The Ride to Montauk––all 108 miles of it––is less than a week away and I'm finally starting to get excited. This will be my second century tour, but for some reason it feels far more daunting than the NYC Century.
That could be, perhaps, because I nearly amputated* my left knee after last year's ride––and that was only 70 miles.
Also, the tour director emailed us a few weeks ago with news that this year's route would be a full eight miles longer than planned. It doesn't sound like much, but I'm pretty sure if someone had told me that I had another 40 minutes of biking to go after I crossed the finish line at the NYC Century, I might have thrown my bike in the nearest ditch and cried...CRIED I tell you.
 |
| Italian ice – the perfect pre-ride fuel. |
I'm especially looking forward to having my favorite biking crew back together for the ride this year. Since most of them (OK, all of them) haven't been commuting daily, we figured it'd be a good idea to squeeze in one last "training" ride together before Saturday's tour. Also, we just wanted to go to the beach.
Destination: The Far Rockaways.
It was a pretty grueling ride, mostly because the sun beat us down for most of the afternoon, but I didn't hold back and pushed as hard as I could the whole day.
On the plus side, my knees held up great without any ibuprofen at all and although I was tired at the end of the some 50-mile ride, I wasn't fall-in-a-heap-and-die tired. It was that deep, satisfying exhaustion that comes after pushing your body just enough to burn new strength into it...
 |
| Rocking the Rockaways. |
And ending the ride with a barbecue probably didn't hurt matters either.
For the rest of the week, I'm focusing on three basic areas to prepare myself for the ride Saturday: Body, mind and spirit.
There's a lot more that goes into that than I have time to share tonight, mostly because my top priority––and the thing that ties together all three categories––is SLEEP.
Good night!
*I'm exaggerating. Slightly.
----
Don't miss my bike tour reviews:
Wow, doing 108 miles on your grocery-getter bike? Impressive!
ReplyDeleteI did the Montauk Century (100 miles) in 2010 on a carbon road bike and I was drop-dead tired afterwards. If you can do 108 miles on your grocery-getter, you can probably do the 150 on a carbon bike. :-)
I'm doing the 108 as well on June 16. Good luck to all!
I don't think it's so much about the type of bike ("grocery getter" or "carbon whatever") but more about your commitment to the ride, and, more importantly, your legs/fitness level! I've done a century on a similar "grocery getter" and don't think I would have been any less exhausted had I done it on a slick road bike. While it would be nice to have a range of bikes in my possession, I ride what I've got. And, since I'm not doing bike tours for a living, it makes the most sense to use my commuting cruiser for my daily 22 mile trip to work and back AND also use it for the 100+ miles I ride during weekend tours and adventures with my friends. Also, I think there is a bit of psychology to riding a cruiser on a century tour. It makes it seems more like a fun jaunt out with friends instead of a grueling race on the scale of the Giro D’Italia.
DeleteYep, gotta ride what you got, I agree. Still, I have done the Montauk Century on a Walmart mountain bike (similar to a grocery-getter sort of bike) before I did it on a carbon bike, and I can feel a big difference.
DeleteThe weight makes a difference in a ride that demands a lot of stopping and going-- Every time you stop, such as at a traffic light, you have to expend energy to get the mass (you + bike) to move again, and your energy expenditure would be greater on a heavier bike.
And there is also the gearing difference. On utility bikes and mountain bikes, the gearing is usually not especially tall (46 teeth front / 12 teeth back is commonplace), while road bikes might have 50 front / 11 back, so on a road bike you can take advantage of any slight downhills to really crank up the momentum on the highest gear.
In 2008 when I did the century on the MTB, it took me 10 hours and I felt like death at the end. In 2010 I did it on the carbon and it took me 7 hours and I felt like death at the end. I think this year I'll do the 10 hours on a carbon bike and I'd wager I won't feel like death at the end this time around. :-D
As I said before, it's impressive to do a century on a commuting cruiser or MTB! Props to you.