New Bike

Well, the time trial bike that I looked at last week was a little too big, so I decided to buy a quick, cheap road bike. This is what I came up with. Rides great. I have a ride this Saturday with the gang on the road bike. Then I am headed to Starr Pass with the AZT 300 Race Crew (Zach and Tim).

Tour de France

The Tour de France started last Saturday with an amazing time trial prologue in London. Today, the racers are on Stage 3, crossing the border from Belgium into France. Those looking for some great road action, tune into the Versus channel every morning.

I finally caught the "roadie" bug. Instead of buying a triathlon bike, I bought a road bike yesterday from craigslist. I had a great ride today to Sabino Canyon and back, stopping at Starbucks to yuck it up with some other roadies. I must admit, I really enjoyed the ride. You might see me a lot more on the road bike than the mt bike in the next few months.

9 Hours of Swimming: Swim Marathon

Check this event out in NY:

28 Mile Swim video from the New York Times. This would be one event that would take me a few more years of training. Plus, the entry fee is $1200!

La Milagrosa Ride

Max, Chris, and I headed to Reddington early this am to do the 42 mile Italian Trap-La Milagrosa Loop from Agua Caliente Park. Chris and I carpooled and met Max at 5 am at the park. After some small talk about rigs, we headed up to tackle the steep, uphill climb. Chris was having some trouble with his ss, so Max and I left him to do the hill climb up to Bellota Ranch while we adjusted our route to only La Milagrosa.

We turned on the AZ trail instead of doing the Italian Tank loop (cutting off about 20 miles from the originally planned route). Here is a picture of Max at the AZT turnoff:



A few miles down the road, I got 2 different flats since I am not running stans in the back. Here is a picture before the flats. Notice I am happy and carefree, flats and flying over my handlebars are not on my mind.


The two flats were from a bad thorn and a pinch flat. We continued on to La Milagrosa turnoff. I have some fond memories here of the AZT 300 Race in April of this year. I passed this section at night, cold and ready to camp. Now I was passing it in the heat of the day with Max showing me his sweet downhill ability. I flew over my handlebars a few times, but no serious injuries. I still need to perfect some of my technical on trails like Bug Springs and La Milagrosa.

I made it back to Agua Caliente park at about 930 to pick up Chris. We headed to Einstein's for some OJ and breakfast bagel. Mmmmmm.

Map of the loop

Tucson-Green Mountain-Bug Spring-Tucson

We this morning at the Tanque Verde/Bear Canyon Circle K at 4am. It was great spot to leave the car and pick up a cup of joe before the ride. We started a little after 4 up the Lemmon.

We got to Palisades a little before 7am, filled up the bottles, and headed back down to the Uppper Green Mountain TH. It was my first time doing the trail, but it seemed like it was in pretty descent shape. Good steep climbs and some hike-a-bike, oh yes, a good many sections were hike-a-bike. Good times though. Anyway, we chugged along with Naked Guy showing me up on every jump/climb and always in front of me.

At the fork to Bug Springs, we rested for a few mins before heading up one of the steepest trails I have seen in AZ. Again, it was good times and some nice hike-a-bike that allowed me to look over the valley below. The section that was in the wash was sometimes a little hard to follow; but just follow the orange ribbons that are on the trees. More hike-a-bike, but the single track/technical sections that followed were worth every section of the hike-a-bike. Sweet single track at the very end as you exit the trail and get on the hwy. We exited on the hwy at about 10ish, back to the car at 11. We bought some ice cold gatorade and headed home.

Miles according to the odometer: 47.2
Approx Elevation Gain: 6-7k feet

GPS of Green Mountain

Great Divide Race

While I was on vacation in northern Arizona, Utah, and LV, the Great Divide Race started. A record-setting 25 racers took off from Port Roosville, MT. Thanks to this Web 2.0 age we live in and the efforts of some amazingly hard-working folks, you can follow along at the website by clicking here

I'm pretty much glued to the coverage and I wish the best of luck to all the racers.

Zion National Park

We did 2 new canyons: Fat Man's Misery and Das Boot, then we had to run to LV to see the fam, so we cranked out Keyhole in about one hour. Here are the pictures from the trip:

Hike up to Fat Man

One of the few rappels on Fat Man's
Nice canyon in Fat Man's
Chad in Keyhole
Hike down to Das Boot
Narrows below Fat Man's

Another shot from Fatty Man

Thanks again to the Thomas and Anderson clan for feeding me, letting me shave, and rest at their houses (and Steve, my canyoneering friend, roper hauler, and camerman).

Good picture of the lighting in Fat Man's Misery