Second Century

This Ride: 100.24 miles
Kona Distance: 2,919.2 miles
Month to date: 580.3 miles
2010 Total: 3,385.7 miles
Pace to 5,254.8 mile goal in 2010: (194.2 miles ahead of goal pace)

This day didn’t turn out as planned.

As I’ve been planning my rides for the rest of the month, I thought that I would take Monday off work and use it as a very long ride day.  I thought 100-125 miles might be nice.  Monday is my 54th birthday and that would have made a nice birthday present to myself.  Today’s ride was supposed to be about 50 miles.  On the way down to Annapolis with the SPP (see sidebar for translation of terms you don’t recognize), I realized that tomorrow morning I’m donating blood for the Red Cross.  A monster ride on Monday probably isn’t wise that close to a blood donation.  That left me with 3 choices.  Cancel the blood donation.  Cancel the long ride.  Ride long today.  Even though I really wasn’t prepared, I chose to ride long today.

More than a dozen of us gathered at the RB at 5:45 for “Friendly Friday” ride to Annapolis.  It was fun riding in that kind of group.  When we hit the wooden deck bridge with loose boards, the rumble is awe inspiring.  About half of us went down to Annapolis for breakfast.  It was another very pleasant morning to munch breakfast & sip coffee out on the sidewalk around tables set up for that purpose.  I then waited for Mike to finish his breakfast with friends at Chick & Ruth’s, then he and I did his commute to work at the northern end of the airport.  By then, I had 33 miles.

I finished the airport loop (counterclockwise), then turned around and did the loop clockwise.  I stopped at a 7-11 for a restroom break, a banana, and to refill my water bottles at mile 50.  When I completed the airport loop, I turned around again, and did it again counterclockwise.  Between miles 55 and 60, I pushed the pace and the tempo, bringing my average for that 5 mile stretch to 17.8 mph.  I then traveled back toward Severna Park passing the hospital.  I really don’t recall this part of the ride much.  My brain was mush (probably having to do with nutritional deficit).  When I got back to the Ranger Station in Severna Park, I took a short break, topped off water bottles, and started to decide whether or not I was going to try for a century today or settle somewhere close to the 70 miles I already had.  That was a hard decision.  The Ranger Station is less than a mile from my house.  It would have been so easy.

But I decided to press on.  A short way down the trail, I decided to go over to Sandy Point State Park on the Chesapeake Bay, so dropped off the trail, cut over to College Parkway, and down to the park.  I hit 80 miles just as I passed the guard shack at the park.  I spent a few minutes in the shade, since it was getting pretty hot and the ride to the park is in mostly full sun, then started back.

I was tired.  I was hot.  I was ready to be done.  I slowed for a line of cars at a traffic light, it turned green, cars started to move through … then stopped.  I didn’t have any speed and I couldn’t get unclipped fast enough and went down hard.  My knee has road rash, but everything else seems relatively ok.  I’ll probably have bruises on the thumb pads of my palm since they are a bit tender right now. 

Now I was tired, hot, and sore.  But I pressed on with the knowledge that College Parkway away from the bay has some very long downhill runs, and I enjoyed the breeze generated by those 25 mph stretches.

As I neared home, I realized that I was going to have to do the loop 2-3 times in order to finish with 100 miles.  After the first loop, I calculated that if I simply added about a mile somewhere in the loop, I could finish with just 2 loops, and I was tired enough to not want to do much extra.  So with Old Magothy Bridge Road and a short jaunt into Berrywood, I assured my century.

I am disappointed that I didn’t shave off  time from my first Century ridden 2 months ago.  Today’s ride was just about the same pace.  But that’s OK.  This was a second Century completed, and it will help with the mental part of the Seagull Century Ride October 9th.