Today was a hot one. Another 90'ish degree afternoon. The ride was a mixed bag of situtations. First, I have a saddle sore that has gotten bad. I was debating on whether to do the entire ride, or the abridged. I ended up doing the entire ride. The sore wasn't a show stopper, but I'm not sure if I should have done the entire route. Needless to say, I did the ride feeling mild discomfort. My legs felt average from the start, and I was well into the warmed up phase by the end of OTR. I did good tempo going up the wall and I was a bit gassed by the time I reached the plateau. I completed the remainder the ascent in moderate tempo, sometimes picking up the pace here and there. I was able to get in and out of the saddle to keep myself on top of the pedals. The farmland out-bound was business as usual. I reached SS in average time and was out of SS just as quick. I debated if I should stop and get drinks, but decided against it because there appeared to be a lot of construction and such. In the end I had just enough provisions to get home. The return trip on the farm-lands started as the usual, wanting to get off Banducci. So many cars makes it perilous. After making my left turn onto Pelliser, I was much more comfortable and was able to set a good tempo all the way to the last climb of the day. I was exhausted when I reached the last climb. The heat just made it that much worse. I was able to gauge my efforts and avoided blowing up. I did one last kick just over the summit. After that, it was mostly fun and games, keeping the tempo nice and steady, on top of the pedals. Ailments... Of course, saddle sores was the worse. I'm currently treating it with rubbing alcohol, some vaseline to keep the wound clean, and some anti-inflamitory meds. I'm hoping I'll be golden by the time the Gran Fondo ride. I had right hand numbness. I was stretching constantly so I didn't have any lower back, knee, or hip pains. Concentration and focus was good, but somewhat agitated from my sores. Gear is working well, but I had a mystery click for the entire ride. Sounded from the drive side. I'll clean out the cleat and pedal to see if that helps. Other notes, I saw some goats at the summit of Banducci. They looked different than the ones I'm used to. They had unusual curled horns. I got a photo of them, but only as they were moving away, about 200-300 yards away. Not worth uploading.