A Century Broken Down
On July 1 I said my goal would be to ride a century this year. On August 1 I said I'd aim for Labor Day Weekend. On Friday, September 4, I completed the century with 103 miles even.
I started riding at 10:13am and headed west toward Lorain, a ride I've done several times. It took me about 2 hours to cover 22.5 miles through a mild headwind. I stopped for water and a break in Lakeview park just west of the bridge.
From there I headed further west toward Vemillion. I had never been on a bike on this route before, so that was all new to me. Thankfully, the headwind stopped around here. On the down side, this route had a much higher speed limit. Once I hit the Vermillion city limits the sie of the road shrank down to nothing so that was problematic for a few miles. Fortunately, the Friday morning had relatively low traffic. I went through Vermillion and stopped in Sherod Park just west of the city around 1:20pm, which was at about the 34.5 mile mark. I had a package of pop tarts and some more water. This point is now the furthest I have been from my house on a bike, and as a bonus it took me into Erie County.
I turned back toward home for the long ride back to Cuyahoga County. I stopped briefly to refill the water bottle on my rack 27.5 miles later in the parking lot of Bay Village Presbyterian church, which is one of my favorite rest breaks because there's never anybody there. That stretch was the longest single stretch I did without stopping on the day; I went all the way through Lorain County at one shot. It was around 3:45pm.
From here it was relatively short 6 mile jaunt back to my house. I refilled my water, had a a quick lunch and double-checked my mileage. At this point I'd gone 68.3 miles, which was by itself a new PR, but I still felt good and was determined to finish.
To knock out the remaining 31.7 miles I went down into the Rocky River reservation via Hogs Back hill. From there I went past the nature center (a ride I do nearly weekly) and on into Berea, where I'd only been once before. My last break of the day was at my designated turnaround point, which was a place where the bike trail splits off into two. I reached it and the 83.5 mile mark around 6:12pm and drank some more water. This was the only stretch where I felt more than usually tired.
Fortunately, as I leaned into the final stretch I got a burst of energy, whether from lunch kicking in or just adrenaline from being close to the end I can't say. I headed all the way to the Lakewood entrance of the metroparks. I'm not going to lie, I walked up the last hill on the way out. From there I decided to pad on a few more miles just in case my math had been off, which proved to be unnecessary but nothing would have been more irritating than finding out I finished at 99.5 miles so I did some leisurely miles through Lakewood before heading home, which brought my total to 103.0 miles. I returned home 9 hours and 56 minutes after I had departed.
The weather was perfect, with temps in the low 70 degrees and mostly sun and light clouds the whole way. Despite copious water consumption plus a snack and small lunch, I still managed to lose nearly three pounds while riding.
I was in surprisingly little pain during the ride, although admittedly I had prepared for the ride by taking some ibuprofen before I left in the morning and another dose with lunch. I figured that since I do that for long backpacking trips there was no reason to be shy about it here. I was tired, but not in pain. After a good night's sleep, I still wasn't in pain. My posterior got a bit chafed, but other than that I felt remarkably good today. Most critically, my knees didn't hurt at all, and neither did my feet.
My time was certainly nothing to write home about. I averaged about 5:47 minute miles including my five breaks. I didn't time my four breaks or my lunch, but they were all pretty short. Even I rounded up and called it a full hour of break time, it wouldn't have taken me under 5 minutes per mile. For all that, it is faster than the times I usually racked up commuting to and from work, although of course those were with a full backpack of clothes and shoes as opposed a backpack filled with three water containers and one package of pop tarts.
It was fun having a real physical goal for the first time in ages. Having achieved it, I don't particularly need to do it again, let alone go farther, but I'm glad I did it once. Even if I did, at my speeds I'd have to hurry and do it this month before it starts getting darker even earlier. I'm happy though. In one ride, I added 35.9 miles to my PR and added nearly 5% to my yearly mileage total. That's pretty impressive regardless of the speed.
Addendum (aka, things I thought of after writing this)
- M has asked me to wear a mask while biking, which we all agree is somewhat pointless if you aren't in crowds, but helps her anxiety. Anyway, this means I biked 103 miles while wearing a mask.
- Because of said mask and my bike helmet, I have an interesting tan line on my face, highlighted by a very classy bike strap tan line.
- My knees hurt more from standing a few hours on a hard wood floor during out wedding than from 10 hours of peddling my bike. Note to self: take ibuprofen before my next wedding :-)
I started riding at 10:13am and headed west toward Lorain, a ride I've done several times. It took me about 2 hours to cover 22.5 miles through a mild headwind. I stopped for water and a break in Lakeview park just west of the bridge.
From there I headed further west toward Vemillion. I had never been on a bike on this route before, so that was all new to me. Thankfully, the headwind stopped around here. On the down side, this route had a much higher speed limit. Once I hit the Vermillion city limits the sie of the road shrank down to nothing so that was problematic for a few miles. Fortunately, the Friday morning had relatively low traffic. I went through Vermillion and stopped in Sherod Park just west of the city around 1:20pm, which was at about the 34.5 mile mark. I had a package of pop tarts and some more water. This point is now the furthest I have been from my house on a bike, and as a bonus it took me into Erie County.
I turned back toward home for the long ride back to Cuyahoga County. I stopped briefly to refill the water bottle on my rack 27.5 miles later in the parking lot of Bay Village Presbyterian church, which is one of my favorite rest breaks because there's never anybody there. That stretch was the longest single stretch I did without stopping on the day; I went all the way through Lorain County at one shot. It was around 3:45pm.
From here it was relatively short 6 mile jaunt back to my house. I refilled my water, had a a quick lunch and double-checked my mileage. At this point I'd gone 68.3 miles, which was by itself a new PR, but I still felt good and was determined to finish.
To knock out the remaining 31.7 miles I went down into the Rocky River reservation via Hogs Back hill. From there I went past the nature center (a ride I do nearly weekly) and on into Berea, where I'd only been once before. My last break of the day was at my designated turnaround point, which was a place where the bike trail splits off into two. I reached it and the 83.5 mile mark around 6:12pm and drank some more water. This was the only stretch where I felt more than usually tired.
Fortunately, as I leaned into the final stretch I got a burst of energy, whether from lunch kicking in or just adrenaline from being close to the end I can't say. I headed all the way to the Lakewood entrance of the metroparks. I'm not going to lie, I walked up the last hill on the way out. From there I decided to pad on a few more miles just in case my math had been off, which proved to be unnecessary but nothing would have been more irritating than finding out I finished at 99.5 miles so I did some leisurely miles through Lakewood before heading home, which brought my total to 103.0 miles. I returned home 9 hours and 56 minutes after I had departed.
The weather was perfect, with temps in the low 70 degrees and mostly sun and light clouds the whole way. Despite copious water consumption plus a snack and small lunch, I still managed to lose nearly three pounds while riding.
I was in surprisingly little pain during the ride, although admittedly I had prepared for the ride by taking some ibuprofen before I left in the morning and another dose with lunch. I figured that since I do that for long backpacking trips there was no reason to be shy about it here. I was tired, but not in pain. After a good night's sleep, I still wasn't in pain. My posterior got a bit chafed, but other than that I felt remarkably good today. Most critically, my knees didn't hurt at all, and neither did my feet.
My time was certainly nothing to write home about. I averaged about 5:47 minute miles including my five breaks. I didn't time my four breaks or my lunch, but they were all pretty short. Even I rounded up and called it a full hour of break time, it wouldn't have taken me under 5 minutes per mile. For all that, it is faster than the times I usually racked up commuting to and from work, although of course those were with a full backpack of clothes and shoes as opposed a backpack filled with three water containers and one package of pop tarts.
It was fun having a real physical goal for the first time in ages. Having achieved it, I don't particularly need to do it again, let alone go farther, but I'm glad I did it once. Even if I did, at my speeds I'd have to hurry and do it this month before it starts getting darker even earlier. I'm happy though. In one ride, I added 35.9 miles to my PR and added nearly 5% to my yearly mileage total. That's pretty impressive regardless of the speed.
Addendum (aka, things I thought of after writing this)
- M has asked me to wear a mask while biking, which we all agree is somewhat pointless if you aren't in crowds, but helps her anxiety. Anyway, this means I biked 103 miles while wearing a mask.
- Because of said mask and my bike helmet, I have an interesting tan line on my face, highlighted by a very classy bike strap tan line.
- My knees hurt more from standing a few hours on a hard wood floor during out wedding than from 10 hours of peddling my bike. Note to self: take ibuprofen before my next wedding :-)