Harmon Hundred

From my post on BF:
"Great century. I love this one. It is "hilly" - meaning beautifully rolling. I recovered really well from the day before. Colorchange and I both trew some sandbags around in the parking lot:

"I'm pretty beat."
"I don't think I want to ride that hard."
"I'll probably pop pretty early on."
"Don't know if I can make the century...."

You get the picture.

About 3-4 miles out of the parking lot someone lit the rocket. Took me a while to warm up, but then I got rolling smooth. My Garmin shuts off over bumps anymore so I just ride with it in my back pocket. That meant I had no idea what numbers we were doing. I ended up going to the front and ramping it up without realizing it quite a bit.

We did loop B first out of the main stop. Really challenging loop and very "scenic". By the time we had gotten back to the main stop with roughly 50 miles in I was starting to feel some dead legs. Colorchange was looking to get back for his obligation.

New dad nietsmas revealed he hadn't been on the bike in 2 weeks and was staring deep into the pit of emptyness that was now his legs. JT1 and our recent pick ups of "bells" and "Big Spinner" were definitely going the extra loop for the full century.

I debated it greatly. I figured I could go back and hammer and be done at 75, or get a full century in...I mean what else did I have to do right? Well....I had to flip a gel to decide. It landed front side up - I was in for the century.

Started second guessing myself right out of the stop...and then everything clicked.

I felt awesome. Every hill we hit I found myself mid-hill doing my whole "I don't know if I can do this" then something would make me snap out of it and actually upshift and accelerate. it was awesome. Best climbing I have ever done.I also replaced my 27 cog/cassette with a 25 a few weeks back. Makes climbing a whole lot faster when you can't bailout.

I honestly kept getting stronger as we went. With the computer in the back pocket I had no idea how far was left or anything. Ended up in the parking lot before I knew it. I feel like going out and doing it again today.

Good stuff. Hope I can keep cranking this up at my current rate of improvement through the Fall Fling.

Great seeing nietsmas, JT1, colorchange, wireless. See you all again at my century!

Brief stats...
100.0 miles (rode the parking lot to round it out).
5:24:34 ride time
5,032 ft of climbing
18.5 avg speed.
4-5 gels consumed
many hammers dropped.