My first century
aka 100-mile bike ride. I did it. That's about all I can say...!
I've done 60-70ish mile rides; I did a 65 a few weeks ago. So, I thought, what's another 35?
Rather a lot, it turns out. After about 65 miles, I was getting a bit tired. With 30 miles to go, I was dying a bit, and finding that I was having trouble visualizing finishing. With 20ish to go, I was in a bit of a state where I wasn't sure of anything. With less than a mile to go, when they had a Turn Right sign one turn too early, and I made a wrong turn, ended up on 101, and had to turn around, I was about ready to give up on this whole bicycling thing...
I finished, collapsed against Neal, and tried to raise my hand to my face to stuff it with complimentary salad and lasagna. It was rather hard to use my muscles.
What didn't help with the whole thing is:
-Cold. Wet. Foggy. Raining.
-Big hill right at the beginning.
-Headwind on the way back.
-No peloton to ride with. A gal I passed easily on the big climb went whizzing by in a peloton later.
-The course. It used a lot of big roads - most of it was Highway 46 and Highway 1. This is central California - there should be lots of cool backroads!
-The aforementioned bad marking at the end.
But, hey, I made it (in just over 6 hours of pedal time, just under six and a half hours total). I used my new Garmin Forerunner 305 to record it to Strava, and that seemed to work well. Integrated heart rate, cadence, and speed is rather cool. (It says 99.4 instead of 100 because I forgot to start it at the start line.)
Pictures from my GoPro Hero:
Getting ready to go. Neal is holding the GoPro.
At the line. Neal in blue on the left.
Heading out! We had the roads closed for the first bit.
Not here, though. I was following that gal in the black Echelon jersey through a bit of the Big Climb, and she was all over the road - weaving back and forth, crossing over the double-yellow, going into the oncoming lane! That really gets my goat - it makes bicyclists look bad.
Behind my lovely Neal.
Starting to climb. It just got foggier and foggier. And I was wearing my glasses.
The gal in the Echelon jersey starting to go over the double yellow.
Near the top. The dude on the sweet Specialized was super-friendly, asking if I had ever done this before, encouragingly telling me that we were near the top.
At the top of the worst climb, turning onto Highway 46 for a bit more climbing before the descent.
46 was so, so foggy! Having a light made a huge difference. Without a light - well, I barely saw these guys before I was atop them.
The descent was fun. I was passing cars.
I passed a lot of folk on the descent, but these people passed me at the very end. I was able to hang onto them and get a bit of a pull down to Highway 1. At that point, they stopped, and I kept going.
By now, it was raining.
Stupid red lights. That hurt my total time.
The central coast is quite lovely - when it's not fecking raining.
We were told that the turn-around was at Hearst Castle. I thought it meant that the turn-around would be... well, at the castle. It was across from the castle, in a dinky little park.
My trusty lil' Fuji.
On the way back.
I was going to stick with these guys, but I saw Neal coming the other way and I peeled off.
I got a little drafting love from this guy.
But most of the way back was on my own.
That was it - my GoPro ran out of battery. It did get a little sunny at the very end. And, hell, I made it. I'll try to actually do well next time.
I've done 60-70ish mile rides; I did a 65 a few weeks ago. So, I thought, what's another 35?
Rather a lot, it turns out. After about 65 miles, I was getting a bit tired. With 30 miles to go, I was dying a bit, and finding that I was having trouble visualizing finishing. With 20ish to go, I was in a bit of a state where I wasn't sure of anything. With less than a mile to go, when they had a Turn Right sign one turn too early, and I made a wrong turn, ended up on 101, and had to turn around, I was about ready to give up on this whole bicycling thing...
I finished, collapsed against Neal, and tried to raise my hand to my face to stuff it with complimentary salad and lasagna. It was rather hard to use my muscles.
What didn't help with the whole thing is:
-Cold. Wet. Foggy. Raining.
-Big hill right at the beginning.
-Headwind on the way back.
-No peloton to ride with. A gal I passed easily on the big climb went whizzing by in a peloton later.
-The course. It used a lot of big roads - most of it was Highway 46 and Highway 1. This is central California - there should be lots of cool backroads!
-The aforementioned bad marking at the end.
But, hey, I made it (in just over 6 hours of pedal time, just under six and a half hours total). I used my new Garmin Forerunner 305 to record it to Strava, and that seemed to work well. Integrated heart rate, cadence, and speed is rather cool. (It says 99.4 instead of 100 because I forgot to start it at the start line.)
Pictures from my GoPro Hero:
Getting ready to go. Neal is holding the GoPro.
At the line. Neal in blue on the left.
Heading out! We had the roads closed for the first bit.
Not here, though. I was following that gal in the black Echelon jersey through a bit of the Big Climb, and she was all over the road - weaving back and forth, crossing over the double-yellow, going into the oncoming lane! That really gets my goat - it makes bicyclists look bad.
Behind my lovely Neal.
Starting to climb. It just got foggier and foggier. And I was wearing my glasses.
The gal in the Echelon jersey starting to go over the double yellow.
Near the top. The dude on the sweet Specialized was super-friendly, asking if I had ever done this before, encouragingly telling me that we were near the top.
At the top of the worst climb, turning onto Highway 46 for a bit more climbing before the descent.
46 was so, so foggy! Having a light made a huge difference. Without a light - well, I barely saw these guys before I was atop them.
The descent was fun. I was passing cars.
I passed a lot of folk on the descent, but these people passed me at the very end. I was able to hang onto them and get a bit of a pull down to Highway 1. At that point, they stopped, and I kept going.
By now, it was raining.
Stupid red lights. That hurt my total time.
The central coast is quite lovely - when it's not fecking raining.
We were told that the turn-around was at Hearst Castle. I thought it meant that the turn-around would be... well, at the castle. It was across from the castle, in a dinky little park.
My trusty lil' Fuji.
On the way back.
I was going to stick with these guys, but I saw Neal coming the other way and I peeled off.
I got a little drafting love from this guy.
But most of the way back was on my own.
That was it - my GoPro ran out of battery. It did get a little sunny at the very end. And, hell, I made it. I'll try to actually do well next time.