Time for a Century?

I did my first century a couple of years ago in Reston VA. I did about seven hours of riding time and closer to eight hours if you include the time spent at the rest spots. The century was advertised as being with "gently rolling hills." I presume that that means that a yellow, triangular sign with a truck on a down slope means "Caution! Gently Rolling Hills Ahead!" I had to walk up part of two of the gently rolling hills.

At 56 yrs old, I still have a goal of riding a century. The closest I came was 87 miles 20 yrs ago. I am now riding again after a long hiatus.

The times you post sound pretty decent.

Doug

Well, I had my first km century when I was 17, 70km in the morning and 30 in the evening...

When I've just turned 18 I had a 163km (a mile Century, isn't it?): it was a terrible day, my legs were ko...

Brought the time for a century down to 6 hr 12 min. 🙂 My riding partner and I did the 5 min draft rotation to accomplish this. She and I ride touring bikes with front and rear racks. :p At the 105 km mark in our Century ride, some lightweight dweeb in a green hornet cycling outfit on a featherweight racing bike was "agitating" to pass her at a light. She dropped him within a kilometre, 😄 I was barely able to keep on her wheel myself. My partner finally settled down at the 158 km mark and was gracious enough to give me the honour of leading us home. 😉

PS. I have been led to believe a Century is 100 miles and a Metric is 100 km

About 7 hours for around 120K, first and only so far.

I could probably cut a few hours off easy, but I was completely unprepared for the trip... going out was done in two hours with a good tailwind, return 5 hours against the wind, wich seemed to pick up over the ride...

I only had room to carry one watter bottle, was planning on stopping for gatorade as I needed... well it turns out about 30K of the route was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, no place to buy anything... I had some serious dehydration for about 10-15K during the return, had to stop at someones house for water.

Also had 2-3K's on the return where I was starting to fall asleep on the bike (wierd)... not fun espescially when you get a bit of traffic coming by...

And I wasn't really getting near my threshold for most of the trip...

islandboy said:

I have just completed my 1st Century (163 km - 24 kph) 6:45 riding time, 7:32 overall time, with a partner for the first 40 km then solo. I am 47, 195 lbs and wondering how that is for a pace.

Any one else willing to post their times for a century ride?

My first century was awful (in terms of time). I rode a rails to trails (a gravel road) on a big ole comfort bike that weighs like 25lbs. It took me something like 10.5 hrs riding time/12 hrs with breaks, but I did it!

My second century was on a road bike that weighed just under twenty. I did it on a road, but the route was pretty hilly. There were a couple climbs with the yellow signs with trucks on 'em, 3 hills that were over 1,000 feet. It took me 6.5hrs riding time/7.5 hrs with breaks. My avg moving speed was 16.5 mph.

Did one century as part of a group ride. Most had trained for the distance but not for speed so we did it in a little over 9 hrs. I was tempted to take off but the organizer was adamant that we all stay together😠 .