Results will start rolling in Saturday @ after 1:00pm until Sunday @1:00. I am Men’s Solo Singlespeed Rider #16 watch them laps tick up!

So, it is my 2nd week of training for the AZT300. I’ve had a good week and have maybe fallen behind in a few rides and a few areas, but I’ve been trying to stick to it. I only missed one long easy pace ride due to some pretty serious back/arm fatigue going into it.

I rode La Milagrosa twice this week. The first time I did the loop of up Catalina highway amd then down millie. I had Ryan and Nathan tag along for good times down the trail. It was Ryan’s first time and he did very well. He picked up a lot of the molino descent and a lot of the millie descent. I showed him some of the choice lines on the harder stuff.

The second time I rode millie it was with Duncan and Duracell. We shuttled it and rode the Rocks N’ Clocks run for La Milagrosa. I suffered on the molino HAB. I rode more than I hiked and even picked up some new lines on the climb. I didn’t stop at the top like everyone always does. I kept moving down the Molino descent. I was moving down the descent, slowly, but I was moving still. Duncan passed me halfway down Molino. How does he ride SO FAST? The dude is pretty stupid fast. Anyways, I started attacking the hills as I knew it was my only way to tighten if not close any kind of gap between myself and Duncan. I eventually got into a bit of a techy flow goodness and before I knew it I was railing corners and hucking off rocks chasing down Duncan. Two dabs in the rock garden and a dab on the waterfall left line were my biggest failures. I rolled out with a time of 1:12:40. Duncan had me gapped by about 6 minutes. At the end the stoke was off the charts, it was amazing! Technically we had a mini super-D and it was badass! I blew a fork seal during the run and my fork had gone down to 55psi (normally at 95). Duncan said the low pressure and high rebound would make it pack and be pitchy, kinda the same things I was experiencing on the Molino descent (my rebound was already a little slow). We are going to do this again and I am giving that boy a stopwatch, bike computer, or something. I know we can push it sub 1-hour.

I gotta keep working on my dabless millie ride. I know from the turnoff it can be ridden without a single dab. I’ve ridden all the pieces, except the hard uphill after the first waterfall and a hard move coming out of the wash near the end. I also need to figure out where to consistently go at the start of the rock garden, it just splits into a couple different lines.

I also did a tempo ride to work. I was killing the road grind and the singletrack on my route, I got to work 13minutes earlier than my usual commute time where I push it. I had no recovery drink with me and had to get to a meeting. It was awful, probably a trashed workout.

A quick lunch at Samurai with Bailey, Alia, and Janelle made for a good, hard effort. I ate a plate of chicken catsu curry and downed 4 RC colas to get some calories. A round of the tamed Jon Shouse loop was in order. I did a 40 mile loop from my house -> Valencia/Hougton -> high tension power lines -> RR tracks -> three bridges -> AZT pistol hill -> X.9 ranch road -> Old Spanish trail -> Rincon Market -> Valencia/Houghton -> my house. I had some valve stem problems along the RR tracks which were eventually remedied with some electrical tape that I keep wrapped around my pump. I rode along side a train for a while, it was super scary hearing it blow through those narrow windy passages. I rolled the end with my princeton tec EOS headlight and little bontrager 3x AAA light. I was a good test of the bikepacking lighting setup, I might need something a little brighter though. I felt really good on this ride, I had endless power and even dinglespeeded it, 32×20 for the AZT and 35/17 for the roads. The whole time I thought about how I was missing SSAZ and was trying to put the prescribed amount of hurt on myself. I turned cracklin’ oat bran into suffering and turned music into motion. Desert glow and too many saguaros ensued. A good almost-end to a good training week. I felt like a monster out there.

I missed a whole month of blogging, here’s what you missed:

So I wanted to go out and roll the Antelope Peak Challenge 115 which would let me roll the new gasline bypass and the new (to me) boulders/Ripsey sections. I decided it should be a bikepacking mission where I would learn some things. Did I ever.

The plan was to night ride from my dad’s house in Oracle to the water cache, camp and then wake up and roll ripsey with The Evils, Chris, Max, and Steve.

I started out trying to get out of work early, but got delayed a bit and then I had to pack and see the wife off to Scottsdale as she was visiting some of her friends. I finally hit the road with bike loaded with food and water and was ready to go. This time, no goofy nitro-funny car enduro powders, just bags of cereal (oatmeal squares/cracklin oat bran),  Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate peanut butter cups (totally addicted), recoverite, and the ever-so-great “bars” that you still love after the 6th one.

On my way to oracle I wanted to stop somewhere and eat a very naughty calorie-laden meal that would stick to me. Panda express 50/50 fried rice/chow mein, two orders of orange chicken, and 64oz of Pepsi was the (probably) 3000+ calorie gut bomb of a fuel source.

I finally got to my dad’s unloaded the bike, changed into colder weather riding gear, made final adjustments to the bike and then fired up the spot. Long story short, spot wasn’t posting points and I screwed around with the spot for at least 2 hours trying to get it to post points. I seemed to have had some bum Li Ion batteries in it. It was 11:30pm and I decided screw the spot, I’m hitting the road. I was watching TV with my dad and felt very sleepy and even nodded off (I had been awake since 7:30).

I debated throwing in the towel as the remoteness of the area freaked me out. Before I knew it, I was rolling down the street where I grew up and learned to ride a bike (still am). Unbeknownst to me, I was heading into a black abyss of solitude and suffering.

Everything seemed to be peachy as I was working my way up tiger mine road towards the trail head. The only catch was I had a very heightened awareness of things that go bump in the night. At times I was very much so in the grips of this fear and felt vulnerable the majority of the time. Things were going well, bomb down big hill, hike up the next one. Rinse, repeat. Note to self: do not camp in a wash, it is frickin cold down there!

Good flow was happening and I was carving corners and ripping it up. I rounded a turn and there were two big glowing eyes in front of me. I panicked, grabbed brakes (this is how every crash starts), and got in one of those weird side-endos, plowed through a prickly pear and fell. I hit the ground ROARING! I hoped this would scare off whatever animal was out to get me. I already had my tactical blade deployed and was ready for the next phase of the attack. When I craned my light over, I saw a cow running through a creosote. I did some more surveying and there was a whole herd of them. I decided I was safe from animal attacks, put away the knife and surveyed the damage. Pin cushion legs. Ripped knee warmer. Bloody knee. Thank god I didn’t break my brake lever(s)! Socks filled with prickly pear “hair spines”. Hey there’s my headphones over there, they fell out of my pocket. My pocket is open! Where’s my iPod? Great, iPod bounced out somewhere along the trail. I’ll post something up on the APC board, maybe Chad can give a time bonus to whoever finds my iPod? These needles are so deep. Ugh, my rear tire is leaking air. Where is it leaking from? Rotate until leaking stops. I don’t need a flat this early! Should’ve put that rampage on before I left! I made feeble attemps to remove spines while my adrenaline was still pumping. I got most of them, but figured I’d just DEAL WITH IT for the next 30 miles. Back on the bike, do I still know how to ride? No. Do I know how to modulate my brakes? No. C’mon wiggle your arms, loosen up, almost took a spill there. Ok, some hike a bike again, I can regain my bearings. What was that (shoots light behind me)…

So you get the idea. Constant paranoia, tenseness, lots of whooping/bell ringing. Look out wolves, bears, mountain lions I am the scary crazy mechanized ape creature out here. I wanted to stop and sleep so bad. I thought about bail points, turning around.

Morale was always low, but a few things made it better: The techy rocks right before the gas line. Hitting the gasline. AZT placard signs that reflect. Seeing them reflect at the bottom of a hill. I thought about my wife for a long time, it brought me some comfort. Seeing a hiker camped out BY the trail. Seeing 3 hikers camped out ON the bypass descent. The bypass. The wideness of the bypass. The grade of the bypass climbs. The bypass tread. The bypass descent. How have I been descending this long? I must run out of earth eventually. Seeing lights of Winkleman, seeing the Asarco smelter stack from afar. Seeing the lights of Oracle and the bigelow towers. Rear tire staying aired up after a few refills. Double track from Bloodsucker to the cow tank/windmill. Cow tank filled to the brim with green water. Seeing Antelope peak. Every pedal stroke is making Antelope Peak bigger!

Things that sapped morale. Constantly monitoring progress with the GPS. Looking at miles. Zooming in and out of the map. I know that big descent is coming at SOME POINT, BUT WHEN? Birds that fly out of bushes. Bladder in frame pack springing a leak and seeping water onto my now sand covered chain which popped and creaked and groaned despite lubrication attempts, Rear tire squishy after a while. Wait that hill wasn’t antelope peak? Antelope peak looks SO small still! Why am I descending so close to the peak? Why am I moving AWAY from the peak? Every pedal stroke is making Antelope Peak smaller!

I saw green eyes in the bushes staring at me and I roared and yelled at the thing. It slinked off into the dark a little bit to where I was no longer seeing its eyes. Not sure if it was a bobcat or coyote, no big deal. While I was directly west of Antelope peak, the waning moon was rising and the sun was slightly behind it. A sense of relief washed over me. I kept pushing through and making my way to the saddle where I knew doubletrack awaited with a quick spin to the Boulders. I’d pushed through so much pain and felt pretty good. On my last climb up the saddle a stubborn bull insisted on using the AZT for travel. It kept running up the singletrack to match my advances, but eventually it veered off and I was able to pass. Just as I hit doubletrack, I saw headlights of a truck approaching. I stopped and chatted with some javelina bow hunters. And then another truck and then another and then another and then another. Five trucks out bowhunting Javelinas. I invited them to come to my house and camp out by my trashcans if their search turned up empty.

I hit Freeman and buzzed up the road to the boulders section, I think I missed a tiny bout of singletrack there, but I was too excited to make camp and down some recovery drink and pass out. I’d been awake for over 24 hours and I was long overdue for some sleep. Airing up my mattress and unpacking my stuff was a chore. As soon as I got in my sleeping bag I was warm and then I passed out almost immediately.

Two hours later I was awakened by Patrick/Max/Chris and I told broken stories to convey my current condition. I was trying to convey that I was a sleep-deprived pincusion, not sure if that came out. I wolfed down a bean burrito that Patrick had brought and was really satisfied with it. I had already decided I had no business rolling the big Ripsey loop, especially not with a group since I would be holding them up and my suffering would probably bring morale down for the group. I snoozed until about 1:00pm and then woke up, made some phone calls to let a few people know I was alive (since the spot was dead).

I decided there was no time like the present, busted out of my bag, packed up and headed onto the road (after goofing with some of the worst tweezers ever from my first aid kit). How do you even make bad tweezers? I ate cereal and bars and sipped on water. I pedaled and pedaled and pedaled and pedaled and pedaled into a headwind and finally ran into the 24HOP course. I was expecting painter boy to show up, but it didn’t to my pleasant surprise. Just as I was about to enter the 24HOP course I ran into some guys and we chatted about what I was doing and the guy, Andy, seemed familiar with the Antelope Peak Challenge. We chatted about tire repair and I told him about the awesomeness of the gasline bypass and reassured him the very rough singletrack sections were still there. I continued on, riding against traffic of people “training” for the 24HOP. There were many people on their carbon hardtail 29ers in full race kits riding in a slow and rude manner. Eventually I got to the parking lot where there were over 20 cars and tons of people congregated around. Was the 24HOP this weekend? Did I miss my spot? At any rate I pedaled and pedaled ate some gel packs. My carrots were the amazing tailwind I would have on highway 77 which would take me to circle K which would take me to my dad’s. I snapped some photos in town and got a good picture of Antelope Peak in the distance. Antelope peak from that location has a special meaning to me, a bit of nostalgia since I grew up in Oracle and would fantasize about it being a volcano with dinosaurs around it (I was a dinosaur nut, still am).

I hit the circle K and grabbed what seemed like it would be good: 20oz Chocolate milk, 20oz Vanilla coke, cool ranch doritos, big bag of teriaki jerky. I opened the jerky and dumped the chips into it. I chugged half the milk to get some recovery calories moving in. I sipped on the coke, ate jerky and doritos as I buzzed through town and to my dad’s. I thought of all the rides I did as a kid on my full rigid SS 20″ Huffy and how I would put the circle K bag on my bars and eat candy as my friends and I rode bikes around town.

In the end this ride proved to be the ultimate adventure for me. The real battles were really the solitude, the dark, the remoteness of the the trail. These are the elements I am not used to, but found ways to manage and to just keep moving. I moved the entire time, but stopped when I crashed and again when I had to lube my chain.

Moving time: 9:24, loaded, rigid, SS, night ride and other excuses.
Total Time: Too long, but from 11:30pm to 4:30pm makes for a good 17 hours?

It was dark out, I sat in Le Buzz sipping on a coffee and ate a croissant with their amazing raspberry jam. I was waiting to meet Tim and Steve to roll one of the biggest obstacles in my mind between me and an AZT300 finish. This obstacle is the section that starts at the end of Tanque Verde Road and goes all the way to the top of Prison Camp. Why is this so hard? It is hard because my house is an easy 10 minute spin off of Old Spanish Trail. The thought of bailing for a cold beer, hot shower, and warm wife will be such a strong pull. I must conquer the section after it to give me the confidence to keep going. I was fearful for what the day held based upon my McDowell performance, but I jumped in head first anyways.

Jet turbine, sand-blasting gusts of wind were battled from Le Buzz all the way to the Redington corrals. I had to hike a bike every north-bound climb up Redington Road because the headwinds were too strong to grind up on the single speed. The big jeep road climbs and descents were a blast and I climbed a vast majority of them. I also hiked a few of them. This ride was partially a HAB training ride and it suited its purpose. In the end, a great day, especially endurance-wise and am glad to have slayed another AZT300 confidence-killing monster. Oh yeah and the HABs up molino/prison were not that bad. I popped on some headphones and started pushing. It was over before I knew it.

In the end, I had a beautiful day on the bike. I Had an even stronger day on the bike. This ride had very similar stats to McDowell in distance, climbing and hike-a-biking–Catalina HWY counts as Pemberton. The only difference? I had very little weight on my back, croissant and raspberry jam and coffee for breakfast, was rolling rigid, SS, 29er, and CarboRocket 333. One of those pieces helped out my endurance substantially. Time will tell. From Le Buzz to Le Buzz, my moving time was 6:31, total time 8:12. A nice 46 miles and 7000 ft of climbing.

The AZT section that crosses Redington Rd -> Molino Basin is AMAZING. I was loving every second of it. Why did I wait so long to ride this section of trail? It is very fun and flowy and fast. Feast your eyes on the beautiful day: