I just got back from biking my first century, the Flying Wheels, which is a preparation for the 2009 STP we’ll ride later this summer. The STP can be done either in a day or two; we’ll do the latter, which will involve two 80-odd mile days. People should be training for it now, and the Flying Wheels is billed as a milestone in one’s regimen. The FW century in particular is supposed to be your prep ride if you’re doing the STP in one day.
The day began inauspiciously with us getting to the start line later than planned and Knox leaning heavily towards doing the 65-mile course rather than the century. The real bummer came as we approached the start line: Knox noticed that one of his rear spokes was broken. That was it; no ride for him! He came back home and dropped the bike off at a repair shop.
Sad as I was to not be biking with Knox, this gave me the opportunity to go for the century and to bike it at my own pace. It was a lot of fun and so strikingly beautiful! I was annoyed by biking with hordes of people at first: it was hard to pass and hard to find my groove. As the ride wore on, however, the rider density decreased and the fellow participants inspired me to keep biking harder. In the Duvall-Snohomish-Duvall loop, which is part of only the century ride, there were some long stretches where I was biking by myself–exhilarating and contemplative, just as I like it.
The difficulty? It was challenging but doable. The first hill was the worst; whether that was the hill itself or my taking it on too fast because of feeling competitive at the start of the race, I couldn’t say. Everything after was manageable and not out of the ordinary—until the approach to Issaquah. The hills there were killing me: though not extremely steep, they were long and my strength was quite obviously ebbing. Based on this ride, I would say I was in good shape for about 80-odd miles, and then exhaustion started to kick in.
Now it’s time for a shower and a rub-down, and anticipation of next weekend’s Tour de Blast.
