On The First (And Probably Only) Century of the Season

Now that I have finished my mid-April 100 mile day, I can look back on the recent "companions wanted" posting in Adventure Cycling magazine, in which someone was looking for a companion on a trans-am ride, and laugh. He didn't have a lot of touring experience, he said, but he figured he could average 100 miles a day.

Ouch. I hope he doesn't have a job he needs to be back at after 40 days. Even though brevet riders go 180 or even 240 (how?) miles in one pop, let me just say that for this reasonably fit regular biker, 100 miles is a long way. The first 80 miles were OK. The last 20 were pretty bad. Not awful, but pretty bad.

I averaged 15.2 mph, which is pretty good. There were a few stretches of hilly country and headwind.

The good news is the equipment worked well. The Avocet plastic woman's touring saddle was quite comfortable the whole time. No bad butt boils. The handlebars were high enough and close enough. The fact that they were untaped was not a problem. In fact, I liked it. And, of course, the absences of click-in or toe-clipped pedals was not a problem. On the contrary; being able to move my feet around on the pedal is good for my knees, methinks.

I know I'll forget how unpleasant the final 20 miles were, and I'll probably want to do it again. It was fun covering a lot of ground today, from the Lansing area down to Stockbridge, over to Unadilla, down to Chelsea, over to Waterloo, up to Munith, down to Pleasant Lake, and finally up Meridian Rd to my home turf. Very pretty rides through the Pinkney and Waterloo recreation areas.

I only got honked at once (by a rich pig in a BMW, of course) and given the finger once (by a redneck in a Corvette). Mostly, the traffic was well behaved.

I didn't wear my penny loafers, but I bet they would have been more comfortable than the New Balance running shoes. Not horrible, but not great.

Aside from very sore buns, I am fully recovered, two hours after ending the ride.