Tag: century for unicef

A giant thank you to everyone who supported my Century for UNICEF UK. With your help I raised $757, which comes it to $7.57 per mile I biked on Sunday. I’m incredibly grateful and I know the money will go to helping people who need it! Thank you everyone!!! (Thank you: Chelsea Conlin, Pat Acks, Pat Wells, Mary Ellen Neumann, Miranda Wood, May Fisher, Carrie, Mike Smith, Alyson, and the anonymous donors!)

Though since we didn’t get to $800 I have one again escaped the live blog of Metal Tornado. Hahaha you’ll never get me!!!

I took a few pictures on the ride, but not too many since I was, you know, busy pedaling like a maniac. Album is here if you want to see it. I’m considering going for a helmet cam one if these days… maybe next year. Put it on the wish list.

This was my first century since I started biking seriously a little over a year ago. I feel amazed even writing that. I’ve come so far in such a short period of time. I completed the 100 miles in 5:35:17, which is about an 18.3 mph average. That’s insane. That’s the kind of times I’ve been getting on shorter rides. And just last year when I did the metric century, my average was barely above 15 mph if I remember correctly. And say the end of the ride, we actually did a half assed sprint–somehow! I chased my friends Sam and Leonardo for the last four miles and ended the ride doing 23 mph!!

Most of the credit for my astounding success goes to my amazing friends from the Come Ride With Us meetup group: Scott, Leonardo, Sam, Carrie, John. Everyone was so encouraging. We basically ran a double pace line the whole way (and I wasn’t a total waste if space, I promise, I took my turns pulling) and it felt great to be riding with them. We had lots of people along the way hitch on to the back of our pace line, and that was fun to briefly meet them.

It also helps that the weather was excellent for most of the ride. It was overcast, relatively cool, and it even rained a little… enough to keep the temperatures down without making the roads dangerous. I’m not really sore at all, and my legs were only a little tired yesterday. (Though I did get a nasty sunburn on my arms. It’s literally impossible to put on a fresh layer if sunscreen when you’re sweating that much. Maybe I need to invest in white sleeves.)

I can’t wait to see where I am next year! (And I’ll warn you now, I’m planning to do another century for UNICEF UK next year, so start saving your pennies now. Pretty please?)

The Katy Flatland Century (you know, that thing I’m dedicating to UNICEF UK) is now just two weeks away. Less than that, technically. By this time two Sundays from now, I plan to have gorged myself on margaritas and a giant chimichanga at Chuy’s. If I can stay awake that long. But I wanted to give a little update on training for it.

I’m honestly incredibly nervous about riding a full century. I’ve only ever done a metric century (100km, or 62 miles) and a full century isn’t far from being twice that length. I’m afraid my legs will give out, or I’ll just run out of energy. (Though I’m planning to down fig newtons and bananas at every support station like a champ in order to combat that!) Committing to doing this ride for charity means that I’m resolved to not wimp out or give up, but there’s still the niggling fear that I just won’t physically be able to hack it.

I feel a little bit better about my chances after this week of training. I did a 60 mile ride yesterday, which is just two miles shy of matching my longest ride ever. I’m not going to claim it was easy, but I did it. And I wasn’t in immense pain today like I’d been a year ago after the metric century. I’m definitely in better shape than I was. In fact, I was in good enough shape to get back on my bike this morning and do another 40 miles. So this weekend I did 100 (technically 100.5) miles and I’m still capable of walking. Next step–do it all in one day, in two weeks.

Total this week, I did 180 miles, as you see preserved for posterity above. That is the most I’ve ever ridden my bike. I’m hoping to get close to that next week. As long as the weather cooperates, I’m going to do another 60 mile ride next Saturday, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

I can do this. (And you can still help. Even just $1 can make a big difference to a kid.)