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TSE - Day 3

TSE Day 3 – Gravel, gravel, gravel.

We rode a lot of gravel if you didn’t infer that by the title of today’s review. Our plan was to start slow and maintain a good pace then go faster if we could. Again, I was the weak link, but not as bad as yesterday. The heat is beating me down. I poured every third bottle of water on my head and neck to try and keep my temperature down. It helped a bunch. Bla.

What we saw today came straight out of an issue of National Geographic. Green everywhere. Solitude in the forest is what we witnessed as we climbed for a total of 5300’ in 49 miles. It was hard to imagine how some of the climbs kept going. We’d round a turn and think we were at the top but the next turn revealed more up. It seemed to never stop. Most of the climbs were along mountain streams. We also had quite a bit of shade (thank God). Some of the streams were misting upwards towards the road bed and you would occasionally get a cool treat from the water. The route took us through Coburn, PA and almost to Woodward, PA as well. We hit a fair amount of the Wilderness 101 routes beginning and end and also passed through an old rail tunnel that felt like Mother Nature’s air conditioning. It was a sweet 20 seconds of cool air.

I’m beat and my imagination sweat out of me somewhere on the course today.

We gained a little bit of time on the male duo team who is winning our class and getting all the daily swag.

We have four more days and tomorrow is supposed to be fun rolling man made “for biking” trails.
Hopefully it won’t be hot enough to melt my helmet to my head.

Peace. DJC

4:28
10.7 Avg
47.9 miles
Max speed 40

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