Century of the Month - Celebrating the Summer Solstice

As part of my training program I have targeted to ride at least one century a month. As you recall my last one was in May during the Horsey 100 in Kentucky. Yesterday I completed one up in the Kettle Moraine area of Wisconsin. It was one of our club rides called the City of Os. It's a beautiful ride on quiet rolling hills in Southern Wisconsin with about 3500 feet of climb.

The regular route is 88 miles. A few of us decided to add a few more OOs and go for a century. Why not? It's just 12 miles more. Sounds like nothing but we had a little rain towards the end of the ride and at the official end there was lightning. We hemmed and hawed and decide to hunker down on the porch of the LaGrange General Store and wait it out. It took longer than we expected for the storm to pass and our enthusiasm was starting to wain. It's also really hard mentally to get back on your bike when you are done with the "official" ride.

But I'm glad my friends and I decided to tough it out and head down the road for 12 miles. And as luck would have it, we saw the sun for the first time that day. Was it a sign? We had lucked out with cool and overcast for most of the day.

Outside the LaGrange General Store. Not a glamor selfie, but what do you want after 101 miles and getting caught in the rain?

As we pulled into the parking lot for the second time that afternoon I panicked. One of my friends said he thought the LaGrange General Store closed at 5pm. It was 5:05. I drive an hour and a half, bike 101 miles just so I can have this awesome turkey sandwich and a peanut butter ball post ride. The General Store is a haven for cyclist both mountain bikers who do the local trails and roadies. Everything is fresh, homemade and awesome....or does it taste so good because I'm exhausted and famished? Or maybe both.

Well they didn't have to see a grown woman cry. The store was open to 8pm. So I got my sandwich and dessert. As yummy as I remember from last year.

It was a great ride. Stats are below. The one thing that went wrong was my nutrition. I didn't eat enough so was close to bonking at the end. Honestly I thought I did have enough but calculating calorie input, not good.

Total miles: 101
Elev gain: approx 3,500 ft. (everyone's Garmin read different so an avg)
Avg Speed: 16.4 mph
Total calories consumed during the ride:  575
Total calories burned: 3,230
Strava Suffer Score: 197 extreme
QOM awards: 1

This past week was a tough training week. Tuesday I hadn't planned to ride with the fast guys in our club. But somehow ended up doing intervals for 49 miles. Thursday had planned to take it easier but ended up doing more intervals for 44 miles. Saturday the century. Today was 45 mile ride where I planned to do more of a recovery ride. But we had some great long stretches and ended up averaging 17.2 mph.

Looking forward to getting into the pool tomorrow and resting my quads.  Still very happy with how training is going on the bike. Need to start focusing on the swim. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. Who would think 24 hours isn't enough.

Also need to start figuring out my century for July. 

Enjoy the ride,
Sheri