Starting to freak out!

On Saturday I do my first century. It's a charity ride that I had to raise $1500 dollars for. About 50 miles of the route is hilly ranging from rollers to some really nasty climbs (well, nasty for SE Ohio you western girls would laugh if you saw them). I haven't been able to train as much as I would have liked. On Monday I went out for an easy 30 miler which has been a normal ride for me this summer. It was 83, a little humid with a moderate headwind. I rode like an 80 year old woman. I was in my granny gear on teeny, tiny hills that I normally ride in 2/7...wheezing like crazy until I had to make a sudden stop at only 12 miles when my breakfast repeated on me. It's supposed to be humid and 88 on Saturday and I'm really concerned that I'm not going to be able to finish. The idea of being a quitter really rankles me but that ride on Monday has psyched me out. I'm not ashamed to walk a hill...I don't care if the ride takes me 12 hours I just want to be able to say I did it! Any words of encouragement or strategies would be greatly appreciated.

Don't think of it as 100 miles. Think of it as 10 miles. Ride 10 miles (drinking along the way). Stop, eat, drink some more. And then repeat. Just aim for 10 miles at a time. Don't for get to eat and drink properly. The weather sounds perfect.

Until then, breathe and imagine success. Remember-10 miles!

That's a GREAT idea Tulip!!!!! I have been looking at the distances between official rest stops and the coinciding elevation changes which hasn't done anything but freak me out more. Breaking it into 10 mile segments will make it seem less daunting. Particularly in the last 50 which are the hardest.

What Tulip said! It's how I made it thru my first century and if it's a well supported ride they should have sag stops every 10 miles toward the end so just get to the next stop. Don't forget to eat and stay hydrated. Have a good time. You will do fine!

If the weather is extreme, the experienced cyclists will just do the metric ride instead. If you are heat sensitive, stay on top of your electrolytes and try to keep your body core from overheating. At the stops, ask the volunteers if anyone is faltering due to heat related problems, and make a judgment call then. If others are having problems, it is a pretty big clue that you will have problems too.

One of the centuries I did in July, in another state from where I reside, the 40 miles for the century was tacked on to the end after the completion of the metric. The temperature was in the upper 90s with no shade to shelter and cool down, and no farmers' sprinklers to get wet in. I was in the century part of the ride and a volunteer came by and asked me to turn around, that century cyclists were getting heat stroke symptoms. A century I did in late May, I saw a cyclist down with heat stroke and carried off in an ambulance, and I learned how serious getting heat stroke is, how damage to the organs will show up in the body 2-3 months later.

A century I did in July the following weekend, the temperature on the bike was over 100. Less than 10 people verged off to do the century 40-mile add-on; everyone else was smart and just did the metric. I was one of the stupid ones who did the full century and it was the hardest thing I did in my life. I got electrolyte depletion, severe leg cramps, was real close to getting heat stroke, and the ride seriously depleted me. When I did a hilly metric the following weekend I was suffering big time.

The lesson I learned in those rides, is if the weather is really hot and I can't finish the ride before the temp gets high, then on the route where the metric and century diverges, take the metric route like the smart cyclists do. It isn't worth it to get heat stroke and suffer all of the consequences of pushing the body in extreme heat conditions. Remember, it is typically hotter on the bike than the ambient temperature because of the sun reflecting off the asphalt back onto the bike.

What's your low gear?

I swapped my 11-25 cassette for a 12-27 before my first CFC last year and those extra two teeth made all the difference in the world. If you've got a triple, I can pretty much guarantee your RD will handle 27 or 28 in back if you don't already have a cassette that wide. It's a very quick swap - remove, install, a little tweak on the B-screw.

Don't be shy about starting off easy. And don't let your Monday ride psych you out - everyone can have a bad day, and you said yourself that you're in better shape than what it seemed like on Monday.

(PS - you've got it backwards. The Appalachian riders I know who've ridden out west, laugh at *their* climbs. ;))

After spending a few vacations in the west, I still have come to realize the eastern mountains are not for sissies! They are still climbs, just not at as high an elevation. And southern Ohio has plenty of them!

Tulip, that is an awesome idea!! I am doing my first 100 mile ride this weekend...I'll think of it in 20 mile increments.