Blech...
That's how I felt as we pulled out of Uphill Grind. HR hit the mid to high 160's within the first few minutes and I just couldn't generate any speed. I didn't feel bad specifically, just not at all strong. I felt not one drop of "fast" flowing through my veins. Speaking of drops, I got dropped. More accurately I was OTB after about 1 mile into the ride. Not a good sign. Before I know it there's a big gap and I'm in the wind. It quickly extended to 1/2 mile then I just lost contact altogether. Like I said I didn't really feel bad, so I said to hell with it and just picked a modest pace and got going. The first few hills were tough, but I got up them well enough that I realized I was going to be able to finish the entire route today, but I would be going at it solo. One hill I do have to mention is Sutcliffe Rd., which was a beast. I did the 100K ride last year, which doesn't go up that sucker, so I didn't know anything about it. As I said, it was a beast. Smokin Miles already said, I caught up with their group around 12 miles in and decided that, given my state, riding with a group was going to make the 60+ miles that much more enjoyable.

As the ride progressed my legs felt better and better. But somewhere along the way I also realized that in my haste to swap my compact crank onto my bike last night, I didn't properly adjust my FD and as a result I couldn't switch into my big ring without dropping my chain. Luckily I didn't need the big ring. Got it working OK later in the ride, but it did need to get tweaked when I got home. Smokin' already mentioned the dogs and the inadvertent detour, so I'll skip that. The rest of the ride progressed nicely and I even felt strong(ish) at the end. Decided to save the trip into the park for the actual HHH ride and also decided not to push my luck and skipped the trip up Barlow.

Sipped an iced coffee afterwards at Uphill Grind and drove home. A hot shower and a few minutes with the massage stick and I felt good as can be. I don't want to use the 1/2 marathon as an excuse, but I can't figure out any other reason for why I felt like ass for this ride. Oh well, I think I was able to work out whatever it was during today's ride and plan on knocking any remnants of it out of my system before the 14th.