Heligen

First major hill workout of the year. 7 miles to Crow and then north onto 778. 7.5 miles of hills, all but the first averaging 6-7%. Then a new turn east onto a shady oil-top road that parallels FM 49--lots of small hills, dogs, bumpy pavement. After just over 6 miles (I think) I turned southeast onto FM 14. Nice bombing downhill to start, but a major pickup in traffic (big trucks). Large chip seal, almost no shoulder. Then, there was The Hill: 1 mile of chip seal + 7% avg. gradient = suffering. But that was the last hill for a while. After that it was "channel my inner Jens" and battle through to the intersection of 14 and 2869. Turned south on 2869. Again, a bombing downhill, but then the pavement turned up again (4%) and I just put it in the small gear until I could turn off towards the lake. Battled some more dogs, but finally, finally made it home. Wish I could have an ice bath but no ice!