100km #7

This time I went riding with Dennis and his evil friend Super Dennis. The plan was to ride 120km, extending our previous ride with even more hills. I was keen, as always, to do hills, so I prepared myself as usually by riding on the two days before, drinking a beer and some schnaps, and smoking a cigar on the night before, and eating too much breakfast too close to the ride. (I'm starting the think that the Bootleg Lance Amstrong Training Guide I'm using is a bit of a dud, but I like the cigars.)

Anyway, we started out at a reasonable pace of 27km/h to warm up our legs. Then it crept higher -- we were still in chatting mode, so it did not pass 30km/h. Then I thought that I should ride at the front for a while, so I lifted the speed to 33km/h and did my turn. And the speed never came back down. Dennis did turns at 35km/h, I struggled to keep that pace when I did my turn, but Super Dennis lifted to somewhere between 37 and 40km/h, depending on how evil he felt. I could barely stay in our 3-man peleton.

After about 40km and a few hills, I knew that I had no chance of keeping up, so I told them to ride ahead, instead of waiting for me all the time. Yes, I admit it I am unfit!. Instead of doing the 120km ride, I turned around at the 50km mark to head for home. At this point, my average was a little over 29km/h, so I decided to try to keep it there. So for the remaining 50km, without Dennis and Super Dennis assistance, I pushed and pushed my little leggies, spinning that damned chain around and around, counting every metre as it passed, every long minute, every tortuous hill, trying desparately to keep my speed at or above 30km/h. And, well, it worked! I arrived home totally wasted, but managed to beat my own personal best time -- I even beat my maximum speed record too, for good measure:

• distance: 100km
  
• time: 3h 26m 09s
  
• average speed: 29km/h 
  
• maximum speed: 62.5km/h
  

So the plan was to do a 100km ride at 30km/h or above. I think this is doable, if I choose a route with no hills, instead of 10 or more hills. I may not even need Dennis or Super Dennis to ride with me. Oh! And no wind!

Fast 100km (new record) - #6

Finally, I found the time and energy (and determination) to complete another 100km ride. This time Dennis came along to drag me around, making it somewhat easier. I started out feeling very sluggish as I'd written 50km on each of the previous two days. It was also very windy, but most of the time the wind seems to be behind us. We rode the Ledig Erf club route, until the end of the hills, and then turned around and did the route in reverse, skipping one bumpy-road hill. At the end of the ride I needed to find another 14km to complete my ride, without the help of Dennis. This was the hardest part of the whole ride, but I knew that I was looking at a good time, so I pushed and pushed and counted every 100 metre as it passed by.

The result:

• Distance: 100km
• Time taken: 3h 29m 29s
• Average speed: 28.6km/h
  
• Maximum speed: 61.5km/h

I was mighty proud of myself. It makes the 100km at 30km/h goal look feasible.