AgentScotty

For the second time in my life, I rode a double-metric century (128 miles / 206 km). It was also a very tough ride in terms of hilliness:

 

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/142883

 

I only ended up averaging 15.3 mph. On many of the rolling sections we were going 16-22 mph, but some of those uphills knocked us down to 4-8 mph.

 

The ride organizers painted little smiley faces on the side of the road at the top of each of the severe climbs.

 

This ride also put me up to 3071 miles for the year, which is very close to my lifetime high of 3100 miles in 2006. As I have centuries coming up both of the next two weekends, I should be able to blow away 3100 miles.

My Blazing Saddles Century ride went pretty well this past weekend. At 16.74 avg MPH, it's also my fastest Century ever, even faster than the one I did in 2006 when I was 20 pounds lighter and in the middle of a 6 month sabbatical from working, and riding nearly every day.

 

"SeeMeBiking" got my picture as I was coming over the top of a small but tough hill:

 

http://www.seemebiking.com/BlazeGroup15/?o...le=DSC_0750.jpg

 

As we're finally getting some rain in the Northeast, this is my lightest week mileage-wise in a few months. Even though it's rained for 4 days straight, I managed to sneak in a dry ride Monday night. However, I gambled and lost tonight: A light mist (which I was hoping would clear) turned into a steady drizzle and I got drenched pretty good over the course of 21 miles, so I'll have to give the chain a good lube before crashing out, and give it a proper cleaning this weekend.

 

I managed to bag 690 miles for July, and I have 692 so far for August. As the rain is supposed to clear out tonight, I'm hoping to bag a bunch more miles in the waning days of August.

 

Unless we get a good Indian Summer in October (and I skip out of work quickly enough to bag the last few hours before sunset), there's only one month left in bicycling season. It's been one of the best bicycling seasons I can remember, but it's sad that it's coming to a close.

 

EDIT: It looks like the link I posted from my earlier "Climb to the Clouds" ride last month is dead, but I can't edit the post to fix it:

 

http://www.seemebiking.com/c2c_group8/?ope...le=DSC_0351.jpg

12 unexpected miles can be pretty brutal, especially on the second day...

 

At the end of a tough ride I'm often counting the quarter miles, if not the tenth miles.

Due to the time involved, I'm finding it harder and harder to do long rides like that. Even at 16 mph, 70 miles is over a 4 hour ride. Having 3000' elevation and feeling great afterwards after that much saddle time must kick ass. Good luck on your Centuries.

 

I did 240 miles last week (rested on Tuesday and Saturday), and have the Blazing Saddles Century this coming Saturday. I'm hoping to ride 15-45 miles a day at a moderate to easy pace, and possibly a tough 45-60 miles at a moderate to hard pace on Wednesday or Thursday to give myself a kick in the butt for Saturday.

It's fairly common for our Centuries to run over 100 miles, usually by at least a mile, sometimes by as many as five.

 

The two ppl I was riding with (this was a pair of unofficial rides tacked together to hit 100+ miles) have a reputation for adding on extra miles, and I was prepared to bail out if they tried to extend it to a double-metric (124 miles).

 

As thunderstorms were forecast for tonight, I did a solo ride after work to beat the storms, and then showed up for the group ride (which I assumed would be canceled due to bad weather) but the weather cleared, so I ended up doing the group ride on top of the solo ride, and now nearly have my 150 miles for the week.

I just got in from bicycling 104.5 miles. We did about 37 miles with Gus's Bike Shop, from North Hampton to Kingston and back, and then three of us went on to ride 67.5 miles from North Hampton to Nubble Point and back, covering much of the route of the upcoming GSW Tri-State Seacoast Century.

I'm reveling in the heat.

 

Last night's 37 miles was 84-86F at the start, 79F at the end.

 

Tonight's 25 miles was 90F at the start, and 84F at the end.

 

Every time I step outside at work (68-70F in the building), and it's steamy and 90F+ out, I wish I could just punch out and grab my bike and ride all afternoon.

 

I've got 1975 miles for the year, which beats my total miles for all of last year, and if the hot weather holds through September and stays warm into October/November, I'm hoping to hit 3000-3500 miles for the year.

 

I'd never heard of Felt, either. That looks like a cool bike. I used to ride a straight-bar triple like that in the 1990s.

Sounds like some cool rides. Can't beat 100 miles with no stoplights and one stop sign.

 

I've got one century coming up in August and two in September, one of which I can ride twice if I'm up to it.

I had to use the curly brackets to get that to work.

This has been one of the best summers I can remember for bicyclists that like warm/hot summers. Hopefully everyone is having a good year on the roads, or off the roads for the MTBers.

I survived the "Climb to the Clouds". It was probably one of the toughest centuries I've ever done.

 

This year was apparently easier than others, as the last leg of the road to the top was closed. It was still a heck of a climb, though.

 

I looked through some of the ride pictures, and found mine: http://seemebiking.com/Thumbimages/Waterma...de/DSC_0351.jpg

QUOTE (ForceTen @ Jul 12 2010, 06:15 AM)

I would be very careful with this.  That much caffeine can cause issues.  Not just jitters.  But, shakes, highly elevated heart rate (you'll find out if you have a heart condition!), as well as caffeine dehydrates you.  So, if you're first stop isn't for a while and it's hot out, you're already behind the eight ball...

Hopefully your rehab is going well, tangy.

 

Next Sunday I'm doing the CRW Climb to the Clouds.

 

I've been riding 50-150 miles a week. I did close to 70 miles today.

 

This Century is going to be a tough one, between the heat, the climbing, and the first rest stop being at the 55 mile mark. I'm hoping to get rolling as soon as I can after the 7:00a sign-in, so that I can put the first 55 miles behind me before the sun hits its maximum intensity. After that I just have to make it to the second rest stop at 80 miles, and the ride finish at 105 miles.

 

Something one of my co-workers told me about is that "5 Hour Energy" drink. I've tried it a few times with my cycling, and I can put out a lot faster and a lot longer. Unfortunately, as there's no free lunch, the bonk comes the morning after, instead of during the ride, so I'm going to be a hurting puppy at work and for Monday night's ride.

 

Looking at the ingredients, I don't see anything that's on the WADA Prohibited Substance list. As I'm just a recreational rider, I don't have to worry about that, but it's nice to know. Although WADA tests for caffeine, it's not presently a prohibited substance.

Tasty tasing in this thread...

 

Yeah, me too...

I was ready to wear a helmet around 1995 (those Bell "Courage for Your Head" commercials made helmets look cool instead of dorky), but didn't for a few reasons: Ppl kept trying to mandate it, and the lion's share of helmeted cyclists I saw were the ones riding on the sidewalks, against traffic, etc.

 

I started wearing a helmet around 2001, as I was riding with a group of offroad cyclists that were riding increasingly technical terrain, to the point that it wasn't a matter of if I'd crash, but when.

 

Of course, once I started wearing one, I started riding like the peeps in those old Bell commercials...

 

Although I've never had a serious crash in over 20,000 miles of cycling, I don't think I'd go back to not wearing a helmet. The temptation does strike when I see one of those rare old-schoolers (usually 40-70 years old) flying down the road with his hair blowing in the wind (or videos of the Tour de France from years gone by), but I've had enough close calls in the last 10,000 miles that I've been wearing a helmet that it's not worth taking the chance.

 

Especially as I'm one of those speed freaks that tries to push 40+ MPH on every downhill.

My main ringtone is "Far Behind" by Candlebox. I also have "Keep Feeling Fascination" by the Human League.

 

I'm thinking of making a ringtone from "Earthcrosser" by Veruca Salt, but haven't had the time to do it.

My IRA swung from a 24.5% gain in October 2007 to a 30% loss in late 2008/early 2009, and had climbed back to a 5% gain, but then the SEC threw that stinkbomb at Goldman Sachs, the poop hit the fan with the PIIGS, and now I'm down 3.8%.

QUOTE

Floyd Landis admits to doping, Points finger at Lance

Well, I managed to pull it off. I only averaged 14.6 miles per hour (about what I'm averaging on shorter rides) but I didn't bonk, and only cramped up a little bit on a few hills, but was able to ride it out afterwards. There was a really big hill in the last 8 miles.

 

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7695/0516001504.th.jpg