Bikes & Arizona Riding

As I recover from my first ride of the day before heading out for another ride, it seems like a good time to talk about BIKES! As I said yesterday, I went to Arizona to not only swim but also do other training. For the first time I flew with my bike and after it deciding to take a different flight from me, it arrived in Phoenix hours later and was delivered to the house in one piece. Trying to not let that make me worried about flying to New Zealand with it.

The first two days of riding were easier rides or supposed to be but it takes a lot more work for me to keep up with Katie. But the return ride on a slight downhill on Scottsdale drafting off of her made for a nice ride home at 30W and 30mph. And most important, no cars hit us.

The third day of riding was labeled on my schedule as "so fucking dropped ride" with a side comment of "you'll probably get dropped". There's a nice stretch of road where people like to hammer hard and my only goal was to hold on for dear life and not get dropped. I glued myself to her wheel so I could take advantage of ever drafting watt possible and managed to hang on the whole time. After chatting with some golfers and soft pedaling for awhile we did a steady climb. I felt strong the whole ride and the challenge of keeping up was a good distraction from the fatigue.

The last day of riding was the ride I was looking forward to the most. Climbing Mount Lemmon in Tuscon. Of course at this point my legs were exhausted so I loaded my bottles with caffeine and told Katie I'd see her at the top because there was no way I was staying with her. She gave me a power range to stay in and I was determined to stay in the top half of that range. I spent the first hour fighting to roll down my arm warmers and pulling the zipper down on my jersey while dripping in sweat. Then I rounded some magical corner and the wind picked up and I was yanking all the layers back on.

We knew there wasn't enough time to ride all the way up and back down so I kept praying that I was close to the point of having to turn around. Then I saw Katie pulled over to pee and she told me she was going to have her friend pick us up at the top. Shit. So I shoveled down more calories and counted down how many miles I had left as the very slowly ticked by. It took everything I had to hold onto my power number but I was determined. By the last 30 minutes I was cold, there was snow on the ground and I was seriously lacking in oxygen around 8,000ft elevation. I was cranky and wanted to be done. By the time I reached the end and the Cookie Cabin I was thrilled to be done and enjoy a well deserved cookie and hot chocolate.

That rounded out the week for riding and my legs were happy to be done. I think we were especially all happy to be done packing and repacking and repacking 6 more times the car with 3 people, 3 bikes and a weeks worth of our crap. I left Arizona happy with the work I did, more knowledge stuffed in my brain and ready to keep tackling Ironman training back at home.

Of all the progress I've made this year, riding is by far where I've seen the most improvements. I've been able to consistently ride all year which is a huge part of it. I've pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and learned how to become a better rider. It's about more than how many watts your body can pump out. I've learned how to handle my bike, to become one with it. Maybe one day I'll even learn to ride with no hands #2017goals.

 

When I first got into triathlons I liked riding the least and now not only is it my strongest discipline, it's become a try love for me. I love my bike! Right now my legs might not love my bike because they struggle to push the pedals from feeling so dead but it still makes my soul happy to be free on two wheels. Time to go ride again! Please send more coffee...