Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - First 3 Centuries.. in a row

Well up to the ride, i had never ridden a single century. I had no idea how it was going to be.... and i had to do 3 of them in a row for a total of 300 miles. All my rides are usually about 20-30 miles just trying to find the time to fit it in.

First day was alot of hills and i was able to finish 100 miles in 5:19
Second day had hills, but not as many, my legs were dead but still managed finishing 115 miles in 6:00 for an average of 19.2mph
Last day... well not so good, right at 18mph avg, my legs were toast

All in all, i can say im hooked on biking and that was a total blast. I figured i'd share and say i now understand the fun in biking.

and now i also realize how slow i am... so im going to work on that.

Congrats, that is quite an accomplishment doing 3 back to back centuries with so little riding. Your times are actually fast for doing multiple centuries IMO.

Well done but thats not slow,heck I can't do one century that fast.

and now i also realize how slow i am... so im going to work on that.

Not sure what brought you to that realization, but if you feel you are slow once you start training for a specific goal you will certainly see some improvement. Intervals on your shorter rides will certainly help for your longer ones.

Not sure what brought you to that realization, but if you feel you are slow once you start training for a specific goal you will certainly see some improvement. Intervals on your shorter rides will certainly help for your longer ones.

what brought me to that realization was all the people that were significantly faster than me... but as they say, there will always be someone faster... however my goal is to significantly reduce the number of people who are :)

Every one of your three centuries is faster then I've ever done one. I've done back-to-back centuries a couple times, and I've never had the motivation to get on the bike for a third straight 100 miles.

Whereabouts were these rides?

its a trip from northern michigan and headed south... so its a little far from you.

This a group ride? Or just you solo?

~kn

A 22 mile loop at 16.0 mph is my top speed achievement. You done good.

This a group ride? Or just you solo?

~kn

sometimes i was riding with a group, other parts i rode solo. it was actually a charity event so there were quite a few people.

Was this "rolling time" from the cyclocomputer or clock time ? Either way, those were fast rides. I find that the more I ride, the slower I get ... but that's because I've adjusted my riding to the fat-burning speed required of longer brevets. When a century was my long ride, I had better times. Undoubtedly if I trained more, eg. intervals, I'd pick up the pace.

What ride was this? I've never heard of one going north to south in Michigan, I might be interested for next summer.

What ride was this? I've never heard of one going north to south in Michigan, I might be interested for next summer.

he said from northern michigan....as in... da UP eh.
sounds like he went across the bridge. something I had always wanted to do since I was a kid.

I call B.S.

I call B.S.

+1

If this report had included an encounter with a UFO, it would not more inconsistent with my experience on a bicycle.

B.S.? what for? (scratching head)

B.S.? what for? (scratching head)

They're calling BS on the claim that somebody who has never ridden a century before can rip through three straight at the speeds you claimed to have done them.

Even drafting or tailwind the whole time it's still.... well.... (shrug)

~kn

he said from northern michigan....as in... da UP eh.
sounds like he went across the bridge. something I had always wanted to do since I was a kid.

Generally we refer to Northern Michigan as the northern half of the lower peninsula and refer to the U.P. as the U.P. There is the Dalmac that goes from Lansing and you get to cross The Bridge on the final day which would be awesome.

I was just curious because is wouldn't be too far of a drive to do next year possibly.

What ride was this? I've never heard of one going north to south in Michigan, I might be interested for next summer.

It must have been the WAM wish a mile tour. It is a benefit ride for the make a wish foundation. It went from Traverse City to Chelsea, Brian 416 I am surprised you missed 800 riders that started in your neck of the woods.

His speed is very believable, I averaged just over 20 for the 300 miles with an average A group most in there 40's. There was some heavy winds the second and third days that made southbound very tough but eastbound pushed the needle in to the 30's.

all in all it was a great ride that is very well supported. The only problem was all the rain and wind.

Brian 416 I am surprised you missed 800 riders that started in your neck of the woods.

It could be because he, Brian416, is currently in AL doing a tour across the U.S. :twitchy:

It doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Especially how his times got slower each time. Makes perfect sense. He is moving along at a pretty good clip but all three of his centuries were sub 20mph. Heck, I've done 400+ miles in 24hrs (non-drafting), does that cause your BS meter to go off? ;) That's 4+ centuries non-stop, not one day to the next, averaging 17mph and I don't train for distance by riding distance.

There is this common misconception that to be a long distance rider/racer you need to ride a bazillion miles. You don't. More important than the quantity of miles is the quality of miles. Far too many distance riders sacrifice speed for distance and then complain that they are slow. There is only one way to get fast and that is to train to be fast. Same goes for climbing. When I train for a 1200k or some other ultra race my training rides are rarely over 45 miles so for this guy to do 25 mile training rides for back to back centuries, it sounds perfectly reasonable.

They're calling BS on the claim that somebody who has never ridden a century before can rip through three straight at the speeds you claimed to have done them.

oh. ok well i dont care if they believe me.

and the ride starts in Traverse city and goes down to chelsea, its for the make a wish foundation called Wish a mile or WAM for short.

It could be because he, Brian416, is currently in AL doing a tour across the U.S. :twitchy:

Ok, makes sense now. I just checked his blog wow what a ride. looks like a century a day for a month.

Generally we refer to Northern Michigan as the northern half of the lower peninsula and refer to the U.P. as the U.P. There is the Dalmac that goes from Lansing and you get to cross The Bridge on the final day which would be awesome.

I was just curious because is wouldn't be too far of a drive to do next year possibly.

sorry to have to break the news to you, but everyone that lives under the bridge is a troll.

There's nothing wrong with us trolls! I'm a bit out of the loop on things in Michigan right now, I can barely remember what town I'm in from day to day.

As far as the average speeds, they sound reasonable to me. Going south, there should somewhat of a tailwind each day. In the tour I'm doing right now, 9 days out of 26 so far, my average speed has been above 18mph, so his speeds sound normal to me.