I did the triple today! I've been planning on doing this ride for over a month now and I finally got around to doing it. I think the most difficult part was for me to get up early in the morning. Until today, I've been doing afternoon rides. There were 3 distinct parts of the ride. Keene n Back, Tour de Teh (SS,R) and Willow Springs n Back. I wanted to mimic the Gran Fondo ride that I'm going to do in September. The most difficult parts were first and lesser later in the ride. After getting out the door, I was really sleepy. I felt this way all the way down Keene. When I started the ascent, I became more and more alert. By the time I reached the summit, I was all systems go. The Keene climb was all moderate tempo. The only place that I had to put extra effort was the 1-2 miles around the loop monument. Other than that, I kept reminding myself how much of the ride was left. I felt good through out this leg, no serious soreness except exhaustion. When I reached the summit, I decided to take a 3-4 minute break as I planned. I had half of a power bar, drank as much of my provisions and then continued the next leg of the ride. I stopped at the mailbox and swapped out the bottles that I put in there in the beginning of the ride. I had some energy bars in there as well, I took all of them. The OTR leg was good. The usual first kicker was the greater effort as it always is. Banducci wasn't too bad. I've done it hundreds of times, so I knew how to approach it. Steady and more effort where needed. I reached the summit in good time. At that point, I ate the a power bar. I think I had 1/2, I don't quite remember. I was able to recover on the downhill and commenced the farmland leg going to SS in moderate but not to modest tempo. I reached SS in good time. Putting a slight effort over the summit. I think I may have paused for a minute or so before continuing. Fortunately, SS blvd pavement was complete. I stopped at the local quickie mart and got a bottle of water and an energy drink. I consumed as much as I could and replenished my bottles. I think I bought too much water because I couldn't drink it all at once. I decided to take it by hand and drink the remainder as I made my way out SS. By the end of SS, I had consumed what was left in the water bottle that I bought. I couldn't find any trash cans to throw the bottle away, so i ended up crumpling it and putting it my jersey pocket. I ended up carrying it for the remainder of the ride. Going through the farmlands was a treat, I was able to keep moderate tempo and stretch several times. When I reached the last major climb, CVR, I stopped, ate some fig bars and continued. The first half mile was the worse as that was the steeper sections of the ride. After summiting, I stopped to swap out my batteries and memory card on my Gopro. Immediately after, I made my way to Route 202 and made my way to the start of Willow Springs n Back. The wind was almost a perfect tailwind on the way out. That was a treat and a welcome reprieve. I was able to stretch, work on my balance all the while keeping good tempo. I tried not to burn too many matches on the way out. My original plan was to feed upon reaching Willow Springs, but I was feeling good enough to skip that plan. I had plenty of fluid provisions and that was all I needed for the remainder of the ride. The return trip from Willow Springs started modest and upped the pace on a few occasions. I was focused on what was ahead. The last 2 kickers were on my mind. I knew if I could make it over them, that I had the remainder of the ride in the bag. When I made it to OTR, the rest was fun and games. Just a few places that I had to put some effort to get over, nothing major. I made it home in good time, better than I had anticipated, just under 4 hours of riding time. Concentration was fantastic, pretty much in the zone for the most part. Balance was much better than the previous ride. Gear is working great. No strange noises coming from the rear wheel. Other notes, I saw at least 6 cyclists. Apparently they ride earlier in the day than I normally do.