Five months after starting bicycling, I accomplished my first century ride! I rode 115 miles from Baton Rouge to New Orleans in a single day.
I left at dawn from LSU Tiger Stadium and arrived at Audubon Zoo eleven-and-a-half hours later. This was 9 hours in the saddle plus a couple of rest stops. Early on, at mile 6, I got a flat tire. The traffic on Highway 30 was heavier than I anticipated for early Sunday morning and there was some loose gravel on the highway shoulder. Adding in an early morning mist that was almost heavy enough to be a drizzle and I felt as deflated as the tire (yay puns).
I took a while to replace the tire, mentally regroup, eat a Cliff shot (glucose), and reroute onto River Road earlier than planned. As soon I got onto River Road my spirits soared! This was what I wanted – no traffic, plenty of green space, and the sun finally started shining. It was a glorious ride after that.
My first break was at Houmas House (mile 43) to eat a lunch of plain pasta carried in a jersey pocket and resupply water. I carried a total of 80 ounces of water in four large, insulated water bottles (seat tube, down tube, and bottle cages gorilla-taped to each side of the front fork). Although I planned several stops to refill water, Houmas House turned out to be my only such stop. I was not comfortable leaving my bike alone at a crowded gas station at mile 70 and I still had plenty of water, so Houmas House was it. This is a life lesson – make plans but adjust as necessary.
When I finally reached the western terminus of the Mississippi River Trail (MRT) at mile 78 in Reserve, La, I had another food break and a long rest. Figuring that after riding 6 or 7 hours I would be fatigued and therefore less alert, I planned this ride so the final 35 miles would be on the MRT which is on top of the river levee and therefore no vehicles.
Crossing the Bonne Carre spillway was an event unto itself. I carried my bike down into the spillway and rode on the concrete berm that is attached to the riverside of the flood gates. Then I carried the bike up the other retaining levee on the eastern side and had my last rest stop. Once I started riding again, I didn’t want to risk another rest stop lest I not restart. By this time I was also concerned about available daylight.
Just after 6:00pm I rode into the forecourt of Audubon Zoo, tired, dirty, and victorious! I mentally knew I could do this. Two weeks earlier I had my final training ride of 73 miles. Although tired, I was not “spent” and knew I still had another couple of hours in me. I planned for 10 miles per hour wall-clock time. The bike app says I averaged 12.5 mph while riding, but start-to-finish was 11.5 hours and the total distance was 115 miles so my 10 miles per hour wall-clock is a really good planning estimate.
This was truly one of the best days of my life. I wanted to make a century ride since college but I stopped riding after graduation and only restarted during the quarantine. This was a life-long dream finally realized!
The big ride. 115 miles, 9 hours in the saddle, 11.5 hours start to finish, almost 5,000 calories burned. I did this solo and unsupported but I am not stupid about taking risks. I was never more than 2 hours from home and could have phoned for help if I needed to halt.
Final training ride for both distance training and reconnaissance. I rode the entire Mississippi River Trail west of Williams Blvd plus devised my plan for crossing the Bonne Carre Spillway. My research indicated that around 5 to 6 hours of riding you typically hit a mental wall and just want to stop. Several articles and blogs urged training rides longer than 5 hours to become experienced with overcoming this.
Lots of preparation went into this.