Thursday, September 8, 2011

100 Miles and Pain In The Neck!

We did it!

After two months of training and riding and nutrition and hydration and pain and flat tires plus 8 hours and another flat, Adam and I rode a century on Sunday.  100 miles on a bike!  My first, and Adam's second.

Whew.

It was so much work, but so very much worth it.


I really need to re-paint my nails....

It took us 8 hours, and I earned 43 activity points.

43!

Here is where I would post a picture of Adam and I after we finished, but my phone died and Adam's phone erases pictures.  Fortunately, he tweeted the picture of my odometer so I could get this from the internets.

The first 25 miles were pretty good.  It was a beautiful day for a ride.  Sunny, white puffy clouds and a slight breeze that was a cross wind while we road the Rails to Trails from Reed City to Evart and into Clare County.  We stopped and ate a Clif Bar, then turned around to do the next 25 miles.  The wind changed direction at this point and was giving us a stiff head wind that made me very frustrated.  I hate  head winds.  They make things so much harder than they need to be!  We hit 50 miles when we arrived back at my parents' house for lunch.

We were there for about an hour, re-fueling, recovering and re-hydrating.  Then we set off for Big Rapids to avoid the head wind and get up to at least 75 miles before heading back to Reed City.  We rode on the White Pine Trail to Big Rapids until it ended, turned around and then just tooled around Big Rapids a little until we returned to the White Pine Trail.  We did circles on the North End Park loop (that hill going back up to the WPT is wicked!  It's almost straight up!)

We headed back to Reed City with 77 miles on our odometers.  Stopping at 2 Mile Road, we were 13.25 miles from the end.  Adam crossed 2 Mile first, and I followed.  I heard/felt a whump and then a flump flump flump flump.

I had another freaking flat.

This was like the FIFTH flat that I have had in three weeks.  And I had had enough.

I was tired, in pain and pissed beyond belief.

I may or may not have screamed at the top of my lungs a mixture of curse words and the fact that I had another flat up to Adam.

Adam couldn't believe it either and returned to me.  We started to change the flat and I called my parents to ask them to bring our bike pump so we wouldn't have to waste a CO2 tube.  My baby brother, Zack, came out in our car to bring us our pump.  He saved us.  While we were waiting for him, Adam broke one of my tire levers.  It probably broke from over use over the last few weeks.

With the flat fixed, Adam and I thanked Zack for his road side assistance (Zack thought it was cool because he got to drive "the team car" and save our butts) and hopped back on the bikes.

We rode the final three miles into Reed City, rode the spike up towards Cadillac to collect another mile or so then we set out to ride approximately a 0.8 mile loop in a criterium setting to do the final nine miles.

As we rode the criterium, darker and darker clouds rolled in.  It got to the point that even though we were working hard, we were getting chilly.  I even was wishing I had my thermal jersey and I have much more, erm, insulation than Adam does.  It spit on us a bit, but didn't truly start raining until we pulled into the driveway after our 100 miles were completed.

During our criterium, we passed a number of kids a number of times and they cheered us on every time we passed, it was so cute!

Then, as our odometers turned over 100 miles, we were holding hands and smiling like fools.  We had trained for this, we had worked  for this.  We had become masters of our own pain to ride 100 miles in a day.

We were tired.

We were cold.

We were hungry.

We were so freaking happy.

We had done it, and as the giddiness washed over us, the pain disappeared.  At least for the moment, my neck killed for the next three days!  Still hurts a bit actually...

Anyway!

After we rolled over 100 miles, I jokingly said, "Ok, mountain biking is next."

I only wonder how much I was joking....


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6 comments:

breylee {rocksinajar.com} said...

I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jenny, you have no idea how much I cheered for you (and screamed with you when you got the flat) as I read through this post. Seriously, you have such amazing determination and I greatly admire that. I love reading your blog and hearing about all your ups and downs; thanks for sharing your life with all of us. :)
Your diaper buddy,
Aubrey

Anonymous said...

Oooooh, congrats! That is some crazy cycling and I would never even in my wildest dreams be able to do that!

Unknown said...

@Aubrey LeeAnn Thanks Aubs! I'm glad to know you're still reading! You're welcome for sharing, I really enjoy it. :)

Unknown said...

@thecatwithglasses Thanks :D And I think you can do anything you set your mind to. I never would have thought I would be so into biking and now it's something I love and miss when I don't do it!

Licia said...

I must know -- how many calories does a 100 mile bike ride burn?

Unknown said...

@Licia All I can tell you is that it's a lot and you have to eat while you ride. It would also depend on how much you weigh and how hard you ride. So, unfortunately, my answer is I don't know. Sorry!