My first century!

Today was my first time trying to ride 100 miles in a day. We did the Daffodil Century, starting in Orting, WA. I did the ride with Danielle and one of her clients, who is pretty hard-core. The goal was to pretty much pound it out - go hard for the entire 100.

It dawned a gorgeous day - clear and sunny. It was cold in the morning, so I wore my long underwear under bike shorts, and a jacket over a sleeveless jersey. No booties, warmer gloves. It was pretty perfect for the first 50. The course was two 50-mile loops beginning and ending in downtown Orting, so I had a chance to remove the jacket and long underwear after the first half. I also changed into my lighter gloves.

There was a decent hill around mile 10, then a really big one just before 20. The rest was fairly rolling for the first half. I got a flat at the second rest stop, at mile 34, but we were able to change the tube quickly and be on our way.

It was definitely hard work keeping up with Danielle and Whitney - I know they could have ridden faster if they weren't with me.

I truly felt ready to be done at 50 miles, but of course I would never have stopped. We pushed on. At mile 59 there was a HUGE hill - the biggest yet, and steepest, and mostly in the sun. It felt good to finish that one. Then the rest of this loop was pretty fun - a rest stop at mile 71 and another at 83. I kind of bonked at mile 85 or so - I needed to have a GU, and that picked me back up.

There was an amazing, long downhill where we just flew - I hit almost 38 mph, and that was on the brakes - then we had to suffer through a super-steep uphill at mile 92. Not a fair place for a huge hill! Just as I thought I couldn't go any further (Danielle was ahead; Whitney was behind), Whitney called up that she needed to stop. Danielle motioned over to a side road, so I thought we were going to stop over there off the hill - but it turned out that the side road was the way to go! We had passed four other riders on the way there, too, and they never caught back up with us.

We had rollers for a few more miles, then met up with the main drag in to Orting. I was in the lead, and for some reason, maybe the way the wind was, maybe the adrenaline of knowing I was done soon, I was able to make one final push and keep it at 20 or 21 mph. That felt amazing.

So, I learned a bunch of things:

-- My skin is not as dark as I think it is. I need to wear sunscreen.
-- My knees get sore when I keep myself in the big chainring up hills. I should work on higher cadence, lower resistance.
-- Drafting really is worthwhile. I practiced some, but I also wanted to ride on my own since you can't draft in a triathlon.
-- I'm a good hill climber!
-- I need to have my seat up higher. I'm not getting as much power as I could.
-- I need to eat more, and more frequently. Bonking is not good.
-- Powerbars and GU are my friends. So are oranges and bananas.
-- Wearing pink is a great way to attract male attention. Why are they so dumb? Have they never seen a woman on a bicycle before?
-- I can do a century. I even think I could run afterwards. Who knows...maybe I could do an Ironman. I know I certainly have even more respect for those that have done it now!