Tomm Willians

I’ve been training to do a century for a few months now and did 75 miles just a few days ago. I was feeling strong enough to do another 25 but was completely out of food and low on water so did the smart thing and stopped.
Tomorrow I’ll be better prepared with likely more food and water than needed. The route is through farm country that has only a couple of minor hills and two small towns to resupply should that somehow be necessary.
I don’t expect it to be easy but I feel like I’m ready and how better to spend a day ?

big john

Have fun!

257 roberts

Good for you !!!

jppe

You’ll do super! A lot folks that haven’t ridden many struggle after about 80 miles......after 75 miles just set targets of riding the next 5 miles and then repeat that after each 5 miles. Hopefully the weather will be agreeable for you. Let know how it goes.

Iride01 

Comes a time for all children to leave the nest.

Enjoy, be smart about hydration and food, be safe and enjoy. Start planning your next while you do this one.

canklecat

Perfect time of year for it. I tried full centuries twice this summer but was thwarted by the heat and bailed out after 60 miles or so.

I'll try again soon. My Facebook memories doodad reminded me my last full century was the end of September 2019, and I usually prefer the autumn weather for that.

ooga-booga

it'll be easier than you thought and then you'll think "why didn't i do this before?" welcome to the club. congrats!

i haven't done bleep this month and was able to pull 110 miles outta my back end yesterday. wasn't without a 30-min lunch,
and two, ten-minute stops with a bevvie in hand tho. solo centuries rock. go at your pace. push it/slow down when you want.
support is the biggest thing. water. grub. take it early and often on your first century and future ones until you know how
your body behaves on these long rides.

if you can do 75, a c-note ain't nothing. 115 miles better watch out...

Tomm Willians

AAAGGHHH......

Got up at 430 to get ready only to find smoke from a (relatively) nearby fire was blowing smoke through my route to the tune of a 200+ AQI.
Dang !!!! Looks like temps are staying moderate for several more days so I’ll track the fire progress and see if it clears out.

Bmach

Excuses, excuses!!!!!,!

keep trying you will get I’d done .

Thomas15

I have been saying to myself all Spring, Summer and now Fall it's time to do a century. I just can't seem to cobble enough time to do it. In June I did 5 metric centuries and one 75 mile ride. Of course most of my riding this summer was road but the metrics were all on a MUP riding a hybrid. So, going to do the one thing I have consistently said I wouldn't do and that is ride the D&L Trail from Bristol PA to Lehighton that will give me the 100 miles and put me close to home at the finish. Part of that is riding through the 7 mile trail gap in Allentown, I have myself convinced that once I get past that the rest will be reward. So, potential dates are Friday Oct 16, 23 or 30th. We shall see.

CAT7RDR

There is nothing good about riding in smoky smog. The Pacific Coast really needs an early major storm coming out of Alaska to clear the air and help extinguish fires. This last two months have reminded me of the 1970's brown air in SoCal.

Papa Tom

What blows my mind after reading a great book called "A Social History of Bicycling" is how common it was for cyclists to ride centuries in the late 1800's/early 1900's. It seems like everybody was doing it every weekend back then. Crazy...

Bassmanbob

Actually, it makes sense to me. They didn't have automobiles.

Papa Tom

Yes, but these people were riding for recreation, not to visit relatives or accomplish anything but pleasure.

Also, this continued past the time when "horseless carriages" started appearing on Long Island's roads. Many of the roadway improvements to Jericho Turnpike and other main roads were made to facilitate bicyclists. Those who traveled by horse and wagon hated macadam and other "modern" road surfaces, and thus hated cyclists (for this and other reasons). But then came automobiles and the motorists wanted to claim these roads for themselves and push the bicyclists off them. Clashes erupted all the time!

kaos joe

Tomm,

Avoid the smoke, pace yourself, and you'll do fine! My wife has done around 10 of them and doesn't even know how to ride a bike (grew up in city, now happy to power a tandem from the back seat). Her first one was only 5 weeks after her first tandem ride.

Tomm Willians

Hahaha

That is both very encouraging and yet humiliating 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I guess I should have attempted this long ago !!!!👍🏻

Iride01 

So any relief from the smoke and fires? Hope you get a chance to ride that before you lose your motivation or it gets too cold.

Tomm Willians

Smoke cleared out from my route yesterday and seems to be holding steady, temps dropped just a touch as well so I’m planning on tomorrow being the day.

kaos joe

Not at all humiliating! Have a good ride, ENJOY and stay safe.

Good that the smoke is diminished. As an Easterner I was staggered by the magnitude of the smoke generated from these western wildfires. The first one I saw was about 10 years ago when camped at Tommy Lake in the back country of the Wind River Range in Wyoming. All of a sudden a towering column boiled up over a distant ridgeline; my friend and I were so stunned by the size, the thought occurred to us that it was a volcanic eruption and we shot a compass bearing on it to satisfy ourselves that the Yellowstone caldera was not in that direction. It was gone by morning.

Bmach

Good luck

DeceptivelySlow

I guess today is the big day; hope you are on the bike having a blast as I type this.

Tomm Willians

I am officially about 20 minutes out from arriving on my route it is currently 30° at my location which is unseasonably cool but it supposed to reach a high of 85

Tomm Willians

Ok I did it !!! Took me a bit longer than I’d hoped but it was my first attempt and I just turned 60 so what the hell!!!

101.0 !!


The Sierra Valley in Northern California


My finish point is that faaaar mountain base 🤣

He was so busy hunting lunch he didn’t even care I was about 80’ away

This area gets nasty in the winter

UnderDawgAl

Congratulations! I'm glad you successfully finished it, and safely at that. Did you see many cars or trucks?

I did 1/9 of your ride today, and my knees are screaming at me! Even so, I will aspire to what you have accomplished.

Tomm Willians

This route used two different highways and a couple of county roads. Only in one very small section did I encounter much traffic. It’s about the safest and FLATTEST century route I could possibly find anywhere in my area.