As many of you know, I often state I don't "train" for things. I do prepare, somewhat, for the very few organized events I do. I did not train for the one century I have done, which was very flat, but had the added fun of high winds along the coast and rain. My time was respectable (6.5 hours), but I was 7 years younger than I am now.
So, our state bike advocacy group is running a century/metric/30 mile ride that leaves from the recreational area in the next town on July 27, about 4 miles away. Every single one of the roads for the metric and the century are roads I have ridden on, live near, and am familiar with. The 30 mile ride goes into Lexington, where I never ride, but I am not considering that option.
I haven't ridden as much this year, I have just under 1,000 miles. But, the riding has been quality riding, and I always say riding steep hills and recently, in the heat, keeps me able to do other things. I trained for a hard metric 5 weeks ago by doing 2 hilly 50 mile rides. I was successful in completing that metric, which was probably the hardest local ride I have done, with 4,200 ft. of climbing. However, my body kind of fell apart after that. This always happens to me, so not sure what else to say about this.
The metric on the 27th has 3,100 feet of climbing and the 2 steep hills are nothing compared to what I did in June. As with the one in June, there are tons of options to just turn around and go back (or home). The cue sheet for the entury is not on line yet, but I imagine it's just an extension of the metric. There may be 1-2 more climbs, though, and if they are in Harvard, MA, well, they will be hard.
Am I crazy for considering the century? I don't have to register until the day before, which we will do because of weather. I have a lot of time to ride in the next 2 weeks. I know DH will not want to do the century, but I could convince him.
What do you think?