goal of the century

When the new year began, I created a list of goals for 2013;  "A year of big ideas," I called it. This list is not long, but it contains things like "practice Spanish" (which I am not so good at remembering to do!) and "ride a century."  The century addition to the list seemed like a good idea at the time: a goal that was likely challenging, but attainable.  Besides, it is something I have always wanted to do.  The problem with ideas like this is that I find myself afraid to actually do it; one of those ideas that pop around in my head for years, but I have a hard time acting upon.

Why was I so scared?   Perhaps it is a little bit of the unknown:  I am not a 'real' cyclist and 100 miles seemed really daunting.  Maybe it was a bit of the known, too.  I had run marathons and suffered; I figured the century was cycling's version of a marathon, so therefore suffering was likely. 

Early this spring, friends were talking about this beautiful bike ride around Lake Tahoe that they were planning to do (America's Most Beautiful, in fact!) and suggested we join them.  I thought, "yeah, that'd be great" but hemmed and hawwed and was afraid to pull the trigger.   Then one day, my sweetheart sent a text saying "you are signed up for the ride in Tahoe!"

Alright!  I needed someone to do that for me; now I had myself committed.  I certainly couldn't waste his registration money and I wanted to minimize the suffering, so I set out to create a little training schedule.  Knowing next-to-nothing about training on a bike, I loosely modeled my schedule after my marathon training: trying to ride at least a couple of times a week while building up in mileage over the weeks.  Continuing to run and do yoga would certainly help round out the fitness, I hoped.

Able to more-or-less stick to my training plan, I learned about what to eat on long rides (NOT a Snickers bar!) and how to manage hours in the saddle.  The day of the ride arrived quickly and I was nervous about the altitude, the hills, and the adequacy of my training.  Luckily, all of those fears quickly dissolved as I pedaled along with the company of 6 friends (and 20,000 others!).  The miles passed quickly with the help of beautiful scenery, ample rest areas, and the energy of race-day enthusiasm.  Soon, I found myself at lunch with only 30 miles to go and feeling great (granted, I didn't push myself as hard as I would, had I been running)!  My sweetie and I finished the ride feeling like we could both do 20 more miles if we needed.  But I didn't really want to - I was looking forward to that post-ride beer!

Now, 3 days later, I am already finding myself excited for the next one.  Could I possibly turn into a cyclist?!  I'm not sure, but I am definitely adding a tick mark next to "ride a century" on that year-of-big-ideas list!