The word century has many meanings:

• a unit of the Roman Army, consisting of 100 soldiers
• a period of 100 years
• Slang. a 100 dollar bill

There seems to be a trend in all of these definitions. They all include the number 100.

In the cycling world, you guessed it, a century is a bike ride of 100 miles.

It’s a huge milestone for many cyclists and I know it will be for me as well. I’ll be doing a century on the first day of the Valero MS150 “Bike to the Beach” in a few weeks.

Did I just say few?

It’s not like I’m not training or something. I am. I completed a 26 mile ride on Thursday with Mr. Time Trial…er…Marco. We each beat our old records. I completed the route in 1 hour, 38 minutes and 8 seconds (versus 1:42). Marco came in at just over 1 hour 37 mins.

I really felt it the next day too. We pushed the envelope at the end of that ride. Marco hopping out of the saddle on a few segments of the last 3 miles while I pounded away at the pedals to stay with him…occasionally backing off to draft just behind him as I gasped for air.

This past Sunday I rode 27 miles with Bill and Jennifer. A wonderful ride I’ve dubbed the Timberwood Park loop. That too was a fast paced ride with an average speed of almost 16mph. The first 2-3 minutes of that ride was in fog with about 1/4 mile visibility. After about 3 minutes, we sped out of the fog bank into clear conditions. A pretty wild experience actually!

So…am I ready for 100?

Nope.

This weekend I’m hoping to bust the 1/2 century mark. We’ll see how I feel after that!