The "100" Mile ride!
I did a very long ride today.
I started the day out knowing it was going to be a weird ride today. The weather was listed as rain but I could not get a good answer on how much rain they thought there could be so I prepared for the worst. I put everything into plastic ziplock bags and put on a rain jacket and my boots. The boots did not feel like the right option when I started the ride as they felt off, nothing I can really describe other than not something I am used to so just off. I wore the boots as they would not let the wind freeze my feet out. I knew that my feet were going to get soaked if it rained regardless of the footware so I figured might as well be soaked but warm and the boots were the best option for that.
Up until about mile 20 everything was fine it did not really rain much yet so I was not wet at all and I was overheating in my rain coat. After mile 20 is where things started to take a turn though. I was debating on calling off the ride and just ending it at a normal ride and plan another day out to do 100 miles. At that point though it was downpouring and I had become soaked at about mile 25 so what was the point of turning around now just to end up getting halfway to my goal and I was already soaked so what did it matter? The one major problem I was having was with my earbuds. They are rated for light rain but they kept either chaning songs or turning on the ambient sound and it was very loud so I had to take them off and I had to continue the rest of the ride without music.
I ended up hitting my roughly halfway point at about 2.5 hours into the ride. That is at least what I had thought when I planned this all out. I parked my bike on a peir and had my lunch in the pouring rain. It was beef jerkey so I just kept it covered with my rain jacket as I put peices into my mouth so its not like they got wet. I will say the bag I have on the back of my bike that I bought for around 11 USD kept everything inside very dry and I am a bit shocked by that. I expeted to pull out the beef jerkey and see the bag soaked but there was not a single drop on it.
After I took the picture of my bike on the "halfway" point I looked at my watch only to realize that I was only 40 miles into the ride not 50. I did not know how I messed up the route so badly that 10 miles were gone but I also now understood why I ended up halfway quicker than I thought it should have taken me to ride 50 miles. It was time to turn around regardless becuase to go further than this I would have to ride over that bridge in the back of the photo and I did not know how to get there and had no plans for anything that was over there. I planned my ride along the coast knowing where the restrooms would be and past this point I had no clue if there were any restrooms or if that bridge took me away from the coast.
After turning around and starting to head back I figured something else out. After stopping for a few miutes and having lunch I was riding a lot slower. my legs were not in pain or anything but pushing faster was hard to do and a lot of the ride was up and down hills. I kept pushing on soaked through and starting to hate my choice of trying to ride 100 miles in the pouring rain.
I reached the true halfway mark after about 4 hours of riding but was having a bit of trubble that was simple to solve but VERY annoying. I had a whole tumbler of coffee on my lunch thinking that I was riding and there were bathrooms not a big deal right? Also riding or running causes me to not have to go to the bathroom as often. I don't know if it was the rain or just bad timing but I had to pee every 15 minutes. I had not had much in the way of water yet just the coffee and I was a bit afraid of drinking the water I had becuase if I had to pee more it would add more and more time onto the trip that was already starting to take a lot longer than I thought it would at this point. I figured I would reach the halfway point at around 3 hours and then be done around 6 hours. At hour 4 and only being halfway things were not looking awesome for my time.
I should also note here that strava ride time and elapsed time are different. The times are not that far off but the starva image shows ride time not the time I started to the time I stopped so there is an hour of stopping that happened due to all of the breaks I had to take.
One of my brakes I figured it was time for another picture as I also needed to have some resting time off the bike again so I found a semi covered location on the beach and got off my bike for a bit. After the break I pushed on and kept riding back.
5 hours had passed since I left my house and I was starting to hurt. Nothing terrible just the normal over excerted feeling you get when you push yourself too hard. I was at about 60 miles so it was not un-expected that I would have some soarness at this point but the cold wetness of the rain and being soaked made everything so much worse. I still had to push myself up a few more hills to get to the point where my normal morning rides turn around is.
I hit my normal riding turn around and was excited to finally be close to done. That is when another thought hit me. I stopped for a drink and looked at my watch. 70 miles... I knew that my end was going to be sooner than 100 miles so I did take a few detour areas that I planned out but it did not add up to much only 5 miles or so. If I were to head back now I would end my ride at 75 miles but I could continue to the extra detours and some extended paths I take sometimes and get more miles which could end up getting me to the 100 miles. It has been almost 7 hours at this point since I left my house but that is fine I still have a bit of time before I have to get home to cook dinner. It is still pouring rain and there is nothing on me that is not wet. My feet are still warm as even when the cold water gets into the boots it warms up quick.
I start riding on and get closer to my goal of 100 miles. I am at 75 miles and I am in pain the boots have started to rub my calves weird and it hurts. This combine with the fact that everything on me is soaking we made the pains worse. I am so close at this point though I have to continue and finish the ride make 100 miles so I keep pushing on.
Mile 80 hits and I am out of gas. I am riding my bike at a pace that was far too slow. I was riding somewhere around 10 miles per hour. That meant that to get another 20 miles I would have to ride for at least another 2 hours. It was already 3:30 and I had to cook dinner so that was not going to work. I ended up calling it a day and riding back home. It was 7 miles and it was the worst 7 miles of riding I had done. The last hill I had to climb hurt my legs but it was over. 87 miles 13 miles to go and I would have had it but I just fell short this time. Total time o the bike 7 hours 36 minues. Riding time was the 6 hours 16 minutes. I took 1 hour and 20 minutes of breaks.
Anyway I am off to go to sleep and think about next year when I might be able to try this again. Thank you very much for reading have an wonderful day!
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