Advice for metric

[Geonz]

I fill one of my bottles with iced tea. Around the 50 mile point I take a nice, long hit from it. (Yes, it's warm. It just means you can taste it better. ) I'm close enough to the end that usually it won't make me have to pee 'til then (tho' if the corn's high enough, that doesn't matter).

Etiquette-wise: maybe talk about it ahead of time - figure out where "decision time" will be. This can help a person who's not sure feel a lot better (just knowing "I can bail out at the fourth rest stop"). Ideally there will be a rest stop before the 'split' where you could decide, in which case she could hook up with another person or group that are also going "just" the 50. Basically, "let's meet at the end" is something that happens sometimes. Try to watch especially at the beginning that your comfortable pace isn't a pushing-hard pace for her and she'll be more likely to be able to finish... but it sounds like you already know that.

Some things I've done when riding with somebody slower on a long ride - sprint the last half mile or mile into the rest stop (and if I'm the slower person, I'm the one who takes off 20% and tells 'em "go ahead, I'll see you at the rest stop"). (That's really all I was trying to do when I picked up that guy in my drafting story, honest :-)) Or, charge to the top of the occasional hill and then get back togetehr on the downhill. The interval effect is a great equalizer. (I've told people my bike has special gearing to accelerate uphill.)