Flip Turns: Tuscon Tri Camp

The climb out of bed in the morning is getting tougher. Yesterday was such a full day, that they were adding up.

I've found in the past that I can do okay with added stress and volume when I don't have anything else to do but train. I've always felt better on day 2 of the MS150s, and I think doing 8 consecutive years of smashing myself in the pool around the XMAS and New Years time in HS and College has made me tolerable of heavy loads.

So day 3 was a 62 mile ride called The Shootout. Tuscon has one of the most prolific Saturday morning "roadie" group ride. It regularly gets pro cyclist, pro mountain bikers, and pro triathletes. They regularly get over 200+ riders, and they hammer at pro peleton paces. They do a few different courses in the Tuscon area, but our course was the most famous one. It has been regarded as one of the 10 best rides (The Shootout on this route) in the country.

It was slated for 62 miles and 1,800 feet of climbing. Like yesterday, no summit per say, just a good rise. The roads were bumpy as hell and in the pace line, I never saw many of them coming.

After hitting the top of the course around mile 35, it was a pretty quick descent on a nice straight road with better surfaces. I got in a pace line with 4 other guys, and we hammered hard around 24-26 mph for a good hour, dropped one of the guys, but covered some serious distance and pretty much took turns wrecking the others when we got to the front of the line.

So I mentioned the shitty roads in Tuscon. Well at the top of the course at around 36 miles, we peaked then had a good 2-3 miles of a real fast technical downhill and terrible roads. I looked down at some point nearing the bottom of the descent and realized my PowerTap computer had rattled out of its holster and had been launched from my bike.

I was devastated. At that point, I was 3 riders back from the front of the group, had worked hard all day to stay in contact, and was having an impressive day in the saddle.

I had to turn around, head back up the hill looking for the computer having no clue where it popped off. I rode up about 2 miles, was passed on the way up by all of the A riders who were doing that route, and had to call off the search for fear of getting lost on the way back.

So there went a $250 piece of hardware, and more importantly in my eyes, went 2 days of data, and meant I would have no power data for the climb up Mt Lemmon on day 4.

I was pissed, but got over it, and finished off the ride, having added another 4 miles to the schedule.

The rest of the afternoon included a bike skills session where we did things like real tight turns, limbo on the bike, picked up bottles as we rode by while seated on the saddle, bunny hopped, etc. It was actually a very helpful session. It was difficult on the tri bike, but I gained some comfort.

That night, we went out to dinner on the town. We headed to a Mexican restaurant, had some drinks and good times with my new friends. It was hear were a plot was put together to make a summit bid the following morning on Mt Lemmon.

Here are some photos from Day 3: