If I try to ride a century next month, isn’t that going off half cocked? I suspect that it is; but April is another Love to Ride Challenge; and I think it would be great if I could get in that century during the month.
My Sunday long ride is up to 45 miles; and while I’m not exhausted at the end, I’m certainly tired. Is the jump to 100 miles too much, too soon? On top of that, I’ve had several weeks of short mileage recently.
If I attempt a 100-miler next month, I’ll have to accept that I won’t be able to ride it as fast as I wish I could. Even if I wait until the end of April to do it, I have only a few weeks’ time remaining to work at improving my pace; and let’s not forget about the taper in the final week before the big ride! At the very least, “tapering” means no force work that week!
Of course I don’t want to gun for 100 miles on a day of strong winds; and even less do I want a day with T-storms!
Warmer weather is setting in; and that’s good for long rides. Cold weather saps my energy, especially if there’s also a stiff wind! But I don’t want to wait to do a century until afternoon temperatures are climbing into the 90s!
Mulling It Over
What shall I take for ride food? Maybe, for such a long ride, a mix of savory and sweet is better than all chocolate-covered bars! The main thing is not to go off half cocked; and carry too little food.
I’m also pondering the route I might take for a century. When I ride straight out to the Spillway, I cover about 24 miles; and there are few places where I can make pit stops. As the ride goes on, I’ll need to make such stops more frequently; and I’m thinking of laps between home and my regular pit stop spot, at 14.5 miles from home.
The catch with boomerang-ing back home is that I might be too tempted to call it quits before I’m finished. It will also mean considerable doubling back and forth to reach 100 miles; but there’s an advantage to that. If I have a headwind, I won’t be fighting it for as long!