My First Century!

Well . . . I did it! My first Century! That's 100 miles of bicycling in one day. And I did it in the Tour de Palm Springs last weekend (2/9/08). I started out at 7:15am, and crossed the finish line at 4:28pm. And I made it all the way through (of course, I did stop at all 5 SAG stops and stopped 3 other times along the route as well to drink some Gatorade and curse how f***ing long the d***ed route was).

But I have to say, it was difficult. The Tour de Palm Springs is considered to be one of the "easier" centuries because it only has mild climbs, the largest being 1,250ft. But this was my first time ever riding such a long distance in one day. My bottom was sore, my lower back was sore, my neck was sore, and my legs were just "zonked". The second 50 miles, even though it had very few hill climbs, was very difficult. This really shows that I still have quite a lot of training to do.

BUT . . . I did finish it. I held up. My bike held up. And I'm stronger now for doing it. Tomorrow, I'm going to attempt an AIDS/LifeCycle Training Ride which is only 27 miles, but is supposed to be very hilly. Wish me luck!