My January Metric Century

A few weeks ago I signed up for Trio's One Century A Month Challenge 2009. Half way through last week I realised that January was almost over and that Saturday would be my last chance for my January century ride.

So here it is: Proof that I did ride 100 km yesterday. It is also sad proof that I have lost some fitness and power. (For graph lovers or people who just wanna have a closer look at my embarrassingly low numbers, click to enlarge)

I loved the ride and will hopefully follow up with my February ride next weekend. The ride was not without some pleasant and unpleasant incidents.

Early in my ride, when I was dodging potholes through Brisbane's outer suburbs in search for some peaceful country roads, plastic pipes were sliding off the back of a Ute. While I was making the driver aware of his escaping cargo, another lady Ute driver didn't appreciate my presence and started yelling at me from her open driver's window to get off the road. We were exactly ten meters away from a red traffic light so she wasn't going anywhere. After helping the very thankful guy with his plastic pipes I rolled up to her open window and ask her what the fuss was about. She was one of those really cranky rednecks. Maybe she had a bad day, PMT, a fight with her husband ... who knows? She kept harping on that I should get of the roads, that I have no right to be on the road since I'm not paying registration. WTF? I swear I'm not proud of the choice of my words as they did not contribute to an open, fruitful and constructive dialogue about shared use and friendly co-existence of motorists and cyclists on Australian roads. Oh, well!

I continued heading North, following the course of the Zupps ride and caught up with a young kid on Anzac Avenue. He jumped on my wheel and introduced himself as Sam on the next traffic light. It was great to have some company on a long lonely ride and he joined me all the way to Redcliffe, where he was heading for a Triathlon. Not long after that another young rider joined me. His face looked familiar and it turned out to be a friend of Cameron. We started swapping turns along the waterfront and across Hornibrook bridge back towards Brisbane. I left him in Sandgate to return through the wetlands to add kilometers since I was running out of road for my 100 km goal.

I love riding through the wetlands as the narrow twisty bike path gives ample of opportunity for bike handling practice and it's very scenic with no abusive drivers. When I arrived in Nundah I was still 15 km short of 100 km so I added laps on the criterium circuit. Dramatic skies finished off my first metric century ride for 2009. I'm looking forward to many more to come and will hopefully see the improvements in numbers over the next couple of months.

The holiday is over. Watching the Tour Down Under did what I had hoped it would do: Bring back my motivation to train. I'm off to write my training program for February now.