I didn’t quite get there with a time of 5:14, which was great, but I underdid the wattage by a little bit. I’m targeting June 13 for my next try, as it’s at the end of a rest week following SSB2 HV and I’ll be in great shape for that. Anyhow, no real questions here, but here are a couple of things I’ll have changed compared to last time:
will shave legs, because why the heck not lol
going to wear my lazer bullet helmet as opposed to the kask mojito. I recently did a back to back loop with the helmets and was surprised that I was considerably faster with the lazer. It might not be as dramatic as I found in my test but again, marginal gains.
stuff I wish I had in place but probably won’t:
was hoping to get slightly narrower and aero profile handlebars but I don’t think that would happen in time
I wish I had a speedsuit, I have some CX skinsuits but no pockets, and right now club orders are taking about 5 weeks from the supplier. I have a good race fit jersey from a club I used to ride with, so I’ll probably go with that, just will have to stay off social media repping another club lol
hopefully things work out, and if I make it (well, even if I don’t lol) I’ll be sure to report back here!
Does the 5:14 time from your September solo century include stops, or was that the moving time? If it included stops then also focus on minimizing non-moving time.
How much water are you bringing with you? Will you need to refill bottles along the way? Are these quick (ie water fountains), or could it take time (eg buying at a convenience store)?
What is your nutrition strategy? Does it require mix and, therefore, water? (This is my strategy and not a bad thing - just account for it.) Can you pre-mix bottles all of your bottles?
the route I take doesn’t have a lot of traffic stops so it was like 5:16 total (I lost a contact that took the most time lol). I’ll have 2 750ml bottles, which in my past experience has been enough for me on the course I’m doing (it’s near my parents’ home so I’ve done this century course 4 or 5 times previously and twice last year). Honestly, fueling and hydration is not even a concern for me.
power target I think is 216 ap/218np by bestbikesplit, and I did 196ap/210np in Sept (0.72 IF), so it’s a matter of staying focused on power for me, as it gets really easy to settle into the 0.65-0.7 range and just turn my brain off.
no, my wife bought me some for xmas but I returned them lol
edit: also, it feels very unroadie to go that route, which is probably a weird mentality to have, aero gains are aero gains, but trying to be more on the road cyclist side vs tri/tt side
While I also happily ride 5 hours on two bottles, conceived wisdom is that that is not enough, and that dehydration is a performance limiter. Not really saying you should do it, but I wonder if you’d see a difference in power (because RPE would be lower) with more hydration.
Nah, I’m just interest to know if it’d make a difference. Similar to the discussion about how many carbs you should eat. My personal experience so far is that it doesn’t make a difference, but I’ve not really done any proper testing. Would just be interested in your experience.
sorry for the apparently snippy remark! I’ve just gotten used to seeing a lot of comments on century attempts where people get super worried if you’re not going with the common wisdom (I see it a ton on reddit). So sometimes I get a little reactionary!
But yeah, personally I agree with you in that I think sometimes the recommendations are a little overblown. Like when I did my ride in Sept (I also rode on the 4th of July last year on the same loop), I had about 1100 calories on each attempt and did about 3600-3700kj on each ride. I think that amount to 8 gels plus beta fuel. I’m at a point where I can do a ton of endurance with not a ton of extra fuel and be totally fine. I think hydration is a bit trickier if it gets really hot, so I’m not sure. For me at the effort level and temp during my rides I’ve been fine with not needing to stop and refill. Like I said, I only had 4% decoupling on my Sept ride, so I think my hydration and all were all good and I just did super steady power the whole time and not tried to do any stretches at tempo or anything. So as long as it’s not too hot and I’m not trying to push the pace, I’m basically a camel!
Depends entirely on conditions. I’ve done 110 miles on about 1 litre of water in cool weather and steady z2 pace and still had to stop and pee a couple of times. And I’ve got through about 6 litres of water on a 3 hour (supported) race intensity ride on a hot day and then still had to drink a couple more bottles after the ride before I needed my first pee.
I’m assuming with the name hubcyclist and the minuteman kit you are in Boston! What are you doing for a route? I just did a century this morning leaving from the South end and going to Southern New Hampshire via Concord and back. Was 5:40 for 105mi but the first and last 10mi are much slower getting in and out of the city. Might be fun goal, I’m doing Leadville this year so doing a bunch of long rides.
hey jeff, you assume correctly! I’m just north of the city, but I’m doing the “flattest century in the east” which is a popular century ride in southern MA/RI, which in normal times occurs in September. I grew up down there and my parents live a couple of miles from the start at the UmassD campus. I’d recommend it if you don’t mind the hour-ish drive down, it’s a great loop, especially when you get to the coastal area. And aside from a couple of traffic lights crossing Route 6, you can basically get in a pretty uninterrupted ride.
