Day 5: 29 Palms to Parker

Today's 111 mile ride took us through the Sheep Hole Mountains and then across the southern part of the Mojave Desert. We crossed the Colorado River into Arizona as we entered Parker. There were some modest climbs and interesting scenery as we went through the mountains, but after that the last 60 miles were flat, barren, and HOT. In fact it was so hot that my iPhone shutdown due to high temperature at mile 96 and once again messed up my Cyclemeter recording. At least today I had the iPhone on with the app running so it did capture the first 96 miles of the ride. So if you look at my Cyclemeter Tweet don't be concerned that I was stranded in the desert - I did make it to Parker with no problems.

(Thanks to all of you who gave me advice about yesterday's Cyclemeter problem. My carrier is AT&T so it should not have happened. Of course with me there is also always the chance that it was operator error.)

There were about 10 in our group today and we stayed together the whole time. We rotated the "pull" position in our pace line about every 3 miles enabling us to average 18 mph for the day with a level of effort for me that I would rate at about 65%. As a novice pace line rider I am learning a lot from the experienced riders about operating a safe and efficient pace line. I've heard that riding in a pace line can be up to 30% more efficient than riding solo. Based on a few days of experience, it appears to be true. If I had tried to do today's ride solo at an 18 mph average pace my level of effort would likely have been above 90% - and that is definitely not sustainable over the course of this trip. So there will be no planned solo riding for me.

I continue to feel very positive about my physical condition and riding capability. As the old guy in the group I seem to be holding up pretty well. Yesterday I did have some pretty bad cramps in my quads after standing up from writing my blog, so today I am focused on doing a better job of post-ride recovery. We'll see how that works.

Tomorrow we have a 43 mile "active recovery ride" along the Colorado River up to Lake Havasu City. With a high temperature of 106 forecast along the river I'm sure we will all appreciate the relatively short length of the ride and will likely arrive at our destination well before noon.

Steve