I spent the (short) night tossing and turning and thinking about how I should do a century ride once I got up. I've done plenty of centuries and more on the road bike, but never on the MTB. Perfect for my last endurance training ride before the GRLite at the end of the month.
I headed into the village, then out along Sandhoogte Road, continuing straight instead of heading up the hill to the right (one of my usual routes), then out the Little Brak and back to Tergniet along the water before climbing up, circling back to Reebok and out across the R102 at Leani Kwekery to meet up with my old friend the Sandhoogte hill. So a modification of the short Little Brak route which I've done a couple of times to get an extra 25 km in at the start, then the Sandhoogte/Friemersheim loop, followed by the reverse Tramonto circuit and back to The Island (with a single lap around The Island to bring the distance to 100 km on the dot).
I fixed the connection on my spare bladder so I had 4 litres of liquid (and a banana) which I tried not to touch for the first 30 km. My handlebars came loose at the very bottom of Blesbok Road (the turn you take to the left for Kleinvlei and which bisects Botlierskop) but I hate stopping, so let them wiggle all the way until I got to the very top of Friemersheim where I stopped for a quick wipe of the sunglasses, gobbling the banana as I tightened the handle bars (I brought the peel home with me - did you know they can take up to a month to biodegrade?).
It was a pretty sweaty start and it took 45 km before the kink worked its way out of my lower back (cycling is better than any stretching that I know of for tight glutes...). I hopped on the scale before and after the ride - despite drinking the 4 litres (4 kilos, remember), I weighed 3 kilos less by the time I had finished the ride - mostly from sweat, I expect.
Interesting sightings: a tortoise in Reebok (yes, a common sighting there) and a crab crossing the gravel road way up behind Friemersheim.
Lessons learned: next time I'll have a bigger breakfast - half a cup of muesli with some yoghurt isn't quite enough fuel to really give it every single stroke of the peddle - and I'll probably bring another banana. Despite losing all of that weight on the ride, I can't imagine hauling more than 4 litres of liquid around with me, so I'd say it was just about the perfect quantity for doing 100 km on mostly gravel on a hot day.
Click on the map below to see the full workout and route profile on www.sports-tracker.com
I headed into the village, then out along Sandhoogte Road, continuing straight instead of heading up the hill to the right (one of my usual routes), then out the Little Brak and back to Tergniet along the water before climbing up, circling back to Reebok and out across the R102 at Leani Kwekery to meet up with my old friend the Sandhoogte hill. So a modification of the short Little Brak route which I've done a couple of times to get an extra 25 km in at the start, then the Sandhoogte/Friemersheim loop, followed by the reverse Tramonto circuit and back to The Island (with a single lap around The Island to bring the distance to 100 km on the dot).
I fixed the connection on my spare bladder so I had 4 litres of liquid (and a banana) which I tried not to touch for the first 30 km. My handlebars came loose at the very bottom of Blesbok Road (the turn you take to the left for Kleinvlei and which bisects Botlierskop) but I hate stopping, so let them wiggle all the way until I got to the very top of Friemersheim where I stopped for a quick wipe of the sunglasses, gobbling the banana as I tightened the handle bars (I brought the peel home with me - did you know they can take up to a month to biodegrade?).
It was a pretty sweaty start and it took 45 km before the kink worked its way out of my lower back (cycling is better than any stretching that I know of for tight glutes...). I hopped on the scale before and after the ride - despite drinking the 4 litres (4 kilos, remember), I weighed 3 kilos less by the time I had finished the ride - mostly from sweat, I expect.
Interesting sightings: a tortoise in Reebok (yes, a common sighting there) and a crab crossing the gravel road way up behind Friemersheim.
Lessons learned: next time I'll have a bigger breakfast - half a cup of muesli with some yoghurt isn't quite enough fuel to really give it every single stroke of the peddle - and I'll probably bring another banana. Despite losing all of that weight on the ride, I can't imagine hauling more than 4 litres of liquid around with me, so I'd say it was just about the perfect quantity for doing 100 km on mostly gravel on a hot day.
Click on the map below to see the full workout and route profile on www.sports-tracker.com
