Riding A Century

Prior to 2010 I had ridden about 6 centuries in my first 27 years of riding. I did many rides each year in the 70-80 mile range but rarely did 100. Once I started riding from Cincinnati to Gatlinburg and had a need to ride 140-150 a day for two consecutive days I started to add 100 miles to the calendar. I'll be the first to admit that rides of 100 miles usually left me tired for days. Once I see a weakness, I like to solve the problem so in 2010 I did 22 rides of 100 miles or more. A few exceeded 140 miles and about 10 were 110 plus. I also had several between 90 and 96 that I didn't count in my total. The odometer had to roll over 100 for it to count.

So far this year I've already logged 12 rides over 100 miles and just yesterday did 145. At this point, both physically and mentally the 100 mile ride has become routine. What used to be a daunting ride to consider is now just a standard weekend ride.

Besides proving what we all know, that we can train ourselves to do almost anything, I've found that the rides of 100 miles or more, usually taking a little over 5 hours for 100 from Cincinnati to Ripley and back to 7 or more for the long rides of 130+, can improve mental focus as well not only for these long rides but also for short interval training and racing. Theres something that happens, especially on an out and back route, around the 80 mile mark when you know you still have another 30-40 miles to go. The physical and mental training benefits are well worth the effort.