July’s Goal: 1,000 Miles

I have had many crazy 💡 ideas in my lifetime but this one crept up without notice. After the words left my lips, the idea bit down and locked on like a pitbull. No shaking it once I said it. The crazy idea was to join the 🚴🏽 TREK Century Challenge.

On June 27th, this idea manifested itself at a Starbucks after a great ride with a team member who I cycled with at 5 am almost every weekday morning. Chet and I just completed a ride and stopped at Starbucks, while we were drinking ☕ coffee, I was viewing the recent ride stats in Strava. While reviewing the stats the “TREK Century Challenge” banner appeared. I read the criteria, it seemed attainable, and I liked the stem cap swag they were providing to the qualifiers. I initially planned to do 500 miles but after giving it more thought … since I wanted to start riding every day anyway, I decided I would go for 1,000 miles instead. The stem cap looks better with the number 1,000 stamped on it.

The Ride

Week 1: I started on Wednesday, July 1st with a 50-mile ride because I wanted to get in front of it just in case of unforeseen circumstances I would have some wiggle room. I then rode another 5 days totaling 285-miles for the first week. This was more mileage than the last two months of combined riding. I was excited with only 715 miles to go!!! I was off to a great start and managed to include a day of rest on Tuesday.

Week 2: I rode another 6 days (8th – 13th) for a total of 281.88 miles and it was hard to keep focused. After taking Tuesday to rest and the fact that I had only 433 miles and 18 days remaining motivated me to push forward.

Week 3: Started as usual on Wednesday, July 15 with a 50.63-mile ride. At the end of the 6 days of riding, I completed 313.21 miles with only 119.84 miles and 11 days remaining to qualify for the TREK swag. All I have to do is just 11 miles a day but of course, I’m not going to do that because it is too easy . This is the second most miles I have completed in a week. The only time I have completed more miles in a week was La Vuelta in Puerto Rico but that is another story.

Week 4: After taking the now usual Tuesday as a rest day, on Wednesday I got back on the saddle for a 50.64-mile ride. This brings me to 69.2 miles until the finish line. On Thursday I did a short ride of 20.28 miles. Leaving the remaining 48.03 miles for Saturday after taking Friday as a rest day.

I could have completed this challenge by Thursday but I wanted to complete it with the people who have been riding with me from time to time this month. I wanted Saturday, July 25th to be the day I completed this challenge with friends (Catherine, Jodel, and Jonathan). We cycled for 50.79 miles finishing the ride at Starbucks and completing the TREK Century Challenge with 1,001+ miles for July .

I finished in 25 days (includes the 4 rest days), at number 2,117 which places me at the top .98% of the participating pack (215,584) or at .88% of all the people who actually joined (240,098) the challenge .

Lessons Learned

These are my top 7 lessons learned of getting off the couch to accomplishing 1,000 miles in a month.

1. It’s not about speed, it’s about completing the mileage for the day regardless of the heat and wind safely.
2. If you are going on a 50 plus mile ride in July you must get out early before the sun is up because it can be 78 – 86 degrees instead of the mid-90s’ to 100 plus degrees.
   1. These times in are the coolest and most reliable to stay dry and not experience rainfall.
   2. This also provides enough time to keep with your daily routine before work on time.
   3. Remember to factor in breaks and just in case, flat fix into the timeline.
3. Regardless of your hydration, 11 am – 1 pm heat & humidity will zap your energy so remember to plan accordingly.
4. If your riding buddies only want to do 20 or 30 miles have them meet you after the first loop of the desired length so they can pull for a rest from the wind.
5. After 3 weeks of a steady routine of 50 plus miles your body starts to adapt muscle memory and the ride is never easy but it starts to become easier as you become stronger.
6. Last but not least rest is so important. If you stay on a schedule it will provide the maximum amount of hours you have between rides for recovery.
7. Regardless if you just had your handle bars wrapped you will need new tape to re-wrap your handle bars again after a 1,000 miles in the Florida heat and humidity.

Event Statistics

In the last 3 months, I cycled for 304 miles in totality. So I’m kickin’ the tempo and intensity up 230% in 1/3 of the time.

Video

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I’ll see you out there!!!

Ciao,
Z