One of the things I love about Tucson is the Catalina Mountains. Tucson was rate the Best City for Road Biking last year by Outside Magazine, and though the easy access to hundreds of miles of nice bike-laned roads is great, the availability of mountain climbing probably pushed us up in the rankings over a few other cities. Pro cycling teams come to Tucson on a pretty regular basis to train, and riding up Mount Lemmon is always part of their schedule. It's almost like riding up Mount Lemmon is a rite of passage for Tucson cyclists... everybody gets sucked in at some point. If nothing else, it's a milestone that you really want to be able to say you've accomplished.
I've done quite a bit of hiking and rock climbing up in the Catalinas, and ran a half marathon up Mount Lemmon (the highest point of the range) last October, but until very recently I've been hesitant to try biking the steep and curvy road up the mountain. From the base of the mountain, it's about 26 miles to the top, with an overall elevation gain of almost 7,000ft. ... which also means that the return trip has an elevation loss of almost 7,000ft. Yikes.
A few months ago I joined a cycling team here in town. I did it mostly so that I would have more people to ride with on a regular basis, but also because the team sometimes puts on clinics covering various topics related to biking and racing. I signed up for a clinic on road climbing, thinking that the clinic would help me tackle my fear of riding up (and down!) the mountain. Then I realized that everyone else signed up for the clinic had been riding on the mountain for quite some time already, and that showing up and having never tried the route was probably not the best idea.
I had to do it. So, I made Josh do it with me a couple of weeks before the clinic. We only went 5 miles up the mountain to Molino Basin (I think it's about 1,500 feet gain by that point), I stopped multiple times to catch my breath on the way up, and then I freaked out when we had to come back down the hill. But, I did it. And then I did it two more times on my own. (Note to self: When climbing mountains on a bike, do not wait until midday when the sun is directly above you and temperatures are 90+ degrees. Bad idea.)
The clinic yesterday was pretty helpful. They covered pacing, how to read the inclines and know when to pick up speed on an uphill, turning corners, and downhill tactics. It gave me a lot of good things to think about, although at this point I think practice is going to help me more than anything. My biggest problem is that I'm a big chicken when it comes to riding downhill, on curvy roads, at high speeds. Seeing my speedometer go above 30mph still freaks me out. But, it would be nice to eventually get comfortable enough with the descent that I don't have cramped hands at the bottom of the mountain from gripping my brakes the entire way down.
Other than El Tour de Tucson, I'm not really planning on many races for the fall. But I think this will be my new training goal. Some day, I'll ride all 26 miles to the top of Mount Lemmon. It won't be any time soon, but I'm going to start working on it, a little bit at a time. And then maybe I'll just have to bribe somebody to drive my scaredy-cat butt back down from the top once I've gotten there.
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