Notes
A very wet century indeed! Light drizzle at the beginning, nothing in the middle, then fairly steady rain for the last third. I had long cold-gear tights on, a cold weather long sleeve running shirt, the VPMS cycling jacket, and a light rain jacket (kept me dry, but also kept the sweat inside). I had a couple issues with the chain falling off both the inside and outside chainrings, probably due to debris getting kicked up. I'm still having some trouble with the front derailleur not down shifting, even after putting oil / lube on it, so I might bring the bike into the shop for a cleaning & tune up - either gear works (local) or Bicycle Alley (where I bought the bike) - any recommendation? I got a later start than I wanted, so once I got there I got the bike setup and started riding, didn't bother waiting for anybody since I didn't know anyone anyway, or how fast they'd be riding. I got a good ways out, and realized I had missed a turn about a 1/2 mile back, and during that time a group of cyclist past me. I thought they'd be good to ride with since they seemed coordinated and fast. I hung with them for a few minutes, but soon realized they were going way slower than I wanted to, so I pushed on ahead. A ways later going up hill my chain fell off, and just after I fixed it, two guys rode by, one with a Landry's shirt, not sure the other one. We crossed back and forth for a while, then finally I just decided to stay with them for about 30 miles or more. I was leading the pack after the last rest area, and 2 others joined up with us, then all of sudden three of them dropped back and it was just me and another guy trying to tackle all the hills in the last 20 miles or so and wondering when they would end. haha!
After riding that, even though it was a bit slow (~5hrs 32min), Cozumel should feel like a piece of cake :-)
Today, I'm a little sore from being in the saddle, and tired from a very long & late day yesterday, but feel pretty good otherwise. Legs are fatigued, but not sore at all. During the ride, hour 2-3 seemed to disappear, I looked down and suddenly I was at 2hrs 55 minutes. Hour 3-4 went by pretty fast as well. Because of that, I'm not sure if I drank as much as I was supposed to during those times (it was also broken up by rest stops and bottle refilling, so knowing exactly how much I drank became a little harder to figure out). I think it was 20-24oz of either infinit or gatorade during each hour, and sipping water in between or when eating clif bars. I had the clif bars at 20-30 minutes, 2hrs, and 3.5 hours, they seemed to work well. Some shot blocks were used in between clif bars and that also worked well. The caffeinated gel in the last 30-45 minutes did not feel good afterward. I slowed for a bit, complaining in my head about the gel and the hills, then finally I told myself just to ride through it, and eventually I realized that it wasn't bothering me as much any more. Oh, I also had a banana at the 2nd rest stop, and a half a banana at the third one, both seemed to go down fine during the ride. I had nuun in my first water bottle, but forgot to bring extra to put in water from the aid stations. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich looked very appetizing, but I resisted :-) There were no tacos at the rest stops.