Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Wednesday, Feb 24th, 2010 - Summerhaven - picturesque trip

The snow plow had been working overtime to clear the roads on Mt. Lemmon of the 14 inches of snow they got Monday. Brought the camera and took my time to shoot some of the vistas along the way to Summerhaven. I only wanted to go to mile 15, but since the road was clear, but very wet, I kept on going until I suddenly reached Summerhaven. By far the easiest ascent so far. Got a Cliff bar and some trail mix from a fellow cyclist, Jim, to help me get safely down to the desert floor.








Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Tuesday, Feb 9th, 2010 - Social ride & Ikea...

United Healthcare Pro Cycling Team is in town this week and they invited all cyclists for a social ride, starting at Trisports and going to the loop in Saguaro National park. Including the pro cyclists, we were approx. 40 riders and two support cars. Allan had a flat and immediately got a spare full carbon, deep rim, tubular wheel, now that's service! UHPCT paid the 5$ entrance to the spectacular 8 mile roller coaster ride, very beautiful and lots of fun. We skipped the post ride breakfast and went straight home for lunch. Later in the afternoon I visited the two Arizona Cyclist shops and had them estimate the price of refitting my bike. I went by Bill Peterson, where Allan was having a bike fit, and got my shoes shimmed, after I told Bill about the sore knee. And it felt much better on the ride home. All in all 100 km for the day.
Curtis and Stella invited us over for pizza and we helped assemble an IKEA walk in closet in their new bathroom. It was quite a big project, there must have been more than a 1000 parts and it was actually lots of fun working together.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Monday, Feb 8th, 2010 - Sonoita

Met with Brent, the liability claims representative from Farmers Insurance this morning. We went through the accident and he took some pictures of the bike and my bruises. We settled the injury claim and now I've got to get a repair estimate for the damage done to the bike.
Allan, Dan and Peter then picked me up and todays ride went to Sonoita, up on the plains near Mexico. It was unusually chilly this morning and we all waited for the long climb, to produce some wattage and heat. I soon found out that I had a sore knee, so I decided to slow down and let the others go. So I ended up doing most of the 175 km by myself, which was fine, considering the beautiful scenery.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Sunday, Feb 7th, 2010 - Super Bowl 44

Woke up to pouring rain, had breakfast and went to sleep again...
Went to Curtis and Stella for brunch/second breakfast.
It was Stella's birthday and we all ended up having a sugar rush/crash from all the pancakes. Went on to the outlet mall to shop for Nike shoes and Levis jeans, lots of stuff and very cheap. Allan got a haircut while the rest of us ran around Randolph Golf course.
At 4 p.m. we entered the Roberts mansion for Super Bowl party.
First we all went to check our pre game body weight and we soon decided not to do a post game control, as the first numbers were scary enough...
We were served tons of chips, tostidas, salsa, guacamole, pretzels, roasted peanuts, M&M's, beers, soda's, wine etc. - and that was just the starters!

Dinner was a very delicious jambalaya; a tribute to New Orleans Saints, who Jon cheered, loudly, for. Side dishes were corn bread and corn caserole and to top it all off, we had peanut-chocolate cookies.
Besides the Roberts family and the four Danes, Greg and Laura was there and we all cheered for the Colts. The Saints got the win and Super Bowl rings and Jon got the bragging rights.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Saturday, Feb 6th, 2010 - Shootout!

Todays Shootout was actually quite enjoyable! Rode in the front of the procession with Tim Carolan and when we hit Valencia, the speed increased in a very gradual way without too many leg trashing surges. Allan, Dan, Peter and I all went over the bridge and the sprint hill in the main group and went with the Madera Canyon group to the gas station in Green Valley. Dan and I quickly got on our bikes again and rode easy out White Canyon Road to find a discreet spot to relieve ourselves. When the group caught up, Peter was missing... He decided to take a pee break, thinking that he could easily catch back up to the slow paced group, only to see a considerable increase in speed just as he started sprinkling... He time trialed for 10-15 minutes to catch back on and unfortunately spend a lot of d power; much needed for the grueling 5 km climb of Madera Canyon. He still managed to get third at the "finish line", but he was well done at the end. Peter, Dan, Frank Barnes (Nor) and I got a head start down the tricky descent and met Gord Frasers United Health Team on the way down White Canyon Road. We departed from the main group at Sahuarita  and went over Helmet Peak and back trailed down the miserably paved Mission.
182 km and 6 hours, with a lot of sunshine and intensity; I've had worse Saturdays...
Got straight in to Brett's car and drove to the nutrition to stuck up on some organic energy bars and 5 pounds of protein powder! Went for a 5 km jog at six p.m. and finished the day with some sandwiches and lots of blueberry/banana/ginger/protein powder/colostrum shake. Skyped Katrine, who was at a party in down town Kolding at 4 a.m. in Denmark!?! Tomorrow's the Superbowl and I can't wait to see what Jon Roberts has in store for us!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Thursday, Feb 4th, 2010 Kitt Peak

Todays menu was Kitt Peak,  a world famous observatory that does  some great research in astronomy. It's placed on a mountain top in the middle of the desert, as far away from artificial light as possible. The hors d'hoeuvre was the long straight Ajo Road, spiced up with Gates Pass. Despite knowing that we were on a seven hour ride, the pace was solid. The mushroom-like observatories hovered high up over the valley floor and could be seen the whole way.
The climb itself is a 14 miles/20km rather steep ascent (~ 1200 vertical meters), that goes up to 7000 ft (2133m). We all did our own thing and enjoyed the breathtaking views to the West (California) and South (Mexico). After soaking up some sun at 7000 ft, we went in to the fascinating visitors center to look around, use the rest room and fill the water bottles. The descent was very cold and it felt so good to drop down to the warm desert floor. We had a nice tailwind going back to Tucson and only the bumpy stretches on Ajo could dampen the big smiles. After seven hours and approx. 215 km, we were home at 5.15 p.m., which left us with about 90 minutes before we had to meet for potluck at our house. Hats off to Allan, who did the long ride 12 hours he set foot on US soil.

It was a great potluck dinner, with guacamole, nachos, salad, lasagne, chili con carne, corn bread, braised vegetables, beers and a big fudge chocolate cake. It was a truly international turn out with four Danes, three Canadians and three Americans. Thanks to Jenny for gathering all the people, it was a great night.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Wednesday, Feb 3rd, 2010 - Frank's finally

The forecasted heavy rains turned out to be a light sprinkle, but we had designated the day to running. Dan, Peter and I ran around Randolphs golf course, a 3 mile loop, with an option of either asphalt or dirt trail. After putting on dry clothes at he parking lot, next to the car, we headed to the infamous breakfast place/grease pit known as Frank's. Their slogan is "Elegant dining elsewhere" and is pretty much as old school American as You'll find it. We had blueberry pancakes, some scrambled egg and bacon and hash brown potatoes. At 4.30 p.m. we all went to Bill Peterson to see Peter get fitted with his new orthotics. He even went on the treadmill and Bill gave him a quick analysis and some recommendations regarding landing on his forefoot and maybe run in flatter trainers/racers, as that will benefit the natural running gait. Bill was very interested in Dan's shoes from Fusion. They exchanged views on running shoes and seemed to agree on how a shoe should be built. Dan and Peter dropped me off at home and I made a huge pot of chili con carne, which is my part of tomorrows potluck. Peter then drove to the airport to pick up Allan Lundhus, who was so fed up with the cold Danish weather, that he decided to have fun riding his bike in the sun. Allan has been here a couple of times before so he's familiar with the scheduled ride for tomorrow: Kitts Peak, which is approx. 200 km, with a 20 km climb in the middle.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Tuesday, Feb 2nd, 2010 - Visit to Colossal Cave


Todays ride went to Colossal Cave and Vail. Beautiful weather, good for the tan lines and 120 km on the bike. The afternoon run was warm and the skies were divided in two; the North was clear, but gloomy clouds was emerging from the South. Looks like we're gonna have some rain tonight.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Monday, Feb 1st, 2010 Another fine day

Had a good nights sleep and wasn't bothered too much by the flesh wounds. Went to Rancho Vistoso, where Dan did tempo and Peter and I noodled around. I felt painless and with good mobility. Ended up at AJ's, where we cake and coffee in the blazing sun. Then Peter got a bike fit by Bill Peterson, it was very interesting to watch and Peter seemed satisfied. After three Overstuffed Burritos at La Salsa, we went to see Brett at The Running Shop. After a quick shower and applying Neosporin we went out to do some errands, before calling it a nice day.