Thanks guys!

Unfortunately it won't annualized; it rains all winter. But there's 8 months-ish of usable riding weather.

The 50 and 62-milers were part of a friend's 50th birthday thing. In fact I have to give him credit for dragging my carcass into this. I trained as hard as the body would let me- starting a new thing isn't easy in middle age- first on my 80's MTB, then on my new road bike. Both the 50 and the 62 were challenging routes with BIG climbs; it was pretty epic. Once I'd survived that, I found I was really unwilling to give up the gains I'd made so I've continued to hit it.

I've been gradually fine-tuning the fit of the bike to address issues as they showed up, and to match my evolving capabilities. To the first point, my right knee has been a constant bother. I tweaked something on the outside of it backpack hunting last fall, and riding SOMETIMES irritates it. When that starts up, it just hurts more and more as the ride goes on and then is stiff and sore that night. The other issue in the right knee is in that little pocket just to the lower-left of the kneecap. After about 15 miles, that's often bugging me, but getting off the bike and walking around for 5 minutes almost always cures it. When I get back on it's fine. So... I've experimented with seat position and height to find the sweet spot.

The bike came with a Ritchie adjustable handlebar stem, adjustable for angle, and the PO had adjusted it all the way upright. I've been lowering it in stages. It's about horizontal now and felt great on my ride last night. I felt like I had more power and the knee didn't complain.

I've always been prone to falling in love with the "toys" aspect of various sports, and Lord only KNOWS there's plenty of that in this one! Holy carp, people go nuts over this stuff. There were a couple of $8000+ bikes in the group on the 50/62 rides, carbon fiber bottle cages, etc. I'm trying to keep the eyes on the prize here; my bike is plenty good. Not planning any real upgrades. The saddle fits my butt and the components all work so... gonna dance with who brung me....... for a while anyway.