I rode my first century ride this past Saturday which was a bit of a jump from my previous longest ride of 56 miles on the Wildflower course....I've just never had the time or the inclination to ride that far...that is until a few friends talked me into it on Saturday.
A few casual observations;
PACE LINES A GRRRRRRREAT! we managed to book along at 20-25mph on the flat sections for most of the first 50 miles when we hooked onto a big pace line of about 40 riders.
Tandems are FREAKIN FAST...a couple on a tandem pulled the first 25 miles and everyone else just sat in and went along for the ride.
When you lose a pace line its freakin impossible to get back on....I lost the line twice and didn't get back on until the next aid station...the first time I just fell asleep at a junction and was looking at my map when I looked up and everyone was under way and I was 50 yards down and I hammered the next 10 miles and still lost ground. Second time I hit a pothole and spat out my waterbottles and had to go back and get them....thats the last time I saw those guys....and my average speed dropped quite a bit from there to the finish.
If you're going to fall off your bike do it on a big climb at 5mph.
The whole "what is harder a century or a marathon?" debate is stupid. There is no comparison. A century is about equal to a half marathon in effort. My shoulders were a bit sore and a couple of bones I've broken recently ached a bit, but my legs were fresh as daisys after the ride.
The guy on the fat tire MTB wearing the Hawaiian shirt is a STUD!
West Marin is beautiful.
Wear sunblock.
I averaged 18 mph at Wildflower on the Olympic course and 17.5 mph yesterday for 105 miles so I guess I'm getting a little stronger on the bike.
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"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
John Sawhill
A few casual observations;
PACE LINES A GRRRRRRREAT! we managed to book along at 20-25mph on the flat sections for most of the first 50 miles when we hooked onto a big pace line of about 40 riders.
Tandems are FREAKIN FAST...a couple on a tandem pulled the first 25 miles and everyone else just sat in and went along for the ride.
When you lose a pace line its freakin impossible to get back on....I lost the line twice and didn't get back on until the next aid station...the first time I just fell asleep at a junction and was looking at my map when I looked up and everyone was under way and I was 50 yards down and I hammered the next 10 miles and still lost ground. Second time I hit a pothole and spat out my waterbottles and had to go back and get them....thats the last time I saw those guys....and my average speed dropped quite a bit from there to the finish.
If you're going to fall off your bike do it on a big climb at 5mph.
The whole "what is harder a century or a marathon?" debate is stupid. There is no comparison. A century is about equal to a half marathon in effort. My shoulders were a bit sore and a couple of bones I've broken recently ached a bit, but my legs were fresh as daisys after the ride.
The guy on the fat tire MTB wearing the Hawaiian shirt is a STUD!
West Marin is beautiful.
Wear sunblock.
I averaged 18 mph at Wildflower on the Olympic course and 17.5 mph yesterday for 105 miles so I guess I'm getting a little stronger on the bike.
----------------------------------------------------------
"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
John Sawhill