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The final ride -- Kitt Peak. Unfortunately something is making my stomach very unhappy and I tossed and turned all night. When I got out of bed this morning, the thought of riding 105 miles didn't seem all that appealing let alone a single 12 mile climb to 7000 feet.
Throughout the first 40 miles, I kept thinking it might be a good idea to bag the ride and go back to the room but the thought of not finishing out the camp with everything that was planned seemed like wimping out. Considering that Jonas Colting is now being quoted for saying, "I don't do misery", I felt like I could've just used that phrase and everyone would've understood. But instead, I decided to tough it out to the start of the climb and see what happened.
About 20 miles into the ride, we entered an Indian reservation and I guess they are pretty firm with their law about riding in a single file line so we opted for paceline which only rotated the first three riders. Unfortunately for me, I was one of the three so I put in quite a bit of work before the big climb. Those who benefitted from our generosity were much appreciative. Oddly, the pressure of rolling consistent watts on quick rotation made me forget about my unhappy stomach.
At the base of the climb, I stopped for a quick refuel and then set out to climb all 12 miles of Kitt Peak. I apparently didn't get the memo where we were told it would be a group start but it didn't matter. I was just glad to get started. And then I wasn't. My stomach was unhappy more than ever and the thought of turning around popped into my head several times but I just kept pushing forward mile after mile. I managed to get into a groove despite my discomfort and finally arrived at the top of the mountain.
A quick picture and I was on my way back down the mountain albeit slowly. Although it wasn't as chilly as the descent from Mt. Lemmon, I was still quite cold nonetheless. When I arrived back at the base, the camp folks had towels on the ground and we had a mini picnic with various goodies I wouldn't be caught dead eating any other time. I've managed to keep my diet relatively clean until now but I had a muffin with chocolate chips and some cookies.
I was planning on having a nice slow ride back to town when Justin decided to catch the train (the A group paceline) and I found myself once again pushing hard watts on short rotation. We managed to catch the train after blowing through the border patrol checkpoint and I think they were unhappy but Justin claims they gave him the thumbs up. I think the other four fingers were up as well (ie STOP) but I didn't get tazed so I guess it's all good.
When I arrived at the back of the paceline, I was glad to be in the draft but as the rotation moved forward, the train appeared to be getting faster. When we started, there were approximately 17 people but after a few miles, the train was getting shorter and shorter but the pulls were getting longer and longer. In fact, the pulls got so long, I thought I might get all the way back to town without needing to sit up front but no such luck.
One more until my turn and Max sat on front and pushed hard. I looked down at my powermeter and it said I was pushing 285 watts in his draft. It was at that point I decided to roll on out the back and come back in solo. Later Anthony said he thought I rolled out the back -to- eat. I corrected him by saying, I got rolled out the back and decided to eat. It was all good though. I had about an hour left in the ride and settled into a nice rhythm except for those bumpy roads and just ticked away the miles back to town.
About 4 miles from the hotel, I came to an intersection and felt like I needed to turn so I waited for another rider to appear. David (there's another blog dedicated to him later) rolled up and confirmed my suspicions. A left turn at the light and a short 4 miles back and we finally made it back to the hotel.
It's been a little over three hours since we returned, I've eaten lunch, showered, napped, eaten another lunch and now I'm ready to eat dinner. I have quite the appetite and I can't wait to hop on the scale to see what sort of damage (good or bad), I've done. It's hard to tell but I think I'm lighter than when I started.
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