Fun day had in Owensville for the 50+ mile gravel ride hosted by the fine folks who manage the Therapy Source. I have to mention that that the facility there is awesome. Super clean with lots of quality machines, weights and more. The place looks awesome.
Good sized group headed out with a police escort, how awesome is that?
For me the ride was about getting in 4 plus hours at a set pace building on the last few weeks of training. Normalized power over 200 was the target and not to push the watts over 300 on the hills. And I wanted to feel good all day with power left in the tank when I finished.
After a 30 min warm up I hit the my set pace and off I went off the front alone for the entire ride other than the wrong turn to a dead end that we all took resulting in a short lived re-group. These rides are not a race but they do provide motivation you don't get when out alone and they help me keep pushing so not to get caught.
The route was marked but for some reason some arrows pointed the wrong way making for a unique challenge. Thankfully there was another arrow just after the turn pointing the right way.
There were a crap load of dogs out there, never I have seen so many. None of them mean, just barking and running along with me for a short time.
With all the melting snow the creeks were high, one so high I had to take off my shoes and socks and walk with bike held high in the air about 25 yards to the other side. It was a nice ice bath for the legs about half way. Water hit me about mid thigh.
The gravel was awesome with lots of hills and brutal wind in some spots. It was nice to get out on some roads I have not seen before, it ended up being a perfect gravel ride and I hit my goals for the day.
That was hard, you rode good.
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