Training & Nutrition - I did a century today! (LONG)

Well, I did it!

Thanks to everyone for the tips. After thinking about it, I took off Thursday and Friday with riding. I had to teach my indoor cycling classes, but other than that, I did nothing cycling related.

I really didn't know if I could do it, but I set out to do the century anyway this morning.

In the beginning, I did the full bike path, just to get the first 30 miles out of the way. That wasn't any real porblem. I didn't rush it at all, just took my time riding the path.

The end of the path found me at the Hilton downtown- I stopped for a bathroom break and I went to the ATM to pick up some cash. Once I got the cash, I started out again.

I rode north on some pretty busy streets for a while, then I got to another bike trail that took me to my 42nd mile. I stopped for a break again- I ate an apple, drank more water (I drank water all along too!), and sat in the shade.

After half an hour, I took off again. I was still feeling pretty fresh, so I pushed on. I hit Green Bay Road, and I asked another cyclist which way Wisconsin was. He pointed to the left, and off I went! I rode along, not seeing the Green Bay Trail I'd heard about, but after about 10 minutes, I quickly found the trail. I jumped off Green Bay Road, and I jumped on the trail, and I began to ride along the trail. But after about 5 minutes, I lost the trail, so I just jumped back on the street. I rode along the streets for a bit longer, then came across a McDonald's. It was still morning, so I stopped and had a sausage biscuit and a big fresh orange juice and more water. I ate it, enjoying the air conditioning, and sat for another 20 minutes or so. When I came out, I ran into a guy, and he asked how far I was going. I told him I was going 100 miles today, and he started laughing. When he finished laughing, I asked for directions to Wisconsin. He said just take Green Bay Road, and it would take me all the way to North Chicago. I thanked him, and I left.

After McDonald's, I took off again. This time, I took Sheridan Road, after a brief disaster, where I was on Green Bay Road, which dead ended about a mile or so later. I had to turn around and pick through the city, and that's where I found Sheridan Road. I rode on Sheridan Road for about another hour, where I accidentally ran into the Green Bay Trail again. I decided to take the trail, and I really enjoyed running through the towns- I took the trail from Highland Park all the way to North Chicago, where it ended. The fun part of that trail was running into the Great Lakes Naval Base- I'd heard of it, but I never knew what it looked like. There were men and women walking around in uniform, and some were wearing fatigues and walking through town. I'd never been in a town with so many military personnel, and it was interesting to see.

When the trail ended, I heaved a sigh of relief and turned back around. By this time, my butt started to hurt some, but I'd been using some of that chaffing cream, so that helped some. My legs were feeling a little rubbery, but other than that, everything was fine. I rode the path backwards from North Chicago, enjoying the quietness of the path- almost deserted, smooth and paved, and right next to the road, but slightly elevated above Sheridan Road. Coming back, my spirits were lifted because I knew I was getting close, but I knew I had a while to go. Still, I was feeling pretty good.

I rode along for almost an hour, then saw that I was still on the path, and I hadn't seen this part before, so I knew I was in the part of the trail that I couldn't find earlier. I was ok with this, and I rode along, but then the trail ended for a bit, and I decided to stick with the streets from now on. I stopped at a gas station, and I felt like I needed a sugar shock, so I got a mountain dew and a brownie. I talked to the guy there, and he told me how to take Green Bay Road all the way back to Skokie, so when I finished my break, I took off again, and this time, I found Green Bay Road right away. I rode along, starting to look for the path for the Skokie Sculpture Park. All I could think was "Damn, Glencoe is big!". Then I saw a sign for the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and I knew I would be settling in for the long haul- the Botanic Gardens was about 32 miles from home, so I forced myself to stop getting so frantic, and just enjoy the ride. So I did.

I finally got to the point where Green Bay Road met up with Skokie (the city), and everything looked familiar, and I started getting excited all over again. I stopped again, and this time, I finished up my mountain dew and drank more water and sat in the shade. By this time, my shoulders were aching from carrying my messenger bag, and I was starting to feel a bit off. But I knew I was 12 miles from home, although I also knew that I would be a few miles short of the century. Still, I didn't worry about that. I just concentrated on getting home.

Well, I pushed the last 12 miles to get home, and in the last 8 or so miles to home, I started feeling very funky- a bit weak, rubbery in the legs, and my head was beginning to ache a little. And that saddle was killing me! Plus, I was just getting hot. I kept sucking down my water, and I tried to think about other things- I wondered what was going on with the Tour, I thought about a friend of mine, I worked my way through two problems I'd been working on from home, and I thought about my nephews. That all helped.

I finally got home, and I figured out from adding the mileage that I was exactly 9.9 miles short of my century! I groaned- then I wondered if I could just say I did the century even though I was short. Then I figured that it wasn't that many miles, and I should do it- besides, I didn't want to lie to you guys about it! So I decided to drop my messenger bag and just take the barest essentials that I could fit in my jersey back pocket. Before I could change my mind, I stowed my bag in the bike room and took off.

I was feeling pretty bad by then- so close to home and my head was throbbing, my feet were hurting, my legs were feeling sore, my butt was hurting pretty bad, and I really wanted to get in a bath and lay down in some serious bubbles. But I really wanted to say I did a century and mean it. So I decided to ride 3 miles north and 2 miles west, then backtrack over that part to get 10 miles in.

Somewhere in the fifth mile, I could feel the bile rising in my throat, but I just took a swig of water and kept on riding. To be extra sure I wasn't cheating myself, I went an extra 2 blocks north and an extra 2 blocks west beyond the five miles. I just didn't want to cheat myself at all.

Coming back from the five miles out, I was just spinning back home in low gears- I hardly could go fast enough to call myself riding! :) But I did it, and when I got home, I just stumbled into the bike room and locked my bike real good- I didn't want to be too tired to lock my bike and have it stolen! Then I took the elevators back to my condo and immediately went to the store a few flights down and got fresh fruit and fresh juice- that's about all I have a craving for now, and now I'm gonna jump in a nice bubble bath and soak, and then if anyone is so inclined, they can join me in the chat room tonight at 8:30 p.m. C.S.T. and we can chat for a bit, then I need to be in bed within an hour of getting in the chat, because boy am I beat!

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice from everyone! It really helped me to realize that the only thing keeping me from doing a century was me!

:) :fun: WHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I DID IT!!!!! :fun:

Congrats, Koffee.

:beer:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:beer: ::thumbup: :fun:

Attagirl!!!! :beer:

Welcome to the 'Century Club' and may you see more of these:

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
I could feel the bile rising in my throat

I hate it when that happens! Boy, that sounds like a narrative from an episode of The Prisoner. Congrat's.

We knew you could do it all along. ;)

That is sooo cool... good job! :thumbup:

So, Monday morning you can look them all in the eye and say "I rode a hundred miles in one day this weekend, what did you do????"

:beer:

Congrats Koffee! :beer:

You do realise that now you'll be hooked. Given a little time, and you'll be aiming to do 10-15 centuries a year... :eek:

:thumbup: :fun::fun:

Great acheivment Koffee , well done .Its 40yrs since I've done an imperial century , gota have a go soon ,think I'll do it in all the differant loops so I can stop at home for lunch ect. you've inspired me :D

well done
grey.:beer: :beer:

Ok,

After a little less than 24 hours, I feel sufficiently recovered- tonight I will probably be able to eat solid foods (other than the fruits I've been eating), which is a good sign. I've ben-gayed myself to death since I got back, and my legs are feeling somewhat recovered, so I will probably do an easy 30 miler in the morning and call it a day.

I am already thinking about doing my next century in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping I'll find someone who is crazy enough to go with me, and I'll do it on a Friday so I have Saturday to recover. I'm thinking that I just need to get my body used to doing 100 mile rides, and then I can work towards doing a double century. Double century! I am already looking forward to it!

:lol:

At the very least, I want to attempt another century within a month, and then do a half century the next day. I really like the idea of challenging myself like that.

Grey, get on out there and do that century! I wished you lived closer, then we could do it together! Let us know how that goes for you, though.

Thanks to everyone for the congratulatory stuff.

Koffee

Koffee,

I am very inspired by your post. I was encouraged by your posts last week asking for advice. I am in a similiar positon and have been getting ready to do my first century. I wasn't sure if I was ready but by reading the responses to your post I was hopeful that I could do it before the end of July. Now after reading that
you acutally did it I can't wait to get back from vacation and try it myself.

Congratulations and thanks for the inspiration.

Steve

Congratulations Koffee.

Keep up the good work, there's no stopping you now.

:beer:

Way to go Koffee!!!!!! :beer:

Awesome stuff, Koffee. ThanX for the report, it was an interesting read! :)

Koffee,

You Go Girl (and you did too!)

Congratulations.


Marty

Thanks for the update!! I've gotten a couple of 50 milers out of my knee now so I guess I'll have to try a real 100 miles this fall ( I did manage a 100K on a flat course this spring) I've read all your "hint" and all the wonderfull suggestions - now I will have to put them into practice. What an inspiration!
Hey - does it matter how fast you go or do you just have to finish in 24 hours to claim a "century"?

That is soooo sweet! Congrats!!!

- Paul

Hey- I budgeted for 24 hours, but of course, it didn't take 24 hours! ;)

I thought the most important thing for myself was to pace myself- not go too fast too soon and burn myself out or kill my knees, and it seemed to work. I did get lost a few times, which set me back too, but I'll be sure to repeat that ride in the next month, and this time I'll know where I'm going for sure.

I guess I should bring a map next time too! :D

Good luck to you and your century- everyone that does one should update the forum so that the rest of us can be inspired!

Thanks again to everyone! I appreciate the accolades!

Koffee

Congratulations. I've only done one century ride (also solo, about a year ago), but I could totally relate to the part about making it home short of the century mark. I think I only had about 1.5 miles to go, but it was about the worst 1.5 miles ever! I think just the fact that you've seen your home in spitting distance makes something psychologically snap.

I was riding through Skokie/Wilmette on Sunday, guess I missed you by a day. If you want to do another round-trip century sometime, I'd suggest skipping the initial bike path section, and going straight north to Wisconsin. I'm not sure how far north you live, but it's probably somewhere around 50 miles to the border, and riding to another state and back makes a nice goal. I wouldn't really recommend riding out northwest, even though that's where I live and I don't want to discourage riders out here; we definitely need more of them! But if you rode out 50 miles, almost all of it would still be through suburban hell. Not that going north isn't mile after mile of suburban hell too, but there just seem to be a lot more bike facilities (and bikers) on the North Shore than there are out here.

Uh-oh...

I can't believe this, but my next century is scheduled for this Saturday!

:eek:

A friend of mine called me tonight- said he's moving on Monday and wanted to get together for one last ride before he heads off for the west coast. By the way, he's gotten rid of most of his worldly possessions and will be riding out to the west coast by bike! The way he rides, he should be there in about 3- 4 days! :lol:

I will probably just take one day off before heading out instead of two- and I will definitely carbo load this time around starting on Thursday night. I'll be changing bags so I don't have the shoulder problem I had with my messenger bag from my century last week. And I'll be carrying quite a few more snacks. We're going to head north again, but this time, it'll be a different route. It should be fun and definitely more interesting since I won't be alone.

:eek: Another century so soon! :eek:

Congrats on your century! It seems like last saturday was a good day for people to be doing centuries. :D However, as you probably have discovered by now, you are probably suffering from post-epic-ride depression and wishing for another ride of equal distinction. I hereby open-endedly extend to you an invitation to come out to the Seattle area and ride with us PacNW BF folks. I'm sure I can't speak for everyone here but I'm certain a few BikeForums members from the area would love for you to join us on our rides... and that goes for anyone else in the area too. Maybe you could celebrate the anniversary of your first century with a set of back-to-back centuries next year and join us for the STP. ;)

BTW, don't be too concerned about making the century "honest"... I think bike computers are liable to be a bit off over the course of a long ride...

http://www.neebu.net/~khuon/albums/2003STP/PICT0002.jpg

Ha!

Thanks for the invite. I may be out in Seattle in October. If so, I'll be hopefully bringing my bikke. If I bring my bike, we're on for a ride!

Koff

Good job. Congratulations. I knew you had it in you with all those miles you have been putting in. And you are talking about doing one on Saturday already? Well that should be more then enough time to recover.

Read your account. Good detail. Sort of stream on consciousness and that is very similar to how I write my century accounts.

You sure like those bike trails don't you? I think you are a bit nuts to ride unfamiliar terrain on an unsupported century. I used to ride strange areas all the time in MI and I got lost a few times and other times I just sort of found my way around by dead reckoning but never on a century.

Again congratulations.

I used to do multi-day rides of hundreds of miles all around Illinois and Wisconsin unsupported using just a map and some wanderlust. And I was taking offroad trails too in addition to unimproved back-country roads that sometimes didn't show up on maps. It's not really all that bad. It's a bit refreshing to just go out and say, "let's see where the day takes me". One just has to remember to take along enough things to be prepared for all forseeable situations.

Well, I like the bike trails, but I'm not adverse to hopping off the trails and getting on the streets, as I did when I was doing my century. My shortcoming was that the only map I had for the northern part of the state was a book about bike trails. So that kind of limited me to the streets, except when I found Sheridan Road, which I knew extended to Wisconsin, and Green Bay Road, which I thought extended to Wisconsin, but didn't.

I am going again this Saturday. We'll be doing a combination of roads and trails, but taking a different route. It should be fun.

No problem about not being prepared- I'm usually overprepared! ;)

:fun: :roflmao: :beer: :D :D

Wooooooohoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You go girl!!!!
Great Story!