As I headed out this morning, I was a little concerned about the heat. Not that it was really hot, but it was approaching 90 degrees and the past three weeks I've been in Idaho and Utah where the highs have been in the upper 40's. That is quite the difference and I was feeling it.
I went to Circle K and filled up my water bottles with ice water and then started for Saguaro National Park East. That would be my water top off place. I planned to ride to the end of Old Spanish Trail, or more precisely, Pistol Hill, and back.
I felt tired and sluggish as I started out. I wondered if I would be up to the ride all the way out OSP and back.
When I got to Saguaro National Park, I filled up with water and then wondered if I should just cut it short and may be do the loop in the park instead. I decided to just go for my original plan and see how it went.
As I was riding up OSP, I started feeling better and getting into the ride more. I decided it would be no problem to make the whole way. I thought that maybe I would just continue on to make a large loop and put in enough miles to put me over 1000 for the year (i.e., since May). That would be about a 46 miler.
The ride kind of evolved as I went along.
I turned off OSP onto Pistol Hill road and started climbing the hill. I remember thinking, "This isn't much of a hill. I used to think this was a pretty steep hill, but after all those 10% to 15% hills I have been climbing the past couple of weeks, this looks tame." In fact, the longer I rode up the hill, the more easy I felt it was. I ended up shifting into a higher gear and continuing to pedal a good clip. This I did at least four times. I kept upshifting. That felt good!
I exceeded 40 mph as I rode down Colossal Cave Road over the Pantano Wash.
I felt real good about getting in the necessary miles and rode up Catalina Highway to make sure I got enough miles. I ended up putting in 10 miles more than I needed.
When I turned off Catalina Highway, I really felt my knees being overworked. I mostly just limped home from there - the last six miles.
About 25 miles into this ride, when the main climbing was all done and I was trending downhill, I was still having to work hard because there was a strong head wind. I decided to recline my seat back another notch in the adjustment. That made a significant difference. I am not sure what it does to my climbing power though. I plan to ride like this for a while and see how it goes.
I enjoyed my last day of vacation. Though, I did over do the ride.
However, I have now ridden over 1000 miles this year!