The day I most feared

On the schedule this is a big day. 136 miles and 8300 feet of climbing. Some riders Garmin's indicated we did over 9000 feet of climbing. This is roughly equivalent to a ride in the Bay Area known as the Mount Hamilton challenge. However our ride today occurs at an average elevation 5000 feet higher. And it is 15 miles longer. The only thing good about today's ride is that it occurs after a rest day.

The riders really got strung out over the entire route a separation of probably more than two and a half hours between the first rider and the last. As I compose this I am not sure the last rider has come in yet.

It was up and down up and down up and down all day long. We passed through Santa Fe. Because I knew it was going to take a long time for me to finish today's ride I really didn't stop to take any pictures. As it was I was on the bike for over 10 hours.

We did about 50 miles on Interstate 25. The weather was actually perfect there were wins at times but they were moderate and often behind us. The temperatures were below 80. On the few occasions that we were riding with the wind all the sudden the temperature seem to go up by 10 to 15 degrees. The wind is very important for cooling and when you're going with the wind all you feel is the solar radiation in it is hot.

The soreness in my legs has improved a lot. I do have one or two hamstring muscles that frequently feel like they are close to cramping. I need to constantly stretch them out. But they are holding steady.

Because todays ride was so physically challenging, my goal was to simply survive it. I kept my heart rate below 140 95 percent of the time. To put this in perspective my highest heart rate is 183. Using standard cycling training zones a heart rate of 140 is about in the middle of zone 2. I did most of my training in zone 3 152 to 160 beats per minute and some in zones 4 and 5. So a heart rate of 140 is a very sustainable rate for me. What I found by the end of the day is that my legs we're having more trouble pushing the pedals. My cardio system was fine. I suspect as we get to lower elevations a 140 heart rate will represent a higher speed.

Here I am at the hotel in Las Vegas...