it's practically official now

**bikerchick68** · 03-10-2006, 08:07 AM

cali... yeah you're right... but I hate it when I don't meet a goal... my goal for next year is to NOT HAVE a goal... and just ride for the joy of it!

Brandi... CAM is an acronym for Century A Month... my goal for 06 is to ride a century every month of the year... Jan and Feb are complete, but March is suddenly an issue... the first weekend I couldn't do a cent due to some voulnteer work that I have been doing for a long time... now rain, and the last weekend I'll be traveling... so it's next weekend hopefully! Otherwise I'm already SOL.

**bikerchick68** · 03-10-2006, 08:08 AM

nanci... yeah, I read that... they also allow anything over 90 miles to be an official century... somehow for me I need to see the computer roll over 100! Shortest century was 100.1... and I had to ride around the block 3 times to make it happen!

**caligurl** · 03-10-2006, 08:09 AM

that's me this year... NO GOALS! i'm just riding... riding to ride.. riding to eat (i love to eat

which can be seen by the 6 pounds i've added

)

oh wait.. i do have one goal... KOM...

ok... so other than that i have no specific goals!

**Brandi** · 03-10-2006, 08:23 AM

That's funny you ride around the block! So is this a personal goal? Or by doing this do you qualify for something else. And how long is a century again?

**caligurl** · 03-10-2006, 08:25 AM

i've ridden around the block to tack on a bit too! if i set a ride goal that day.... and i fall short when i get home... i head down the street or around the block!

i did that a LOT last year when i was working so hard to stay in the top 100 on bikejournal last year!

normally when people just say "century" they mean 100 miles..

however if they say metric century.. then it's... 63 i believe (100 kilometer...)

ok.. just did converter... it's 62.13712 miles for a metric

bikerchick is talking about the 100 miles centuries!

**Brandi** · 03-10-2006, 08:28 AM

How far do yo ride a day average? that is when you can ride and not dodging rain and snow and what not.

**bikerchick68** · 03-10-2006, 08:33 AM

Susie... oh man, warm and dry thoughts coming your way... last year Solvang was absolutely beautiful... hope maybe you'll all get a 6 hour window of no rain!

Brandi... I typically ride a miniumum of 30-40 miles anytime I get on the bike... but sometimes during the summer I'll just go for an hour and get 15/16/17 miles in... just a quick spin...

I have learned what kind of rider I am... I am not a natural climber and I am not a sprinter... but what I do well is maintain a steady pace for a long time... so I'm a decent distance rider...

**Susie** · 03-10-2006, 08:27 AM

I'm going to have to ride in this stuff. I've been signed up for the Solvang Century since December and my friends have decided that we still have to go. Luckily, I've managed to talk them in to looking for a hotel room rather than camping, which was our original plan. I had to compromise, though, and agree to ride the 50 miler instead of the full 100 (which has higher climbs and will definitely be in some kind of white stuff).

Think nice warm thoughts for us tomorrow.

Susie

**caligurl** · 03-10-2006, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by Susie

I'm going to have to ride in this stuff. I've been signed up for the Solvang Century since December and my friends have decided that we still have to go. Luckily, I've managed to talk them in to looking for a hotel room rather than camping, which was our original plan. I had to compromise, though, and agree to ride the 50 miler instead of the full 100 (which has higher climbs and will definitely be in some kind of white stuff).

Think nice warm thoughts for us tomorrow.

Susie

oh susie... yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USCA1072.html

i'll be thinking LOTS of WARM thought for you....

**slinkedog** · 03-10-2006, 08:33 AM

Susie... be careful! Lots of black ice in the SC mountains, from what I hear. I hope you get a good ride in. It's actually sunny right now!

**bikerchick68** · 03-10-2006, 08:35 AM

OH! and yes, this is just a personal goal... I'm not trying to qualify for anything...

**tprevost** · 03-10-2006, 11:55 AM

We lived up near you before moving to SoCal 5 years ago. There's a really nice ride out of Aptos in May that you should do if you haven't already; its called Strawberry Fields Forever. It has 25, metric, and full century routes. Just thought I'd throw that out there!

Good luck this weekend - glad you got a hotel; much more comfortable for sure! Be sure to let us know how the day went and BE SAFE!!!

Caligurl - I'll be looking out the window whining about the weather too

Even though we need the rain; I'm ready for the heat!

Cold.... burrrrrrrrr!!!

Tracy

**bikerHen** · 03-10-2006, 12:46 PM

I have just one suggestion. Get toe warmers! The chemical kind. REI, Walmart or any outdoor shop. They make a huge difference. Really!

Bikerhen

**Susie** · 03-10-2006, 12:51 PM

I did El Tour de Tucson in November and we had to wait in the pitch cold dark of the desert for the start. It was really cold, but no one wanted to put too many clothes on because we'd just be peeling it off by 9:00am and then have to carry it the rest of the way. I actually bought some of those disposable hand warmer packets that people use skiing. I put one down my job bra, one in a back jersey pocket, and shifted one between my hands. It worked like a charm, so I bought a bunch for tomorrow's ride. Let's see -- one in my helmet (under the fleece beanie), one in my job bra, one in my back jersey pocket, one in each of my tight legs .....

Susie

**Susie** · 03-12-2006, 09:31 AM

I have to say -- I survived the Solvang half century and it wasn't so bad. We started out in overcast conditions. Unfortunately, about 12 miles in to the ride, the rain started. It quickly turned to sleet and then into hail. The hail stones were about the size of peas and hurt quite a bit. I actually had to stop, get off the bike, and stand with my back to the hail (it was coming down a bit sideways right into my face while I was riding) and wait it out. After that, it was just on and off rain and bits of sun. My bike is totally covered in mud (even the saddle) and I'm about ready to take my cycling clothes out of the plastic bag I put them in to have a look.

I stayed pretty comfortable, except when my shoes, toe warmers, and tights were soaked through. Then I was probably colder than I've ever been in my life. Luckily, those disposable hand warmers did their thing and warmed me back up (one between the each of the toe covers and shoes, and one down each thigh in my tights). On top I had a simple capilene long sleeved undershirt, a long sleeved jersey made out of regular thin jersey material and one of those plastic non-breathable cycling rain jackets with vents in the arm pits. On my head I wore some thin ear warmers (kind of like a headband), a cycling cap, and then my helmet. The top half of me was really happy all day.

I'm very glad I just did the 50 miles (many of the century riders did this as well). There was snow not too much higher up from our course and the word at the start was that there was a flipped over car in the snow on the pass that the 100 milers had to cross.

Lessons learned:

1. hail hurts
2. those non breathable cheap plastic coats do just great if it's cold enough out
3. disposable hand warmers can be really helpful
4. I don't drink nearly as much when it's cold out
5. Keep moving -- going slow or stopping gets you shivering very quickly
6. Hot showers are the best thing ever invented
7. Hail hurts

Ride time (for 50 miles): 2 hrs, 53 min (including the stop for hail and helping some guy who had no clue how to fix a flat)

Susie

Thread: it's practically official now

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Susie...

Riding in the cold?

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