I’d been sick all week last week and spent the week resting rather than riding. I thought I was better on Saturday and went out to do a 55 mile gravel ride. It was pretty windy, 15ish or so MPH up in the hills but the weather was warm (38 or so)
Between the wind and the softness of the road, I was completely shot after 45 miles at a relatively pedestrian pace of 14.5. All of the climbing was packed into the middle 3rd of the ride and all of it was on soft dirt roads. I ended up stopping at a Stewart’s 8 miles from home with about 500 feet of climbing left and called my wife for a pickup. I could have made it, but just wasn’t in the mood and didn’t feel great. I’m still not 100% sold on the challenge tires, they’re a little squirrelly on wet pavement.
On Sunday I drove down to meet a group I rode with when the chance allows. I don’t join them a lot because it’s usually a 30 minute drive to get to the start. It was 20 degrees when we started with a pretty brisk wind. We started pretty slow for the first two miles. At mile 5 we started going up- 1000 feet in three miles. I was trying to limit my effort so I wouldn’t sweat because I knew at the top there was going to be a ton of wind but it didn’t work. I still managed to stay pretty warm and it was a great ride. We did 3300 feet in 42 miles. The views were amazing.
Taking today off most likely