AZT 300

The gear, same as last year (blanket, helmet, backpack, etc...), just more warm clothes

I love twisty ties... I secured the headlamp.

Another view
I decided to stay with eggbeaters instead of switching over to flats. My cheap, shimano shoes fair well when I hike in them.

The plan: to finish what I started. To take a quote from Dumb and Dumber, "to totally redeem myself."
The route: up and over Mt Lemmon, gasline, Antelope Peak, Freeman, Gila, Box, and finally to Superior. Roughly 150 miles and +20,000 feet of climbing/hike-a-bike (one-way). Leaving around 9ish on Friday and hope to finish sometime on Saturday in Superior before taking the highway back on Sunday before work.

24 Hour OP Solo

This weekend, the APC went down very smoothly for my body. Planning for this next weekend might have an overnighter.... My route right now is at 155 miles with 22,000 feet of climbing. We will see if the schedule works out for this one.

Epic rides just announced that they will have real time data available on race day here for those that want to "see" the race from their home.

APC Report

Post-ride picture courtesy of Max

At 7am, we started at Willow Springs Rd off Highway 77 and rode to Oracle as a group for some coffee and scones... Mmmmmm! After taking a group picture, we rolled out from the Station in Oracle at 8:00am. At Tiger Mine Rd, Scott, Kevin, and Max were rolling in front of me, no surprise, these guys were going to win this race is what I thought. But then, Kevin had some mechanical issues with his shock. I continued to ride on and eventually passed Max(who was stripping down to drop the hammer),who quickly caught Scott and I before pulling ahead.

Scott and I started to chat a bit about the gasline bonus (clearing all of the hills).We concluded that whoever could clean all the hills without dabbing would probably win the race. My attempt during the pre-ride pretty much sealed my fate, I would have to dab at least one time and I did. I watched Scott clean every steep hill, very impressive. About the same time, Nathan passed me on his singlespeed.

I rode solo until getting to the bottom of Antelope Peak, where I saw Max, Scott, and Nathan on different sections of AP. I jogged up most of the trail. My next goal was to try to catch Nathan, having realized that Scott was too far (with respect to time). I hammered on Willow Springs Rd to a little before Junebug, at which time I realized the person I had been seeing was actually Scott.

He convinced me to crank out the 24-hour lap, something I am glad he did. We did the 24-hour course together, chatting a bit, before exiting back on Willow.The new singletrack (his/her) is amazing; I am excited to do the OP 24 Race in Feb.So we were finishing the 24-hour course. and Scott dropped me with about 1/2 mile to go on the 24 hour course. I tried to stay with him, but my legs were getting a little tired. Not sure what happened to the legs, but I needed some food so I slowed down a bit to eat, turned my music up, and hammered to the car.

I got back to the car (having left my trunk intentionally open) to a beer fest at the cars... great way to end over 7 hours on the bike on some great AZ Trail single track.

Post-ride cool down before heading to De Marco in Oracle. It was a great, small race that was made possible by friends like Scott, Jeff, and Max and The Station (who opened up early just for us!).

More APC pictures (courtesy of Steve)

Antelope Peak Challenge Race Results

From L to Right: Dave, Jeff, Lee, Nathan, Steve, Max, Patrick, Scott, Chad, Ken, and Kevin at the Station post-coffee.

Climbing up Antelope Peak to the register, a 15-year old bottle with entries from the early 90s.

Antelope Peak Challenge 2008 Results

* Cleaning all of the hills on the gasline– 30 minutes
* Reaching the summit of Antelope Peak (~0.5 miles and ~400 feet off
route)– 75 minutes
* Doing extra laps of the 2008 Old Pueblo 24 hour course–90 minutesStarted from the Station at 8:00am

The first number is the time the participant arrived at the car; the second is the time minus any of the said bonuses. For example, Scott arrived at 2:46 and got all the time bonuses, so he got an end time of 11:31, first place.

(finish time/time-bonus)

1. Scott Morris 2:46pm/11:31

2. Nathan Friedman (SS) 2:30/11:45

2. Max Morris 1:30/11:45

3. Chad Brown 2:50/12:05

4. Dave Chenault (SS) 2:25/1:10

5. Lee Blackwell 3:02/1:47

6. Jeff Handy 3:02

7. Steve Westerberg (SS) 3:45

8. Ken Harrison 3:45

Patrick Hair DNF

Kevin Riseborough DNF

TMP Wed Night Ride

A few shots from tonights ride at TMP.....
Checking the old GPS

Vern, Max and I at Yetman Wash signMax checking his tire (he had 3 flats)

Post-ride beer and sandwich/soup at Bison Witches.

Full Moon Mtn Biking

.. no lights allowed


Louis and I hit up 50-year trail from his house, hitting up Midgate and Gem, before dropping down to the bottom of the chutes and returning on lower 50-year trail. What an amazing ride! Stuff that was semi-technical during the day was technical without any lights. As we started out, there were a few clouds around the moon, but around 8ish, the clouds seemed to disappear (those pics were a little too bright and did not really come out).

I walked most of the free-ride sectiomns, even though Louis showed me most of the lines. Post-ride beer and chatting courtesy of Louis. Thanks again.

APC

The view from Antelope Peak... Mt Lemon, San Manuel, Mammoth, Winkleman, Superior, Sierra Anchas, etc....all in the distance. Atop Antelope, there is a book to add your name, date, and a little comment.





The race is this Sunday, the 27th of January. We roll out from Willow Springs and head to the Station for some coffee, before hammering out to Tiger Mine Road where it is on like flan.



Picture dump from APC pre-ride

The finished training plan

You can see the base, build, and peak weeks here. The light green are simulated race bricks and the purple are races. Everything is listed in hours, although tempo (or how hard I am training that day) is not recorded. You will notice that there are more bricks in the peak stage; also, these bricks are done at race pace hence the shorter hours during this stage. Immediately after my 3rd peak stage, I will be resting for 5-7 days for rejuvenation.

Comments or suggestions on the plan?

Training Plan

I have been reading a few of Joe Friel's books on endurance cycling/triathlons in order to understand how to make my training plan for the next 5 months. I got most of it down, just need to decided which races I am really planning on doing.

The are five different categories, swim, bike, run, yoga, and strength. I have tempo, Muscular Endurance, bricks (for example, a 90 minutes swim followed by a 60 minute bike), and block, build, and peak stages. Still working on it today and tomorrow, but should have it posted soon.

Picacho Peak

It's Sunday, so it was time for my long ride on the road bike. After a few eggs and toast, I headed out with a banana, clif bar, a bottle of HEED, and 3 hammer gels at 1ish.. The 4 hour ride was at tempo, just fast enough to get back before the sun started to set. I love long, solo tempo rides; I'll probably will start road biking a little more as the weather warms up in the next few months.

The frontage road west bound had very little traffic, maybe 10-15 cars passed me. I stopped at the Dairy Queen (nudging my way around 20 people in the DQ line) below Picacho Peak and headed back to my parent's house, then back to mine to cook some rice, veggies, and orange chicken.

Mileage: 64.2 miles
Time: 4 hours

Shot of the frontage road


I'll be doing my road rides this week in order to increase my base miles every week.

Today's playlist: Format, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cheville, and 311

SSAZ 2008

Hands were hurting a little after descending La Milagrosa, but besides that, the ride went very well. I met few ss'ers on the way up and at the aid station. This race was a c-race, mostly just wanted to get out and have some fun with some ss'ers. I was a little surprised in my legs while descending Bellota, not sure if it was the weight training this week, but they were a little sore.

APC and the Quad are next week, two rides I have been dreaming about for months now. I had some nice conversations along the way, including Rudi, who gave me some great insight about endurance cycling. Rudi did the GDR on a fixed ss befre bailing after 900 miles. He also gave me some great tips about doing my 24-solo in February.

Summing up what he said, "it is not about coming out hard and riding hard, it is about going the distance and finding your inner self. When you are doing your 24 hours, you need to go steady until the last 8 hours where you can put the hammer down."

After I heard that, I slowed down a bit more yesterday in order to attempt to ride a pace I could handle for hours and hours.

La Milagrosa...... ahhhhhhhh

The route.... mtn lemon highway-molino-bellota-Italian trap-AZT-la milagrosa, 48 miles with 6400 feet of climbing.

Jumping back on the road bike tomorrow for a long, easy ride, probably in the neighborhood of 3-4 hours.

Trader Joe's Vintage Ale

Vintage Ale is back in stock at Trader Joe's here in Tucson! I bought them as prizes for my next 3 rides of 10+ hours. That said, I think I am cutting back on my beer consumption for the next month in order to prep for the 24HOTOP.

Schedule

I had two weeks off before Christmas and a week of snowboarding last week. It was a rest that my body needed, although to be honest, I was reluctant to do.

Today, I decided it was time to hit the pool and bike again, and hit it real hard. Did about 1 hour strength pool workout and 1.5 of strength. I decided that this year, unlike previous years, I am going to start to make a real workout plan. We will see how long this lasts, but my hope is to curtail unnecessary workouts, focus on strength and endurance, and really get organized with all my escapades.

With my first solo 24 hour race in less than a month, I will be focusing mostly on biking, although I still plan on swimming M, W, and F and doing yoga M and F. Hope to

Topos AZSF

Milagrosa
TMP
50-Year Trail
SoMo (1 of 2)
SoMo (2 of 2)

BCTSedona

Spring Fling Maps

Area Maps for all Rides (click on the link to view the trail map or the picture map to see driving directions and start times)
Hawes
Mt Lemmon/Milagrosa

Bars on Bikes Meeting Location


TMP Night Ride Meeting Location



SoMo

SoMo Party Map


BCT
TMP
Sedona Map
Sedona Parking Map
Sedona Camping
Directions to Sedona Camping: North on AZ 179, to forest road 120. I have not been there for a few years, but here above is the approximate point. If you plan on camping, there is a group of us that should be there on Friday night (unless plans change). Come talk with me at the SoMo party if you want more details.

Sedona Party at BikenBean