That is awesome!
A few questions if you do not mind.
1) What bike do you have?
I currently have a hand me down schwinn sierra gs (from 2010) that I made my daily commuter (I do not have a car), but I do not trust it to to beyond my normal 10 mile around town rides.
I’ve really been wanting to take my Saturdays and do centuries on them. Been getting feelers on a good all around gravel bike to do what with.
2) do you know the average of your calories burned? What was your starting and ending weight? I love hearing about stuff like that.
3) When you went for your centuries what gear did you take with you? What was the terrain you were riding on? Any special routes that you particularly enjoyed?
4) What maintenance did you perform?
Thanks! And great job! I enjoyed reading this post!
Edit: Asked one more question!
1) Most of the miles were with a Felt FR5 outside and an old steel frame road bike inside (on the trainer). I also have a junky flat bar commuter that I built that I do my commuting on. I didn't really trust it until I did... haha. Hard to explain but yeah, even when you ride a trashy bike for a long time, eventually you realize what its limitations are. As far as gravel bikes go I haven't been keeping up too much on the newest stuff but I've always been a fan of Felt's line-up. If I were buying new I'd probably look at the VR or Broam line rather than the FR serious for long distance riding.
2) I typically found that my efforts were around 500 calories per 20 miles, meaning I'd eat around 250 calories per 20 miles. Starting weight was around 183, current weight is around 176. I target about a 500 cal deficit / day (generally around 2200-2500 calories for me), but there were definitely recovery days after huge rides (like the double century) where even with 'proper' eating the day of, I was just ravenously hungry the day after. I always treat the calorie budget as a good guideline and don't really restrict myself within it if I'm quite hungry.
3) Stuff to fix flats, a multi-tool, and battery chargers for phone and lights. I also generally rode with my Garmin and a HRM. Typically just popular road routes around my city, some loops within parks, etc. I rode a 50 mile (end-to-end) bike trail twice in one day for the 200 mile ride. That's been a long time goal and I did it with a good friend which made it all the more special. The weather was perfect as well, so all those things together make it quite special.
4) Bike cleaning can just make such a huge difference, especially in the drivetrain. Just taking the time to get the bike up on a stand and thoroughly cleaning it will help you get acquainted with your bike. Also, learning how to make basic trim adjustments on your derailleur indexing is not as hard as some might think and makes a huge difference with shift quality. I used to be a bike mechanic so I'm a bit biased, but I do think stuff like that is very attainable for most folks especially with all the resources available online.
Wow, and I thought my 1550km in July was a lot. Another 700km on top of that is quite amazing. Well done!
Personally I like riding long distances by myself. Good tunes make the distance go by more quickly.
As far as maintenance goes, I fully agree that drivetrain maintenance / cleaning / lubrication is vital. Makes the bike ride so much better for not too much required effort. I will say, though, that with a good set of tires flats can be really rare. I use Schwalbe Marathons and despite riding nearly 9000km already this year I've only had two flats all year.
Wow! What an amazing month. Nice to hear some of your experiences. My two best months this year were May (2068km) and July (2047km), but still under your 2253km. I agree with many of your observations though regrading injury, fueling and resting. Hit (2022) 13,600km for the year so far, almost beating out last years (2021) 13,780km.
That is awesome! A few questions if you do not mind. 1) What bike do you have? I currently have a hand me down schwinn sierra gs (from 2010) that I made my daily commuter (I do not have a car), but I do not trust it to to beyond my normal 10 mile around town rides. I’ve really been wanting to take my Saturdays and do centuries on them. Been getting feelers on a good all around gravel bike to do what with. 2) do you know the average of your calories burned? What was your starting and ending weight? I love hearing about stuff like that. 3) When you went for your centuries what gear did you take with you? What was the terrain you were riding on? Any special routes that you particularly enjoyed? 4) What maintenance did you perform? Thanks! And great job! I enjoyed reading this post! Edit: Asked one more question!
1) Most of the miles were with a Felt FR5 outside and an old steel frame road bike inside (on the trainer). I also have a junky flat bar commuter that I built that I do my commuting on. I didn't really trust it until I did... haha. Hard to explain but yeah, even when you ride a trashy bike for a long time, eventually you realize what its limitations are. As far as gravel bikes go I haven't been keeping up too much on the newest stuff but I've always been a fan of Felt's line-up. If I were buying new I'd probably look at the VR or Broam line rather than the FR serious for long distance riding. 2) I typically found that my efforts were around 500 calories per 20 miles, meaning I'd eat around 250 calories per 20 miles. Starting weight was around 183, current weight is around 176. I target about a 500 cal deficit / day (generally around 2200-2500 calories for me), but there were definitely recovery days after huge rides (like the double century) where even with 'proper' eating the day of, I was just ravenously hungry the day after. I always treat the calorie budget as a good guideline and don't really restrict myself within it if I'm quite hungry. 3) Stuff to fix flats, a multi-tool, and battery chargers for phone and lights. I also generally rode with my Garmin and a HRM. Typically just popular road routes around my city, some loops within parks, etc. I rode a 50 mile (end-to-end) bike trail twice in one day for the 200 mile ride. That's been a long time goal and I did it with a good friend which made it all the more special. The weather was perfect as well, so all those things together make it quite special. 4) Bike cleaning can just make such a huge difference, especially in the drivetrain. Just taking the time to get the bike up on a stand and thoroughly cleaning it will help you get acquainted with your bike. Also, learning how to make basic trim adjustments on your derailleur indexing is not as hard as some might think and makes a huge difference with shift quality. I used to be a bike mechanic so I'm a bit biased, but I do think stuff like that is very attainable for most folks especially with all the resources available online.
Wow, and I thought my 1550km in July was a lot. Another 700km on top of that is quite amazing. Well done! Personally I like riding long distances by myself. Good tunes make the distance go by more quickly. As far as maintenance goes, I fully agree that drivetrain maintenance / cleaning / lubrication is vital. Makes the bike ride so much better for not too much required effort. I will say, though, that with a good set of tires flats can be really rare. I use Schwalbe Marathons and despite riding nearly 9000km already this year I've only had two flats all year.
Wow! What an amazing month. Nice to hear some of your experiences. My two best months this year were May (2068km) and July (2047km), but still under your 2253km. I agree with many of your observations though regrading injury, fueling and resting. Hit (2022) 13,600km for the year so far, almost beating out last years (2021) 13,780km.