My First Century Ride!

Having bought a Trek 7100 in Mar 2012, I had started biking with short trips. I started with a 40 km ride upto pyramid valley. Did the Turahalli mountain bike range in my hybrid, had a bad fall and injured my knee! Of course, the injured knee gave me bragging rights J.

I had traveled to the US in April for a 2 week period and there I biked on the Golden Gate. Post that, I did  a 50 km ride, a 60 km and 70 km ride. I felt I was ready for my first milestone – A century ride!

I decided to do it on 9^th June, 2012 which happened to be a Saturday. I had my biked primed (with air pressure and oil) on Thursday in preparation for the ride. Come Saturday, I woke up around 5.30 and did some basic stretching exercise and the rubber hit the road around 6.15 AM from my house in ISRO Layout. I started the Sports Tracker App on my Nokia 500 (Symbian Belle) to keep track of the journey.

I decided to go upto Harohalli and Jigani which also happened to be the next BBCh race route. I had no intentions of participating in the race itself, but my sole objective was to do 100 km. I started with full steam and it was all downhill on Kanakapura road. I reached Kaggali pura around 7.10 and had an Idli stop over. With the hunger pangs sufficiently quelled, I set out again.

I reached Harohalli quite fast covering about 31 km in 1 hour 50 minutes or so including the idli stopover. The terrain is mostly downhill, some up gradient biking, but overall very comfortable and scenic. You pass by a couple of big lakes which gives great photo opp – One mistake I made in this trip was not to click any photos!

On reaching Harohalli, I took the left towards Jigani. The moment you take a left, you enter a small lane and I could not believe this is the same road that goes to Jigani. I asked around and confirmed this. I set out on this road. I remembered Murali Katta (Another Biker with whom I ride) had told me – this road is hell – I was about to find out! The initial up gradients were manageable in my hybrid, but it was getting hotter and I was tiring. After biking for around 9km from Harohalli, I stopped at a small hamlet called Kamalapura. Here I had tea at a small hut-like hotel. I was the object of curiosity for all the villagers and we made some small talk. I was told that the tea is jaggery tea (saar, bellada tea saar eekade ella). I had 2 of them and felt rejuvenated. I moved on Jigani and went upto Thattekare. I saw the monstrous up there and decided to turn back. There was no way, I could have managed to climb that!

On turning back, it was a little easy upto Harohalli, as the altitude was dropping. I reached Harohalli, took a right started cycling towards Bangalore. I intended to 100 k today and decided I ll take detours on Kanakapura and ensure I cross my milestone. Near a small, unnamed place, I found a guy selling coconut water. I got down and had some coconut water and took the detour here. I went through fine tarred roads with no traffic, crossed a Gunda Aanjaneya temple and the Elim Resort. This road was leading to Kanakapura road again. I turned back as my intention was to put on more miles.

I returned to the same spot on Kanakapura road, took one more detour for a couple of kms and was back to biking on Kanakapura road. This time, it was sunny (around 11.15AM) and I was climbing up. It was quite difficult and I was tiring. I continuously had water, but started to feel hungry. I had something at a bakery, bought some water and started again. I was about 20 km from my house. After riding for a couple of kms, I started feeling hungry again. At this time, it struck me that I am probably getting stomach cramps! Probably because I was losing body salts. Now I realized the importance of having Electral or Gatorade while biking. I suddenly remembered someone in BBC (Bangalore Bikers Club) saying coconut water is good to replenish the body salts. My condition at this time was pretty bad I was stopping every 2 kms for some water. My speed dropped to quite low and I was finding it increasingly difficult to ride. I was constantly on Gears 2 – 3 (front – rear)

Thankfully, I found another guy selling coconut water. I stopped over and had 2 of them very slowly. I felt re-invigorated and covered the balance 15 kms with no stopover and at a decent speed. When I entered my basement, my cyclocomp showed 101.3 Km while the sports tracker app shows 99.67km. I was happy that I achieved my first milestone of 100km!

Stats:

Total Distance Covered as per my cyclocomp: 101.3 km
Total Riding Time: A little over 5 hours
Total time (including breaks): 6.5 hours
Average Riding speed: 19.78 kmph.

Overall, I am quite happy with myself and feel ready to achieve my next target – Ride to Mysore via Malavalli and come back by Volvo. This is a 145 km ride.

Note on Sports Tracker App

The app itself is quite good and accurate. But it sucks battery life and will last for rides upto 7 hours only. I have a brand new Nokia 500 (Symbian Belle), so if you have an older phone, then the batter might last lesser time. The website gives very good statistical information on distance, time, speed etc. Overall, it’s a good app, but I think having a specific device like a garmin watch is more practical on longer rides.

Learnings from the Ride:

1.       Carry enough Electral or Gatorade packets

2.       Have coconut water every hour or hour and half

3.       Take Pics!

4.       Differentiate between hunger and cramps!

The distance altitude graph and the ride maps are pasted below. (Source - http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/satbalak/aep16mlkijvhvqpr)

Next Target: Do the Bangalore – Malavalli – Mysore route at an average riding speed of 20+ kmph.

UPDATE (12/6/12): Corrected date of journey from 8th June, 2012 to 9th June, 2012