Solo Century
After not doing a hundred mile ride at all last year, I figured it was time. I've never attempted to do one solo before, but it sounded like a good idea. I used a combination of Google Pedometer and National Geographic Back Road Explorer to map out a route. It made it very easy to sketch out a general distance and then go back and tweak it.

It was already super hot and humid at 9:30 as I headed from my house towards White Bear Lake. Past Withrow on 7 to Manning then north to Chisago City. I missed a turn so I ended up riding through Lindstrom before hitting Hwy 25 (passing by the massive holiday weekend traffic jam). 25/3 took me all the way back down to Scandia where I stopped to refill my water bottles and grab a Coke. I rode down to 4 and contemplated wussing out on climbing Nason Hill. After I had gone through the tunnel and made my way down out of Marine I decided to go for it. I took it easy, stayed seated and kept my heart rate in the 160's (usually this is a 170-180 bpm climb for me, as I can never keep it mellow on a climb). Halfway up a deer casually crossed the road in front of me, watched me for a while and then sauntered off into the woods.

The climb was the easy part, because now the next 40 miles would be into the wind or a strong crosswind. This was about the time I wished I had some other riders to draft. I made my way over the rollers down to Square Lake, then over more of the same down Partridge and over to Stonebridge. The headwind and heat were really getting to me now. There was a little shelter on Mendel and the zig-zag back to Withrow, but after that it was pretty brutal. My computer read 94 degrees and I had about a 15mph headwind for the next 20 miles. After 80 miles, my legs felt good, it was mostly my neck and shoulders that were sore. I was back on familiar territory now, riding part of my normal training loop. I hit 100 miles about a block from home (man that software is accurate!).

100.26 miles in just over 5 hours, burning 3,350 calories. The obvious drawback to doing it solo is not having anyone to draft off of, so there's no rest from the wind. The nice thing about it is being able to maintain a higher, steady pace, and not having to make multiple stops. It was so much better making one short, 10-minute stop halfway through. It's hard to take 3-4 long breaks and then get back on the bike each time. I felt great that night and yesterday. I did a 25 mile recovery ride yesterday afternoon, and feel no worse for wear today. We'll see if any of that carries over into race day fitness. At any rate, I can cross that one off my cycling to-do list.