From: whalen@starch.enet.dec.com (Rich Whalen)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.misc
Subject: January Century report
Date: 25 Jan 93 19:18:10 GMT
Reply-To: whalen@starch.enet.dec.com (Rich Whalen)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Shrewsbury, MA


It took me three tries, but I finally completed my January century.

The first try was two weeks ago, and the plan was to ride around a 25 mile
loop
4 times.  I took this approach because it offered bail-out options if things
were not going as well as I liked.  Well, it was about 20 degress(F), and the
wind was blowing hard enough to yield a windchill of -9 (F).  Though I was
able
to dress such that I was not uncomfortably cold, I was making such slow
progress that after 50 miles I decided that I wasn't going to finish and
still
have time to pack for the business trip that I was leaving on the following
day.

The second try was a week later, with the same plan.  I had brought some snow
back with me on the return flight, and though the previous day had gotten
warm
enough to melt some of it, there was still quite a bit of snow on my poorly
plowed street.  I fell when returning home to go to bathroom, and though the
only thing that was damaged was my spirit, that was enough to prevent me from
getting started again.  I did 28 miles that day and the sun did not come out,
even though it had been forecast to.

The successful try was this past weekend, in which we had a bit of
unseasonably
warm weather.  I decided that the 25 mile loop was too short and too easy to
bail out on, so I went on a longer loop (34+ miles) to start.  The route went
north along Lake Quinsigamond to Rte 12, followed Rte 12 to Wachusett
reservior,
followed Rte 140 N to Rte 62.  East on Rte 62 into Sterling, south on Rte 12
to
return to the reservior, south on Rte 140 to Rte 70 and then back down along
the lake to my home.  On the first time through the loop I passed a couple of
joggers, one of them twice, who smiled in recognition.  I also dicovered that
the wind was from the south when I turned in Sterling.  After returning home
the first time I had a bagel, refilled my water bottle, which luckily hadn't
frozen like it did on the first two tries, changed my jersey and set out do
to
the loop again.

When I reached the reservior for the first time on the second pass I noticed
two town police cars and two fire engines parked around the island at the
intersection of Rtes 140 & 12.  Now West Boylston is not a big town, and I
thought it strange for them to have so much of their equipment in one place,
but I didn't try to find out why as I wanted to complete the ride.  The cars
and trucks were gone by the time that I returned to the reservior, and I
continued to my home were I had lunch and looked at a little bit more of the
Sunday newspaper.

At this point I had ridden 69+ miles, and I didn't really feel like ending
the
century with a headwind.  So, I took off on my other loop that hadn't served
me
very well on the previous two attempts.  With the little bit of extra from my
home to get to the start of the loop the route is 28+ miles, and I figured
that
I'd make up any deficit by riding up and down along the lake.  This loop
starts
off to the south along Lake Quinsigamond, then proceeds along some back roads
that make up part of my commuting route to Rte 30 East in to Westboro, then
Southwest to Grafton center, continues in that direction into Millbury and
then
heads back North in to Worcester.  Before starting off I also packed my
headlight into my bag, even though I doubted that I would need it, just in
case.  I stopped to eat some Powerbar in Grafton center and a couple asked me
how far I had gone, and where I had started from.  I told them 84 miles, that
I
hoped to do 100 today, and that I had ridden in circles in case the weather
didn't hold.  They said that it sounded like I was going to finish.  The rest
of the ride was uneventful, I did ride up & down the street a couple of times
to come up with a total of 100.16 miles when I finished.

The temperatures were in the 20s when I started, but warmed up to 50 and
cooled
back down to the mid 40s by the time that I finished.  The bike has had all
lubrication washed off of the chain, with some of it being replaced by sand. 
There is a significant amount of sand on the bike too, so I'm going to be
working at cleaning it up in the next two weeks so that I can be ready to do
it
again on the first reasonable weekend in February.

------------------------------------------------------
Rich Whalen

You don't know where these bits have been!