Road Cycling - My first century

Wow... I did it. 102 miles in 6:33 of riding and 8 hours total. That is just over a 15 mph average speed. Not bad for a guy who had to stop and push up a hill last year during a 10 mile ride.

This began with an innocent coversation my friend and I had about our riding goals. I told him after accomplishing a metric century, that I wanted to find an organized ride, train for it, and complete it.

We decided that we could organize our own. We enlisted the help of another coworker, but none of us had ever ridden a century. So, we picked a date, spread the word and made some plans.

It was awesome. You can make the best plans, but ultimately, the riders make the ride. We had the most friendly group of 15 riders, willing to regroup at rest stops. We had one breakaway group that stayed together as a group. We got a 6' sub for lunch and afternoon breaks and brought a large cooler with gatorade and another with water.

Everyone thought it was a great ride and willing to come next year. They thought we had a good route, great support, and a good pace.

I wish all my rides were this great.

Awesome! congrats, thats sounds like a blast. Bet you'll sleep good tonight :o

Congradulations! Feels great knowing you can ride 100 miles doesn't it?
Barbie

Very cool. Congrats on pulling it all together!

Outstanding!! That is a really great thing that you pulled off, but you know what the best part of cycling is? It is only going to get better! Make this an annual event, and you never know who will show up!! If you're not doing anything, there's a century ride right here in my county on Saturday! And shoot, we're only about 500 miles apart! LOL

I've been through your state, east to west and back about a half dozen times in my life, mostly during the 70's. Haven't been there since though. I could sure imnagine a fine ride with a fine group of people in that state or Nebraska.

The thing I really like about southern AZ though, is year round comfortable cycling. Maybe it's a little hot in the summer, but that's OK.

Congrats on your ride. I'm looking forward to trying a century during 2003. The way you did it sounds like real fun!

Carl

Not to be a downer but here is something to think about. If you are going to make this an annual event you should find a lawyer friend to help you incorporate. Sooner or later someone will get hurt and sue.

The only suggestion that our experience riders gave us was that we needed a catchy name for our ride. They said the support was more than they ever expected, the rest stops were well planned and the weather was perfect.

I will concede that we need a small insurance policy for the ride next year, but incorporation may be a little much.

If you start doing liability forms, and check in/outs, and patrolling the route, then next you know, I'M NOT RIDING. That would be bad.

We also carried 3 cell phones with us and the phone numbers were on the map.

We had two people that had to SAG. One after the first hill (not really ready for the ride) and another that was having trouble shifting so, ended up pushing really hard gears. He dropped at mile 80 because the knees were getting sore.

When I first did a century, I had only to do the riding. You had to deal with the logistics as well.

So double congratulations are in order. :beer:

Jedi;

Call it the "THINK BIG 100"!!

All of us big boys solute you and the ride!!!!!

well done, glad to hear it all came together. I think that if you have all the participants sign a form of liability before hand, you should not have too much else to worry about. Basically they will have entered into a contract that they agreed to, not sure how they could sue you after that. :rolleyes:

I suppose anybody could sue, but can they win? Furthermore, does it matter, the mere effort to defend a suit would run you out of money (insurance or not).

Forget the insurance. The only reason people sue is because they know they can get an insurance pay out. If you don't have any insurance there is hardly any point in anyone suing as there is no money available to them. Just a thought.

Congratulations on the century, well done.

CHEERS.

Mark

Iowa,

That is the reason for incorporation. If someone sues they must sue the INC instead of you personally. The worst that can happen is they take control of the INC. But they can't touch your personal assets.

If you are not incorporated it is a different story. They sue YOU personally; take your house, car, first born son, and garnish your wages until the end of time.

You will probably never get sued. Especially if the THINK BIG 100 remains a small personal affair between friends. But once the word gets out and people you don't know start coming to the ride... then you should start thinking about ways to protect yourself.

No small accomplishment. I know how hard you worked for this. Congrats.

This is great!!!

Question: what training did you do beforehand? And were there any/many hills? Was it all in Iowa?

Great stuff!!!

The training was my emphasis. I wanted to train to ride the century and not just get through it. I used the 10 week program in that is featured in the Century Training Thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10756&highlight=century+training). I skipped ahead a few weeks.

I had a lot of trouble with rest days, because of my commuting schedule. I didn't actually do any of the 50-60 mile days in one sit. I did several days of 30 morning and 30 afternoon. I also have been getting into group rides. A friend of mine credits my group rides for strengthening my riding skills.

This ride wasn't flat. See this article -Iowa Is Not Flat (http://www.bikeiowa.com/asp/features/featuresdisplay.asp?ArticleID=244) There were plenty of hills. The morning route was flat and we made good time. But the middle was huge and last 30 miles were rolling hills.

Originally posted by IowaParamedic
A friend of mine credits my group rides for strengthening my riding skills.

I must agree, riding in a group or with other people for that matter, can be the most benificial thing you can do for your riding skill, I can even see the clear improvment in my riding since I started riding with a group.

CONGRATS!!! :beer: I also just completed my first century....I know just how good you're feeling!

Good work, you did the ride at a good pace also. I have done a metric Century but not a 100 mile century. I plan do to that next Spring. Congrats.
Ride-On
Bill

Originally posted by IowaParamedic
... There were plenty of hills. The morning route was flat and we made good time. But the middle was huge and last 30 miles were rolling hills.
Got it. Your time was quite good. For me out here in Californ-eye-a, most centuries are known for their elevation gain; the fact that they're 100 miles is almost incidental. ;)

I usually burn an hour or two in the hill climbs alone.

Originally posted by Roadguy1
Good work, you did the ride at a good pace also. I have done a metric Century but not a 100 mile century. I plan do to that next Spring. Congrats.
Ride-On
Bill

I know this may be a stupid question, but exactly how far is a metric century?

62 miles

If days off bother you, DON'T DO THEM. I find that I do just fine riding after a hard ride. I just take it slow and noodle along. I seem to FEEL better for having ridden then just sitting around.

My take on training schedules is that one should view them as suggestions. If you do a hard ride and riding the next day is terrible, well don't do it.

I think the thing here is that many people go by the "no pain, no gain" notion. And those people really need to take a day off so their muscles can recover. But if you can ride at an easy enough pace to promote muscle recovery, well do it.