bike a century

On either a Century or perhaps a week-long bike tour through some particularly scenic areas of my state.

Storming and forming stage only – but I am excited to plan something on the bike. I really have the urge to ride!

I have just gotten into road biking, I did a 35 mile charity ride a week ago and it was fun. I am training to do a century ride in Sept. and raise money for the American Cancer Society. I ride not only for myself but for my mom as she keeps me going up those steep hills and gets me to the top. That is how I know I will be able to complete 100 miles – I can’t wait!

My ankle has healed enough that I can ride my road bike, which is euphorically fantastic. I rode 42 flat-ish miles Saturday in just over 3 hours, 22 miles in the foothills Sunday in just under 2 hours, and ~12 hilly highway miles today in just over an hour (skipping out on some office hours, I’ll have to make those up sometime…) Today it was so warm I was in shorts! With the 42 miles coming straight out of not being able to do any meaningful exercise for months, I’m confident in my ability to do a century this summer. Yay!

I had plans to do a LOT of running this year, gearing up for a 17 mile race over a mountain pass, but a twisted ankle has had me out for almost two months (stupid thing won’t heal!) so I’m out of my racing schedule for this year… which means I’ll have a lot more time to give my road and mountain bikes. Maybe once I figure out when my injury will let me start riding again I’ll come up with a training plan, but I figure if I just ride more and more each week I’ll end up with a century under my belt. My longest ride to date so far, was 36 miles over the course of four hours in November – riding my poor road bike on rocky/sandy/hilly forest service roads as if I was riding a full suspension mountain bike. I’m excited about this century thing :)

Just got into cycling this year and have become a bit obsessed. Trying to work up to my first century by fall. Might try to map out a century between Athens and Lake Hartwell.

Need to find some riding partners around town probably though (Fayetteville/Peachtree City area of Atlanta). Still a little leery of riding main roads on my own too far.

This site is awesome if you don’t already know about it:

http://www.bikely.com/

Last weekend did a good 30 mi ride on my beater single speed with no complaints. Lots of sweat, but no problems. Time to step it up to 50…

(apart from the accident and the knee damage…) and it gives me something to aim at. I shall do one on my birthday again (2009/04/26) and another on 2009/08/16 (The Grace 100). It would be fun to do one sometime before Xmas this year. November?

Told me that he was doing a century on the eastern shore sometime in October and asked if I wanted to go down and do it with him. Definitely tryina.

I am learning metric assloads about bike mechanics and engineering. Always good…

The plan, in the abstract at least, is to ride about 30 minutes a day during the week, early before breakfast, and about 60-90 minutes on the weekend until my stamina gets up to speed.

Yesterday? No ride. Today? No ride. It was chilly, and I am seriously under-motivated to do anything in the morning.

Suggestions for staying focused?