Coming out of Hibernation!!

The past 7 and a half months have been a really great time for me and my cycling career. First to be noted, the weather in Phoenix has been incredible as expected and the training seemed to follow suite. As the "off-season" started, so did the AZ Cross series which I never like to miss out on! The AZ Cross series is a little different than what most might think of as cyclocross simply because the weather for most of our races is 65 degrees and sunny however our "winter storms" seem to guarantee us at least one mud race/year. I always like racing cross to maintain some fitness between mountain bike seasons and to have something to change it up and look forward to when the mountain bike season ends. I got really into cross this year so it was also really cool to test out some different race tactics and practice skills that might not be readily found or even found at all in mountain bike racing. Beyond all of that however, I really just like having a good time with friends from all over the state that I may not get to see as much through the mountain bike season.

Saguaro Lake

Granite Reef

While combining base training with cross racing, I was able to maintain a pretty decent amount of fitness while still being able to put in really high quality aerobic rides to make for a strong foundation to build on throughout the mountain bike season. With that in mind, Arizona saw some really heavy rain at the end of our monsoon season for two days, enough so to completely flood major freeways! This brought on A LOT of complications for the city of Phoenix and the entire valley, one of which was the closure of one of my favorite routes, the South Mountain towers climb. This however came as a blessing in disguise. I was forced to go out and find some new routes! With four, five and six hour rides on the horizon, I decided it was time to finally venture out and find some new rides. I first found my new favorite five hour route, from Ahwatukee to Saguaro Lake just north of Mesa where the Beeline highway and Bush highway come together and I think it is probably the second most scenic road rides in all of Phoenix.

All from Apache Trail
Photo Credit: TJ Woodruff

The most scenic route that I found was quite the adventure. TJ and Chloe had come down to Phoenix from Prescott to avoid some winter storms they were having and their company was greatly appreciated since I had the house to myself for two weeks. I went out with TJ from Apache Junction all the way in the far East Valley onto the Apache Trail. For those that don’t know, there is a popular route with the Mesa crowd called End of Pavement (EOP) where they ride from one of the shops in Mesa out to where the pavement ends on this route. TJ and I took our cross bikes past the “Pavement Ends” sign and hit the dirt road that went by Canyon Lake, Apache Lake and ending at Roosevelt Lake. This is the most scenic ride I have ever done anywhere, ever and to think that the ride starts no more than a thirty minute drive from my house! It was a big day on the bike that involved 84 miles and just less than 10,000 feet of climbing on one long dirt road from Apache Junction all the way to Roosevelt Lake. The total time for the ride was right around 6 hours of good times and unmistakable suffering toward the end which definitely called for an ice cream stop at Tortilla Flat on the way back to the car. Side note: Tortilla Flat is really cool place!!

Fast forwarding toward the end of base and the start of the mountain bike season, our local mountain bike series started up in January with the MBAA at McDowell Mountain Park which saw record turn outs this year! It was great to get back on the mountain bike ripping around with some friends, I was even able to meet up with and race against my friend Dave Flaten from Virginia who was training in Tucson at the time to escape the cold weather. Also through the past few races we have had so far, I have found two strong guys that have been keeping me on my toes at every race thus far, Ivan Volkov and Tim Maddux. It’s funny how mountain bike racing works, you always become good friends with the guys you race against and that is definitely in part due to the atmosphere that the MBAA sets up for everybody at races.

I'm really excited about how the training shaped up the past six months and I'm even more excited about what is to come for this season!!