Bicycle Dairies – First Century Ride

In 2014 I bought a cycle and it was one of the best decisions ever. Initially, I used that occasionally like just for buying grocery but then after some time as the day goes by it became part of the lifestyle. I started riding on a regular basis like going to Joggers park or on Sunday to Juhu for my beach run. That’s how my tryst with the saddle started. One thing about cycling is it’s like a stress buster for me and I feel a day is incomplete if I don’t saddle.

Robin Sharma says If you do any activity for 21 days you get habitual towards it and that will become part of your lifestyle. I totally agree with him as I have experienced this many times. Doing any activity consecutively for 21 days that can be -getting up early, reading a book, even doing exercise. Believe me, this will change your life drastically.

Speaking about century ride in the month of May we thought of completing 100km mark at one go on cycle. We decided to do this on Saturday and plan was made 2 days prior to that. I was really excited about this so on the back of the mind was eagerly waiting for Saturday to come.

I woke up 3:00 am fully refreshed and pumped up looking forward to the journey. Made sure to get the basics done such as

• carrying 2 liters of water
• Energy bar
• Tail lamp
• cycling glows
• and Last but not the least my btwin 100 helmet (true savior it has protected me twice from the accident and it’s really good for city riding.)

So there I was with my Hamilton cycle at 4 am Saturday morning. The group consists of 4 of my friends and we decided to meet at Andheri. We started the day around 4:30 am. the climate was really wonderful and Ideal for cycling.

So we were on the highway making sure to ride extreme left side of the road. On the highway, Vehicles will go at their own pace that’s where you hear the music. You need to be super careful especially in the morning. I took the first bridge in order to get a feel of uphill but while going down it was a task ; because while coming down from bridge you are slightly midway on the road ; vehicle on your right and left side will go by their own pace so you are stuck in between and you cannot stop in Midway. so observing the situation and giving the indicator (by a show of hands )we managed to go extreme left side of the road. After that, I skipped many flyovers and decided that it’s better to go down than taking a bridge.

we reached Vasai around 8:00-8:30 o clock after 3.5 hours of the ride. We decided to take rest for some time.

The main reason going to Vasai was one of the friend of the group had work there so initially he was planning to go by car or other modes of transport but the aim of doing 100km in a day clicked and everyone agreed and decided to give a shot.

We decided to go back to Andheri after 30 minutes of break and started the journey around 9 o clock.

While coming we stopped at the bhajanlal dairy farm around 10:30. We had an amazing Lassi.

Coming back was more challenging. First 1.5-2 hours was fine after 11:30-12:00 temperature was 28-30 degree. The heat made it tough to ride but the slight wind was making a huge difference. It was pleasant indeed.

 

At the time of going, we rode together with slight gap In between while coming each one of us went at their own pace. After 12-12:30 I took many halts for a water break. Eventually, Legs started to pain badly. After some time I was numb for some duration. But one thing was constant- focus and alertness. Mind was alert for all the time. When the whole body was paining self-talk was the savior. Told my self at constant intervals that I have done 80 km; just 20 more to go. It was a task I must say because in the past I had a practice of riding 45-50km in one go; it was the first time I was giving a shot for a century ride. We managed to complete 105 km. I reached home at around 2-2:30 pm.

 

The lesson I was reminded of, it is equally important to have mental preparation along with physical preparation. Our mind is capable of doing wonders if we train it. You need to have practice- ie exercise at regular intervals so your body will get used to the schedule as time will pass. otherwise, it will be an overdose you didn’t practice.

This ride helped me to believe in me as I was skeptical about how will I able to complete century ride in one go. But everything went well by the grace of God.

P.S

After the ride whole body was paining had a good rest and took me few days to recover. I will look forward to increasing the target. But before that planning to do one more century ride. cheers

Keep riding keep saddling