cycling
01. September, 20:00 Uhr
Kind of a spur of the moment decision, but I finished my first century today. I posted on Wednesday asking about food (https://old.reddit.com/r/cycling/comments/165r4us/doing_a_century_stop_to_eat_or_ride_straight/) so I figured I'd give an update and some of my thoughts on why I made it difficult for myself. So learn from my mistakes and make things easier for yourself.
So like I said, I posted two days ago (Wed) about whether I should stop for food or ride straight through on my century ride. This wasn't a last minute question, this was initial planning. I literally decided to do a century two days before doing it. So **Mistake #1: Don't plan a century two days before doing it.** Give yourself time. Plan ahead. Find a good day in your schedule (work, training, life) that gives you the best chance of success. Plan your route to set you up for stops or refills if you need/want them. Don't do it on a whim. Deciding Wednesday afternoon to do a century on Friday morning is asking for trouble. And on a related note, take it easy leading up to the ride. This leads me to the next mistake.
**Mistake #2: Don't destroy your legs the days leading up to your first century.** The stars aligned for me this week for riding (time wise). Which is a blessing and a curse. Here's my week of riding leading up.
Distance, elevation, time, stress
- Mon: 64.2mi, 2188ft, 3:26, 130 TSS
- Tues: 50.5mi, 3314ft, 2:52, 124 TSS
- Wed: no riding, 24hr shift at work
- Thurs: 46.3mi, 2116ft, 2:41, 84 TSS
- Fri: 100mi, 3054ft, 5:21, 179 TSS
6-wk avg TSS: 502
So with today's ride, I'm at 517 TSS in five days. When I've been averaging 500 per week the last six weeks over seven days. Looking back, I definitely should have cut the Thursday ride. I was coming off a 24 hour shift at the hospital where I got maybe an hour of sleep. I should have just taken the day off or do an easy spin for like 30 min. Then just put my feet up and nap. Doing a nearly three hour ride on one hour of sleep the day before doing a century was probably not the greatest idea I've had. I thought a good night of sleep the night before would be fine, but I think the long shift at work and little sleep hit me pretty hard. So **Mistake #3: Lack of sleep leading up to ride.** Get your beauty sleep people.
As for the actual ride. Weather was nice. Started at 50 degrees so I started with knee and arm warmers, full finger gloves, and a gilet. I checked the wind report the day before and planned it to have a tailwind to start. The wind was to shift throughout the ride so at worst I would have a mild crosswind on the way back. I was blessed with a good wind day as well, around 3-4mph, maxing out at like 10mph (we usually can get sustained 15mph winds with gusts over 30).
10 miles in I wasn't feeling great. It was cold so I figured I just needed a longer warmup. By mile 20 my legs were already feeling pretty tired and I started questioning my decision. I started to curse myself for riding 46 miles the day before instead of resting, and started to question whether I could do this. Around this point, I made the decision to give myself until mile 40 to make a final call. I was hoping my legs would come around but they never did. When I hit mile 40 I felt like I had ridden double that. RPE was creeping up and up. And I was putting out way less power for what my legs were feeling. Riding along at 180W (low Z2) felt like 50W harder and felt more like Sweetspot at times. I turned off the route and headed back home. I honestly thought there was no way in hell I would be able to do it. I hit mile 50 and was sure I was done. I still had 20 miles to my house, and my legs were still in a bad spot. I continued to eat and drink and felt like my nutrition overall was great. I didn't bonk. Mentally, apart from being angry with myself for overdoing it the days prior, I was feeling good. My legs were just not there. I just hit them too hard. Around mile 50 it was warm enough to remove the arm and leg warmers. And the gilet came off soon after. The warmer weather was nice but I still didn't think it was going to happen. But a strange thing happened around mile 60-65. My legs started to feel ever so slightly better. Not great. I was still putting out low Z2. But they were a little less achy. I'm thinking maybe the warm weather helped (it was mid 70s at this point). Whatever it was, I got back to my house at 76 miles and had a decision to make. I could call it quits and accept my failure. Or try to tough it out. I removed my frame bag with my cold weather gear, threw away my trash and refilled my bottles. I was going to finish this. 24 miles to glory.
I set out again determined to finish the ride. Still hurt to push the pedals but mentally I knew I could do it. Ate my last Rice Krispie treat and chugged some drink mix. It's go time. The last 20 mile sucked. Like I said, mentally I was fine and felt good. My legs were just hurting bad. I wasn't even able to keep Z2 power, now maintaining a good 20-30W lower than the previous 80 miles. But I kept going, watching the mileage tick closer to the goal. Pulled into my complex just over 99 miles so I had to go around in circles a few times to hit the century mark.
I did it. It's done. I'm now sitting on my couch with my cat passed out on my sore legs that are radiating warmth (I'm sure she loves it). And if you read my previous post, you'd know that I am sad to be without a burrito in my belly. The reroute took me well away from any towns to stop and eat. But to be honest, I don't think stopping would have been a good idea. I think just pushing through was the only way I was going to finish. Stopping to throw my gear down at my house and hopping back on the bike was the hardest part. It would have been so easy to just stay there but I knew I would have regretted it.
Stats:
- 100.18mi
- 3,054 ft elevation
- 5:21 moving time, 5:32 total elapsed time
- 18.7mph moving avg speed
- 182W NP, 167W avg (FTP around 320W)
- 4 stops: 2 just to pee, 1 to pee and remove cold gear, 1 to drop excess gear at my house (didn't even go inside)
I rode my Tarmac SL7, 52/35t front and 12sp 11-34t cassette. Used a half frame bag instead of my usual burrito bag. It's more aero and has way more space. If I didn't need the warmers at the start or didn't plan on taking them off I probably could have been fine without it. But in the end, I was glad I had it for food and water.
For nutrition:
- 2x 1L bottles with Skratch mix + dextrose, ~~150g carbs total in each~~ 110g carbs in each (Skratch is 20g per scoop, I thought it was 30g)
- 1x 1L bottle with water
- 2x PB&J sandwich: around 95g carbs and 650 cal per sandwich
- 6 Rice Krispies treats: 17g carbs and 90cal each
- 1 Science in Sport gel: 22g carbs, 90cal
- 1 banana: 22g carbs, 90cal
Breakfast was a large chocolate chip pancake with maple syrup (100g carbs, 575 cal) plus my normal coffee with heavy cream (~400cal).
Work: 3,307kJ
https://i.imgur.com/L56D5yW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/mUfhOu0.jpg
TL;DR - no burrito stop :(
Edit: Double checked the Skratch mix and had it wrong. Each scoop is 20g carbs and I did 4 in each bottle.
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