The Second Half

Silent Sunday

On the north side of South Mountain (I know that sounds f*cked up) we toured past an interesting area of Phoenix where new money has quashed any semblance of what used to be a borderline slum. Many poor homeowners have sold their houses/land – prime real estate that is elevated above the valley floor so you have great views of Phoenix (that’s an oxymoron in itself) – to make room for spec home builders/developers who “scrape” the old homes and have built up $400K - $750K plus track homes. There are a lot of holdouts though, and every 10th house or so you come across is a decrepit sh*thole of a home with the proverbial washer/dryer in the yard – surrounded by these huge stucco monoliths. It’s everything that’s good and bad about Phoenix in one condensed area. Most of the old homes were built in the 20’s and 30’s – and are incredible to see compared to the 3000+ square foot new homes. Families of 6 – 8 back then got by on 1,200 square feet. Today – couples alone seem to need 3,000 square feet or more.

We soft pedaled a 50 miler on Sunday around the front side of South Mountain – up the 7 mile slope to the TV towers – and flyin’ back down – on a 75 degree day. I only worked on the climb, and hit 170bpm for just a minute or so. It was a great LSD training ride with D.

Back in Flag now. It’ll be 58 by Wednesday. Time to bust out the skateboards.