Training in the Arizona deserts and mountains is humbling. In the midwest there was a farm or a town within spitting distance of most anyplace I was training. If my unconscious carcass was off to the side of the road I'd probably be noticed within an hour or two by some passerby.
Here, though, the natural threats are dramatically more profound, if not actually lethal.
First, there are the descents and twisty turns. I was baptized in this danger a few weeks ago by foolishly speeding down a twisty mountain grade at 35.1 mph (posted vehicle speed limit: 20 mph) when I let the bike get out of my control (spooked myself by a crease in the road) and destabilized myself, going down HARD, damaging some bike components and getting lots of bloody and painful road rash. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself.
The other danger has to do with the dramatic climatic and terrain conditions. A few weeks ago I left Prescott in the AM when it was 66 degrees. I rode 44 miles south and descended about 3,000 feet, arriving in Congress, where the temperature was 104.
The solar radiation of the sun at this altitude is dangerously intense, certainly burning the skin and risking pain, injury if not cancer (melanoma).
What humidity?! Sitting on my front porch, in the shade, for an hour results in passive dehydration. Training uphill, into the sun, with no wind for fifteen minutes means that I have to drink a quart of liquid with electrolytes. Training on a relatively flat surface of slight descent can `trick' me into forgetting to hydrate. Both conditions can cause loss of consciousness or severe disorientation, making cycling even more dangerous.
Twenty miles between dirt roads leading to ranches three or four miles off the paved roads constitutes a relatively densely populated area :) So-called `towns' amount to one store and a few dozen mobile homes off on the side of a hill. Today I had to plan for a source of water (post office has an faucet out behind, near the dumpster) in the likely event that the one store in town was closed.
Things `eat' you out here. Not little `bites,' like with a bug or mosquito.
No. They friggin' EAT you. Javelinas, mountain lions, coyotes, critters of all sorts that might consider my conscious / unconscious carcass found bounty. And don't sit down on the side of the road. Snakes. Spiders. Scorpions.
Tires. The road surfaces just eat up road tires. I've already had one tire literally split apart at the middle of the tread due to the heat of the road and the roughness of the pavement.
These were just some of the things in the back of my mind over the past week as my training distances and challenges increase.
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Bagdad is a copper mining town 68 miles from my front door. A two lane state road `terminates' in Bagdad. There are three little one-horse towns between my house and Bagdad. The road to Bagdad is paved and passable but it follows some very significant changes in geology, climate and terrain. From table top mesas to `bottom of the earth' canyons. Not a 10th of a mile of straight road to nor from Bagdad. Descents and ascents and descents again, ranging 3,000 feet at a lick and 30 to 45 degrees in temperature difference.
I'll be in a brevet to and from Bagdad in a short time.
So, this morning I was working on the Silvio and adding long-distance `worst case' gear and equipment so that I could `probably' survive a trip to Bagdad.
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