Did my first ever century today, no plan, no prep,just me. I was doing my usual 45 mile route and ,despite the 12 knot headwinds, I was feeling pretty good so I thought why not do it again.

Total for the day was 106 miles with a 29 top speed and a 15.7 average .

I went through a little "black period" at about 73 miles but found an ice cream shop with an outside table and ordered two double chocolate malts and a bottle of water, Bingo!

I have a couple of pics but that is for tomorrow, sleep is now.

Great job! Congratulations.

Yep, ice cream has magical properties to keep you going. I regularly do an organized century where they serve pie and ice cream at the 83 mile rest stop.

Way to go, excellent job on completing your first 100, good write up too.

Bill

yesssssssss!

Great job always remember your first century and sometimes they can be one of the best in terms of time depending on the the course and your experience. Putting a 100 in is just nice to say you can do it and the great thing is you probably can go much faster with prep.

Way to go, Mike!

Well thanks guys.

I have to say it was all about the seat. I recently bought a bike on Craigslist, (a Pinarello 4:13 Bill) and the seat that came on it is, just by coincidence, the most perfect seat I
have experienced in all my years of biking. (for me) I bought an expensive set of riding pants with extra padding and that just didn't work all that much better for me until I bought this bike.
On this seat and on this century I wore the thinnest, most worn out set of riding shorts I own and still no butt pain..I mean zero.

It is a Sella of some type, all I know I am keeping this one until it rots out from under me.

Having no seat pain is the key to spending those 6 + hours on the road and actually enjoying most of it. Well, the ice cream was important too.

Mike

Well now we have to know...what model seat? Take a pic, post it. Any chance it was leather, a Selle Anatomica by any chance?

Pics coming tomorrow, promise. Just remember, this seat works for me and may be a torture device for others, but y'all know that.

Congratulations. Well done.

Great job, my first century took a lot longer than that

Ok, seat pics:





Ice Cream shop!



GPS: (note: I wasn't sure this little Garmin would go to more than 99.99 so I saved that and had 6 more miles to get to my car)

Some seat thoughts and protection against karma:

This seat works for me now. There is no telling if it will work for me tomorrow, if the wind is blowing from the south or if I hold my mouth the wrong way it may start to hurt.

Congratulations.

Did this on a cross country tour.

10 AM Mcdonald's stop

Double Iced Coffee, then mixed it with a Large Chocolate Shake into two bottles.

No problems with hills the next 4 hours. 109 mi for the day.

I like the Sella Italia saddles. I have a little different model but have them on all my bikes plus a couple stored away. They change models ever so often so wanted to get some I liked.

Comfortable saddles are critical. Get a duplicate / spare saddle this winter. Four or five years from now, the replacement model will usually not be the same shape.

I have one on my Tarmac, a Sella Italia Gelflo, nice saddle,well made leather
but for some unknown black magic reason it has never
felt right, too soft maybe. Next step is to go over to ebay and find an exact match.

Steve Hogg rates the Selle Italia SLR very highly.

I have a Selle SMP Pro, and it's a good seat for me. Although, if it has been a couple of weeks since I've ridden, I've got to get used to how hard it is. I've got a big butt (155mm according to a Specialized Butt-O-Meter), so if this ever gets to the point where it isn't suitable, I'll probably try the Selle SMP Extra.

GH

I figured out the saddle issue today. How dumb can I be? It appears there is no bottom to that particular well.

The Selle Italia SLR superflow that I love is, @ 140+mm, the widest saddle I have in my way too large collection of saddles that "didn't work for me"?

Well crap, if I had been buying the right width years ago I could have saved myself a lot of pain. From the old memory vault I remember a Specialized Troupe that worked really well for me but I sold it with a bike and forgot about it. Thinking back I realize that saddle was just under 6" wide in the seat part (140 +mm?)

I have been running about 120mm on all my saddles with a 110 Origin 8 still in the cabinet....I am just not a 120 guy it turns out. I don't know where I got that from.

Oh well, better now. I am going to have a little saddle sale in the next day or so..for skinny ass riders.

Mike

No worries, that law only pertains to flats. Congrats on your 100!

Same here. In the Selle line you might look at Max and Man Gel Flow. Both have 140+ mm widths.

Late to this thread, so to OP.....FANTASTIC!!!!!