I need a goal to work towards to get me re-motivated. I'm not sure yet, but I'll probably sign up for the Golden Apple Century ride. It's a 100 mile ride across Scenic Northern Westchester County... it has over 7000 feet of climbing, so I will have to do some hill training for sure, along with some longer training rides. But the ride is in September, so I have plenty of time to train.
I've done this particular ride once before and I finished it in 6.5 hours with a little help from an experienced century rider I just happened to pick up along the way... she stuck with me through the rough parts of the ride right through to the end... at the end she said, "Good Job!!" and disappeared into the crowd... never to be seen again.
This time I'll see if I can hook up with a small group of riders of approximately the same skill level or a little better than me. When you ride with a group you save about 30% of your energy by drafting, which is how I was able to ride this ride at 16.5 mph the last time... my fastest time for any ride I had ever done. We were switching leads back & forth, so the back rider was in the front riders slipstream being pulled along at a 30% energy saving... of course during the last half of the ride I think my ride partner was doing most of the pulling and I was doing most of the drafting. I really had no clue as to how hard 100 miles with hills would be... I bit off more than I could chew for sure.
This time I plan to train for this ride and maybe even ride the route in parts beforehand. First goal is to get some riding in... the weather should start to cooperate soon, May is next week already.
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