Podagrower

In 2015 I found and joined a Couch2Century program hosted by one of my local cycling clubs. I learned a ton, improved my riding drastically both in speed and skills. In 2017, I rejoined the program as a coach to help and to watch people experience the same joy I had received from the program. This year, I moved into the head coach position.

This Saturday will be the team's final long ride, 72 miles. Then they get a short ride next weekend and on to the Endless Summer Watermelon Ride on September 8th. I've had the pleasure to watch them all conquer many obstacles over the last 6 months. Watching riders who could barely ride in a straight line turn into people I am comfortable riding 6" away from. Watching riders who thought a 20 mile ride was a long ride turn out 50+ miles regularly. We ride, we give each other crap, we give each other support and I'm honored to be a part of it. It is intended to be a program for the beginning cyclist, some people don't own a bike when they start. It's the group ride experience and teamwork that get people across the finish line.

dagray

very nice.

I wish we had a Saturday group ride around here.

Heck I am willing to lead group rides starting at 10+ miles and going upward in mileage. I just don't know how to get a program started.

Ahkhira

I wish there was something like that near me. Care to share any tips for a solo rider?

dagray

Do what it takes to make your rides fun.... ride to the coffee stand for a treat, ride to the local ice cream parlor for a scoop, challenge yourself to ride further without stopping.

I try to have a route or two where I can get drinks, snacks, water every 10 or so miles, and one ride I do often has a stop at the six mile mark if I want it, or I can come back to the 12+ mile mark and stop at a mini mart for a drink.

Make it fun, and remember it doesn't have to always be fast or far.

Podagrower

Fun is definitely a big part of it. Somebody on this forum said buy the bike that makes you want to ride every time you look at it, and the same kinda goes for finding someplace to ride. Between the club and coaches, we have hundreds of rides so it's easy to find the right distance and elevation. Strava heatmaps are a great help to find new routes. Add some music, cover your speedometer, push 1 more mile or 1 more loop around the block. If you ride the same every time you will get bored. Probably the biggest tip (again from somebody else here) find an organized event and set a goal. If you put a ride on your calendar as a goal, you will work towards it, whether it's your first 25 miles or that first 200K.

Podagrower

And the Saturday ride report. Three team members and 2 coaches were out for various reasons, this team is already smaller than in the past, so there are only 2 speed groups. I wanted to spend the season riding with the faster group to build myself up, but it's not about me and I have instead become the wind block for the weakest member of the team, riding in front of them almost always and holding a steady wheel without the rubber band. As a result, I'm building myself up a different way because I'm riding my brakes down every hill and muscling my way back up rather than using momentum like Clydes are supposed to do. The weather was overcast until 9:30 or so, with temps in the low 80s. Once the clouds broke, we did get to a high of 91, which is not an extreme temp for Florida in August. There was a bit of wind, but nothing terrible.

Our 2 groups and SAG driver set out towards our first rest stop 23 miles out. I do prefer to keep rest stops under 20 miles, but if you want to ride in the middle of nowhere you have to make sacrifices. The team had all ridden this part of the route a few weeks ago, so nobody was surprised, the team navigates as one unit, so there are no bonus miles. The slow group picked up one rider from the fast group who wasn't having a good day and off to the next rest stop we went. The stretch between the first and third rest stops is flat and was uneventful for our group. When we got to the third rest stop at mile 50 and that's when things got interesting. There were 3 more riders from the faster group, 1 had hit the "I can't do this" wall and 2 others decided they were too hot. They all wanted to finish with us, we propped up their spirits, sang kum ba yah and set off for home. That's when I got a flat....I told the other 2 coaches with me to get the team home and I would try to catch them. Ten minutes later I roll out (praying a little since I could not find the puncture), takes me twenty minutes to catch them, and off on our merry way we go....until mile 61 where we find our SAG driver with a bike in the back. I've been saying for 2 weeks that everybody needs to get their bikes in for a tune up after all the riding we have been doing, and here is one of the coaches with a broken shift cable. Short chat and off we go...1/4 mile later one of our group is complaining of knee pain and as much as I am a tough it out kind of guy 2 weeks to century isn't the time to risk a knee injury with a SAG vehicle right there. So again, I send the group on and get this rider back to the SAG and then catch the group. It was a weird ride, not the hottest ride we have had, not the hardest ride we have had, but nobody has dropped back a group or needed a SAG all season and suddenly 6 people have issues. This is why we put a short easy weekend in between the last long ride and the century. I know 5 of these riders now have doubt in the back of their minds, and if this coming weekend was our century it would be hard to get them out of their heads. But after we have a nice, social 40 mile ride next weekend, they will remember that they can do this, and they will succeed.

monstorr

This makes me want to look for some local group rides. Thanks for sharing!

Podagrower

Seriously? In 2017 the team was all set for their century ride when a little storm named Irma popped up and destroyed those plans, we wound up riding a century a month later. Here we are 2 years later, and there's this pain in the butt named Dorian. Looked like a little baby that was going to roll thru on Sunday and be gone and now it's a Cat 4 barreling thru on Tuesday...it's far enough away from the ride location to not be a big deal, unless it turns....

jsigone

Dorain isn't until monday, you can get a nice ride in saturday, just will be a bit windy out there

Podagrower

Saturday 8/31 was supposed to be our last pre century team ride. Something social, low impact, relaxing, easy. We had a wheel overlap incident that resulted in 2 riders on the pavement (they both finished the ride) and we got rained on 3 times in 45 miles. So much for relaxing. I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning my bike, I've rinsed it off a couple of times since we started training, but haven't really cleaned it. Back brakes have been dragging and chain was shot so both of those were addressed. I decided after riding in the rain again with no brakes to take 1 set of Kool Stop dual compound pads off my other bike so both bikes have a set on the back. In spite of the rain and crash, the team's spirit is high and I know they are ready. Dorian is forecast to be offshore and clear of our area by Thursday.

Sunday 9/1 I joined a club ride to get in some miles without having to be responsible (not really the right word but team rides are work, for lack of a better word). We had members of all 4 C2C teams there, 2012, 2015, 2017, and 2019. A clean bike is definitely faster and my Saturday cleaning had me feeling on point-of course it rained on us twice in 32 miles. Downside is the bike needs to be cleaned again, upside is I know the Kool Stop pads are better in the rain. At noon, Dorian is still forecast to be out of our area by Thursday and I know our century is happening next weekend: At 5PM the county our century is in announces mandatory evacuations for Monday thru Friday and hotels start cancelling peoples Friday reservations. Not good, this would be the second time in three years this ride has been cancelled.

Monday 9/2 I finish hurricane prep at home-cleaning out the 1 section of gutter that is always clogged. No way am I riding in the rain three days in a row, so I head out on Zwift and climb the Epic KOM and Radio Tower (first for both), I did weight dope for the Radio Tower by 50 pounds, but I'm going to claim stale legs. Some people in the club are getting their reservations for Saturday hotel rooms cancelled, but none of the team (at a different hotel) have gotten our Saturday night stays cancelled. I know enough about emergency operations to know that the first responders in the county of our event are working 12 hour shifts and are on lockdown (meaning they aren't going home to sleep, but are sleeping at the shelters or community buildings-specifically the police have to have a secure location because of firearms). I don't know what the procedure is for standing down after the emergency is over. By late afternoon it optimistically looks like Dorian is staying far enough away to spare us wind damage.

Tuesday 9/3 Dorian is forecast to stay far enough out to sea that wind damage along the coast should be minimal. Storm surge of 4-7 feet is problem 1, problem 2 is can first responders be available to babysit us on our little ride. Today is the day the club sponsoring the ride is supposed to make the call.

Podagrower

And Sunday's ride is on!!!!! Evacuation order lifted this morning, hotel is open, possible rerouting for street flooding. The island has a few trees down, but the power is on. I watched some of the storm blowing yesterday at high tide from a live webcam near our hotel. I figured if the power stayed on and I could still see the road, we would be alright. Now..lest we forget that it is still summer our forecast high is 93 for Sunday, ouch.

Podagrower

And another century in the books. Twelve members of the C2C 2019 team rode their first centuries yesterday. I've been riding with the slower group and specifically acting as a wind block for the weakest team member, this year the slower group is smaller than in years past, so I have been pulling a lot. Typical rotation is the 3 staff members taking 5 mile pulls and the team taking 1/2 or 1 mile pulls. I'm doing everything I can to maintain a steady wheel and effort so that nobody behind me is wasting any energy, and by mile 10 yesterday, it was obvious I no longer had a speed sensor working, Garmin defaults to GPS speed, which is fine for average, but not great with intermittent tree cover and watching my speed bounce between 8 and 18 was a problem. Fortunately I was able to swap batteries between the cadence sensor and speed sensor at the first rest stop. It was a hot ride, but not humid, people were prepared, some people had issues on the bike, but they recovered well and finished together.

On Sunday morning, while I was milling about at the ride start, I saw the sweep rider (I recognized him from 2016 because he rode with us a lot that year), and introduced myself and said that he would be seeing a lot of us. At the mile 56 rest stop, there were only a couple of stragglers behind our group and the rest stop volunteers were happy to get rid of anything and everything they had (I've been on rides where rest stops didn't have anything when I got there and that sucks). It was kind of surreal to get back on the road and have the Uhaul cleaning the SAGs pass us for the next 3 rest stops. The stragglers got smart and stuck with us, so our group grew with every rest stop. At one point about 2 miles from the last rest stop, another one of the coaches said she thought she had a flat and I could confirm that tire was no longer round. She asked what she should do, and I pointed out a shady spot and said you're going to pull off there and let the sweep rider change it. The rest of the group kept rolling and they caught us pretty quickly-that was the only flat that all 18 team and coaches had, which is remarkable because the group I rode with in 2017 had 5 flats in the first 10 miles.

There were lots of tears and hugs at the end. I called hazards I've never called before (stingray right, crab right). And I achieved bike nerd nirvana again when the bike shop owner that was the SAG mechanic complimented my Miyata.

NomarsGirl

I would love to find a program like this near here. I don't have any riding buddies except my husband and he is more than satisfied with 20-30 mile rides once a week. I ride by myself, mostly, but a group would get me where I want to be sooner.