SethAZ 

On Saturday I completed my first century ride. It was the El Tour de Tucson, and the long route came out at 106 miles on my Garmin. I finished in 6 hours 12 minutes. It was raining the entire time, and had been for the entire previous day, so not only were the roads wet, but in several places there was as much as 12-15" of water running across the road in dips and, in one place, a normally dry stream bed that was about 15" deep and looked like white water rapids.

It was very cold, and I was way underdressed for it. Temps started in the 40s, and were in the low 50s when I finished. All I had on was normal cotton socks, a normal bib shorts, a long-sleeved compression shirt, two short-sleeved jerseys (there's layers for ya hehe), full-fingered gloves, and a cloth skull cap under my helmet. This wasn't nearly enough, and I was hypothermic at the end of the ride.

The original plan was to ride as a three-man group, but we broke up right off the start line when one guy had a mechanical issue I thought was him throwing his chain. I had to chase down the lead guy who didn't know. He went back to help, and I pulled over to wait for the to catch up. We'd started near the front, and I waited for the entire peleton to pass me by, and then thought I must have missed them in the crowd (turns out they were still at the start line working on the bike, which turned out to have a broken rear derailleur).

Thinking I was now behind them, I started riding and chased down the herd and then spent the next six hours passing people, right up to the finish line. Came in 463rd out of 1373 finishers of the 106 mile course. Thousands more joined the ride at shorter distances.

For a 270 lb uber-clyde guy turning 45 in 6 weeks, I'm pretty happy with how I did.

Ursa Minor

Wow Congrats man that's a great performance

Charlie

JReade

Kudos man, I saw that come across my Strava! Good work!

Jarrett2

Congrats!

ChiefTJS

Very impressive!! My century is next year and can guarantee it will be nowhere near that fast. Great job.

TrojanHorse

well done! But ditch the cotton...

I like shoe covers in bad weather too. Wet feet are miserable.

10 Wheels

So good and so fast...Congratulations.

SethAZ 

Thanks! Trust me, I've spent some quality time looking on Amazon and PBK at various cold weather riding items since I got home from this event. Haven't bought anything yet, but so far I'm looking at a thermal baselayer top and bottom, leg and arm warmers, a windproof/rainproof or at least -resistant cycling jacket, etc. I actually have a full-length Turtle Fur balaclava that I just wasn't using on this ride (a big mistake). And I'll probably buy some shoe covers and a helmet cover as well.

I'll be doing a lot of riding this winter. While the temperatures most days are in the 60s or 70s during winter (Arizona), if I want to ride early morning I'll need to be prepared to start with it down in the 30s or 40s, or if I want to ride at night (which I sometimes do) I've ridden down to around 30 or a little under before.

Last winter I did the Festive 500 on Strava, which is 500km in 8 days starting Christmas Day and ending New Years. I went out and got my first ride in just after midnight the day it started, and did 50 miles before going to sleep. This was so that I could get in a sleep cycle after that first 50 miles, then go out and ride again during that first day, and gain a recovery advantage over if I'd done those miles all at once. I just bundled up in non-cycling gear for that, and probably looked like the Michelin tire monster. It didn't matter as much for that ride, since I was doing like 12-14 mph on a mountain bike. I'll be riding much faster this year for the Festive 500, so I'll need better cold weather cycling garb.

NickWilsonAZ

Congrats on both the first century ride as well as doing the El Tour.

This ride was was my first century and El Tour as well!!

I must have been just in front of you because my Garmin elapsed time was 6:05 but moving time was 5:50. We were probably riding together most of the time and didnt even know it.

Congrats again on both accomplishments!

tsurr

hard enough to do a century much harder in the cool rain, not my cup of tea. The next century will be easier. congrats tom

SethAZ 

Nick were you by chance with a pack of 7 or 8 riders? Around the 90 or so mile mark I got passed by a pack that was going 2-3 mph faster than me. I decided to try to catch them and attach myself to the back of it and hug their wheels back. I put out a huge energy expenditure and was on the verge of failing to catch up when we got caught by the only red light I ever had to stop at. They accelerated hard off the line but I managed to catch up and attach myself to the group. It was essentially the only stretch of road I benefitted from a group on, and I hung on to the end of that group for 3 or 4 miles I think. It cost me so my energy to catch the group, though, that I was barely hanging on for dear life, and when they decided to accelerate to get around some slow riders coming up on the right, I couldn't do it and had to let them go. So I slowed down 2-3 mph to a speed I could manage solo, and even then I stopped at the very last aid station, at the 97 or 98 mile mark, grabbed a couple brownies and a drink of water, and was back on the road in about 3 minutes. I realize it was too late to benefit from the brownies at that point in the ride, but it was a biological imperative.

I then got back on the road and ground out the last few miles at a pretty decent solo speed, and used up whatever I had left going up that final hill from the highway and then "sprinting", or it's 106-mile worn out equivelant, that last mile to the finish line.

I estimate that the group I fell off of in the upper 90s would probably have finished in about the time you did, so I had to ask.

NickWilsonAZ

I was with a group of about 8 people together on the excess road, I was fighting to keep up with them until about the 98 mile mark and I dropped out of the pack and fought the last 8 miles or so to the finish with a younger lady and another gentleman down Starr Pass to 6th to the finish. We had quite a few guys drop out the group I was in at that last aid station and I kept pushing forward as hard as I could and my garmin showed 6:05 elapsed time and moving 5:50 time.

SethAZ 

Nick, I'm betting that you and I were in that same group for as long as I held onto it, which was maybe 3 or 4 miles. I dropped off the end of it a mile or two before that last aid station. There weren't many groups like that at that stage of the ride, and I estimate based on your finish 7 minutes ahead of mine that it pretty much had to have been the same group. Pretty cool! Congrats on your time. Kind of disappointing to miss the Gold finisher's medallion by only 5 minutes though, eh? I was bummed out about missing it by 12 minutes. Oh well, it'll come.

donalson

awesome work man... i'd rather be riding in the middle of the TX summer heat than cold and wet :-/ so it certainly took some dedication to finish that ride... so props ... this also once again reminds me that I need to find some cold weather gear as I plan to do a century come Jan... who knows what the TX weather will do.

SeanBlader

+1 on this. But, I've learned I can be comfortable with knee and arm warmers down to about 45 degrees. Rain is a lot harder to deal with, if you have a waterproof jacket, it's also likely airproof and sweatproof, so you'll almost end up just as wet as if you didn't wear it, which is a little more gross.

Congratulations on the century Seth! Closest I've gotten is 71, but that was on a tour so I was a little more loaded and at a more leisurely pace. It's on my list of things to do next year.

TXsailor

Good job and a inspiration to those of us that are dreaming of being able to do the same thing. I am about half way but may try a metric century before long. I ride alone and ride a hybrid so I feel that will be a big accomplishment for me.

rumrunn6

well done Sir, sounds like a nasty ride tho

SethAZ 

As a brief followup, the day after that cold, rainy Tour ride both knees were irritated, but it seemed taking a day off had taken care of that. I rode 189 miles the following week, however, and by the end of that time the knee irritation was back in all its full obnoxiousness. Another day off wasn't enough, the knees were felt again, so I took a full five days off the bike this time, which wasn't that hard to do since I had 3 full days of military duty in that time anyhow.

From what I read, riding with cold knees reduces the bloodflow through the joint, and can lead to knee irritation due to underlubrication of the joint. I'm guessing that this is what happened to me. So don't think that rules 5 and 9 make riding under-dressed in bad weather a good idea. I'm about to go out on a 32 miler, it's like 45 degrees outside now, and I'll have leg and arm warmers on this time. It's going to be interesting to see if the five day break was enough for my knees to get back to normal. And this whole thing has taught me a lesson, too, that will influence how I ride for the rest of this winter.