Looks like fall is nearly upon us. The weather continues to get cooler. No higher than 80 degrees today with cool winds from the north west. Before the ride started, my left hip was a bit sore. I'm wanting to say that it was in the upper quad, more than the hip. I decided to do today's ride with caution. My legs were average, somewhat heavy to start. I got a good warm up to Route 202. I put it into moderate tempo mode up the Banducci wall and more of the same to the summit. The descent was mostly fun and games. I practiced my tuck position and reached 41+ MPH. After the descent, I did moderate tempo to SS. I felt somewhat off balance on the saddle today, I was edging to find what the possible cause is. I've yet to figure it out. I reached SS in around 50 minutes hours and the tunnel in around 1 hour. After exiting SS, I put it in cruise control to get a feel for what my body was saying. I think my hip was ok at this point, but I didn't want to push it. I did more of the same across the farmlands, perhaps a bit higher in tempo. I was cautious on the CVR climb. I kept the tempo steady, out of the saddle when necessary, no digs, just nice and constant. After reaching the summit, I put it into easy tempo. Stretching the legs and allowing the body to recover as close to 100% as I could get. As usual fun and games from OTR to the mailbox. Once at the mailbox, I swapped bottles, took a swig of the small bottle of Cytomax and headed out to Keene. I decided to continue to Keene at the last moment. As I was approaching the mailbox, my left hip was complaining a bit. My thinking was that I could stretch and recover the downhill to Keene and do modest tempo up the last climb of the day. Turns out that this was the right choice. When I reached the top of the descent, I fed a power bar. Cruised the downhill. My legs were getting heavy as I made my way up the kickers. When I reached Keene, I took a bio break and started the ascent. I started modest just as I planned, and kept it there all the way past the loop monument. When I past the monument, shortly after, my legs started to feel better. Less soreness from the hip. I kept the tempo moderate and constant. Again, out of the saddle when needed. I think I got my second wind half way up the climb. This was a welcome surprise. I reached the summit in just over 3:00 hours. The remainder was fun and games. Concentration was very good. Some moments of meandering about, but I was able to real them in. Ailments were mostly the left hip/quad soreness, some minor aches in the lower extremities. General feeling of exhaustion. Balance and form was probably the lesser of the attributes on this ride. Gear is working great. The Gopro stopped as I was about to pass the last kicker on the ascent. Turns out that I did not erase the SD card before the ride started. So, I did a delete-last operation. That gave me a 30 minute record window, this turned out to be more than enough. Other notes, no cyclists today. I saw a flock of about 200 birds a few hundred feet up as I was making my way to SS.