"Suddenly Century"

Big bike ride on Sunday, well for me anyway...5 hours and 72 miles later...What a ride..

Start time was at 7:15, At the usual place where we do our group club rides.

Off we go, the 4 of us to register at the century sponsored bicycle ride. Trying to hopefully catch up with the rest of the club members at the starting line..

At the onset, 2 of them cycle off, me at the back of the pack just trying to keep up to the 20+ mph avg at the get go..Somehow I knew it was going to be a long day..

Finally get to the starting line of the ride.. Thank god, hopefully I can catch my breathe, feeling like I was in some chase group in a peloton and trying not get dropped.

40 miles later, thank god for drafting, just trying to keep up with most of them in our group was a challenge I will not soon forget. I'm sure all this time the rest of them were just having a good relaxed ride.

After going 40 miles with an avg of 20+ mph, I had to bite the bullet and let myself get dropped.
After that, I came to a realization that riding 116 miles is really going to suck...

But I'm glad one of them hanged back with me, because riding solo would of sucked, since I had no semblance of where the hell I was at on this ride..These roads seemed to last forever..

Mile 60...Finally familiar territory and the a final SAG stop on my journey....

Grab something to eat, relax, and back on the bikes. The end is near...Ohh crap was is that pain on my inner leg.. Cramp , cramp, and wholly crap..Try to ride it out and take in some fluid..

Leg feeling better and just trying to "hammer" the last couple of miles the best I could...

Finally back, 72 miles, I wish I could have gotten my act together and recorded all my heart rate average and distance properly..Wearing 2 watches and all the numbers are off because I forgot to turn them on when I stopped at the SAG stops...Oh well...

Okay lock up my bike and went on a 15 minute run in my bike shorts..Not the best feeling in the world if you know what I mean. Felt like my ass was twice the size..

Now that is all done..Great day riding with great people, even though they made me suffer they did not totally break me..Longest ride I've ever done at one time..Need to do more of those to get ready for the Ironman race...

At least I was able to work on my nutrition, and found a bike route to do my long rides on.

The most eye opening things is realizing how suck ass it is going to be to run a marathon after riding 116 miles... I must do what I got to do...