Phoenix, AZ — We shifted sleeping arrangements last night and I finally ended up getting a good nights sleep. What a difference that makes…my resting HR was down to 39 and I felt much better. Heather was going back down to Maricopa with her mom, so I scheduled a ride with Jim, whom I met last trip and invited Kevin as well. We decided to meet at The Fountain in Fountain Hills at 11 AM. Since I was feeling better, I decided to make today, my long day. I ended up driving out to and parking near McDowell Rd. I used Google Maps to figure out my route to and from Fountain Hills so I would end up at about 100 miles. If Jim’s estimate of 50 miles for today’s ride was accurate, parking near McDowell and riding there would give me the extra 50. I parked at a church meetinghouse on Lindsay, just off McDowell.
From there I took McDowell eastbound to Usery Pass. I went up then down Usery Pass and made a right on Bush Hwy. The whole time I was heading east, I had a slight headwind. When I got up to Beeline Hwy I made a left towards Fountain Hills. Now I had a kicking tailwind. Not only that, but this section of Beeline had some of the smoothest pavement around with no debris in the shoulder. Maybe this was the ride we should have done yesterday?! I probably averaged 28 MPH on that section of Beeline.
Once I was partway down Beeline, I could see The Fountain off in the distance. It was quite impressive as I was still probably 5 miles away. It provided a good confirmation that I was going in the right direction since I had never ridden in this area before. I made a right on Shea and then on Saguaro and headed towards the fountain. When I got there the fountain was going off. I guess it goes off every 1/2 hour for about 10 minutes. I had some time to kill so I just hung out by the lake. The fountain is even more impressive when you’re right next to it. After some research I learned that it shoots up over 500 feet in the air!
Since the lake was pretty big, I wasn’t sure where exactly I was supposed to meet Jim and Kevin. So I went back and forth between the two locations that seemed most likely. I met kevin by the parking near near the restrooms. Kevin drove out since he had a meeting to go to at 3 PM. Once Kevin was ready we went over to the northwest corner of the fountain green and met Jim. After brief introductions, we just followed Jim’s instructions on where to go. I’m not sure of all the roads, but we headed north on a nice road towards Rio Verde. Then we went up 9-mile hill, which was true to it’s name. Although it was a gradual climb, we had a headwind up it so it wasn’t that easy. This road also had a lot of traffic so I was glad when we finally turned off of it.
Then we headed towards Scottsdale and eventually ended up on Pima. Kevin turned off so he could go directly to his car and make his appointment, while Jim took me on a quiet route through some neighborhoods, adding more mileage. Jim’s got a double-century in Death Valley coming up so he’s getting ready for that. He already did a century last weekend and will do another one next weekend. Oh, and did I mention he’ll be 65 years old this year? Hardcore!
When we finally hit Shea, we broke off and I headed back towards Beeline. At this point I had almost five hours in the saddle and I was itching to get back to the car. I pushed it on Shea but stopped at a convenience store to get more water, since I didn’t know how long I’d have to be on Beeline. Good thing I did, I was on Beeline for a while, fighting what was now a west headwind! Darn those wind-shifts! At least the shoulder wasn’t so bad, but I was really happy to see the turn on Gilbert Rd. They were doing construction on Gilbert Rd, but they had us over on the left side of the median and it was all fresh asphalt, so it wasn’t too bad. Then I hit McDowell and made a left for only about a mile to where I parked the car. It was just about 103 miles and I did it in 5:40. Even though the average speed wasn’t all that impressive, with the wind shift my NP was 217 Watts with a TSS of 306. It also wouldn’t have been so hard had I been fresh, but after a 3-day stage race then two medium-hard days of 3-4 hours, it was definitely a good workout. Now I’m ready for some much needed recovery time.