CENTURAYYYYYYYYYYY!

The two rides I was looking forward to did not disappoint. As expected, the brick was tons of fun. I had decided to go on a mountain ride with Jessie on Friday to get in some much needed practice on the blue trails at Hillandale. Yeah, any experienced mountain biker (my roommate for example) would probably laugh at me. But honestly? The technical aspects of the sport are not something that I quickly latch onto; I'm much better at thoughtlessly-at least I think so anyway- going fast. That works pretty well on the road, but generally that'll get you flipped over your handlebars when you ride mountain. I'm making strides for sure, and generally after a lap around the trail I am significantly looser on the bike and therefore less prone to wiping out. Still no bad falls yet!

But anyway, we had to cancel the mountain ride on account of rain, since the last time we rode the trails wet we were slipping and sliding and quite a few people bled. I decided that the rain was a perfect excuse to slip back into my chams and jersey and become what Jessie describes as "the asshole road cyclist". So we set out on a moderately paced twelve mile ride down route eleven. Now, route eleven's definitely not a very difficult road in terms of terrain. There are a few rollers and some of them are pretty steep, but honestly after the rockies, cascades, apalachians and catskills, I've had to rethink whatever I used to deem difficult. Still, I was really excited that I could push at a pretty good pace and feel very comfortable. I really don't feel like I've gotten in enough saddle time. It turns out that the reason we were moving so fast is because we had a tailwind, which we realized when we turned around and had to fight through it...uphill.

After cleaning the water and grit off of myself and the bike and chowing down a dumpster dove everything bagel with humous at Jessie's, I was ready to head out to the Brick. I arrived to the meeting place to find a few runners and no bicycle. The practice director was having second thoughts about the bike leg, as I was the only one who had yet turned up with a bike, and it was a bit rainy out. Thankfully, other bikers turned up-Zach, a sophomore riding an Allez Sport, and Kristen riding a rusty mountain bike without a helmet. The ride was on!

The ride-a nine miler out to the trail we'd be running at-turned out amazingly. The weather cleared almost as soon as we hit the road in earnest, and it was great chewing the fat with two athletes I'd never met. Much more impressive was the fact that Kristen was able to keep up with us on a mountain bike with platform pedals. Even more impressive is the fact that she ran five miles on top of that. I can't wait until the next brick workout-I'm also pretty psyched for the long ride on wednesday at 1 PM. Finally something fun to do before my class at five o clock.
But the more pressing subject of the journal, and appropriately the title, was the century I rode in this morning.

I got back in the saddle in earnest this morning, at around six AM. It was equal parts unpleasant and nostalgic to be getting up before the first light. I would've seldom gotten up so late as six o clock during bike and build, but then my roommates wouldn't have kept me up until three AM either. Suffice to say, I had a ton of energy as I headed out the door to the park. The Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition has been holding the ride that I was in for twenty six years. It definitely showed. The whole ride worked like a well oiled machine, and provided some of the best food I could have expected for the measly fifteen dollars I payed to register.

I ended up running into some Bike and Builders on the ride, much to my surprise. My buddy Dan, it turned out, had convinced some of the riders from his route to come out for the ride. After a little goading to ride with them on the century-I had since gotten cold feet and conceded to riding only the fifty miler-I joined them on the lineup at eight o clock. I ended up getting to know a little about his friends Rachel and Emily, and the way that their trip worked. It seems every route has its own particular flavor, and the NC to SD trip sounded like it was pretty tasty. I also ended up chit chatting with a woman from Charlottesville named Peggy who had been convinced by her cyclist husband to take up the hobby. She insisted that we were biking twins-which was sort of true, although she was riding a much sweeter Roubaix- and I ended up getting her number. I plan on giving her a call when I get into the Charlottesville area for a ride.

All in all, a very successful, very endorphin filled day. In fact, I'm still riding that high, and plan on riding it for the rest of the week. Peace out Hombres!