"pam_in_sc" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:Roger Zoul and I rode together at Festivelo and did the English century. I
had done an organized century in my youth--that one was a recreation of
the 100th anniversary of the first 100 mile bicycle ride in the United
States (Boston, mid 1970s). But this was my first century in nearly 30
years.
I did a metric century in October and trained so well for it that it
seemed easy--I didn't feel like I had accomplished something big. This
time I knew I was undertrained but wanted to push myself and see if I
could do it. I haven't been able to ride as much since October--the
longest ride I've done in the last month was 50 miles on Thanksgiving.
It feels good to have accomplished something hard. I didn't hurt at all
until about 60 miles and then only intermittently, but I almost turned
into the camp at 94 miles instead of going 5 miles out and back to a rest
stop that was scheduled to be closed by the time we got there. Roger was
determined to keep going and at the last minute I decided to also. It was
great to have a riding partner--I don't think I would have succeeded
alone.
More of the story is at: http://deeplanguage.blogspot.com/
Pam
Pam,
Whilst wolfing down lunch I visited your blog and read your full account.
I'm glad you survived and made it to the finish. I've gotta hand it to you,
I've never been on a bike for that many hours straight in my life ... and
I've done 100,000 miles or more in the last decade.
I wanted to offer a bit of a suggestion ... something to consider. I know
you've only been back into cycling for 6 months and you've told me your age
before. I'm about the same age. That's background for what I'm about to
suggest.
Work on increasing your speed. Work hard at it. Don't do it by trying to
grind bigger gears, do it by practicing increasing your cadence. If you
ride at a high cadence in easy gears, you can get to where you fly along
rather effortlessly on the flats. In my experience, it's more painful to be
on the bike for a long period of time going slow than it is to ride more
briskly and get done more quickly. Sometimes I go on long training rides
with folks in the winter time and they average 15 or 16 mph which is quite
slow to me. My butt and hands get exceedingly sore and uncomfortable. The
effort to ride at 18 or 19 mph would actually seem less because a) it
wouldn't take so darned long and b) what increased effort I put into the
pedals would remove some of the weight-bearing burden from my hands and
butt.
At the next opportunity, try staying with a group of riders going a little
faster than you typically ride. In the shelter of a group, you should be
able to do this without much difficulty. The benefit of drafting in a
larger group of riders can be HUGE!
The ride you described would have been an excruciating mental ordeal for me.
I truly believe that, if you'll push the pace more, you'll find there are
pleasant trade-offs -- a little more muscle soreness, a LOT less butt and
hand soreness. A little more physical stress, a LOT less mental stress.
It occurs to me, though, that I should ask what you're riding. If you're on
a mountain bike, 14.5 mph is pretty good. If you're on a road bike or
hybrid, on terrain like that in Charleston, I think you could up that pace.
Just a suggestion. The really important thing is, congratulations and keep
riding!
Bob C.
