I started out at about 06:30. I decided I didn't have a sufficient breakfast readily available at home, so I would ride to the local Mexican fast food place and get a breakfast burrito. That was great until I got there and it wasn't open yet! Now what to do? I decided to stop at the first place I could find where I could get breakfast and thought that would be at Kolb & Sunrise. However, nothing was open there either. This was 40 minutes into the ride and some climbing too. I was concerned I might get so far behind in fuel that I wouldn't be able to recover and make the 82 miles. I finally found a place at an hour and 8 minutes into the ride and after more climbing. It was McDonald's and I had to settle for Sausage McMuffin with Egg. Turns out since I sat down to eat it, I was able to recover the fuel. I need to remember that when going for a long ride to save my energy for the hills. Just because I am going downhill and can catch and pass three wedgie's doesn't mean I should do it. Luckily, I didn't burn too much energy doing it, but I did notice it enough to keep reminding me to conserve energy. I took my camera along and took several pictures. This fact, helped me to not try and set any speed records, but to just enjoy the ride and attempt to survive it. After all, I only have 14 days until the Cochise County Cycling Classic, so I'm not likely to improve my speed now. I just need to work on successfully going the distance and enjoying the ride. The steady climb from Ina to the city of Oracle is long, long, long and unrelenting. But it is not too bad. There was a lot of 1%, 2%, 3%, and 5% gradients, along with a few steeper spots. My feet started to get numb and my knees started to hurt and by left sit bone also started to hurt. I adjusted how I sat quite a few times near the end of the climb. When I got to the Oracle turn off, I had just a couple more miles until the other turn off at the other end of town. That was after a sign that said 7% grades down the next 12 miles. Do you think the north end of the road back up to Oracle was 7% for that mile? Nope. Max was 10% a couple of short distances with a significant distance of 9% and some fluctuating between 8% and 5%. By the time I reached back up to the top of the hill and into Oracle I was pretty beat. This was at about 50 miles or so. I stopped at a convenience store, refilled my water bottles (3 of them anyway) and one with Gatorade. Then I used the facilities followed by eating a Cliff Bar. Then it was off to return to the Tucson Mall where I was going to check out REI. Luckily, it was roughly 30 miles of mostly downhill. A good portion of that was done at about 31 mph with another good portion in the low 20's. My soreness went away on the ride back down into town. I made my goal and was able to check out REI. I really enjoyed this ride and the scenery. It was good to get new scenery that is pretty and to have long stretches of little traffic and no turns to worry about.