jppe

What a fabulous, fabulous day to be on the bike. Except for some wind, the bright and sunny spring blue skies with crisp cool air made it a perfect day for riding. The humidity was nowhere in sight which is pretty nice for the Carolinas.

I did an organized ride and didn't have even the first twinge of muscle cramps. I did a couple things differently in preparation this week and who knows how much difference it made versus the cooler weather but it was nice just the same.

Today's ride was about as much fun as I've had on a bike in a while. Lots of ups and downs but the descents were fast and curvy but not too technical so you could really enjoy them. I was very happy with my time as I stayed with the front group the first 35 miles and then sat up knowing the 5 mile climb was up ahead. Essentially the last 65 miles were solo.

Very, very rural roads with minimal traffic-maybe 10-12 cars all day??? Roads were tree lined for 2/3 of the way. Very scenic with roads around lakes and views from on top of the mountains of the lakes below.

The stats:

Distance: 100.01 miles
Riding Time: 5hr 53 mins
Climbing: 8300 ft
Average speed: 17 mph
Steepest hill: 19% (Although my Garmin was showing 26% on one hill....ugh)
Longest climb: 5 miles at 8%-the last mile averaged 14%
Max Speed: 47 mph
Average Cadence: 78 rpm (reflects updates in Garmin software to discard 0 cadence in Avg)
No of stops: 1
Stop time: 4 mins
Fluids: 3-24 ounce bottles-I can't believe that one!!!
Calories burned: 6700+ (I have a hard time believing the formula on this one)

I'll have a smile on my face falling to sleep tonight just thinking about today's ride.

Tom Bombadil

You rode for nearly 6 hours with a total stop time of 4 minutes?!?!

I would have timed that ride in days rather than hours. I think about 4-5 days might do it.

The Weak Link

I don't care how old jppe is, I think he should be banned from this site and restricted to the "Strictly roadie" section.

Great ride, though.

George

You should try out for the Tour De France, what a ride.

Terrierman

You do seem to have a knack for this don't you? Very impressive sir.

jppe

I'm trying to retrain myself to avoid stopping very much (all roads lead to Mitchell!!). If you're trying to "ride for time" a lot of time can be used up at pit stops. If you have all the essentials with you, you can take breaks on the bike by changing riding positions, slowing down, etc while still moving along. It's part physical but also partly mental.

With the weather so nice on this ride I could have carried an extra water bottle with me and not even stopped at all but then I would have missed an incredible view. I wasn't exactly riding for time on this ride but using it as a training ride to condition myself to ride without stopping very much. I had actually planned to stop at about 80 miles but the rest stop wasn't there as planned.

Funny, but I eased by a lot of the hammerheads (who were taking a break) who I was riding with before I sat up earlier in the ride. I'm not the fastest by any means but by avoiding stopping I can continue to cover ground, ala tortoise and the hare!!!

stonecrd

Sounds pretty incredable. I have yet to be able to push more than about 62 miles riding straight through and I don't have any hills to contend with. Sunday went pretty well for me we had a reasonable headwind going out. I did:

61 miles
No stops (unless you count the 50 or so stop lights on the out and back, hit a few of these red)
First 30miles average was 16.8mph (headwind)
Second 30 miles average 19.1mph (tailwind)

I felt pretty good at the end but at usual my body was glad to get off the bike. I just think 3.5 hours is my bodies limit for being comfortable. It's interesting that I feel good until about the last 5 miles or so then my butt starts to hurt and my feet start bothering me.

Beverly

And what a fabulous ride! I bet you still have the smile this morning

A question about the cadence on the Garmin. Did you download the update from their site? I've never downloaded any updates as I hate computer/gadget updating

jppe

I did download the update. It was 3.-something and mine was 2.8 I believe. One of the updates since the 2.8 was to exclude zero from the cadence average. I like that logic much better as it gives you a much better feel for your overall cadence. The 78 average on this route reflects there was a good bit of climbing where I was probably spinning 65 to the low 70's. I used to ride in the low to mid 90's a few years ago but it's now probably around 85 as I'm pushing a little harder gear.

Road Fan

This man is QUALIFIED TO WEAR THE LYCRA! 50 + or not, these are seriously hard riding stats.

Road Fan

Hermes

Congrats on the ride...What were the couple of things?

BluesDawg

No doubt about it. jppe's posts have shown him to be a strong rider for a long time, but lately he is really on a roll.

jppe

I really, really tried to make sure I was well hydrated going into the weekend. I'm sure that didn't hurt!! I take a diuretic daily to help prevent kidney stones (caused because I don't hydrate well enough!!!) and I stopped taking the diuretic a couple days before the ride to see if that would help.

I also took my electrolyte capsules with me on the ride and took one about 1/2 way through the ride. Those things tend to create a knot in my stomach even when taken with food so I avoid them unless they're absolutely necessary. I wonder if I could just dump the contents of a couple capsules into my fluids and take a lower concentration over a longer period of time....It's certainly not something I'd want to experiment with during a 100 mile ride though.

Between the cooler/less humid weather and those other things something made a really big difference. I was so nice to be able to pedal hard and run my heart rate up at the end of a ride again!!

Hermes

Both my wife and I drink a lot of water each day. We think it has made a significant difference in performance and weight control. Neither of us have a weight issues, but we want to get stronger and lighter. Hydration seems to be the key.

dauphin

I find that I could ride forever except for the burning in my undercarriage...around mile 80....otherwise a double century would be no sweat.

cyclezen

good stuff jppe
smokin ride
that climbing number is awesome considerin it all
you had the mojo this weekend!

Wino Ryder

[QUOTE=Road Fan]This man is QUALIFIED TO WEAR THE LYCRA! 50 + or not, these are seriously hard riding stats.[QUOTE]


you can say that again. The man has definitely got me beat, and I thought I was a "bike rider".

There is no way in physical "hell" I could ride 100 miles at a 17 mph average. That would cook me, and make me brain dead long before the ambulance could even come and get to me.


wait, I'm already brain dead,.......(my bad)

Beverly

Thanks. Guess I need to check mine. I also like the idea of excluding the zeros from the average.

RockyMtnMerlin

Very impressive indeed. I doubt many of can even appreciate how tough that is. For the road race portion of our stage race the 45+ winner did 60 miles in 3:03 (19.67 mph) with about 5000 feet of climbing (field of 20). The 55+ winner did the same course in 3:13 (18.85 mph - field of 16). The only difference is all racing is above 7500 ft, with the highest point at 10,800 ft. Oh and the last 11 miles were 1200 feet of climbing on some pretty big rollers with a 15-17 mph head wind. If you ever get out to Wyoming in June you really ought to consider racing! FWIW I think I could do 60 miles at 18.85 mph - on a dead flat course with no wind. Put the climbing in there and I'm (as they say in the Navy) all ahead slow.

RockyMtnMerlin

Currently listed Garmin Edge 305 updates:

* Edge 205/305 GPS Chipset Ver. 2.90 as of Nov 27, 2006
* Training Center For Mac Ver. 2.0.3 as of May 04, 2007
* Training Center For Windows Ver. 3.2.3 as of Apr 20, 2007
* USB Drivers Ver. 2.2.1 as of Mar 26, 2007
Unit Software
* Edge 305 Ver. 3.20 as of May 04, 2007

Go here https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/do...ID=160&pID=331

I took the plunge and got one last week. SLICK!!!

Red Rider

Well done! Your avg. speed is my best speed on my 1/2 bike in a century, achieved last year.

I envy your ability to ride w/o stopping. I drink a lot of water myself & I need every single pit stop provided. I wonder if I can train to increasing my, ahem, holding power?

We too did a century on Sun. on the tandem. CGallagh has the stats; all I know is that it was gorgeous, hilly, and we achieved a new PR -- finished in 6:50 with a moving average of over 16 mph. Your numbers are impressive; I hope to see our numbers & performance improve as well.

Congrats!

crtreedude 

Very well done! My limiting factor is my left shoulder which goes AWOL after about two hours. Old injury. It is getting better, but it is definitely the weakest link.

Those are some very nice stats.