MAIDEN CENTURY! ⛵︎
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I have quite vivid memories of my maiden century; one accomplished on an adult tricycle. How did I get the idea for this undertaking? It sounds completely crazy! Perhaps the seed was planted several months after I bought the tricycle. I was at the bike shop for something; and the staff mentioned century rides.
“What’s that?” I asked. The answer was staggering: riding 100 miles in a day! I said I didn’t think I’d ever do that. One hundred miles in a day on an adult tricycle? Impossible! Or so it seemed at the time. After all, back then ten miles was a lot for me.
Never Say Never! 🙅🏻♂️
I got my trike in November, 2009. Almost from Day One, I jotted down descriptions of the routes I used for each ride; and after I got my first bicycle computer, I could track both miles and time. As the months went on and my stamina increased, my rides grew longer and longer; and in mid-2011, I noticed something. Browsing my mileage log, I saw that 90+ miles per week wasn’t unusual. That gave me the idea to aim for 100 miles per week.
Most weeks, I made it. I kept working to lengthen my Sunday rides; and experimented with various foods and drinks. Back then, I often took along miniature gumdrops and a snack called Combos®. At the time, these things seemed to suffice; but now I find that they offer no real sustenance!
One aspect of my rides, especially Sunday long rides, drove me crazy (and still does, even on a road bike!): the all-too-frequent need to fight a headwind on the way home. A wide and heavy adult tricycle offers a great deal of wind resistance; and an aero position is pretty nearly impossible. We cyclists hear all the time about planning rides so as to have a TAILwind on the way home; but for me that usually isn’t possible. The path I use ends about one mile East from home; and winds here tend to be easterly.
Go for It! 🚦
Even so, in late 2011 I began earnest preparations for a 100-mile day; my first! My experiments with on-bike — er, excuse me, that’s on trike — food brought some interesting revelations.
RXBars taste good, but are somewhat gummy; and have an annoying way of sticking to my teeth. Chocolate is a poor choice for ride food, even on a cold day; especially if it’s sunny. That includes M&Ms®. I had the idea that the candy coating would help; but it doesn’t. The chocolate inside gets so soft that the shell doesn’t hold up to handling. What a mess!
Foods that taste good at the outset might not taste so good later in the ride; and some things are too crumbly and make me cough and choke. “Refreshing” electrolyte drinks often seemed too strong as the miles racked up. I learned why it’s important to train your gut.
The training up for my maiden century is detailed elsewhere; so I’ll skip to the log I kept during the big ride.
MAIDEN CENTURY LOG ⛵️
The Start 🔫
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Today’s the big day!
0445 hours: Off I go! And unfortunately, thing weren’t at all like the sunny ride shown in this pic!
YOWCH!! It’s cold out here! The wind is stronger than I expected, too. I sure wish I had a thermal jacket. Maybe I should have taken the chance, and done the ride yesterday, as originally planned. But there was the possibility of severe weather; and I was concerned about getting caught in it when I was 20 miles from home.
How's It Going? 🚴♀️
So how’s it goingon the big maiden “voyage”? Not so great. About four miles in: WHAM! A sudden, much stronger gust of wind strikes; it’s driving the drizzle into my face, and stinging my skin. It’s making visibility difficult, too; especially as it’s still dark. I’d better not try to fight that for another 15-20 miles. Let’s turn tail and head for the park to ride. Even though pedaling round and round sure is monotonous!
0550 hours: I’ve covered only 10.3 miles. Inward groan. PLEASE, wind, let up! I’ve still got 90 miles to go! Let’s get out of this park and head for the lakeshore.
0839 hours: Only 30.9 miles, and after nearly four hours. This is most discouraging. That headwind is brutal; and a huge drain on my energy. The wind along the lake is much worse than the wind in the park! I can’t get warm, either. 🥶
Let’s halt at a café for a Belgian waffle 🧇 and a badly needed rest. I need a chance to warm up, too. Then, grit my teeth and get going again. I’m tempted to just go home; and try again another day. At the same time, I don’t want to give up!
Making It Harder? 😬
1252 hours: A pit stop at home. It feels like cheating; but I’m tired of park-shelter restrooms with latch-less doors and no hot water; I’m aching to get out of the wind for a few minutes; and I need another layer. Despite hours of hard work, I simply cannot get warm! But a stop at home is only making it harder to get back out there and continue.
1435 hours: Halt at a convenience store to buy some snacks. Next time, bring along more food!
1622 hours: I’m STILL not finished! I keep returning to the local park — I feel like a boomerang — for endless circling on a 1.8-mile path. How many times have I done that today? Four? Five?? It’s been driving me bonkers; and it’s ruining the sense of adventure. What’s worse, even in the park I get little relief from the wind.
FINIS! 💥
Several hours later: 99 miles showing on my Cateye. Almost done! But that last mile seems absolutely endless.
1954 hours: I FINALLY MADE IT!! FINIS! One hundred miles! I’m lucky that home is only a half-mile or so away. My headlight has gone dim; my legs are about shot; and I’m tired and cold. Too tired to feel the triumph I had expected. What’s puzzling is that I don’t feel at all hungry!
That first century ride took me over 13 hours’ pedaling time; and total time was 15 hours plus. I later learned that the wind had averaged 13 mph that day; and the strongest gust was something like 36 mph! It pushed my average speed down below 8 mph. I had hoped to be a little faster than that!
When I reached home after that big ride, I quickly fixed something to eat; but to my surprise, I didn’t have any appetite. I had expected that riding 100 miles would leave me absolutely voracious! So I took a shower and got ready for bed; but the next day I was a bottomless pit!