First Metric Century(this Was Mine, How Was Yours?)

[Uawadall]

I usually cycle 25-35 miles 3 times a week and have only done 50 miles once prior,but I completed my first metric century today. It was a club sponsored ride with 2 rest stops, lots of fun,but...boy was it draining!My preference was to ride with a group and I joined the first one I saw, little did I know it was the second fastest group in our bike club :huh: . I kept up with them for the first 25 and realized i'm very good at climbing short steep hills and long gradual ones. Many of the people in the fast group were standing and giving it their all,but I was still faster than most staying in the saddle. When I did stranded climbing, I was as fast as the group leader. What I also realized is I still need to work on pacing and muscular endurance. At the 25 mile mark, a gap grew between me and these much more experienced riders and I realized that if I were to finish, Id better slow down a little. Speaking to some members briefly, most have been riding for 10,20, even 30 years, theirs no substitute for experience. After the first 40, it was all will power keeping me on the bike. I finished with 2 others working together,but I was beat and my legs felt crazy fatigued. I was glad that I didn't quit and put in a pretty good effort for less than 6 months of riding experience. A few of the faster guys told me after that I should be riding with them next year. One of them thinks I should be fast enough for the 20mph club in a few years. Most draining ride of cycling so far and a lot more training to do.

62.9 miles in 3:52:53 with 3860ft of climbing. The first half, I was averaging close to 19mph and my speed fell of considerably in the second half. I need more long rides .How was your first Metric Century or Century?

 

[mpre53]

So long ago I can't remember the year. Took the ferry to Martha's Vineyard, and circumnavigated the island. I think it was 64 miles, total. I didn't even know what a "metric century" was. :lol:

Cut offs, and sneakers, with toe clip pedals. For most of the ride I had my T-shirt tied around the top tube. It was hot, that much I remember.

Bike was a Motobecane Nomade. 52/42 crank, 5 speed freewheel on the back. I think it ran 13-21.There aren't any real hills on that island, but there are some rollers.

First century? Totally unplanned. Did 100 km, felt so good, that I threw in a 42 mile loop I knew. It was in April, and it was cool. Still was using toe clips instead of clipless pedals.

Long before there was such a thing as Garmin, or even smart phones. No idea on how long it took, average speed, whatever.

 

[BobCochran]

Hey Uawadall, you did great! Congratulations! I'm going to be doing the "Bike MS: City to Shore" ride in 2 weeks, and I decided on the 80 mile/80 mile ride option (80 miles from Cherry Hill, New Jersey to Ocean City, New Jersey on October 3, and 80 miles back to Cherry Hill the next day.) I'm expecting to feel like a wreck the night of October 3, if indeed I do the entire 80 miles. And a bigger wreck the next day. We will see. Whether I finish or not -- I will get more bicycling experience and like you learn and do.

You did really well. I'm not sure at all that I could do the 3860 feet of climbing. But I intend to try it some day soon.

Congratulations, this is a big, big day for you!

Bob

 

[b_t]

OP, you did well. 3860ft is not an easy first metric. My first was two years ago... 70 miles +3500ft, so almost comparable. Averaged 17mph. My last 15 miles were flat but into a strong headwind, and I grinded them out at 14mph.

I wouldn't necessarily conclude that you are a better climber than the more experienced riders. If I push too hard early in a ride, my endurance (and speed on the flats) is shot the rest of the day. I'm careful to pace myself on the early climbs so that I have enough left to finish, and they may have been pacing themselves too.

Just do more long rides, and you'll figure it out.

 

[Uawadall]

OP, you did well. 3860ft is not an easy first metric. My first was two years ago... 70 miles +3500ft, so almost comparable. Averaged 17mph. My last 15 miles were flat but into a strong headwind, and I grinded them out at 14mph.

I wouldn't necessarily conclude that you are a better climber than the more experienced riders. If I push too hard early in a ride, my endurance (and speed on the flats) is shot the rest of the day. I'm careful to pace myself on the early climbs so that I have enough left to finish, and they may have been pacing themselves too.

Just do more long rides, and you'll figure it out.

I wouldn't say i'm a "better climber, I need to work on my long steep climbs and burn to much fuel now and then.What I will say is, i'm very fast going through the shorter ones. I checked my strarva app when finished and I had a 28/172 and a 22/146 all time on 2 segments.The segments were a mile or less though and were around the time I was putting in a decent effort. For me, this was more about testing my strength and weaknesses. I'd say you are definitely right about their ability to pace themselves.For me, pacing is hard because i'm unsure how big my tank is. This was 2x my usual distance and I was pretty much in uncharted territory.I'm going to try to do 1 50+ mile ride a week (in addition to 2 other rides) until this seasons over. Maybe next season i'll see if I can keep up with those guys,lol...

 

[Mr. Beanz]

I never thought about metric centuries. I went straight to centuries (100 milers). I did one with about 4000 ft in 5:30 swapping pulls with 2 friends.

I didn't try a metric till 2005 (started in 1995).Pretty flat ride in another stat as a novelty ride. Did the first 40 solo then with another rider taking turns for the remaining 20. 62 miles in 3:05

 

[Mr. Beanz]

. Many of the people in the fast group were standing and giving it their all,but I was still faster than most staying in the saddle.

Now did you take pulls before the climbs? If not, that helps a lot to make it possible keeping up with the riders that take turns at the front. If you helped at the front, then this is a pretty good showing. B)

I've pulled riders for 30, 40 miles sucking wheel then at the final stretch, they take off and then after the ride they say how strong they feel. Well yeah, you sucked wheel for 40 miles, you should feel strong ha ha!

Usually if a guys boasts like this after a ride (not helping at the front), I make sure to rotate him to the front on the next ride. Doing his fare share of breaking wind will usually cause him to fall off the pace 1/3 of the way through the ride. :lol:

 

[Uawadall]

Now did you take pulls before the climbs? If not, that helps a lot to make it possible keeping up with the riders that take turns at the front. If you helped at the front, then this is a pretty good showing. B)

I've pulled riders for 30, 40 miles sucking wheel then at the final stretch, they take off and then after the ride they say how strong they feel. Well yeah, you sucked wheel for 40 miles, you should feel strong ha ha!

Usually if a guys boasts like this after a ride (not helping at the front), I make sure to rotate him to the front on the next ride. Doing his fare share of breaking wind will usually cause him to fall off the pace 1/3 of the way through the ride. :lol:

The Metric was the longest option they had for this ride. This was the first bike tour/event I went to and it was an extra bonus that it was sponsored by my bike club.I started at the back of the pack and shifted towards the front during the hills. I ride with a group on Saturdays, but we are usually more dispersed. This is the first time I rode in a organized pack.The hills were when I noticed that I'm a pretty fast climber when a hill doesn't last forever,lol...I was upfront without doing any standing climbing(I'm significantly faster that way, but its much more straining) and stayed up there as long as possible. I met a few people in the group during the first rest stop and they seemed surprise that a 5 monther could keep up . I knew I wouldn't be able to keep that pace forever and after about the first 25 miles, I drifted to the back of the pack and refocused on finishing the 63 rather than keeping up. There were a few stragglers from the group, the 3 of us finished together. Honestly, they really helped motivate me to finish, I felt I was at my limit after 40 miles or so as I burnt a significant amount of fuel the first 25.

It felt good riding with people who were stronger cyclist than myself. I learned that in order to keep up with a group like that,I need to focus on 2 things.

1:My muscular endurance which I need to build by doing longer rides(only did 1 50 mile solo and this 63, everything else was in the 25-35 range). My tank simply wasn't big enough to sustain a high speed.

2:I need to learn to pace better, when I fell to the back of the pack, it was due to my speed dropping some. Like I said though, 63 was uncharted territiory .

 

[Mr. Beanz]

Well sounds like you are doing pretty good either way for a newb!

I remember doing an organized century years ago. I was in decent shape. There was a small pack of really fast looking guys. It was a small but very well organized ride. I remember getting to the 70 mile rest stop and hearing over the communication radios the organizers had that the fast pack just finished the ride! Wow, those guys were fast. Maybe someday you will be in that category.