Round 1 of 2.......

Well it's already been 19 days since I have been here in Tucson and today I am heading back to Denver Colorado for the Holidays. I had such a great time here in Tucson and met a lot of great people and got a lot of big miles in on the bike which I was looking for.

Up Mt. Lemmon a ways

Great riding

Heading up Madera Canyon

Like I said before I have never really had the chance to go somewhere warm during the cold months in Colorado and get a really good block of base in the legs. It is something new for me to go somewhere and train where I know very little people and don't know much about the town. Going somewhere unfamiliar can be very beneficial. Here I didn't have the normal distractions I would have at home. I was able to really focus 100% on training, trained really hard and recovered even harder and I feel like I am miles ahead of where I was last year at this time. With that being said, I have decided to come back to Tucson after the new year to get one last good block of training before the season gets underway. It was either stay in Colorado and sit on the trainer in the basement or come back and ride in warmer weather, it was an easy decision. So I will be returning January 5th-24th, then we have our first training camp in Boise January 25th-29th.

A lot of flats

 

Lots of rain caused some washouts

Inside the cookie cabin on top of Mt. Lemmon

Reward of getting to the top of Mt. Lemmon

Great Treat!

I cant thank the people enough who helped me while down in Tucson. It always amazes me how generous people are to complete strangers. I was very fortunate to find host housing while down here and it helps us soooooooooo much. I am able to feel more like I am at home sitting on the couch instead of a bed in a hotel room for 3 weeks and it cuts down on cost tremendously. I am able to cook real food and just relax and have a quit place to relax. I cant thank host housing families enough, you make my job way easier. I have taken over our host Tim's house for 19 days so far and he is welcoming us back when we come back, unbelievable. THANK YOU.
Check out Daily Peloton as they did a Q&A with Conor and I! 
Also updated my race schedule tab!
Hope everyone has a great Holiday.
Thanks for reading
Ginger 1

First week in Tucson

I have been in Tucson AZ for one week now already, time is flying here. The first 6 days felt like I was back home in Colorado with Cold temps. The first 6 days here were the coldest on Record for Tucson, of course it was when I came here for warm weather, but I will take it over snow any day. Right now the temps are warming up where they should be. I have got some great miles in so far this first week and I now remember what tired really feels like. The first Saturday Conor and I tried making it to the Famous shoot out group ride. The start of the ride is about 18 miles from where we are staying at right now so we had to leave pretty early to make it to the 7:30am start. However Tucson roads had different plans for us that day to welcome us. We left the house around 6:20 to give us plenty of time to find the coffee shop everyone meets at. Literally less then 2 miles after leaving in the dark and our small frog lights on Conor hits a rock and double flats! So I haul back to grab a handful of more tubes just in case we get another flat on the ride. So after fixing both flats we haul a** to make it on time and about 10 minutes from the coffee house Conor flats again. So after fixing it we are pretty much already late and we finally find the start 5 minutes after we were suppose to be there and no cyclist was to be seen in any direction. SO we decided to ride back towards where we are staying and get a few more hours in. We will try again this week, but bring extra tubes and give ourselves more time.

Great Views

Conor

We also have met some really nice people and great riders in our short time down here so far. A friend of ours that use to have a bike studio in Colorado has moved to Tucson 3 years ago and his shop is about 1 mile from where we are staying, and the guy we are staying with is good friends with him, small world. Check out Uno Bicycle Studio

Tucson Mountain Park

4th flat of the day

So for now we are just going to keep getting in good base miles before the 2012 season starts very soon. We are heading back to cold Colorado on December 19th but now we are thinking of coming back down here the first week of January and train here before the first Team Exergy camp in Boise at the end of January. Riding down here sure beats riding the trainer in the Basement.

Great riding

SufferX2

Also Check out VeloNation, Conor and I are writing blogs for them and the first one just was published. Stay tuned for more.
Thanks for reading!

Tucson Bound!

Conor and I currently are sitting on DIA getting ready to fly to Tucson Arizona for 3 weeks and I am really looking forward to it! It's a Winter Wonder Land outside right now in Colorado so I couldn't of timed this trip any better. It will be nice to get a solid base in the legs this year. I have never had the opportunity to go somewhere warm in the cold months, and I have heard great things about Tucson and the Cycling community. I will post some photos once we get riding in the warm weather!