100 up!

On Wednesday I booked a day’s annual leave from work to complete a milestone which had been on my mind for some time……could I cycle over 100 miles in one single ride?!

Coincidently Strava challenged all of its members in the month of March to cycle 100 miles in a single ride. So, weather impeccably monitored on Tuesday night I had seen the forecast for glorious conditions, for a challenge like this, which left me in no doubt that I would not be sitting at my desk the next day.

Waking early on Wednesday morning to clear Blue skies, no wind and a decent outside temperature justified booking a day off. I was pleased with this but now slightly fearful of the huge test I had set myself up for. All preparation done with packing lots of food, water, energy gear and so on I was ready to click the cleats in and start the first of many thousands of revolutions.

I had chosen to head towards Northampton which is about 55 miles from home so a round-trip should have seen me past the 100 mile target. I had also estimated that the trip would take 8-10 hours so setting off at 8.30am should see me back home by about 5pm and I thought I booked a day off. This seemed a full days work ahead……

The first 45 miles was really head-down and I took the same route to Bedford that I had previously completed (see another blog entry for that lowdown). The impressive thing with the first 45 miles was that my pace was far higher than I had expected and I was managing 17 mph. Once through Bedford it was on to Northampton. Now this segment was not quite as fast as 17 mph and I was starting to feel like Northampton was a mirage that kept moving further away from me even though I was trying my hardest to get to it, almost boarding on a dreamlike state. Lots of hard work on the pedals took my to 55 miles and a sign that looked like an oasis in a desert. 

At the point of seeing this sign a wave of relief swept over me as I knew I was at least half way now and I could do a 180 and head for home. However, a thought, after going through many towns, cities and villages I have regularly seen on all the "welcome" signs the words "Twinned with" and I am curious to understand this fully so I will be looking in to that #google

At 65 miles and over 4 hours in the saddle my body was crying out for fuel so I had to stop soon. Now whenever I go on a long ride I have this vision in my head that I will stop about half way in to the cycle at this quaint little coffee shop and have a nice hot drink, pastry or another freshly baked consumable. Now the reality is I always keep cycling trying to find this magical place and mile after mile I keep searching but end up getting more and more hungry and desperate to refuel as there is never this "perfect place"…….so this scenario was happening again to me and I gave it from 65 miles to 75 miles to actually find this ideal pit stop but alas nothing......so I had to settle for the slightly less glamorous layby on the A5 near Milton Keynes. A far cry from a croissant!!! So a quick 10 minutes break, sitting on a kerb in a lay by with the sun on my face and traffic whizzing past me,  I scoffed down half a jam sandwich, banana and a finger of timeout and I was back on the saddle heading for home squirting the last of my water and energy drinks in my mouth.

At just over 90 miles in I wanted to stop again in a small village with a nice park bench under the “welcome to” sign to enjoy the sunshine in a slightly more serene surrounding than my previous stop. I enjoyed the sun beaming down, gobbled a flapjack and spent enough time off the saddle to recovery energy levels for the last blast to Hemel. This was the time though that I ran out of all liquid. Not good considering there was still an hour to go…..

Once my computer flashed up 100 miles completed the sigh of relief that came over me was enormous. I had got this far importantly without Rex getting injured which was a constant worry for the whole journey in terms of being so far from home but also wasting a day off work if I wasn't unable to complete the 100 mile task due to bike failure!

So 107 miles and so close to home it was again down to the choice of which hill punishment to select, not exactly want you need after so many hours on a saddle but shakily I took on Nettleden Lane and on arrival at the top I knew I was on the last flat to take me in to home. After arriving home I felt a little emotional to complete another huge milestone in this cycle obsession that has taken me over since I started it 6 months ago.

After uploading my data to Strava, moments after getting home, I was very proud to see a number of achievements. I had just completed my longest ride ever at 108 miles, recorded my fastest 40k and highest elevation on a single trip. One of the things that made me extremely happy was the duration that this epic ride took. My journey took 7 hours and 12 minutes but my actual moving time was 6 hours and 48 minutes giving me and average speed for the entire cycle of 15.9 mph!

In addition to this I have now ridden over 2,000 km on Strava since I joined last September and earned the latest Strava digital badge. 

To put things in perspective of how far I rode on Wednesday it is actually 107 miles from my front door to the middle of Birmingham city centre. On this day I completed 108 miles!

The days of having a “barse like peach” seems to have gone as well and all in all there was some slight wear and tear from the trip but on Thursday but I still felt relatively good for the amount of exercise completed.

My training is now almost completed for the L2P however, I do need to step up my hill training which is next up for me this weekend.