First Century Completed - 101 Miles Solo
 

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

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[mile 60 photo and protein bar break]

Pretty good ride I would say but now you know where you can improve.

Your post backs my advice I have given to first time century riders over the years about when to eat. My experience is that I start to lose steam about mile 60-65. If I am on a century, I plan my meal at mile 60 "BEFORE" I start to lose steam. I eat something solid like a turkey sandwich. I did 23 centuries in one year and every single one of them was the same story. I learned when to eat.

Then I remount and back the pace of for 10 miles or so, relax and warm back up into a good spin. Then mile 80-85, I actually start feeling strong. Mile 95, I actually finish off with a strong sprint the final 5 miles. An amazing feeling when planned just right.

BTW, I start off at an easy pace. That is one mistake too many riders make when riding an organized ride. All take off like a bat our of hell. They do well for 20-30 miles but then burn out and struggle the rest of the way. I'm usually behind at the start warming up into my pace. Somewhere along the way, you end up passing all those bats with a consistent pace.

For a first century I think you did very well as most are a learning experience or experiment process moving on to bigger and better things.

Congrats!!! Awesome Job my friend!! A Century Ride is a goal of mine as well in 2019 when the weather breaks in SE WI/Northern Ill.:) Good luck on the next one and it will get better.

Thanks guys. It's funny, the first time I did a pretty hard ride a few months ago (I think it was about 45 miles on the road, riding a mountain bike with some moderate hills) I remember thinking I never want to do that again. Then I did it again the following Sunday. And then again almost every Sunday since. I felt the same way when I got off the bike Sunday. I didn't want to even think about riding that far again. Now I'm already wondering if I can fit that same ride into my schedule this coming Sunday. :)

As far as the pace goes, I *knew* I should be riding a bit slower to start with, but since many parts of my route were so familiar, I just kind of fell into riding at my slightly faster pace. I'll watch that next time.

Now I have a base line for comparison with future rides.


-Matt

What a great accomplishment!

good job! I had an all day off-road ride this past Fall. I used some advice from an old friend which was to eat a little bit for the whole ride. got my money's worth out of my new mountain feed bag

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