Hairy Back Ride - First Day of Spring

First day of spring did not disappoint! Awesome weather awaited gravel thirsty riders for the longest and final organized MO Gravel Grinder of the year.

Alot of the riders are training for big mile events coming up like Trans Iowa (300 miles) and Dirty Kanza (200 miles). This ride is a drop in the bucket for them but provides them the much needed training.

With that many miles riders get creative with gear design.




For me this bike was the winner in that category, cool set up.

We headed out into the wind for an uphill ride to Owensville.

On any ride you see some stuff that you would not expect, yesterday we came up on this. This guy is into forts.

Half way; time to fuel up on fluids and get some food. And mix in with a group of 4 that started at noon from Owensville to Hermann.

Before we turned back South to Hermann we hit the Moto Mart and so did all the boat owners in Owensville.

$3.35 a gallon - boo

In side the Moto Mart the hot dogs looked good, but I passed on them for...

This...

We took a few moments to eat and take a load off.

The trip out seemed like all up hill with a head wind that did not help. The way back was nice, tail wind and down hill. 15 min faster getting back.

Ended the day at Wings A Blazin where all filled up after a long day of riding. Thanks to all that made the trip to Hermann for this ride, good to see so many enjoying the challenging gravel the Hermann area has to offer.

For me that peaks out the long 5+ hour rides. I'll still do long rides but under 4 hours at a higher intensity.

It's been a good 9 weeks of base build with only a few weekends that the weather would not allow for a long outdoor ride.

Yesterdays ride was right where I wanted it, 200 watt normalized power, ended up with 198, close enough. And I wanted to feel good at the end of the ride, did that too. Sunday is race day as long as the rain does not spoil it.

The Numbers
Entire workout (168 watts):
Duration: 5:13:43
Work: 3170 kJ
TSS: 281.5 (intensity factor 0.734)
Norm Power: 198
Distance: 78.868 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 603 168 watts
Cadence: 30 239 83 rpm
Speed: 0 39.1 15.0 mph

172 days til cross!