Until today I hadn’t done a ride over 2 hours since October. I’ve always thought I could do a century ride even if I wasn’t very fit. That doesn’t mean that I would enjoy it very much but I’d be able to finish. A lot of doing a long ride is mental even for experienced riders.
We’re staying in Avon for a few days. I’ve been doing the UMCA Year Rounder the last few years. Part of it is the Larry Schwartz award. To get it you have to do a century a month. You can make up 2 months. This was my last chance to get a ride in to get it for this year.
When I got to Glenwood Springs I was feeling really good. I figured by the time I got back I’d be really suffering. The last few miles I was really tired but never got to the point that I wasn’t enjoying the ride. I rode 109 miles and averaged 16.3 miles per hour.
Tags: century ride, cycling, UMCA Year Rounder
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Nice work! I don’t know that I could crank out a century from nothing. I do think I’ve ridden that canyon in the picture before, though. That’s the Colorado River, isn’t it? When I was 15 years old, my dad and I rented some $8/day bikes in Glenwood Springs and pedalled to the end of the canyon and back. It think it’s about 30 miles round trip. It remains to this day one of the hardest rides I’ve ever done.
I’ve never ridden that, but I drove through there on my way to Utah last fall. I saw the bike trail and sure wished I had a bike along and a day to ride it.
Glenwood is great…. I however have yet to ride though without hitting crazy weather =)
Rob,
Can you continue riding bike path all the way to Avon after leaving the canyon, or do you have to hit the road after that? I’ve always wanted to do the exact ride you just did, and was wondering about that.
I was hoping to ride at least the short route (from Glenwood thru canyon and back) with my wife and kid this summer, but Karen will be getting pretty big by then (pregnant with twins, due in Sept), so don’t know if that will be an option. I can always do the long route solo though! 🙂
Jill, you’re right that the picture is of the Colorado River, the bike path, and I-70. Actually it’s hard to see the bike path because it’s basically under I-70 at that point. The picture is from last year when I rode it in late April. The water wasn’t as high this year since spring run off really hasn’t started.
Fonk, I plan on writing a post with details of how to get from Avon to Glenwood. Hopefully I’ll also have the eleveation profile but my cyclo computer went flying when I took it off the bike. It reset everything and even went to metric. Even when the battery dies it keeps it’s memory so hopefully when I get a chance to download it I can still get it.
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