This was a bit harder than I had anticipated. My longest ride before this was 82 miles and I felt pretty good, but at the time I was riding about 200 miles per week. Because of the cool weather and lots of rain lately, I probably haven't been averaging 50 miles per week. The wind was also a bit stronger. It started around 9 miles per hour, but by the time I finished the ride it had gotten upwards of 16 miles per hour.
Total moving time was 7:07:41 at the 100 mile mark. My goal was 7 hours, which I likely would have done if I had picked a better route. As it was I had to slow down for a few dozen traffic lights. Slowing down and then speeding back up really sucks time. I bonked pretty hard around mile 82 and stopped to meet my wife for lunch. Total time was right at 8 hours.
I learned that my pacing was too fast over the first part of the ride. I held 15 MPH or better through mile 65, and I should have known this was too fast. That pace dropped to around 14.0 MPH at the 100 mile mark, so the average speed really fell off for the last third of the ride.
If you would have told me when I started riding this past May that I could ride 100 miles, I would have literally laughed at you. The human body is an amazing thing!
-Matt
[mile 60 photo and protein bar break]