I did my longest ride so far this year

[aquamoose32]

I used to be worried about my first century. I ride a lot now like 150 miles a week, but before that I had only done my longest ride at 70 miles. Someone told me I would be fine. If I could do 70 miles alone, 100 with a pack would be a piece of cake. You draft, there is adrenaline from everyone else, and excitement, lots of refuels stations, you stay hydrated. They were right, the 112 miles were so much easier than the 80 I trained for alone. Hope that helps and gives you motivations. Centuries are so much fun! Give it a try. There is always a sag wagon.

[MollyJ]

I tended to obsess on how fast I could go--and still do. But I bike in KS where wind is a significant factor as well as the lay of the land. We don't have steep inclines but there are ups and downs.

Like you, I had an older bike, a mountain bike that I put smoother tires on. I built a lot of endurance and it was good. But the bike was just not that efficient.

So I have my new bike and I like it alot. But I still don't necessarily go a whole lot faster on an average MPH basis--though I definitely has added about 2 or more MPH as an average. But my Madone is much more efficient and I am often impressed on how much LESS wind slows me down and how I can maximize my downhills. I think the posture of the road bike helps with wind resistance a lot. I think it's hard to over state that but if your general conditioning is such that the drop down position is not going to be tolerable then that is a definite factor.

I cannot over-emphasize how much fun that new, very smooth, very efficient, built for the road, bike is. Wow. It's a thrill.

While I was riding my older bike, I spent a lot of time thinking what my goals and dreams for biking were. I am not a racer, won't ever be. I wanted the bike to take me the furtherest in a time span that I could feasibly accomplish. This bike is helping me do that but it also has taught me why people like having more than one bike. It's strength is the long trip. It's not as much fun for tooling around town in. I kind of envy my husband's hybrid for that.

But I wouldn't give it up.