Tim’s Birthday Century

Many cyclists will “ride their age” on their birthday.  I wanted to ride 40 miles back in April for this reason.  I was busy with other things and it didn’t work out.

Today was Tim’s birthday.  He broke from tradition and decided he wanted to do a century, and no, he is not 100 years old.  He mentioned something about it to me on Sunday evening, so I took the day off work.

This meant scrambling last night to get the fenders installed on the LHT, as the weather forecast was calling for rain ALL…. DAY…. LONG….

This morning the weather was as predicted.  I rode in the rain to Breadworks for coffee and snacks before heading out.  Temperatures held steady in the low to mid 50s all day, which made clothing decisions a little easier.

We intended this to be a “tempo” ride.  We didn’t want to slog through at 10mph all day.  The route promised a lot of rollers.

We headed south-east on roads that we’ve both traveled before.  Once we were south of Shelbyville, we turned north (and out of the wind!) to our first store stop in Shelbyville at about mile 39.  They welcomed soggy customers.

My camera got wet and you can see the rain drops on the lens.  It’s still working, but not quite right.  I didn’t take a lot of pictures.

Yes, that’s a piece of breakfast pizza and gatorade.  I inhaled it and we moved on.

We headed north out of Shelbyville, then turned north west toward Crestwood.  Mt Zion Rd seemed much longer than it should have.  The rollers were never-ending.  We were wet.  Did I mention it was raining?

We knew we were getting close to our lunch stop in Crestwood, which was also approximately the 62 mile (100K) mark, and would be a good indication of our pace.

We were both riding pretty strong at this point.  We felt better without the headwind and were pushing to make the lunch stop.

We rolled into our lunch stop, Frascelli’s at 1:30, which meant we did a 100K in 5:30.  That’s faster than any other I’ve done.

I had one beer, a glass of water, fried ravioli, and a burger.  I didn’t pay attention to Tim’s food, other than the fact he didn’t eat it all.  Unlike him, I can put down a large amount of food and keep on riding.

The waitress was kind enough to bring us paper towels to dry off with.  Did I mention it was raining?

The rest of the ride was a bit of a slog.  I felt good about my time to the lunch stop, but it went downhill from there.  I was quite cold when leaving Crestwood.  I did warm up after a climb, but I didn’t have the same energy level.  I’ve done a lot of 50-70 mile rides this year, but few centuries.

I was also starting to have saddle issues by mile 80 or so.  I think it was poor position on the bike due to fatigue, but I’m not certain.

There were two stretches of US-42 to travel, which was less than pleasant.  Once we got to River Rd in Louisville, it was rush hour, and we were just in heads-down-get-through-this mode.

We turned into Indian Hills which relieved the traffic situation, but there were well, uh, hills.  They aren’t big hills, but we were tired.

We rolled back in front of Breadworks after nine and a half hours on the bike which is slow, but a good time for me on a century.  Tim rode home to celebrate with his family.  After I rode home, I had about 108 miles.

Issues:  GPS craziness, rain, cold, everything getting wet, sore bits toward the end of the ride

Good things: Felt great when I got home, 100K time was good, food was good, stayed hydrated

It rained about 80% of the ride.  The “miserable” part near the end is where we actually didn’t have rain for a while.  The temperatures started around 50, climbed to about 55, and dropped back to the low-50s by the end of the ride.  I never had to add or shed layers.  That was convenient.

I don’t want to wait until a birthday to do the next century.  I’d like to get one in per month!

Download file: 2011-11-15.gpx

* “I am not a nutritional role mode” quote shamelessly stolen from Kent Peterson.