Originally Posted by
Gus90
Western suburbs. Mostly all along the prairie path and connected trails. Today was down to Herrick Lake where I saw the coyote.
The nice thing about the path is that I can vary my route quite a lot so I never get too bored. From where I live it splits off into three directions and each of them connect to other trails. I often ride the triangle that includes St Charles, Wheaton, and Aurora. Also ride to fermi lab which is my typical road route. That or the arboretum.
things start clearing up when to go further west. There's a lot of good riding out in farm country just west of you. I wouldn't overthink it too much, you've gotten a lot of good advice but a seven hour century is certainly not a Herculean task. Have enough to drink, you'll probably find that you won't be eating as much as you thought you would. My main advice and ymmv, is to stay away from gels and the like and just eat real food. For me, at low intensity endurance rides I do a lot better staying away from short-chain carbohydrates. I don't eat them usually so I'm certainly not going to change my diet just because I'm on a bicycle. I don't have any problems eating animal protein on zone 1-2 efforts. I usually pack a ham sandwich for lunch.
Good luck and enjoy yourself! Distance riding is supposed to be fun not some sort of grueling trial.