Metric success

I, and a couple of buddies, completed a 100 km ride last Saturday, an event we planned to coincide with a fund-raiser our church supports annually.


One of my buddies, Scott, is new to cycling as an adult. He started riding last fall, and in the time since then, he has become a strong rider. He challenges me to match his speed on the flats, but struggles on the climbs because of his weight. The other rider in our trio, Kevin, is the fittest of us all. (There's always one in every crowd, right?) Me? I'm somewhere in between the two.

Because he tends to go all-out for relatively short distances (25-30 miles) I was concerned that Scott had not properly trained himself to ride at lower intensities, and that he would not have enough stamina for 60+ miles. I was not worried about Kevin.

(Honestly, I thought the same of myself after a hilly 55-miler in early April when I came close to bonking.)

Personally, I was plagued by questions of how much (or little) food, liquid, supplies etc. to bring on the metric ride. I decided on three water bottles, a bag of fig bars, a banana and a fruit/nut bar, and my usual tools, the only limitation being how much I could stuff in my jersey pockets!

Turns out the worries were for naught, but I wish I had packed a wet wipe for clean-up (I dropped my chain within the last 15 miles and had nothing but my shorts with which to clean my hands.)

Truth be told, we had come close to riding 100 km on several occasions, so in the back of my mind I knew we could do it. It was just a matter of going a little farther and conserving a little more energy. We planned a rest stop at the 40-mile mark and took about a 20-minute break. At that point I knew I had enough supplies left to finish the ride. The question was did I have enough juice left in the legs, since the last third of the course had the steepest climbs.

Aside from a little stiffness in my thighs because of the prolonged break, the last third of the ride was manageable, even with the hills. My confidence in Scott and myself to finish grew with every mile that rolled by.

My friend commented he was "out of gas" about mile 60, and he had another six miles to ride to get home, but at that point the hilly sections were behind us. He recovered quickly and we pushed on. I followed my friends partway home, then turned back and rode home myself, finishing with about 65 miles.

I was a little sore when I dismounted, but not wiped out. Even my butt felt ok.

As I walked the Ironman to the front door, I wondered how much farther we could have gone.

In the end, I completed the ride in 3 hours 49 minutes (moving time), with an average speed of 16.8 mph. My heart rate averaged 159 bpm.

Not bad at all. Another goal/challenge met. Now to plan for a full imperial century, and then a 200 km event before the fall.

Keep pedaling!

Horatio