The First 100-Miler of 2010

Last Saturday, I decided that it was time to suck it up and grind out my first century of the year. I was a little worried about the weather. It started out kind of cool and whatever I took with me, I was going to be stuck with for the duration of the ride.

I rode my first 4 miles to the club ride at Elite Fitness where we started the 43 miles loop. To begin the ride, I had my jacket and full-fingered gloves on, but I had them off after about 20 miles. Again, I was stuck with them so the gloves were stuffed in a back pocket with the jacket wound up and tied around my waist. I was kind of riding with three other guys, but I was struggling a bit as I have been dealing with some sort of minor bug that's been congesting my lungs.

Thw worst part of the ride was the head wind coming from the east. We had a seven mile stretch in flat farm land area with nothing around to block any wind. I think it was blowing about 10-20 mph and every inch of the ride home sucked.

We get back to the starting point (47 miles in) and being the idiot that I am, I head right back out for another loop. No one is with me this time....just me and the mp3 player. After about 55 miles, I got to a gas station with a Subway and I was starving. Inhaled my lunch and got back on the road.

What I didn'tmention about the first part of the loop are the three inclines that kick off the back half of the loop. It was worse the second time around and the head wind was playing a factor as well. Basically, the entire ride home was in the wind and there was no one with me to share my misery.

The only redeeeming part of he loop is the hill you get to cruise down at the very end. What a relief to sit back and hit 30 mph and coast to the end.

So another 43 miles should have put me at 90 miles with 10 miles to go. With the 4 mile commute all I needed to do was find somehow to pick up an extra six miles and I'm done...except my odomoeter was showing me as being an additional 3 miles short.

So I turned into a subdivision and did a weird loop through the neighborhood and then I got onto a straight stretch of road right next to my subdivision and rode back and forth until I hit my mark. Pretty boring, but I was not in the mood to explore any of the heavily travelled roads.

As always, the first century of the year is the hardest. My butt is not used to sitting that long and my legs aren't used to working that long. Last year, a group of us did our first century together so we bitched and complained for the last 25 miles altogether. This year was a solo act...and hopefully it will finally lead me to my goal of 10 centuries. The one redeeming factor was that I took less breaks than I would with my group so the amount of time it took me to complete it was about the same, even though my saddle time was longer.

Anyways...one down, nine to go. Want to keep me company?