I decided to join the Tucson Recumbent Cyclists planned Canado del Oro ride today at 0530. However, I did not want to load my trike in the car and drive all the way there, so I decided I would ride there and back. It was planned to be about 62.5 miles. This meant I was to leave home by 0330 so that I left about 15 minutes buffer from the amount of time it was estimated to take me to ride there.
I was to meet Donald Velasco at Speedway and the Pantano River Park (part of the Chuck Huckelberry Loop) at 0400. That would give me an extra four minutes from the estimated time to get there. It took my longer to get out of the house than planned ( Daunell Zeller Butt​ sewed up a hole in my leg coolers as I got ready and ate breakfast - She finished just as I was ready to put them on). I left at 0344, 14 minutes late. Now, I was a little concerned that I had to make up 10 minutes, but I also knew I couldn't go all out and burn myself up since I had a long ride ahead of me. I did go at a strong rate, but not one I couldn't maintain for hours. I was stopped at the stoplight at Houghton Rd., but not at any of the other lights. It seems there are hardly any cars out around 0400. ;-)
As I was starting down the hill on Speedway toward the Pantano, I saw a red flashing light on the pavement. I knew it had to be Don there waiting for me. Sure enough, once my sight line cleared the trees, there was the bike with all the flashing lights. I couldn't see Don yet, but knew it was him. He said he was looking up Speedway and all of a sudden the pavement seemed to be flashing. This, was of course, from my light. I had it on the flashing setting because the street lights were more than sufficient to ride by and I was just concerned about being seen.
I arrived for my rendezvous with Don at 0403 -- only three minutes late, but considered right on time.
Don and I rode the Pantano to the Rillito and the planned meeting place with Randy Jardee​. We were supposed to be there by 0420. We arrived pretty much on time. As Don and I rode the path to the meeting point, we had to be careful as we weren't that familiar with parts of the Rillito and in the dark it was hard to see some of the winding curves soon enough to take them safely. The path was quiet and clear for our ride. It was very peaceful and enjoyable.
When we were approaching the rendezvous point, we say a taillight flashing brightly. That had to by Randy, but his taillight is almost impossible to see. Sure enough, the light didn't belong to Randy, it belonged to Greg Navaro. He was there waiting with Randy. He didn't want to be the only one to drive to the ride and decided to also ride there.
We had about 11.3 miles to ride to the starting point of the ride so we took off with Randy leading the way. He is much more familiar with the path at that point. We saw almost nobody as we rode to our destination. That is, except for one person on a trike going the other direction. As we passed, I recognized Geo! He had parked at our destination and ridden to meet us so he could get some extra miles.
We got to Sportsman's Wharehouse parking lot, the start of the official ride, early. Nobody else had posted on Facebook that they would be coming, but we don't want to leave anybody behind so we waited for 0530. When nobody showed at 0530 we decided to take off. It was 3 minutes after and nobody was there. Just then Chuck pulled up in the parking lot. We now had six riders.
We rode up the Canado del Oro path toward Catalina State Park. It was a steady climb and some of us that had ridden a distance to get there and would need to ride more to return home paced ourselves. This was slower than Randy's liking, but as our ride leader, he would stop to let the riders regroup a number of times.
Don had to suffer through the slow trikes. He was on his Cruz bike which is difficult to ride slowly.
At the apex of our ride, we stopped and rested a bit then started back.
Randy took off to enjoy the downhill return ride and I jumped into his draft and drafted all the way back. We had to stop a time or two and wait for others to catch up, though Geo caught us and stayed with us easily. At one point Randy said he had no more gears and was going as fast as he could. I was still in my middle chain ring. It helps that I have an extra gear he does not and that my normal cadence is much higher than his.
At one point I decided to show him up and shifted to my big chain ring and swung around him and took off. My leg muscles let me know they were not used to riding this long. I was at about 35 miles into my ride. I dropped back and returned to drafting behind Randy. When I looked at my ride data it showed a max speed of 27.4 mph. This had to be when that occurred.
We continued back to the start of the ride where Geo and Chuck peeled off. Then the rest of us decided to ride the path around to the Rillito path. This would add about a mile distance, but I had never been from this point back to where the path met up with the Santa Cruz path.
Randy and Greg peeled off at Columbus and Don and I continued on. I was over 50 miles into my ride now and my body was telling me. It wasn't hot yet and I commented to Don about that. It was just starting to hit that rapid heating up time of day. As we approached Tanque Verde we saw Eegee's and decided it would be good to stop and get something to eat. That was very enjoyable. Hot Pastrami on Rye, French Fries and this a Guava Passion Fruit Eegee!
When we finished and came out to continue our ride home, the sun was heating things up pretty good. It was 98 degrees and 27% RH according to weather history for Tucson. That was a black top parking lot and I seriously think it was hotter than that.
At Speedway, just 1.1. miles later, I peeled off and left Don to continue on the Pantano down to Valencia. I rode up the hill toward Pantano Road. I felt the hill, but not as badly as I thought I would. That stop at Eegee's made a huge difference in my energy, muscles, and knees. I did have any extra energy, but I was able to maintain a decent, if not slower than normal, rate as I climbed the hill. The rest of the Eastward ride was pretty good. I was able to pretty much maintain my speed even up the slight incline. But, all things eventually end up at that final climb to home. It kicks up to 5% gradient, and in short places up to even 9% over that last bit. This time, the hill did put me into survival mode. I just geared down to second gear and limped up the hill. The sun was beating down on my black cycling shorts heating me up.
I enjoyed this ride. It is the longest ride I had done since 2013 and the longest I have done on the trike. I rode and 80 lbs trike for 63.6 miles!