Practice makes perfect

Ever since I spent a day riding the lifts in Winter Park, I haven’t been afraid to ride the same trails repeatedly. I’ve been rather enjoying it, actually. So it has been with the weekend rides with Krista on the TMP Rock n Road Challenge loop. The route is a grand tour of the Tucson Mountains, covering everything from Robles Pass, the classic Starr Pass trails, far west TMP stuff (Brown Mtn), Saguaro National Park dirt roads, some gasline and even Sweetwater. If you haven’t given it a whirl, you are missing out…

The above map shows the route well (~60 miles) and also gives a sneak peak at a new feature in TopoFusion — comparing tracks. Our two tracks from yesterday and a week ago are shown, and every place the track is red, we were faster than last time. Slower = blue.

In a nutshell it shows that we were definitely riding faster this time. The effect of slightly increased winds can also be seen on some of the road areas. I know why a few of the other blue areas are that way, as well, and it is very interesting to compare with some of my previous rides on the loop as well.

Black areas on the map mean no comparison — the tracks diverged here. You see, for the first time we stuck with the route down to the letter, so we could post a time in the “virtual race” challenge that TMP Rock n Road is.

That meant we went took Golden Gate trail, where we definitely weren’t dialed in on all the techy lines. But it was super fun nonetheless.

And we pushed our bikes up the east side of Brown Mtn. Krista’s bike is so light that I think she’s holding it down so it doesn’t float away, not carrying it.

1 hour time bonus for going up and over Brown.

Switchback attack, coming down off Brown.

The west desert went fast. Knowing the route through the maze of trails, and also knowing the flow of the many high speed corners sure helped us move quickly.

I’ve never seen Krista panic as much as when she thought she’d forgotten her refill of Carbo Rocket. Must be the secret to her success or something. Even worse, the pepsi machine wouldn’t take her dollar, so no sub-par replacement calories were to be found either.

from a 2009 TMP RnR ride with Chad

That machine has a history of denying hungry TMP RnR cyclists the sugary liquid they need. Actually it’s a different machine now, but the same spot at the Saguaro National Park visitors center. It wouldn’t take Chad’s dollar either (or any of mine).

Turns out Krista did have plenty of the magic drink, and our ride went steadily and blissfully on. I felt stronger as the day wore on, and was continually amazed how fast we were moving while keeping suffering to a minimum. There’s something to this “pacing” thing. Training, too. Practice makes perfect. Or at least, makes “better.” This ride sure was fun.

We posted the fastest time of the season so far (the course changes a little every year), but I expect it to get torched soon enough.