Manic Melon

The Route

The Lone Star Century started at Oregon Trail Park in Olathe, KS and crossed Lawrence’s Clinton Lake before arriving at Lone Star Lake. The Lone Star Century was an “out and back” route with distance options of 25, 45, 72 and 100 miles. I personally was looking forward to the 72 mile route, but at the turn around point I opted for the century. The route was very well marked, and the SAG support was great.

The elevation and grade were great, the headwind was not

From Olathe, the trip across 50 miles of mild rolling Kansas hills west to Clinton lake was quite pleasant. I enjoyed the route immensly, other than a very steady headwind that robbed me of might otherwise have been a reasonable average speed.

After taking a nice break at Clinton Lake, the route turned just a little hillier before arriving at Lone Star Lake. The plus side was that the final 15 miles seemed to be only 50% into that steady headwind. The 50 mile route to Lone Star lake involved 2780 feet of total ascent.

My Stats

In summary, my ride was kind of rough. Since my longest ride year to date was just 46 miles, this 100 mile ride was quite a jump in distance. Here are some quick notes about my ride.

1. The route to Lone Star lake had a pretty steady headwind.
2. The first 50 miles took me just over 3.5 hours, averaging just 14.1 mph
3. After a long break and a tasty hamburger at Lone Star Lake, I could feel I was only at 50% for the return trip.
4. The first 20 miles of the return trip were great… averaging 16.3 mph by benefit of a tailwind, flat terrain and riding in a 4-5 rider paceline. I only carried 25% of the load at the front as a speedy rider on a nice Lemond was really rolling along while I struggled to keep up.
5. The final 22 miles… HURT! Even with a tailwind I averaged only 13.1 mph
6. I was really carried along by a few other riders the last 20 miles… thanks a bunch guys!
7. Because of the tailwind and the first 20 miles of speedy progress, the painful return trip took 30 minutes less than the ride out where I felt great
8. Overall, I’m pretty sure that I was 3rd to LAST to finish the day… I was even dead last for several miles… but hey I did it! (the 100 mile route to boot)

I’m happy I did the ride, as I was quite behind on miles for the year. After just 162 miles in May, I already have 120 miles for June and it’s only June 3rd! This century was a great stepping stone in my preparation for RAGBRAI and the MS150.