South(west) Times Two

We have had the pleasure of riding in St. George  and Hurricane the last two weekends.
This past weekend we went down for a quick day trip. We dropped off our lil apprentice with Chris's mom and step dad. They have been so great about helping us out. And we then headed down continuing South. Chris had the goal to ride for five hours to make it worthwhile. We met up with Jon and Jeff in the parking lot of Hurricane Rim.
We rode counter clockwise through most of Jem. We then did a little loop on Goosebump. I was not so impressed with it, but will likely get better with more traffic. We then finished up on Gould. Jeff and Jon went to the parking lot, while Chris and I turned around and did it all again backwards (without Goosebump). Jem was so fun on the way back.
By the time we got back to Hurricane Rim I was about spent. It had been close to four hours of pedal time. I was out of food and water.
Chris wanted to do Church Rocks and Prospector, but I was too dead. We started and then turned back. I am a big wimp these days. Granted the four plus hours of pedal time I averaged 166.
The weekend before that was a family affair. We stayed in St. George and rode in the Green Valley and Santa Clara areas. Comparatively, I felt better this weekend than when we rode down there a month or so ago. I didn't seem to struggle as much on the climbs. This may have been a pseudo good feeling attributed to riding solo. There was no one to try to keep up with.
Hopefully, I am making progress and will be ready to race.