I’ve been doing something a little different lately. Mixing things up by purposefully avoiding both long and hard rides. Moderate, steady… base miles. So far it has been fun… and interesting, especially the psychology of it. It’s tiring at times, but in a different way than I am used to. I think it will help to develop areas I often neglect, and allow some recovery for many overused systems and contact points.
The river path and suburban trails are usually some part of the ride… known and “boring”, except when surprises like big rattlers (in December!?) pop up.
Or sunsets that burn your eyeballs out,
and keep the stoke going for bonus miles well into the dark.
The one part I needed to re-build my old Leviathan as a “junk miles” (*) bike arrived at 11am on Wednesday. I had one hour to finish the build, including stealing shifters and derailer from my current bike, among other parts swaps. I was 20 minutes late leaving to ride to Paula’s school, but fortunately the 38c road tire, which has been hanging in the shed for the better part of a decade, made the bike super fast. I made it with time to spare. On the way back Paula showed me some new trails she takes to avoid busy roads in NW Tucson. She is cleared to run starting this week, but for now is riding and speed-walking quite a bit.
(*) Personally, I don’t believe any miles are “junk.” Any time spent outside, rolling on two wheels, or pushing two wheels, or on two feet, is time well spent.
Chad is back on the bike after a negative xray reading. We were going to ride mellow suburban trails but when I found him he was attempting to turn a negative xray into a positive. Of course I joined him and we came up with a few fun/stupid lines through the rocks.
Later in the week I ran into Max and rode up the Finger Rock wash trail with him. The 38c tire works pretty well, even in some sand.
Sunday was a real mountain bike day. Krista and I did a short version of the TMP Rock ‘n Road Challenge (<--- website now being updated by yours truly).
We skipped some of the hard stuff (e.g. Brown Mountain) and ended up with 52 miles (the full loop is 60). I look forward to hammering the full loop out some time, but don’t feel the need to do it now.
It was great to get out to areas of Tucson Mountain Park I haven’t ridden for quite a while, and to cruise through them at Krista’s steady pace. I highly recommend that loop (it is a “virtual race” that you can do any time) at any pace.
Dave and Lynda came into town looking to do some AZT 300 recon, and had planned to bikepack the first half. But Dave was sick, so he played shuttle driver and I took Lynda on a tour of the ~25 mile Cienega segment of the AZT. The Cienega segment is atypical AZT in that it is pretty mellow. Bikepacking and base-miles friendly, you might say.
On the way we checked out the new ‘equestrian bypass’ / water access trail that drops into the perennial Cienega Creek. It’s a good water source for thru-riders and thru-hikers.
Ah ha! The third bridge at “3 Bridges” does exist, and it’s now got an AZT marker on it.
There are some cool bits of trail on either side of the wash, but there is no trail (i.e. sand) for a fair stretch down in the creekbed. Great place for a nap in the shade, but the AZT race routes will continue to use the bridge as in years before.
On to Colossal Cave, the Rincon Valley and all the super duper wooper trail that awaits! (I might be biased on that, but many seem to agree)
I’ll always be partial to this stretch of trail.
And no one ever has to twist my arm into riding swoopy trail like that!
January 15th is the second AZT Jamboree, where we’ll be doing everything we rode (Cienega stuff) plus the Las Colinas segment, as a shuttle ride. It’s a benefit for the Arizona Trail Association, which is of course the driving force behind creating and maintaining some of the best trails in Arizona Trail. Come on out, ride some trail and show support for the AZT. Website with more info is here:
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