Silver Comet Trail: Century or complete 120 miles?
08-03-17, 08:26 AM
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Silver Comet Trail: Century or complete 120 miles?
UPDATE: I rode the WHOLE trail already, thanks!
Previous:
I've been pondering whether to do a century or just ride the whole 120 miles (round trip)? what makes more sense? is the extra 20 miles a significant effort? note, the max I rode so far is 60 miles. But I've done 50+ miles many times.
Previous:
I've been pondering whether to do a century or just ride the whole 120 miles (round trip)? what makes more sense? is the extra 20 miles a significant effort? note, the max I rode so far is 60 miles. But I've done 50+ miles many times.
Last edited by xodondum; 09-04-17 at 02:48 PM.
08-03-17, 08:48 AM
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Perhaps I am a touch confuddled. The whole trail, including CLD is just under 80. Going to Piedmont and back isn't the whole thing. Am I missing something?
08-03-17, 09:00 AM
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roundtrip, gotta come back ;-) but it's 62 miles to AL, then continues for 33 miles = 95 miles 1 way.
08-03-17, 11:17 AM
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Ride to the state line and back. Beware the Cedartown/Rockmart stretch. You're not on the rail line, and there are some hills. (Both ways 
)
But that way it's a double century (metric).
)But that way it's a double century (metric).
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08-03-17, 11:38 AM
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It appears that you can click on one of the waypoints and it changes all the numbers. I didn't notice starting in Hiram.
08-05-17, 08:40 PM
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If you have only done 60 then the last 20 miles of a century will be like a death march. Doubling your max mileage is not wise. It is best to work up to it +10 miles each week with easy/recovery weeks every fourth week. That is how one trains for a century.
There are surprisingly few services in Rockmart and Cedartown, only one store in each town some distance off the trail. There is virtually nothing between Cedartown and the state line. You must be self sufficient west of Cedartown.
There used to be a store at the state line in Easom Hill but the owners were elderly, closed the store and retired.
-Tim-
There are surprisingly few services in Rockmart and Cedartown, only one store in each town some distance off the trail. There is virtually nothing between Cedartown and the state line. You must be self sufficient west of Cedartown.
There used to be a store at the state line in Easom Hill but the owners were elderly, closed the store and retired.
-Tim-
08-06-17, 08:13 PM
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Yes past Cedartown it is hilly and isolated to the AL border. From Marrietta to Anniston AL its 93+ miles one way.
08-11-17, 02:32 PM
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When I rode to the border and back 120 miles, The most I rode before that was 75miles. I did not do any training. I just took my time and paced myself at around 17mph. At beginning it felt so slow as I was energized, but on the way back I started to feel 17 was getting hard. The whole route was 4000ft of elevation. as mentioned, its mainly flat, but Cedartown gets hilly like a rollercoaster. The thing that I feel was the best thing for me was after the first two hours, I started eating every 15 minutes so I was never drained of water and food. I back jersey was so stuffed with food. At the time, I actually only planned 80 miles, but ended up doing the whole thing, which was a good thing I brought money with me. I stopped at local stores and bought more supplies and continued on. Overall, it was a great experience and took some 7+ hours. My butt did hurt a good bit after that.
09-03-17, 09:33 PM
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I rode all of it this weekend. It made more sense to ride ALL of it vs turning back at Cedartown since getting to Cedartown was the hardest part. What's an extra 10 miles?
I can attest coming back was a lot harder than going. I definitely did not ride with the same strength, maybe I should have stopped and had a proper meal.
I can attest coming back was a lot harder than going. I definitely did not ride with the same strength, maybe I should have stopped and had a proper meal.
09-03-17, 09:40 PM
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It depends on your priorities.
Is the goal to do a century, or to have a nice ride that happens to be about that long?
Answer that and you'll know which makes sense for you.
Is the goal to do a century, or to have a nice ride that happens to be about that long?
Answer that and you'll know which makes sense for you.
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09-27-17, 07:53 PM
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UPDATE: I rode the WHOLE trail already, thanks!
Previous:
I've been pondering whether to do a century or just ride the whole 120 miles (round trip)? what makes more sense? is the extra 20 miles a significant effort? note, the max I rode so far is 60 miles. But I've done 50+ miles many times.
Previous:
I've been pondering whether to do a century or just ride the whole 120 miles (round trip)? what makes more sense? is the extra 20 miles a significant effort? note, the max I rode so far is 60 miles. But I've done 50+ miles many times.
I rode on the Silver Comet for my one and only century. I parked at the trailhead on Seaboard Lane in Hiram and rode to the end and about a mile or so into Alabama on the Chief Ladiga Trail to get my 50 miles and turned around and rode back to the car. I feel like the Silver Comet is too congested and has too many road crossings east of Hiram. If you can do 60, you can do 100. I had ridden 73 one time before my century.
