Found myself staring at yet another long-ish ride signed up for some months ago (next weekend?? Really??) and realized I might better think about doing a long-ish training ride. The Three Creek Century is really a half-century for me -- am aiming for the 50-miler, so almost 44 with 2500 feet of climbing seems about right. The standard ride has about 1800 feet; no need to do the special "challenge" version with 2900 feet of climbing ... ANYWAY. Another solo ride, this time from home, through Gaithersburg and out into the country. Strong SW wind, which was appreciated about mile 20 when the route starts that lonnnnng sustained climb into Poolesvile. The gamble on riding 3+ miles on Route 28 paid off -- given the time of day and the use of that road on the weekend, was pretty sure most of the traffic was outbound, i.e., west-ish and that riding it east-ish would be ok. Yep yep. Pleased with that choice. Climb up Schaeffer Road at 30 was slow because long, steep, and 30 miles in. THAT's where the real workout started ... Smartly stopped at 55 minutes in and again at 2h23m, though, that could have been sooner. Warmer today than it has been of late and was surprised to see the 3 liters of water in the camelbak were mostly gone. Felt pretty good, if a little tired once the mileage got past about 35. Contact points were non-factors. Was glad to push the mower around the front yard to loosen everything up later. Feel fairly confident about doing 50 next week.