After three days of fretting about whether my big mofo four-hour singletrack ride would happen today, it did, more or less. I spent the whole day yesterday checking the radar for Nashville, IN about every 30 minutes, as I watch two large green patches of rain go each side of Brown County State Park. Score! However, there was still rain predicted for late morning today. So I got up at 6:15 a.m. ON A SATURDAY to try and beat the rain.
I had hoped ride the paved climb up to the North Tower, ride two laps of the race loop, come down the connector trail, refill with water, and do the whole thing over; kind of like doing two DINO BCSP races back-to-back. However, I wasn't going full race pace, because I was going to be out there much longer than normal and my legs were quite tired from training this week. I didn't know if I'd be able to do that within four hours.
After two laps, I was well off-pace, partly because I had to make a bathroom stop at the top of the Aynes climb on both laps. Obviously, hydration was not a problem and I had a decent amount of water left. It started lightly sprinkling, so I decided to try and get in one more lap without stopping to refill for water. By the end of the third lap, the rain was coming down earnest and I knew it was time to get off the trail. I still had some time left, and since I've become very OCD about getting in the full workout time, I finished up on the road. I could have probably finished another beginner loop only, if it had not been raining, but I was close enough.
When I got home, I was kind of disappointed to see that I had only covered 26.1 miles of not-that-hard terrain in my four hours. I was hoping for more like 40. It's still way better than I'd done before the Ouachita Challenge last year, and I'm lucky to have been able to get in four mountain bike rides already this year. Hopefully, the speed will come soon.
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