Big Training Block (Part 3) My First Century Ride

A couple of days after I got back from Blowing Rock, my A/C unit was dead. I checked the electrical box, the furnace circuit breaker was tripped and I couldn't reset it. I called an electrician and found out that it was tripped because of the A/C unit. I scheduled another appointment with a heating and cooling company. The verdict was I needed a new one. The compressor was broken. For an 11 year old unit, it wasn't worth it to replace the compressor, may as well get a new one. The timing for a broken A/C was never right. The temperature was creeping up and it was impossible to stay in the house, so I stayed in Rebecca's house in the mean time. Work was busy, scheduling different companies to come to give an estimate, keeping up with mid week training were hard. Oh yeah! Forgot to mention that I had a century ride on Saturday and an 18 mile run on Sunday.

The only good news this week was the weather on the weekend was super awesome. High 60's and mid 80's. Couldn't ask for a better forecast. The century ride that we were going to do was Jackson County Brevet. I heard about this ride from a couple of co-workers, Doug and Carlos. They loved the course. Susan, Sarah and Eric were doing it too, they also did this ride last year. Riding 100 miles wasn't too terrifying especially after riding 84 miles in the mountain. It would took me the same amount of time for that distance. I knew what it was like sitting on the bike for 6+ hours.

I drove up to the ride by myself. I left a little too early from home and got to the start a little before 6AM. The ride started at 7AM. Even though I had 8 hours of sleep, I was a little tired when I got there. I went to a nearby gas station and bought a 5 hour energy drink. A dose of caffeine was perfect. It seemed taking a long time but finally we wheeled down. One thing that I didn't like about an organized ride was the start. Imagine hundreds of cyclists rode 1-2 feet apart for the first 10 miles or so. It drove me crazy. I had to go around people and couldn't keep my eyes off from the people in front of me, just in case they were slowing or stopping.

Finally after the first water stop, I had a little more room. We wanted to stop no more than twice. The first stop we made was at Mile 38. The theme of the water stop was Hula. A couple of male volunteers wore  hula skirts and coconut bras. The rest of the volunteers had a lei around their neck. After a bathroom break and refilling the bottles, we were off again. The terrain was rolling with just a few steep hills. One time I looked at my Garmin, it was 67 miles. I thought to myself, my ride was done, had we signed up for a metric century. We made another stop at Mile 70. They had watermelon. It was perfect for a warm day.

The last 10 miles of the ride, we were heading back to town. The traffic picked up a little bit. I got stopped behind a red light. Susan, Sarah and Eric were ahead. A few miles before the finish, I saw Susan on the side of the street. She was waiting for me. How nice! Eric and Sarah were ahead but they stopped and we all finished together. They said since it was my first century ride, they wanted to finish with me. They were so sweet.

The last few miles

Final Turn

The next day I ran 18 miles. Honestly I didn't know how I got through it. I was putting a foot in front of the other. The last mile I picked up my pace and ran sub 9 min pace. I guess I was sandbagging a bit. After the run, I met up with Eric, Sarah and Susan at Sarah's neighborhood pool. They ran at the park. We went to to Moxie, a burger joint that was pretty hip. I had an Angus burger with fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese. Dessert was King Pop's chocolate sea salt. Well deserved meal!