It’s a bit cooler now. I got out around 9AM. I decided to go without a jacket. Otherwise, wore my knees, arms and head cap. I was sufficiently warm for the duration of the ride. The legs felt pretty good to start. I made it to the summit of OTR in good average time. When I reached the summit, I pulled over to remove my knee warmers.

The ride went as planned. The wind was from the South East. So, I had a headwind on the way back. I cruised the downhill, putting in digs over the two risers. I stopped once while descending to take a bio break. After reaching the base, I stopped to check Komoot. It showed my position as it should. From there, it was non-stop climbing. It was a game of patience as I was fighting the wind on the way back. I was counting off the landmarks, trying to keep my mind focused. After the second riser, the morale started to lift a bit. When I reached the summit, I took a few moments to recover and headed back home. I grabbed my stuff from the mail locker, headed up Weston and shut it down at the top. Concentration was good. Balance and form felt good. Ailments were minimal. My left outer knee was complaining over the past two days. I had no problems with it today. I had some numb hands on extended out of the saddle efforts. I bought new cycling gloves, they fit will and have sufficient padding. Nutrition was good. I went through most of my sport drink. Gear worked flawless. Other notes, I saw just one runner today, no cyclists. There was a crowd at the Loop Monument when I was heading back up.

I am now practicing navigation for the Spooktacular ride. I've decided to use several methods. I'm going to have abbreviated turn by turn directions taped to the handlebars, the usual tracking apps on the smartphone. And a new app I found called Komoot. Komoot will have the course laid out and will navigate while I'm out there. I tried it today, it shows my position and heading. Seems like it will work just fine. I'm studying the map and Google street views.