Second "Century"

Sunday morning, I set out for my second century ride. While the first one was about surviving 100 miles, this one had more purpose. That's a nice way of saying "This one will push me to my limit". Four of the six hours were to be intervals where I'd have to push hard to get my heart rate up.

Hour 1: Warm-up. Little bit of a headwind, but not bad. My legs took a bit of warming up, probably because I had 3 hours of workouts the day before. :)

Hour 2: Start of the intervals. Uphill rollers for a lot of it, but by now my legs were with me, and I was having fun and moving! The wind wasn't bad at all through here, and I was banking a lot of time at a high (for me) speed. Starting to get excited about the day.

Hour 3: Through Mt. Vernon, and onto the bike trail. Lots of folks out, it was a beautiful day for a walk, ride, or anything! Made for a few times I had to slow down to get around people, but that's okay. I hit 50 miles, and still had some time to go before my turnaround! Got really excited, since 100 miles took me well over six hours last time. Pulled out the phone to call Meredith, but no service way out there in the countryside.

Hour 4: Turned around and headed back. Got stuck behind a pair of rollerbladers. I called out "on your left, please", but they didn't hear. Tried again a little closer, and the woman jumped from surprise and almost fell. The guy (who was the one blocking the left side of the trail) said, "Good thing she didn't fall." Well, yeah, good thing. It would have been your fault. :P Back through town, holding my water bottles in over some rough roads, and started the ride back home. Still holding a great average, somewhere around 17.5.

Hour 5: As I climbed out of Mt. Vernon, I noticed that I was finally having trouble holding my speed. I chalked it up to pushing hard on the intervals, and the fact that I was hitting the biggest uphill parts of the course, but it sure came on fast! Then, just before I made the turn to head back downhill for basically the remainder of the day, I heard it.

Pssst.

Pssssst.

PsstPsstPsstPsstPsst...

I pulled off the road, and sure enough, my rear tire was leaking air. Why does it always have to be the rear one? I found the spot and stuck my finger on it, which seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, it's hard to ride with your finger on your rear wheel, so I figured I better find another way. Before I lost all the air, I managed to limp another quarter mile to a landscaping company and staked out a spot on their lawn, right next to the fence where their animals were kept. I had a very interested crowd (two donkeys, a scary dog, and numerous goats) as I got my old tube out and put in the new one.

First annual meeting of my fan club!

Everything looked good, so I got out the CO2, pushed it down, and the new tire inflated and

BANG!

Oh. That's not good. (The animals didn't like it much either)

I'm no expert, but I think I may have found the issue.

Poor Charlie Brown. :(

That was my only spare, so it was time to call for a rescue. Fortunately, I was back in cell phone range at this point, so Meredith was able to come get me. Coach said maybe I didn't have the tire seated properly...I didn't realize one CO2 cartridge had enough pressure to pop a tube. Guess it's a lesson learned.

After all was said and done, I had done 74.16 miles in 4:19. That's about a 17.2 mph average, which is a big improvement over the 15.7 from my first century! I had looked a little earlier, and it was around 17.4 before the flat issues. Provided that it was, in fact, the flat that was slowing me down and my legs weren't blowing up on me, I think I could have held pretty close to that the rest of the way - most of it was downhill, and I usually cruise through that section. Frustrating to have the day end that way, but sometimes that's the way it goes.

Here's to taking what good we can from days like this, and surviving to train again another day! For me, that day will be Sunday, when I get to bump it up to a 7 hour ride!