The Century of Boredom

[ornoth_cycling]

Having taken it easy over the four weeks since my 290-mile PMC weekend, last week I started getting the itch for another long ride. I was hoping to reprise the Cape Ann solo century I opened my year with, but circumstances kept that from happening during the week, and the evil combination of college move-in day and the Labor Day holiday ensured that the last place I wanted to be on the last weekend of summer was near the Massachusetts coast. So Cape Ann will have to wait.

In the meantime, I figured it would be safe to do the regular Quad Cycles ride and just see how I felt. After a pretty relaxed 36 miles out to Carlisle, I decided I had nothing better to do at home, so I headed out on the Littleton / Harvard / Hudson route that had been my first century of 2013 as well as the first on the then-new R2 bike.

I wound up setting new PRs on most of the big climbs on the first half of the ride. On one hand, I was taking it easy and not riding particularly hard, but I’m also all trained-up after this year’s Mt. Washington Century and the 2014 PMC. It’s a clear indication of the benefit of training and the immense difference between my early-season and late-season form.

The ride didn’t have a whole lot of highlights. I stopped at Nashoba HS in Bolton to ping a friend who lived nearby, but got no response. I was nearly run over by an oblivious woman in an SUV in Sudbury. I made some tweaks toward the end of the route to make it more to my liking.

I did start running out of gas toward the end, and also had to nurse some cardiac drift, but managed to make it home without an undue quantity of agony.

I guess the most salient thing to note is that it’s my eighth century of 2014, which ties 2010 as the most 100-mile rides I’ve ever done in one calendar year. Ironically, I’ve done that while riding only half the total miles: riding 2,500 miles so far this year, but 4,700 back in 2010.

Moreover, this ride came about three weeks earlier than my eighth century of 2010, so I hope to complete at least one more before the end of the season, which will set a new high-water mark.

Sadly, the Maine Lighthouse Ride won’t be one of them, since registration filled up just before I was willing to commit to it. So the rest of my long rides will be solo, unless I can convince any of my friends to provide transportation to the start.

I guess we’ll just have to see how bored I get before snow flies…