Metric Century Training – Week 2

I tried to follow my metric century training plan last week.

Here’s how I made out:

What I should have done 8 13 15 off 13 38 11 98 Miles
What I did 8 13 off 16 13 off 41 91 Miles

We had some ugly thunderstorms Wednesday night, so I swapped out the Wednesday ride to Thursday. No big deal.

Thursday, I rode up a mountain and into the woods, while it was pouring rain the whole time, because I am a #rule9 bad-ass.

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Then, we had heavy rain all day on Saturday, and #rule9 or no, I stayed inside and watched Doctor Who.

So, I did my long ride on Sunday.

I tried to make it to Fort Hunter last week, and that was my destination again. I rode down to City Island, topped off my water bottles and took this panorama of Harrisburg.

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I fought a gnarly side wind coming off the river, but I eventually made it to Fort Hunter.

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I had this view of Marysville (where I started). My house was only about 2 miles away (if I had a canoe), but because of how the bridges are set up, I had another 20 mile ride ahead of me to get back home.

I ate an apple for sustenance, and turned the bike back into the wind for the return trip.

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When I got near my house, I had 39 miles for the day, so I made a loop around the block to try to break 40 miles.

All in all, a successful week.

Metric Century Training – Week 1

Now that #30daysofbiking is over with, I decided to get started training to ride a metric century.

I haven’t done a single ride over thirty miles in almost 3 years, so I wasn’t sure how my legs were going to hold up. But, I did ride about 25 miles one day last week. So, I figured 30-35 miles should be doable without too much trouble.

I headed out with Fort Hunter in mind as a general destination. I was thinking that would be about a 35 mile out-and-back.

Somehow, I miscalculated the distances, and found myself farther from home than I wanted to be, in a residential neighborhood, with a full bladder. I pushed on a little farther, and made it to the Wildwood Lake restroom facilities with only seconds to spare.

I had a snack and decided that Fort Hunter would have to wait for next week. I was running out of time, and needed to turn back.

BikePA Route J
(There are more photos from this adventure in the Gallery)

I ended up with 36 miles for the day. That puts me somewhere between weeks 4 and 5 on the training plan.

I’m a little sore today. Surprisingly, its mostly lower back, and not legs. I’m not sure if I have a bike fit problem, or just terrible core strength. (Probably terrible core strength).

At any rate, I’m going to ride week 5 of the plan this week, and see how things go.

Week Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun Total
5 8 13 15 off 13 38 11 98 Miles

#30daysofbiking – Fin

I got in another 13 miles tonight.

That makes 307.27 miles for the month, which makes this my best month ever!

Woot!

Other stats for the month from Garmin Connect:

32 rides
28 hours, 41 minutes, and 33 seconds in the saddle
29,189 calories burnt (I don’t believe this one)

I recently entered into a gentleman’s agreement with one of my co-workers. He’s a runner, and make the outrageous boast that he could run more miles in 2013 than I can ride my bicycle.

One thing lead to another, wagers were entered in to before witnesses, and now there is money at stake. So, I’ll be transitioning directly from #30daysofbiking into my metric century training plan.

I’ll be a horse’s ass before I let some runner make off with my moolah.

This is not the website you’re looking for.

So, the software I use to run this site tells me all the perverted shit you people are typing into the Google machine that lands you here.

screenshots

I do not have any images of naked men in cycling capes.

In totally unrelated news, it is raining right now. I am riding my bike tonight, and I do own a cycling cape.

Leave your bids in the comments. The bidding starts at $500.