Mountain monster

I'm a little late for this blog post (it happened on 7/9 lol!)
Before I left my home town, I decided to do the thing that I came here for: 
Go up hill toward tangerine rd. toward Catalina Mtns! 
I was originally  going to do 20 mis or so and didn't eat anything before hand...and oh what a mistake it was.

About to roll out on my bicycle!

When I first started, the road was GREAT. It was cloudy, around 32% humidity, and it was also sprinkling just a little bit. I started going up the hills toward the mountains and I was addicted right away, I didn't want to stop until the road was finished or until it actually started pouring rain.
The picture doesn't do much justice especially because the mountains look so far away but it was actually so close!

The above picture was actually one of the neighborhoods where I got side-tracked at, which had beautiful, smooth paved roads (God I wish every road was like that), but the road was really short. I thought it was going to lead to Lemon mountain but alas, it ended prematurely.

And so I rode and rode, and it was a REALLY great time around 15 miles in. I remember that last summer I rode up this road toward fry's which was around 11 mi or so and I had a really difficult time and took breaks every so often. But this time I completely blew past fry's and kept going until the end of tangerine. (I didn't even know it ended!).
Tangerine is full of dips and curves so it was really exciting and a challenge to go through it, but the wind was on my back so it was a pretty exhilarating ride.
After tangerine ended, it went continued on toward oracle rd (highway 77). Left was toward Oro Valley and to the right was Tucson. I was really tempted to ride toward Tucson and toward Lemon mountains but...I didn't want to ride all the way back to Marana either so I decided to explore the Catalina mountain range up toward Oro Valley.

When I got toward the Catalina mountain entrance, the road was GROSS. Good thing it was only for a mile or so other wise I would have turned around. I took a chance and decided to go down this downhill, (with me pumping both breaks I was still speeding down this gross road at least 15mph) and was terrified I was gonna hit a rock or something and fly over. After I got down I took a left and it's a giant circle near the base of catalina mountains...but the hills are a no joke. I took a long break near the community once and someone pulled over and asked if I was ok haha.

One of the hills (me facing back) toward catalina, look at all those hills I had to climb, jesus it was a heart breaker.

I was finally at the (about 2mi away until going back to oracle), and I was DYING. I was HUNGRY, hot, sweaty, and TIRED. I only had 2mi up hill more to go but...it was the worst uphill I have ever seen. It was uphill and turning right at the same time. 

But as soon as the hill was over, it was a smooth ride all the way down to oracle and I was at least going 30mph. Perfect.
But it all went downhill from there (literally). Actually, up hill was a lot more easier than down hill. At Tangerine, the dips are reversable, I'm not sure why I thought it would be easier down hill then uphill, because they are pretty much the same. But at this point I was so tired I didn't know up or down! I didn't have any money or any fuel goos so I was pretty much exhausted at this point. I'm not even sure how I even made it home, because around 2mi away from my house I had to take a break because the wind was against me and I almost collapsed! I was shaking and, well, let's just say it's not a good idea to skip breakfast for any reason.

My mileage was a bit off, it was exactly 54.54mi according to my computer, and the computer is usually SPOT on. I forgot to turn on the GPS watch every time I took a break so it was about 3~ miles off or so! I would have loved to do 60mi but at 50mi I was pretty much dead.
If I continued biking for 6 more miles another day would that count as 60? LOL

When I got home I was so exhausted I inhaled a banana and immediately felt sick afterwards. Never skip breakfast, important lesson learned. Also, wear a lot of sunscreen because even when I did put it on, I guess I didn't put enough and I got sunburnt around my legs and my arms (look at that gross bike knee tan LOL)
I'm taking the 7/10 day as a break for I was so tired and exhausted from yesterday. (Also it's an anniversary LOL).