jpearl

So I decided to kill the question that has always been posed to me as a cyclist: "what's the furthest you've ever ridden in a day". Being a former junior racer and mountain biker, the distance was never that great, the emphasis always being on time and speed. As my cycling experience has progressed over the years, I've always been dogged by this question and somewhat ashamed of my answer: "I dunno, 40, maybe 50 miles" (this until recent 65 mile rides). With that in mind, I decided to pursue the right of pasage that is held dear to many cyclists, the Century.

And I decided to do it on my SS Langster, on the W&OD trail in Virginia, on a 93 degree sunny day. Nice one, Jpearl!

It was an incredible experience, from the outset of the first few miles knowing just what lay ahead, and then going into the unknown after the 65th mile. Having never ridden a century before, I paced myself as best as I thought possible, making the initial 52.76 mile run out to Purcelville, VA, in 3 hrs. at 17 mph. At that pace, things looked good for a five to five and a half hour century, but despite my best efforts to keep myself fed and hydrated, I started to suffer at mile 75, and the last 15 miles were some of the hardest of my cycling life, with the last ten miles spent in pure hell as my legs touched the edge of cramping in the heat and effort. The last five miles where the worst, they took seemingly forever and my legs were ticking time bombs ready to explode in horrifying cramps. It took pure concentration, grit, and very delicate riding to hold it together through the end and carrying me through the last miles to fight off the pain for the sole, rewarding pleasure of watching the odometer flip from 99.99 miles to those beautiful, hard-earned numbers: 100.00 miles.

Excrutiating as it was, it was a beautiful feeling; to know that I had reached a cycling milestone in my life, and to have done it in such purity, alone on a singlespeed roadbike. No gears, no aero-bling, just a basic bike and rider.

BTW, the Langster worked well for this ride. The W&OD trail is relatively flat, and the stock 42x17 gearing handled everything nicely. I rode with two bottles on the frame and a RoadMorph pump under the top tube. Along the way, I refueled at the 7-Elevens along the way and chomped down three Cliff Bars and one Zone Bar.

Here are the number for the day:
100 Mile Time: 5 hrs. 56 mins. 13 secs.
Average Speed: 16.9 mph
Maximum Speed: 33 mph
Gearing: 42x17 singlespeed
Overall Distance: 107 miles.

Chrysiptera

Wow.. that is great.. This is the second distance thread on this forum today! You guys are motivating me to do more than just ride around the city

doofo

did you eat anything else
?

str8flexed

Damn. I would've eaten a lot more!

Tadashi

I rode 50 miles almost everyday last week on my fixed gear 48/17. I even made 80 miles a day on it. With average speed of 17-19mph. That's not hard at all, I'm changing the gear for 48/16 tomorrow and I will ride much more.

To make training more effective I sometimes put a 5kg barbell in my backpack, it makes climbing hills more interesting. I made 50 miles with a 5kg in my backpack too.

Spinning 66.7 inches won't get you anywhere.

ryanlovesyou

Yessss

hiredgoons

How's the trackstand practice going?

jpearl

For the ride, I started out with a breakfast of whole wheat pancakes and and omlette. I based the breakfast on an article I read in a bike magazine about which different kinds of breakfasts are best for which rides, and this was the best one for long distance.

I ate an energy bar every 25 miles (Zone bar at the start of the ride, and Clif bars afterwards), and also had a banana at the 75 mile mark.

lvleph

I can tell you from experience that eating chili before a ride is bad news. So you can rule that out.

nateintokyo

....looks like it got him at least a hundredmiles down the road. But he probably ended up where he started, so I guess you are right.

Tadashi

He won't develop any muscles this way, that's for sure. Spinning techniques and good cadence - yes, but no muscles.

veggiemafia

Yeah, and geez, good spin and good cadence and a fun ride and a feeling of accomplishment? Who the **** cares about that?

Not everyone has these stupid dreams of being the first foreign* keirin champion or whatever.

*Fixed because I was apparently being derogatory and had no idea.

bonelesschicken

Sargar

Hmmmm....
Maybe a little bit of competition

Two of my prsonal bests:

23.06.07 Worcester-Swindon-Worcester, 131.2miles, 16.42AVR, 7.59.18
29.06.07 Worcester-Bristol-Lower Broadheath-Worcester, 140.5miles, 15.49AVR, 9.04.16

Going on my trusty Stratos 49x18

Maybe at the begining of fall I'll try to beat 200miles

Cheers!
Seb

lvleph

You realize Gaijin is a derogatory term, right? I mean yes it is part of a phrase used to describe a foreigner, but typically by itself it is derogatory.

fix

Is Tadashi the next RyanF?

"SPining 66.7 gere inches wont grow you any guads"

bonechilling

I know someone else posted this, but Tadashi can't be any older than 14 or 15, can he? I hope not, for his sake.

lvleph

He will build endurance, and then will run you into the ground.

doofo

for the real though

what is the longest distance that sprinters might ride as a part of a training regimen

rule

Way to go Jpearl. Nice ride!

Grasschopper

I might need to head to DC soon...I have done several imperial centuries on my geared bike but the longest ride on the fixie has only been 32 miles...my next distance goals are metric and imperial centuries on the fixie. Flat route sounds nice to me.

Good work...so this was SS and not fixed? I would think that might be a little tougher actually.

Tadashi

With what? He'll blow me away with his propeller cadence? I ride 50 miles a day easily. And not on a pansy SS, but on fixed gear, with a good gear.

The important thing here is that track cycling is mostly about muscles. (Well, leg speed too, but it's impossible to get to good cadence on a high gear if you don't have muscles).

You may say "hey I don't care about track cycling, I'm even riding an SS". Well, you may ride a fg or a ss, but in both cases you don't have multiple gears, so your only gear should be high and you should exercise to ride it fast. If you don't want to do this, then just buy a cruiser or smth, it suits you better.

wake6830

Wasn't it like a month ago that you pitched a fit and threatened to give up riding fixed because you couldn't trackstand?

veggiemafia

Tadashi has all the bad qualities of dutret, but none of the actual knowledge. And in 5 years, he won't have usable knees like dutret, either.

Hooray!

Sorry OP, I haven't said congrats yet. That's an awesome ride. I've only ever done centuries on my geared road bike. Clearly I should buy a cruiser because everyone knows that 100 miles on a geared bike does not constitute exercise.

sorsha6

I, like, totally have the biggest muscles ever and ride 150 miles a day with 110 gear inches. I will crush you weaklings who do this thing called "spinning."
And then my knees will explode.