my turn to bonk

connect.garmin.com/activity/96943725

after a good night's sleep, fred and i were ready to ride with dave again. all the pain of the day before was behind us. we could hang with him.

we left the museum, headed south on highway 77 and turned west onto 322nd road. we'd scouted the road's first three miles, so we knew we wouldn't have the painful rollers to deal with this time. we'd just have to deal with dave's unrelenting speed and, it turns out, two ugly dogs.

the mutts came out of nowhere as we approached a trailer house that looked all but abandoned. the tall weeds hid the evil beasts. i heard barking before i saw them. i accelerated and got away, leaving dave and fred to handle the greetings.

the rest of the ride out was pretty uneventful until we hit highway 166 after finding another "end of pavement" route. on 166, i bonked. i'm not sure exactly why, but i had nothing left. i couldn't climb like i had on the rollers the day before. my legs just quit while climbing a long gradual incline. i watched, powerless to do anything about it, as dave and fred pulled away. i struggled up and over the top and caught up with them only to repeat on the next long uphill.

we turned around after another two or three miles and headed back to the museum. we rode past the evil twins again. i somehow managed to avoid their deadly jaws while riding past powerless to increase my speed much.

finally, dave and fred dropped me. i didn't really care. my heartrate was under control and i was riding. i caught up with them briefly at the junction of highway 77, but then, on the hill up to the museum, i was off the back again. i kept them in sight, but that's about all i can say for my efforts. i pulled into the museum parking lot, unclipped and stowed my bike. (31.03 miles @ 20.3mph)