I don't think I ever got around to riding a century last summer... I was traveling and then hurt for most of it. It just never seemed to happen.
So, on one of the hottest days yet this summer, three of us tackled it. Allen, Strunk, and I did get a hundred mile ride completely totally absolutely finished. Was it hot? You bet. Was it too tough? Not really. I think Strunkilicious might have gotten the worst of it, mainly because his longest prior ride this year was 65 miles. It was a big jump - over 50% increase in distance, if you want to work the math. Allen looked surprisingly good.
We started with two other riders - Roy and John T. They only planned for 60 or so, but they were through with us long before we got to their turn. We started from Parkview, passed through Amish country, stopped at Huck's, then pointed ourselves towards Bromer. Roy, as he often does, began to lead out. It wasn't too hot just yet, only in the lower 80's, and we'd been pretty pedestrian. John T., who can never let anyone go, soon followed. It was just as well, because we needed to be cautious.
Just past Bromer we took one of Allen's favorite detours, a road south that takes you directly to 56. We hit the state road, turned east, and hit Livonia. Once there, we turned northeast onto 337, then turned right on Saltillo Road. This took us back to Highway 60, where we crossed, made our way east, then south again to the gas stop in Campbellsburg. And here we broke bread.
The other guys grabbed cheeseburgers and fries. As for myself, I went for the breaded steak tenderloin and a candy bar. We ate at the little table set up in the back, enjoyed the A/C, and cooled off a bit. Sure, normally you'd have to go to a bowling alley to get the same quality of food, but I happen to like the cheap stuff.
Allen was stricken with wanderlust, so we wound up meandering around the back country, around West Washington High School, finally landing back in Livonia. Back to Bromer, back on the side road to Highway 56, this time turning west and taking the next road right (couple miles down the road), then north back into the Amish back country. We wound up back in Bromer.
Following this?
Allen had one more trick up his sleeve. He wanted to turn north off 337 near the house where the windows were being pulled out (west of Lost River, first turn). I was a bit worried about this one. We would be forced to climb a pretty big hill, and I was watching Strunk. His face was saying, "Let's not make this any harder than it needs to be". I've seen that look more than once on long rides, no shame in it, but Allen was feeling so good I don't think he noticed.
Inevitably we got to the climb, not huge by any standard, but when you are feeling awful, anything is huge. "Take it easy climbing up", I tossed to Strunk. He did, and after that it was pretty much smooth sailing back to Huck's.
From this point on the evils were well known. All Strunk had to do was get back to Spring Mill, and we had a tailwind home. Parting company just before Highway 60 (side road just north of the St. Bernards), Allen and I were left to finish our ride.
We had enough in the pocket to get on the highway for a bit of the ride. This served two important purposes: first, would lose the rollers on Rabbitsville Road, and; we got the best exposure to the tailwind. I didn't want too go hard, we still had around seven or eight miles left to ride. Allen dropped in trail, and we started to pick up steam. Inevitably, the tailwind did help, we did pick up speed, and as we flattened out, I wanted to keep it as long as possible. I heard a muffled call, and looking back, I could see Allen had fallen off a bit. His heart rate had popped up, and he wanted to get it back down. Smart call. The end, when it comes to these long rides, can come swiftly.
The cut wasn't too tough, and by that time we knew we had this thing in the bag. We finished with over 101 miles, good enough to cover any margin of error. Speaking of that... there was only 4 tenths difference between my Garmin and my computer, which stunned me. More, there was about a 25-second difference in the time (Garmin was slower), which probably means the real difference between the two was more like 2-3 tenths. Folks, that ain't bad. True, nothing says my bike computer is the end-all, be-all of measuring distance, but I was amazed at how close they actually were.
Pouring over the data, I learned a couple of things:
So, on one of the hottest days yet this summer, three of us tackled it. Allen, Strunk, and I did get a hundred mile ride completely totally absolutely finished. Was it hot? You bet. Was it too tough? Not really. I think Strunkilicious might have gotten the worst of it, mainly because his longest prior ride this year was 65 miles. It was a big jump - over 50% increase in distance, if you want to work the math. Allen looked surprisingly good.
We started with two other riders - Roy and John T. They only planned for 60 or so, but they were through with us long before we got to their turn. We started from Parkview, passed through Amish country, stopped at Huck's, then pointed ourselves towards Bromer. Roy, as he often does, began to lead out. It wasn't too hot just yet, only in the lower 80's, and we'd been pretty pedestrian. John T., who can never let anyone go, soon followed. It was just as well, because we needed to be cautious.
Just past Bromer we took one of Allen's favorite detours, a road south that takes you directly to 56. We hit the state road, turned east, and hit Livonia. Once there, we turned northeast onto 337, then turned right on Saltillo Road. This took us back to Highway 60, where we crossed, made our way east, then south again to the gas stop in Campbellsburg. And here we broke bread.
The other guys grabbed cheeseburgers and fries. As for myself, I went for the breaded steak tenderloin and a candy bar. We ate at the little table set up in the back, enjoyed the A/C, and cooled off a bit. Sure, normally you'd have to go to a bowling alley to get the same quality of food, but I happen to like the cheap stuff.
Allen was stricken with wanderlust, so we wound up meandering around the back country, around West Washington High School, finally landing back in Livonia. Back to Bromer, back on the side road to Highway 56, this time turning west and taking the next road right (couple miles down the road), then north back into the Amish back country. We wound up back in Bromer.
Following this?
Allen had one more trick up his sleeve. He wanted to turn north off 337 near the house where the windows were being pulled out (west of Lost River, first turn). I was a bit worried about this one. We would be forced to climb a pretty big hill, and I was watching Strunk. His face was saying, "Let's not make this any harder than it needs to be". I've seen that look more than once on long rides, no shame in it, but Allen was feeling so good I don't think he noticed.
Inevitably we got to the climb, not huge by any standard, but when you are feeling awful, anything is huge. "Take it easy climbing up", I tossed to Strunk. He did, and after that it was pretty much smooth sailing back to Huck's.
From this point on the evils were well known. All Strunk had to do was get back to Spring Mill, and we had a tailwind home. Parting company just before Highway 60 (side road just north of the St. Bernards), Allen and I were left to finish our ride.
We had enough in the pocket to get on the highway for a bit of the ride. This served two important purposes: first, would lose the rollers on Rabbitsville Road, and; we got the best exposure to the tailwind. I didn't want too go hard, we still had around seven or eight miles left to ride. Allen dropped in trail, and we started to pick up steam. Inevitably, the tailwind did help, we did pick up speed, and as we flattened out, I wanted to keep it as long as possible. I heard a muffled call, and looking back, I could see Allen had fallen off a bit. His heart rate had popped up, and he wanted to get it back down. Smart call. The end, when it comes to these long rides, can come swiftly.
The cut wasn't too tough, and by that time we knew we had this thing in the bag. We finished with over 101 miles, good enough to cover any margin of error. Speaking of that... there was only 4 tenths difference between my Garmin and my computer, which stunned me. More, there was about a 25-second difference in the time (Garmin was slower), which probably means the real difference between the two was more like 2-3 tenths. Folks, that ain't bad. True, nothing says my bike computer is the end-all, be-all of measuring distance, but I was amazed at how close they actually were.
Pouring over the data, I learned a couple of things:
- the Garmin 910 has an unreliable barometric altitude sensor (a known issue)
- my heart rate is much lower on the ride than I could have imagined
I'm a little worried the heart rate isn't measuring properly. I can test that manually, and I will.
Here is the latest Garmin report. Enjoy!
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