On Sunday I attempted my first century, a route for the MS Society in northern CT. I knew it wasn't too torturously hilly, as I've done the 50 mile route the past few years. Unfortunately, between my schedule and the crappy weather, I didn't train nearly as much as I wanted to. Despite that, I was determined to give it a try.

Weather could not have been nicer. We pushed off at 7, and immediately fell behind the main pack. Whatever, we were determined to keep our own pace and conserve our energy. For once in my life, I was keeping up with my brother and his friends! At the rest stop near mile 30, I had the mechanic look at my seat placement. Things were sore and my lower back was killing me. He pushed it forward a bit, and that seemed to make my back happy.

Pushed on, a little achy, and the sun was getting more intense. Nearly got hit by a car when they decided to pull along side me and then make a right! They weren't even a foot from my tire and I didn't have time to unclip, I was either going to crash or somehow escape. Fortunately, the latter happened, though I'm not sure how. As we rode, my legs started to get sore. My hips weren't happy, my quads ached, and my knees hurt oh so much. Every pedal was agony. Made it to the next rest stop and contemplated dropping out. But my furthest ride ever was a metric, and I wanted to beat that. Stretched, had some PB&J, and rolled on. Within a mile or two the pains returned. Pulled over, stretched some more, and plugged on. The next rest stop was at 70 and I was determined to make it.

By this point I was falling behind my teamates. Between not wanting to hold them up, and the knowledge that the last 20 miles were mostly uphill, I decided to drop out at the rest stop. I pulled in, had them call the SAG van, and wished my team luck. Everything hurt, my pride most of all. I really wanted to finish this and felt awful about dropping out. It took my teamates over 2 more hours to finish, and I know there's no way I could have made it that long.

Positives from the ride: I did my furthest ride ever. I averaged 13.6mph. I was able to stay pretty close to my team. I wasn't crippled the next day. And I did it all on a bike that didn't fit me! Had to bring mom's bike to her LBS to get it looked at, and decided to see why my knees hurt. The mechanic said the seat was too far forward. It was also too high, which is where my LBS had set it. He gave me a fitting, which was nothing like the "fitting" my LBS gave. This guy had tape measures, plumb bobs, and a thing to measure the angle between my hip and leg. My LBS just eyeballed everything and had me out in 15min. This guy spent a good hour with me, constantly making adjustments, and even swapped out my stem twice. I now have a much shorter stem that feels lightyears better! I also learned my LBS had swapped out my carbon seatpost with an aluminum one when they attached my rack. Would have been nice if they told me. I've decided it's time to find a new shop, mine just doesn't cut it.