I completed the first century ride (104 miles) of the year over the weekend and really have not been that compelled to write about the event until now. The preparation for this ride has been nearly nothing all winter and spring (377 miles) and it showed in my performance. The ride type (very hilly) is not the type of ride I would typically take on for this distance.
If I had to compare this ride to others I have completed with the MS foundation, it doesn't even come close in just about every category. The only high marks I give it would be for the views atop Mt Woodson at nearly 2000 ft. in elevation on what was a perfectly clear sunny day in the upper 70s to low 80s. Other than that, the ride was a complete fail as far as I'm concerned. I'm probably just spoiled from the past organized rides with the MS group. I'm not going to go into too much detail here as it can be echoed from the reviews found from other riders here on Active.com's website: http://community.active.com/thread/153895/san-diego-century-bicycle-tour-2011-reviews
I realized one thing on this ride and that at 245lbs., I'm not as competitive on hilly rides as the rest of the group I ride with and the last 30 miles or so really took a toll on my body with cramping and loss of water from the higher than anticipated temps. My ride data can be found here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87140451. This ride literally should have been completed in 7.5 hours instead of 8.75. This realization has prompted me to begin a calorie counting regimen; that if followed, I should be shedding 1lb/week for the next ten weeks. From there I will analyse and correct where needed. I will update the weight loss results each time I post to this blog as well and describe how it helps my riding. My ultimate goal is to loose 45 lbs by the time I do the MS Century at the end of October. Any support or advice with this plan would be helpful too as comments to this post. The calorie counter that I am using that I find very easy to load data either from my desktop or android phone is www.myfitnesspal.com
Until next time... No ride planned this weekend as I have family events planned with and for my daughters field hockey games at Cal Cup (Moorpark College). Go get 'em Hotstix! The week after I will be riding no less than twice a week for the forseeable future to prepare for the Solvang Century and the MS 150 among others that aren't on the calendar yet.
