livedarklions

Well, pretty much everyone defines a century as 100 miles in a day, so I guess you're arguing with all the people who are arguing that a day is 7 days, right?
Really stupid post.

Hermes

The highly coveted Moth to Flame award goes to livedarklions who has 21 posts out of 104. I did not try to complete the podium.

wolfchild

12 hours

CliffordK

If you're going to do your metric century, you might as well work to find the route that you can get the most out of it. Crater Lake, Mt Scott to Steamboat.



70.24 miles (113 km, went over a bit).
Drop from 7,750 feet elevation down to 1,153 feet.

For a total elevation loss of 6,597 feet, or 1 1/4 miles (not counting some minor elevation gains and losses).

livedarklions

Why? I'm having fun with the discussion, so in what sense am I a moth getting burned?

It's a lot more fun topic than Larry usually puts out there.

And now I have 22, yay for me!

10 Wheels

Keep The Fun Rolling.

rsbob 

Am almost ashamed to admit I haven’t ridden a century in about a quarter century. HOWEVER, this thread has shown me the way to do it this year and possibly do it every day for the rest of the year thanks to the brilliance of BF. My strategy is to ride 10 miles in an hour every hour for 10 hours. Since my usual pace is 18, it leaves me plenty of time each hour for coffee, relaxing, a short massage, lunch, doing the laundry and walking the dog fixing a quick meal, sex, etc. I love this place!

If I was feeling motivated, I could ride 12-15 miles in an hour and get it done 20% faster or there-abouts, but it won’t do my love life any favors. I wasn’t a math major or minor or in between.

livedarklions

I might agree with that. Definitely precludes the 8 hour or so "nap" that I consider the real dividing line between days.

livedarklions

Is it just me, or is this kind of thread the closest BF gets to a fun "water cooler" conversation? That list of things you could do while completing a century is priceless!

Milton Keynes

You have a dog which can cook? You must be really good at training dogs. Not going to ask about the sex part, though...

Paul Barnard

It took me a while to warm up to Larry's style. I tip my hat to him. He is good. Very good. Not quite a virtuoso, but his work is guaranteed to pull folks in.

rsbob 

He is extremely talented. This is his favorite trick.

Vern1

You win

storckm

So if I start my century with a group ride with the Saturday Speedy Stormriders, then ride solo for a while, stop for lunch, and end my 100 mile ride meeting up with the Afternoon Amblers, that counts as a century, that counts. But if I happen to take three separate rides that add up to 100 miles, that doesn't count. Just like three pieces of metal set at some distance from one another become a sculpture if designated as such, but not otherwise.

RCMoeur 

That sounds like my approach to the 12 Hours of Sun City ride in the middle of hell summer each year here in the Phoenix area, only without the opportunity for romantic distractions. We start at 8 PM after the radiation dies down and ride until 8 AM the next morning on a quiet 8-mile loop of residential streets.

I take a light bike with lots of lights (and a good Bluetooth stereo), and ride a lap. Or ride another lap. Or hang out at the start/finish line and snack. Or ride another lap. No big deal - we have all night. Hang out, ride, repeat. Unless a monsoon storm decides to rearrange the schedule as what happened in 2021, where we sit around and eat while watching nature's electrical show instead (sometimes remarkably close by), then start riding again once the rain & lightning lets up.

And by 8 AM, I typically end up with 100 miles (or more), and I'm usually not sore, cramping, or exhausted, even though it's the middle of our local "off season" of minimal training miles due to homicidal weather. Then to Golden Corral for a celebratory breakfast with one or two other riders, and a long happy nap.

rsbob 

Well, speaking of which, the Seattle Sculpture park has that exact thing, so three separate rides can be a century in one day. If you think about it, every time you get off your bike a ride ends. Then when you resume, its the beginning of a new ride - technically speaking.

RCMoeur 

That sounds like my 12 Hours of Sun City in 2021. I started out on my racing bike, but everyone had to get off the route when the big 1 AM storm hit. After the lightning ended and we could ride again there was still light rain and wet roads, so I switched to the fixie with fenders for a few hours, then finished on the racer after the roads were mostly dry. No individual bike hit that magic number, but the cumulative mileage total for the time period was good.

Reynolds 

Some years ago, as a personal challenge, I rode 180kms without even unclipping.

livedarklions

Besides being an awesome endurance feat, that seems like it is close to practically impossible. Did you never have to stop once or can you do track stands?

To be clear, I'm not doubting you, I just want to know how you managed that because it's such a cool thing to have accomplished.

wolfchild

People who lack fitness and endurance will come up with all kinds of goofy interpretations of what a century ride is... .Two 50 mile rides don't count, five 20 mile rides don't count, four 25 mile rides don't count, ten 10 mile rides don't count... It's really simple, a century is a 100 mile uninterrupted ride which may include few stops which are no more than few minutes long.

Koyote

I love the way you state your opinions as if they are undisputed facts. It always makes me realize that I’m a relatively reasonable person.

Reynolds 

It took me about 6 1/2 hours. My initial plan was to do a century, but I felt good at 161kms and decided to extend it to Ironman distance. It was a cool and sunny day, almost no wind, ideal for cycling. I have the detailed record somewhere, but I recall eating some bananas and energy bars I carried in my jersey pockets and drinking about 2l of water (2 big bottles). In training I had done some 100km rides on water only, so it wasn't too difficult. Of course when I arrived home, first thing was to pee and drink...
If someone had told me they did that before I did, I would've been somewhat incredulous too, but it wasn't as hard as it sounds.

tomato coupe

I've done 161 km without unclipping, but we had police escort and motorcycles giving us food and water hand-ups.

RCMoeur 

So someone who has the good sense and pacing to take breaks of more than a few minutes (or even, heaven forfend, a lunch) isn't doing a century by that definition - or is insulted by being characterized as having a lack of fitness or endurance.

Nope.

staehpj1

Many organized century rides would be ruled out by that criteria since they have lunch that typically takes longer than a few minutes.

There is some flexibility in the definition or should be for reasonable people. Also to a large extent it is just for the individual so they get to make the rules. I do agree that it doesn't make sense to stretch the definition too far, like outside the length of the day. Personally If I were planning to do a ride for the purpose of calling it a century I'd do it in less than 12 hours, but I can see casually calling any days of over 100 miles on a tour century days. I've done a bunch of official century rides over the years and I've done a number of 100+ days on long distance (multi week or multi month tours). So it isn't a big deal whether I call a 100 mile day on tour a century or not, but I figure it is valid to if I choose to. I don't think I ever have called any of my 100 mile days centuries in my online journals, but I think it would be valid to.