Centuries

I've been pretty lax about keeping this updated. Pretty much all of July, since around the 15th, I was sick, but still tried to get a ride in with the guys on Tuesday evenings. I did the HP&A ride, rode maybe, 1x the following week then jumped right onto a century with the guys for August 1.

That century was really good...four of us riding (me, Dallas, Cliff, & Randall), the route had a little bit of hills/rollers from Dallas's house to Middlesex & Elm City, but we kept the pace reasonable - 18+/- average and I felt good despite my lack of riding. Once we left Elm City, we headed out towards Wilson - made a route around Wilson and headed towards Fremont. Very good roads to ride on, traffic minimal, and what traffic we did have, was courteous.

Weather was good to us as well - overcast for the majority of the day and the temps weren't too high. I hit the wall big time around 87-90 miles into the ride. Yes, I had eaten and drank enough, but I suppose asking my legs to churn out 100+ miles with not much mileage in them was a bit much. Dallas & Randall waited on me and paced me back in until we got on Thanksgiving Rd. They left me then, but I was ok with that - I knew where I was going. Finished up the ride about 10min later than those guys.

Stats (best I can remember): 101mi/4hr40min...

I didn't ride any the following week....too hot, not feeling great. Another century for the weekend was planned though. Same route but we added 2 more people and Randall was out. This ride didn't start out as planned - too fast to Middlesex/Elm City. The 2 new guys kicked the pace up to 20mph average for that 40 miles and it was just too much for me. I felt bad at Elm City, but didn't mention anything to the guys. Somewhere along 50miles or so, I started feeling those familiar twinges in my right quad. Yep, cramps coming on. They were bad.

I made it to Fremont and then finally to Kenly, where I had planned on waiting and having Dallas come back to get me. But, after scarfing down 2 cheeseburgers from McDonald's, I felt slightly better and thought I'd try to make it on back - it was only about 20-25 more miles back to Dallas's house. But, no, my legs were done. I made it to the little church at Old 222 and told Dallas I just couldn't go any further. He caught up with the guys (who had left us - he was riding with me now), but blew himself up in doing so.

I lay on the porch of that church in the shade (very hot on this ride) and cramped like I haven't cramped in a long time. So bad were the cramps they brought tears to my eyes. When Dallas finally made it back to me, he said he cramped up when he got home - rode his ass off to catch the guys...anyways, only made it 85miles in 4:40hr. Once home, had lots to drink and some food, plopped my butt on the couch, legs up, trying not to move much because if I did, my legs cramped.

These cramps were so bad, that on Monday I could hardly walk - the muscles were SO sore. Tuesday was a little better and of course, I didn't do any riding the remainder of this week.....