This Saturday I am going to attempt to ride my first Century ride (102 miles on the bike). To date, my longest ride has been around 2 1/2 hours and a century will take over 6. I may be a little under trained for this one, but here is my plan.

1. George and I plan to keep our heart rates between 130 and 150. By staying in that range there is a good chance we could ride all day! Or at least until our butts start to hurt.
2. Stay hydrated and use endurolytes. I have discovered these little pills lately and they are amazing! I get a dose of endurolytes before the ride and go into the ride ready, instead of trying to catch up during the ride.
3. I am riding every day this week and Friday will be my rest day. I just got my bike fit last week so I need to get my body used to the geometry. Yesterday, I rode about and hour and a half and felt really good. Today I plan to ride over my Griffith Park, Wednesday is the PTC brick and Thursday I plan to do a ride.
4. In order to keep up the above schedule, I am going to use my Compex (muscle stim) to help me recover each day. Last night I spent about and hour hitting my quads, legs and lower back and today I feel really good. I am hoping that the Compex will allow me to recover really fast day over day and I can increase strength on the bike.

What it comes down to is that I am basically going to train for a century ride in 5 days, wise? No…but if it works…it would be kind of cool

So yesterday I did an 1:36:31 ride and went 20.22 miles, here is the link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43011510

There was some good climbing involved and I felt really good overall. There was some tension in my neck and shoulders, but that is from me not using my core.

In all of this I also plan to keep up my nutrition. So no alcohol for the rest of the week and only good, healthy meals! I might even start taking my vitamins again…

I also replaced the crank on my bike, I have actually replaced a lot f stuff, but the most recent was my crank. My new bike came with a standard double, so I actually got myself a compact crank I really like it.

So now I have a 10 speed on the back and my compact crank which gives me all the gears I need. The ones to get me up the hills and the ones to let me crank down the hills. Curious as to what else I bought my new bike? Well, I got a new bottom bracket to match the Shimano crank (they need to be compatible), a new cassette, and a new seat post (zero setback).  I swapped out my stem from my previous bike and I plan on getting new pedals…mostly because the ones I have now are starting to really show their wear.

I also have to say that I really like this bike, yesterday I was coming down a pretty technical road and I was able to take the turns much tighter and it felt really good. It is also a lot lighter than my old bike, so it makes it a bit easier to get up those big hills.

What I like to say is that my bike is top of the line, like 5 years ago….which I am okay with

By the way, we are doing the Marin Century…I am thinking this one will be a gorgeous one to do.