takingcontrol

This will be short and sweat (sweet) I road my first metric century today The peach hosted by Salem bicycle club. My furthest until today has been 41 miles, today's total....64.2 miles As for how I feel right now, this is a good example It was a great ride but I did it on my hybrid and I can tell how having drop bars would have been a great improvement. I also found out for sure that my seat is a 35 mile seat not a 60+ mile seat I am sorry I don't have any pics but I am spending money on my new road bike not a camera...yet. I am dead so this is all you get until I an alive again. did I mention

P.S. the route selector is EVIL at around 50 miles hills....hills....hills....hills......3 miles to go no more hills
plus there was a cross/head wind for approx 40 miles of the route.

10 Wheels

You Rock.....

Hill-Pumper

I'll go ahead and add the few pictures that I took and fill in with a ride report. As TC noted, today was not the best day to be riding. The morning started out cold at around 50 degrees and stayed that way until noon, when it was still 60 degrees. The forecast called for temps in the mid 80's so some of the riders were not prepared for the to deal with it. The first 22 miles had a nice tail wind, but also a lot of hills. Soon after leaving the first rest stop the wind kicked into full gear, my guess is in the 10-20mph range. The second section was open and flat, but the head/cross winds kept speeds down. I was at one point pumping hard and only able to get around 13mph. After getting out of the second rest stop, the course headed out into the wind again, but with hills. TC needs to be proud of himself, not only did he complete his first metric, but did it in one of the most brutal rides that I have experienced myself. I opted to do the metric from the beginning, but was surprised at the number of riders that opted to cut their rides short due to the conditions. I decided to ride my cross bike today while carrying my trunk bag. It may have not been the best choice considering, but I made it with my commuter tires and all. I have done my share of metrics, but must say that this may have been tougher then my full century rides. Again, we really need to be proud of the effort the TC put out today, he had to really work hard to get this metric done.

Here are a few pictures from the ride.

The morning started at Chemeketa Community College in Salem Oregon.Tthe club expected about 1000 riders, but I think that they may of had more based by what I saw in the parking lot.


Here is TC looking fresh and ready to go!!!


The second rest stop had a covered bridge that I thought that The Historian might enjoy seeing


This my loaded Kona Jake, maybe not the wisest choice for the day, but it got me home.


and.... what we all were riding for, A nice piece of peach pie at the end.

StephenH

Congratulations on the ride!

Mr. Beanz

YEAH BUDDY!...Forget the pics, get the roadie!

John Bailey

Very cool TC!! You are doing great.

John

prxmid

That's no small accomplishment

bautieri

Great work TC and Hill Pumper!

That is some tasty looking pie too!

takingcontrol

OK it is now the next day and I am still alive. I feel surprisingly good, Aside from not wanting to jump on my bike today because of a sore posterior. Today is the first day of class anyway so I am going to be busy with that.

On the ride I felt comfortable in the morning, temp was nice for me. (I do carry an extra 100+ lbs of "insulation" ). I go in for my weigh in today and am hoping to drop below that elusive 400lb mark (fingers crossed). I appreciate the support of everyone who has followed my progress. Having a cheer squad increases the feel good factor of my lifestyle change.

It is nice to know that the 40 miles of wind was not "normal or expected" I will keep that in my head when I sign up for my next metric (or would forgetting the wind be better?).
Off to class talk to everyone later.

Hill-Pumper

Actually, the wind is fairly common there, it just that it usually is not that strong that early. The important part is that you made it in tough conditions and now you are over the mental hump of not knowing if you can do it. Wind is just something that you will have to deal with from time to time, but hopefully this experience will give you the confidence to not worry about it.

Greg_R

Great work guys!

mwmcginn

Congrats! Keep it up.

Neil_B

Just one piece?

Thanks for the covered bridge shot.

Neil B.

Neil_B

TC looks thinner each time someone posts a photo. It's time for "before" and "now" photos, TC.

BTW, it was riding metric centuries that made me retire my comfort bike. I did TWO metrics on the beast - a Trek Navigator that weighed a ton.