Yesterday’s plan was to do a 75-mile loop from Westwood to Plymouth Rock as training for the MassBike Summer Century a few weeks from now. To my great surprise, I had plenty of energy left at the end, so I decided to push another 25 miles to make it my first century.

The 7:47 time is a bit misleading, as I realized halfway though that I hadn’t set the auto-stop feature on my Garmin. It was actually 7:32 in the saddle, starting a little before 6am finishing a bit after 3pm. Not particularly fast, though it was my first time and my riding buddy struggled a bit on the way back from Plymouth so we had to stop and rest (he did not do the last 25 with me).

Things I learned on this ride:
* get a haircut before a long ride on a hot day. when I took off my helmet, I looked ridiculous!
* carb-loading the night before really works. I had a plate full of macaroni salad for dinner on Friday, and then a protein fest when I woke up (eggs + chicken sausage). felt a bit stuffed, but I didn’t bonk
* bring an extra jersey. after hours in the hot sun, it was refreshing to change shirts. interestingly, I found the cheapo mesh jersey from EMS much more comfortable than the “real” jersey I had
* avoid towns on long rides. stoplights are not your friend; Brockton was miserable
* G2 is an awesome energy drink. much less sugar than the original Gatorade, but doesn’t leave you empty like Powerade Zero does