A Bike Ride OUTSIDE!

After brunch at Saddle Ranch to celebrate our 5K victories, Darren and I headed to Arizona Outback Adventures to pick up my Specialized Roubaix rental for our bike ride.  Needing a 48cm frame made finding a bike my size a bit of a challenge.  After calling several places, AOA had the only rental in town that fit me.  I completely lucked out ending up with a racing bike and the staff at AOA was great!

Darren took me out for a 50 mile loop around McDowell Mountains.  The key word around here is around the mountains.  No 20% grade epic climbs for this out-of-shape snowbird!  It was a great ride and very scenic.  Every time I ride, I’m amazed at how far you can get on a bike and what you see that you’d miss in a car.  It never gets old!

Here’s a picture I borrowed from Google to give you an idea of McDowell:

Near the end of the ride we passed through Fountain Hills, which is known for its….wait for it……Fountain!  According to my favorite tour guide, Wikipedia, it is the fourth tallest fountain in the world (562 feet) and spouts water once an hour.  Magically, we ended up in front of it just in time to catch the excitement!

Even though I look fairly happy during this picture, around mile 40, it didn’t last too long!  It started to get cold (ok, 50 degrees, but that’s cold without a base layer!) and the reality of this being my only ride outside in the last four months started to set in.  I teetered on the brink of a bonk.  Luckily, Darren stuck with me for the last 10 slow miles.

Moral of the ride:  It was great to be out on a bike again and stretch my winter legs out but I have a looooong way to go (literally) before I’m in any kind of racing shape.  This is an unfortunate realization since I have my first race for collegiate cycling season at the end of February!  Time to hit the trainer!