The Rats Ride

Antelope Peak Challenge '08

This was my first Endurance race for '08 and it was a time to be had. We met at Willow Springs at 7:00am. Another cold start, you gotta love it. We rolled down to the local coffee shop, The Station. They opened up early just for us, how cool.The race started off right at 8:00am, we had about 3 or 4 miles of road before the start of the AZ trail. The End.

Total mileage: 68

Mileage year to date: 648

SSAZ08

Well two day's before the Swizzle, I broke my little toe. I thought it might be an issue, but that had nothing to do with my poor performance. I entered this race just to see how all the training I've been doing is coming a long. We rolled out of the park at 7:30am. It was freezing out, hands and feet were numb on the road to Lemmon. When we got to the bottom, I thought I would go off the front to get some pics of the group climbing up the road. After getting a couple of pics, I just fell back in with the group. Things went really smooth on the way up to prison camp. John, the over all winner, broke away about two miles before Prison Camp. No one made a move to go with him. I think we all thought we would catch him(I know I did anyway). At Prison Camp, I made my move only to get a flat tire. While changing the tire, I got passed by about 8 riders. After P.C., came the chase up Molina, a 900 foot climb. About 1/4 of a mile can you say switchbacks. On the decent, I caught 2 riders; one of who was Scott Morris. Scott and I rode together up Bellota ranch road to Reddington. That's when I made the mistake of going off alone when I wasn't sure about the course, well that cost me 2 to 3 miles of climbing the wrong way. Once I realized I was lost I began to back track. I wouldn't catch Scott again for 10 miles. When I rolled up on him he asked me if I had made a wrong turn, I told him I was just putting in some extra miles. Now that I knew I was back in the chase I put the hammer down only to pass 2 riders on the decent down Mili. All in all it turned out to be a good training ride.
49 miles
6th over all with gears and added miles






































Total mileage: 49

Total mileage:30
Year to date:432
Starpass from the house (weekly night ride)

Total mileage:22
Year to date:402

Total Mileage:48
Year to date:380 mountain bike miles

And this is how the ride ended up !

Well what was suposed to be an all day epic turned out to be a 35 mile road commute.
my excuses:
Had to adjust front brake 3 times on the way out there.
Have a slight cold or some allergy?
Had no legs.
Total Mileage:36
Year to date:332_______________

This is what was suposed to be.

AZSS Pre-ride Sat

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I'll be doing the AZSS course Sat morning,if anyone would like to join. I'll be riding from home Speedway/Country Club at 7:00am. So I should be at the bottom of Redington by 8:00am (give or take 15min). lots of bail out ops.I won't be going at race pace, but with other things to do I won't dilly dally either.So come do the whole sha'bang or whatever you have time for.

Training Ride: 61 miles/ 6hrs

Total mileage:61
Year to date:296 mountain bike miles

Total mileage: 28
Year to date: 235

Total mileage:22
Year to date:207 mountain bike miles

Total mileage: 22
Year to date: 185

Total mileage: 22
Year to date: 163

Two of us got a hole in one (well kinda)

Well today I was going to do my normal 11 mile commute to work, then after work the plan was to ride to Starpass and do my loop backwards.But instead I left work and rode to Albertson's to meet up with Ben who just happened to have a nice new pimped out 29"er. I left it up to Ben to decide which loop to do. So he decided we should do the climb up and over Golden Gate.

(I haven't cleaned that climb without dabbing in four or five years) So I jokingly said "With the new bike mojo, we'll clean everything today". Then it was off to test our luck. Anytime Ben and I ride together, it's pretty much heads down hammering it out, each of us trying to drop the other one, but not today.We were just out having fun, the ride over to the climb was pretty uneventful. When we got to the bottom, there were no words spoken but we both knew that each us wanted to be the one to clean this climb. So I let Ben lead, thinking good and well that he'll never make it. So as I followed him up, every time he would get to one of the spots that have stopped me time and time again, he would just roll right though it with me right behind him. Ben never said a word and kept silent all the way to the top. Once there, I asked Ben," Why so quiet?" He said he never thought we would make it. To put things into perspective, it felt as though we had got hole in one the same day. It just doesn't happen, but it did and it felt great.
(Upon further inspection we realized they had done some trail work and made the sections just a little easier)



Total mileage: 52
Year to date: 141

Commute to work

Well after the APC pre-ride I took a day off .Woke up today feeling pretty good, so I decided to ride my mountainbike to work.Just an easy eleven mile commute oneway, felt great to spin the legs out.The plan for tomorrow is to commute to work then ride from work to Star Pass and do my normal route, but backwards maybe get 40 to 50 miles in.

total mileage: 22
year to date: 89