Originally Posted by hubcyclist

So, I did a solo century on Sunday, my goal was to get under 5hrs, and I managed! 4:56 and to say the stars were aligned would be an understatement! Had a nice day, no stopping at all, no lights.

Of course, the effort was there too, I averaged 227w/233w NP/0.8 IF (3.2w/kg) for the ride, which was of course 100 miles and around 4k ft of elevation. I had run the course through best bike split a while back and at the time it suggested I could average 214w/217w NP to get a time of 4:50 (unfortunately I don't have a paid membership to see what type of wind conditions went into the modelling), so I do wonder how much the conditions of the day played a role in my speed (I shaved my legs, had an aero helmet, and wore race fit kit). I ran my ride through an app called windsock and got the following

Weather Impact: 1.5%
Headwind: 51% @ 8.4-11.3mph
Longest Headwind: 01h 2m 34s
Air Speed: 20.3mph
Temp: 75.3-75.4°F

I'm not entirely sure how to interpret this, like how much the headwind affected things (it's a very north/south type of course in coastal southern new england, so that type of wind is more often than not a fact of life). It'll probably be a while before I attempt another 100 mile PR just because my training stuff is more oriented toward getting ready for CX season, but I may do a different loop in the future. Not sure if knocking an additional 10mins to get to do 21mph is feasible depending on weather conditions, but that may be the next goal to keep things interesting!