Arizona Training Report IV

My training here in Tucson is all said and done with. I’ve logged a lot of time on the bike and with the road conditions; sometimes I think I’m getting a taste of the Paris-Roubaix. Anyways, I’m ready to pack it up and head home and actually spend more than a day with my family.

My last Saturday here entailed a 3 hour ride and a 2,000 yard recovery swim. A relatively low-key day since I had another 6-7 hour day scheduled for Sunday. I began my ride around 9 and I wore bib shorts and a jersey. The temperature was in the 30’s, I figured it would warm up fast, it didn’t. As I headed out of town through one of passes, I decided I’d climb at a slightly higher heart rate to keep myself warm. It didn’t do much good as my body was still covered with goose bumps. Once I reached an intersection, I decided take a right and ride through a National Park, bad idea! The road offered no shoulder to ride on and it was busy! Nothing like cars whizzing by you to keep you on your toes. My pace was much faster than my usual slow crawl of a ride, but I was right at my heart rate, so I kept the tempo. Soon enough, the Park’s boundaries ended and the traffic eased up. After that it was nothing but gentle rollers into Tucson. For some reason on my ride, I started thinking about how treacherous all the potholes I’d seen Arizona were and how they could easily take down a rider. As it turned out, I shouldn’t have been thinking about potholes, but rather trolley tracks. I was no more than a quarter mile away from my apartment when a car started backing out. I had just sped through an intersection to make the light and was carrying a speed of 20 mph. I moved left to get out of the way and jumped the trolley tracks that ran down the middle of road. When I tried to jump back over, my back wheel got caught and I went down on my right hip and slid into the curb. First and foremost, I looked my bike over. It was fine except for my shifters being way out of alignment. Then I checked myself over and I fortunately sustained only a few cuts on my right ankle and on my right arm. Once I got going again, I rode to yet another bike shop to have it looked over more carefully and while I was waiting, my hip was starting to hurt. I took some Advil, rested for a bit, and went for my recovery swim.

When I woke up Sunday morning, my hip was even more sore, as expected. A part of me wanted to go out and break the century mark, but after getting on the bike and going up some hills, I soon realized that wouldn’t be beneficial. Every pedal stroke yielded some pain, so I put my ego aside and rode an easy 50 miles. However, my hip feels better when pedaling than when walking, basically, I’m going be icing it for a couple of days.

Overall, my time down here has been great! I’ve been in a very focused environment and I know this trip has been great for my base. Will I come back here next year? Probably not, I have a friend who is going to be in New Zealand training. Then again, there’s no need to think about base training for next year when my season is coming up!

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank you for taking the time to read about my training while I’ve been down here! I’ll keep you posted.