scenery. In the valley, we find "Old Tucson." I'm not sure if it's the actual, original settlement of Tucson or just a tourist village, but it's set up as an old western town so people can come in (for a fee of course) and explore the past. I just wanted to take a picture but the whole thing is walled off - I just held my camera up and snapped one off

More pictures of the valley...

The best part of his ride was just how abandonned the roads were. We seldom ran into anyone out here so we were pretty much given free reign over where to ride. After this last loop we headed for the pass once more. A word to anyone who comes here, the backside of this pass is WAY steeper than the front. It is really short and maybe because it's been seven days straight of riding, but it was tough climbing out of there. The relief for us was we knew that once we crested this climb, we were clear all the way home. 

Total ride time for the day was aproximately 2:30. A lot more up and down than what we've done previously as well

For the rest of the day, we're packing. Ready for the haul back home

Tucson Training Camp Day 6: Respite from the mountains

Day 5 left me wiped - I slept for about 10 hours and didn't want to go biking the first thing in the morning. But majority rules so we're meeting at 10am. (Yes 10am to me is first thing in the morning, it's a half hour ride to the meeting spot to boot(leave me alone I am not a morning person))

First thing Adam does whenever we meet is what any coach would do: How are you feeling? Cylcing is one of those sports where training based on feel is the way to go. Other sports might say, you're hurt? Get out there anyway and kill it! Cycling is more like ok so you're not feeling 100%? We're going to tone it back a bit today because the quality of the workout won't be high and your gains won't be as good. You're better spent off letting your body recover with an easier workout than kicking it while it's down. Cycling is about quality over quantity - don't get me wrong, you need to train a lot for cycling, but if you're always having shit workouts than you aren't making the most of your gains

My answer for Adam? ......meh...ugh. Yesterday left me wiped and I had absolutely no appetite this morning. I've been living with two people in close quarters for the past week and they've been sick since I've been here - I'm feeling a bit phelgmy. This means that we're not doing anything too hard today, keep everything at endurance pace and keep riding time closer to 3hours vs 4. Easily done

Our route today was to take us through Saguaro (spelled wrong maybe) Park. It's a one way road that winds through some Tucson countryside. I think it's only an eight mile loop, but it has plenty of pulloffs to the side of the road for people to get out of their cars and look at the dirt. Honestly it seems like this place charges you to drive through a part of the state that's no different than the rest. You can see cactus, and desert plants and... Well, there's a rock there too. Then again we have all that stuff in our back yard. Then again we're not here for the sights (nor are we paying.) We're here for a twisty, undulating one-way road loop that is plain ol wicked fun to ride. Here is the first road sign you come across as you join the loop...

Right at the beginning there is a steep down followed by a sharp turn to the right. The speed limit sign shows 5mph which is quickly ignored. No one fell onto any rocks like the sign shows...

The loop continues, up and down, left and right and you're steaming along at a pretty good clip. It's got a pretty good roller coaster feel to it. Eventually you come to the one and only climb on the loop - it's about a 6% grade that last maybe 10 minutes. Honestly it feels like a blip after what we did yesterday, nothing could feel easier right now. 

The loop takes you by a big rock (Oooooohhh)

And then you're pretty much done the loop. It's fun to do laps (so we did a couple) and finished up the ride in about 3:30. Adam and Emily are heading to the first US Cup of the season in Texas so we parted ways for the final time this camp. Kaitlyn and I have our pick of routes tomorrow and then that will be the end of my time here in Tucson. A lot of our post-workout time is spent at the nearby starbucks as it's the only place we can get wifi (it's still out at the house!)

After tomorrow's workout we'll have some cleanup to do around the house, then it's an early drive to Phoenix for the flight back to Canadaland.

Tucson Training Camp Day 5: Finally conquered the bitch

Day 5 was another attempt at making it to the top of Lemmon - no more mechanicals! I told the group that if I get another mechanical on my bike then someone is going to be giving me theirs so I can finish the damn climb. SO, the plan for the day: Meet at Le Buzz café and then make for the base of the mountain. Mile 0-14 will be max effort TT. Once we reach Windy Point, it's gonna be a cruise the rest of the way to the top. By the time we make it back down the mountain and back to the house it should be around five hours in the saddle. Off we go!

14 miles is not a long way to go, but when you've never done a climb that long it's hard to know how hard you can push and still have enough in the tank for the rest of the way. My TT effort was 75 minutes of 180bpm +. There was a bit of a headwind through the steep part of this climb so it didn't exactly help things along but I made it to Windy Point in 1:18. Made it to the top feeling pretty good, glad to just make it without any problems as opposed to doing it as fast as I could. Good to know I've still got some race pace in my legs as well, as shown my my HR map

So that first big block is obviously my TT effort to Windy. It tapers off a little bit which I attribute to my mind wondering and not staying 100% focused on the climb - It's hard work to keep suffering for over an hour, especially when you've got no one riding next to you to help you keep pushing (the others were doing their own ITT efforts)

Once we all regrouped at Windy it was time to hit the summit. We were at a cruising pace the rest of the way. The route upwards kind of throws some hope at you, making you think you've made it. You descend a kilometre or so, only for the road to turn up again and have you go even higher. Our finish line was the General Store at the top. Once we made it there it was nice to sit in the sun and eat our purchases from the store - FUDGE

You figure it's mostly downhill from here so why not eat 1/2 pound of mint fudge and a mini bottle of coke? No one provided any answers...

Stopped for a quick pic at the top...

Didn't get to do it on my own bike, but it was done none the less. Lemmon has only one paved route, so we begin back tracking the way we came. I saw a sign not too long after...

So, we're supposed to be on the look out for BEARS for the next 25 miles?! Is that who the poop on the roads belong to? Where the fuck was this sign on the way up? It's like only if you've been to the top of the mountain do you get to know that there are bears lurking around. Don't bring any picanic baskets.

Ok! So! Descent! The grade isn't actually that steep, an upright position might give you 50km/h on the descent but Adam and I were as low as we could go and pedaling like mad when we could. I only had one oh shit moment and it was when I entered a tight corner at 70+ and thought maybe it was too fast - we were dropping the crotch rocket behind us. The best thing about this climb is that you never need to hit your brakes - ever. Once you get your bike in high gear you never have to touch your levers again. That is until you come around a blind corner and there is a family of like, 10, slowly making their way across the road with their hands all linked together. You think a group like that might want to show some hustle, but instead they just freeze up and wait to see what you do next. Anyone who has used road bike brakes at 70km/h and over know that they don't actually work at that speed, you kinda have to wait until the road flattens out before they have any effect. And these people were taking up THE WHOLE road, I'm talking two lanes, no gap and they say it's our move. 

This was red rover extreme edition. Thankfully we spotted a bike wide gap on the other side of the road that we might have a chance with. We took it and continued the descent. As far as we know, no casualties. The descent from the Palisades took us 34 minutes. Not the record but still a lot of fun. Half an hour downhill is unheard of back home. Probably the highlight of riding so far

It's a 26 mile climb (42km for pretty much everyone reading this) The elevation profile isn't that steep, it's all about the distance. This day marks the end of Mt. Lemmon for me here is Tucson, I've got two more days of training here and I've already spent three on this climb. 115km on the day has left me wiped, bed time comes veeery early tonight

Tucson Training Camp Day 4: Rest and Relaxation

Day 4 is the middle of training camp and thus a rest day. Overall objective is quite simple - make sure your mind and body is ready to go for the rest of the training camp. For us that means sleeping in, eating, napping, stretching, rolling, eating, and basically doing SFA all day. 

Normally such a day would be welcomed eagerly, however we're presented with a few obstacles...

The cable tv hasn't been working here since we moved in. It hasn't been an issue because we've had this wonderful thing called internet, which for some reason decided to shit the bed late Saturday evening. Our situation isn't helped by it being Sunday - any kind of fixes are going to come Monday at the earliest.

So today we'll make do with lounging about in the 25 degree, sunny weather. I'm getting well aquainted with our backyard and its fake grass...

We've made a trip to the nearby starbucks to make use of their wifi and we'll likely make another before the day is out. On our first trip there I was able to catch up on all the hockey action we missed from this morning (I say catch up loosely, Nikki was texting me updates at 6 in the morning...) Certainly wish I could have been there to see the win

We're not sure of the complete plans for the rest of camp, although I do know that at least one day will involve summiting that damned mountain

Man today is boring

Tucson Training Camp Day 3: Lemmon conquered! Wait....

Today was the first day on my Cannondale rental bike and today was also the day I take another crack at the summit of Mt. Lemmon. Adam had given us a choice of workout today - the first one being the Shootout group ride. (which Kaitlyn and Elyse did) Personally I wasn't up to waking up at 5:00am in order to have time for breakfast and making my way over to the starting point. Kudos to them though, they got there and did the ride. 

The option I chose was Lemmon - I didn't get the chance to see the top yesterday due to the whole bike breaking thing, so today was going to be my day. The workout was as follows...

1) 1 hour low endurance warmup to base of mtn

2) Max TT effort from mile marker 0 to 14 (Windy Point)

3) Endurance rest of the way to the top

4) Total time should be around 4:30-5:00 hours of riding

So I set out, an easy spin to the base of Mt. Lemmon pretty much gives me a perfect one hour warmup. 

This is the road that leads up the mountain. I've got three bottles with me and I've pretty much finished one off before I get to the base. This is also a good time to take some feeds that will kick in in about an hour so you don't start getting hungry halfway through the climb. You see that peak on the right side of the image? Yeah, that isn't even close to the top. We're going higher

Mile 0 and I'm finding an early rhythm, already much faster than yesterday's summit attempt. Around mile marker 2 I see a familiar pair coming down the mountain in the opposite direction - Adam and Emily! Give em a quick wave and it's back to head down with my legs pumping. I'm feeling freaking awesome at this point, I'm moving along at a great clip, enough to elicit a "whoa" from another cyclist as I pass him. Speed is moving between 18-23km/h on this segment. I could be going faster but as my baseline ride was cut short yesterday, I'm not actually sure what kind of pace I can sustain. For the time being though I like it. 

Around mile 6 the road gets a wee bit steeper. I'm still maintaining a good pace and I feel good to keep pushing hard. Suffice to say I'm in the zone. A convoy of cars start to pass me on the road and they've got oncoming traffic as well so I'm stuck on the shoulder. That's why there was no way I could avoid the mass of glass that was covering the road. I do my best to avoid it and as I clear the glass-field I think I've made it out... Pssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ok rear flat. It's not hard to find the culprit - chunk of glass right smack dab in the middle of the tread. I quickly extricate it and go about replacing the tube. Miles Ahead bike shop provides a flat repair kit with their rental bikes, so in goes the new tube and a CO2 cartridge takes care of the rest. 

I'm off riding again but trying to restart my effort at one of the steeper parts of the climb. I've lost all my rhythm and everything seems more laboured now. This sucks. I try to find the groove again but it aint coming. Oh well, to the top as best I can.

The girls have talked about how the vegetation on Mt. Lemmon can get interesting - at the bottom it's typical Arizona desert, a bunch of cacti and dirt. As you ascend higher, you get something more familair...

All of a sudden, around mile 10 (where my bike broke yesterday) you start seeing fir trees. All of a sudden the trees ascend faster than you and put you in a tunnel, rock face on one side and forest on the other. Soon, the road flatens out as you pass some campgrounds so you can get some reprieve from the incline and turn the speed back up to the mid 20's. It's short lived however, as mile 12-14 are the steepest and you also have to deal with a headwind. 

The last two miles to Windy Point are steep and the blind corners make it difficult to see cars coming. Finally though, after a quick roll over some cobbles, you arrive at Windy Point

That road way down there? Around mile 9, so five miles before where I took the picture. That peak you see in the top middle of the picture? That's the one I pointed out in the first picture of this post. And we're STILL not to the top yet. I hang out around for a bit as the hard effort is over. The Palisades are the next pitstop, six miles away. Time to start climbing again

And here's the part where I wish I could share a picture of the absolute peak of Lemmon. I cannot, because around mile 18, as I shifted into my granny gear, the chain jammed into the spokes. The rear wheel locked up in the same fashion it did when I cracked my frame so after a momentary freak out, I got chain free but was confronted by a wobbly wheel - one of the spokes was bent. I decided to turn back. I have never been more tense on a bike than on this descent. Every bump made me think the wheel was going to explode, the loads on the wheel are far higher at 50km/h + than 15. Everytime I leaned into a corner, I could feel the rear wheel wanting to break away. Everytime I used the rear brake the bike would wobble. I gingerly made it down and into the rental shop. They quickly realised the limit screw had not been adjusted and assumed all fault. They gave me a new wheel and quickly sent me on my way. 

Sunday is a rest day. No long rides, just time to focus on stretching, nutrition and recovery. Monday we start another 3-day block before heading home on Thursday. And we'll probably start with summiting Mt. Lemmon. I will see it before this trip is over. 

LYRBST

Tucson Training Camp Day 2: Disaster Strikes

Day two and it's the moment I've been waiting for! Today we're going to establish a baseline up Mt. Lemmon. It will still be considered an endurance ride so we shouldn't be pushing too far outside of our aerobic thresholds. 

Plan was to meet at a café called Le Buzz for 9:45am. It's near the base of the Mt. Lemmon highway. 

7 of us were in the group today. We would all make our own pace up to mile 20 of the climb, regroup and then bomb the descent together. The climb itself isn't all that steep, we all found an easy rhythm at around 14-17 km/h and stayed together for pretty much the whole thing. I was definitely noticing a difference with the thiness of the air - it wasn't like it was making things WAY more difficult, it just made it feel like each breath was a little bit less full. The road starts to turn up a little bit more around mile 11. It was around this point that disaster struck...

I was in the middle of our group when I stodd up just to give my butt some reprieve. All of a sudden my crank stopped turning and the rear wheel completely locked up. My bike quickly came to a stop and the others had to scramble to avoid riding into the back of me. I assumed it was chain suck so it would just be a quick matter of reaching down and resetting the chain. Alas, this was not the case...

A cracked chainstay - this is a ride ender, there's no way around this one, ESPECIALLY considering that the way home is a 1000m descent, with speeds potentially reaching 80km/h. This damage is not the result of a crash - if you're a bike mechanic, you've heard the explanation "I was just riding along" or JRA for short. 9 times out of 10 their JRA explanation is a crock of shit and they were actually doing something stupid. This was one of those 1/10 instances. No one in the group, all experienced racers have ever seen anything like this. One of the most bizarre equipment breakages we've ever seen.

So here was my dilema - Day 2 of a 7 day bike training camp and all of a sudden I have no bike. Also I need a way downt he mountain. While some of the group continued on the route, Adam kept me company at the side of the road while Emily went to get the truck

Once I got back to the house, I had to figure out getting a rental bike. Prices per day seemed to range from $55 to $88 a day. Five days at $55 plus tax and that's a $300 expense that I really don't want. Elyse mentioned that a friend of theirs rented a bike from a shop called Miles Ahead. I checked their website, which to be frank, wasn't the most informative. I decided to check it out anyway. BEST DECISION EVER. They're a relatively small shop but they're everything a bike shop should be. The guys I dealt with there all provide amazing service and really go out of their way to get you riding. Right now, there are loads of people renting bikes, for which they need to make a reservation. I walked in and they were able to get me on a properly sized bike and so I could have it for the rest of my stay here. They had me bring in my old bike, from which they took all the important measurements and copied them onto the rental. They also swapped over my seat and pedals all free of charge. Oh yeah, and they told me to help myself to the beer fridge while I wait. (I did) 

Now here's the kicker - They gave me a rate of $40 a day, and he further discounted the tax so I only had to pay an even $200. They're a seriously good shop. Upon my return I think I'll bring em donuts :D

So now for the remainder of the camp I shall be atop this...

A Cannondale SuperSix! It'll be interesting to see how it compares to my Venge.

So after only 2 hours on the bike today I'm feeling pretty rested. Today we'll have a few options for what we'll be doing. Until then, more food and sleeping!

PS: So jealous of everyone back home getting to watch the hockey game! The tv where we're staying isn't working properly and the cbc streaming app doesn't work in USA! Wish I was there to see it