August 29, 2011

I Did My First Century Ride!!!

Yesterday I rode in my first century ride, Venus de Miles.  It is an all women's ride with distances varying from 32-100miles.  There were around 2000 women that came out for the ride and IT WAS AWESOME!!




Check out the t-shirt we got!  It is super cute and really soft!  I'm not a huge "yellow" fan, but I love this shirt!!








While I think the majority of women were out for a fun, leisurely ride, I wanted to use it as a training ride for IMAZ.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to test out my bike nutrition and push myself almost as if I was in an actual race.

From the get go, I felt like I was an odd man (woman) out.  I think I saw maybe 5 other tri bikes!  When we were waiting to start, all the women around me started asking me questions about my bike and about triathlons.  It was pretty cool.  AND, I think I convinced several of them to do their first tri next year! :)

Before I knew it, the whistle blew and we were off.  It was a little chilly out, but I knew by the midpoint I would be HOT, so I didn't dare complain about it.  Right off the bat I felt fantastic and just started cruising!  It was just so awesome to be out on the open roads and surrounded by the mountains.  It was sooo beautiful.

Around the 30M mark, another girl started riding with me and we got to talking.  It turns out she was a triathlete too and did IMLP this year!  She shared some IM tips with me and we rode together pretty much the rest of the way.  It was great!


Suddenly, as I was riding, I saw someone running on the other side of the road.  I was looking and looking, and thinking, "That looks like Chrissy."  Finally, I got almost right next to her and sure enough it was her!!  I yelled, "GO CHRISSY..WOOHOO!"  and she raised her hands in the air, said, "Woohoo!" and had a huge smile on her face!  IT WAS AWESOME!
All these women around me were like, who is that?  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??  Then, the other triathlete and I started talking all about her to these other girls..it was pretty funny!  I seriously thought about turning around just to see her again, but didn't.  It was definitely a highlight of my ride!





Finally, we hit the 50M mark, only to be faced with a 7M climb.  I have to admit, I suck at climbing!  I just don't do enough of it, even though I know I should, so it was definitely challenging for me.  Here is the profile map of the whole ride.  Nice to have that climb right in the middle huh?!
I just kept chugging along and finally I made it to the top at Jamestown!  I was sooo excited!  There was a much needed aid station at the top, so I grabbed some watermelon slices and rested for a bit.  The best part of climbing that hill though was going DOWN it on the way back!  It was fast and fun, but a little scary too.  There were a lot of turns and sight is limited, so with all of the traffic I just didn't feel comfortable riding in my aero bars.  BUT, I was still able to fly down the hill!  Weeeeeee!




After that, we just had a couple rolling hills, then the last 10miles were pretty flat and fast!  It was a perfect way to end the ride.  As I came into the finish chute, I think I had a huge smile on my face!  Up to this point, the longest I had ridden was 62 miles, so going 100 miles was just awesome to me.  I felt strong on this ride and it was definitely a HUGE confidence booster for IMAZ.








After the ride, I checked out the expo and got a new jersey!  I loved the design, colors, and just thought it was a super cute jersey! :)













Then, as I drove home, I had one more stop to make:


Seriously, I never drink these, but for some reason a carmel frappuccino was calling my name.  IT WAS DELICIOUS!!  Plus, with all the milk and chocolate in there, it's a pretty good recovery drink...right???!!!

28 comments:

Christi said...

Welcome to the century club! You did a great one and I hope to do it someday. Mmmm.... Starbucks!

have a great week of training! IM
AZ is not going to know what hit it when you show up!

Molly said...

That's awesome!!!! The tshirts, the long ride, seeing Chrissie - totally beats my solo century from yesterday :) And I go to Starbucks so infrequently but I love those too!

Dawn said...

Sounds like one great ride....with a lot of bonuses:)

Alisa said...

NICE WORK! So cool that you saw Chrissy! Does she live in your area?

I think you are going to be well prepared for IMAZ! Looks at those hills (mountains) and AZ is flat flat flat.

Cute jersey, nice score. I'm trying to refrain from buying anything running/cycling related as I know it'll still be a little while til I'm back out there. =(

Great work and that SB frap was MUCH deserved.

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Congrats, centuries are no joke, the are more mental then physical, I always hit a mental wall between mile 70-90ish and it eventually goes away.

So cool that you saw Chrissie out there training!!

CautiouslyAudacious said...

Wow that is awesome! you completed a century, got a cool shirt, and had a celebrity sighting...

Beth said...

So awesome that you did a century! That seems like a nice ride. All the swag you got was super cute, so glad IMAZ training is still going smoothly!

RW said...

i think i would have fallen off my bike if i saw chrissie while out riding. that is soooo cool!

way to rock the century, you are so ready to rock IMAZ!

Julie said...

Congrats on finishing strong! I am determined to do that ride one of these years! Every year it seems something else is going on. I've ridden some of the area up there but never all the way to Jamestown.

During one of the tri's this year...I think it was the 5230 I thought I saw Chrissie out running while we were on the bike. It's hard to miss that smile.

Jason said...

That is awesome that you saw Chrissie. Between you and Jen (Miles, Muscles and Mommyhood) Chrissie seems to be everywhere these days.

Congrats on the Century. Huge confidence boost heading into IMAZ.

And yes a Caramel Frap is a good recovery drink.....i think! Ha!

Sage said...

Cool tri celeb sighting! You live in an awesome place. Good job on the 100. Thats quite a training ride.

Austin said...

Huge congrats on your first century - with more than 3000ft of climbing!! That would flatten us folks training down here on the bayou...way to go!

Michael said...

Congrats on the Century! That's awesome! I hope to get there some day.

Things I love in this post:
1. That t-shirt is AWESOME!
2. I love the fact that you had that kind of turn out for.
3. I love a Caramel Frappucino! They are delicious!

justme said...

super cool

Unknown said...

I wish I saw Chrissie on my first century ride! Lucky! :) Congrats on the big 100 - don't you feel so accomplished now?

ONEHOURIRONMAN said...

That is cool seeing a World Champ.. and of the 2000 women that passed her, probably only 5 knew who she was.. Kind of shows you how small our sport really is.

I have never done an organized century ride... probably lots of fun, huh?

Ironman By Thirty said...

Congrats on your first century!! They only get easier after the first one.

You saw Chrissie!?!??!? That is freaking awesome. I totally would have turned around - probably would have freaked her out.

Unknown said...

Nice job. Seeing Chrissy!? Wow! Seriously awesome.

I think that's a great recovery drink! And well deserved.

Unknown said...

Congrats on the first century ride!

Down here the MS150 from HOU to Austin is in April and from the end of Jan to the weekend before the MS150 a large ride like this happens on little towns every weekend. I think I did 5 or 6 of them while IM training earlier this year. Some of them had upwards of 7-8K cyclists - so much fun! The best part is they only cost like $20 and are fully catered!

Nice that this one fit your IM training plan perfectly!

track coach and adorable wife said...

100 miles is awesome! Way to have fun with it and crush it at the same time! You are going to rock IMAZ!

Jon said...

Woo hoo! Welcome to the club! You are gonna be a veteran member by November for sure!

SO awesome that you saw Chrissie!!!!

DRog said...

nice Hundo!

Chrissie!!

Cory Reese said...

Very awesome ride - way to go! And I'm jealous you got to see Chrissy. So cool.

Unknown said...

Yay Aimee! That's awesome. I love when you have a breakthrough ride that just hits on your confidence and it sounds like this one did just that! :)

And... totally a great recovery drink!

Anne-Marie said...

Congrats on your first century! Sounds like it was a super fun experience and a great confidence booster for IMAZ.

And, so freaking cool you got to see Chrissie!!

Teamarcia said...

Congrats on the century girl! So cool. Love the shirt, the jersey and that you saw CW. Hell I even know who she is! ; )

Kathleen said...

Congrats on the century ride. It sounds like a good one.
I remember seeing Chrissie at IMAZ last year and thinking how great that was. This year in Boulder I have seen Mirinda Carfree, Tim O'Donnel (they were doing a photo shoot during the Boulder Peak) and Craig Alexander.

Questionably Texan said...

Congrats on your first century ride!
I'm not a triathlete, but I know who Chrissy is. Can't imagine the boost it would give to ride up along side someone of that calibre, even for a brief moment.