How easy it is depends on how much you usually ride. If you already ride 100+ miles per week and your longest recent ride is 50 miles or even 25 ... a century will be easy. If the longest ride was 20 miles and normal mileage is 15 miles per week, it's probably going to be hard.
Obviously inclines and temperatures matter. For the purpose of this discussion, the prep should be done for the same kind of riding.
Walk everywhere
60 miles in 13 hours total is pretty impressive!
I occasionally (~10 times so far) run 20km late at night around and around a local sports field when I need a break from work and/or have drunk too much caffeine
... and it's not so hard, but 42km would be pretty hard for me, I'd guess, especially on my tendons etc.
I occasionally (~10 times so far) run 20km late at night around and around a local sports field when I need a break from work and/or have drunk too much caffeine
... and it's not so hard, but 42km would be pretty hard for me, I'd guess, especially on my tendons etc.I also read while walking. You have to have good peripheral vision, which tends to shrink a bit when my book gets super interesting. (I never end up walking onto a roadway or tumbling down stairs when I'm reading very interesting bits, but I might trip over a bump or get amusingly close to a pole.) I would not also put on headphones!
One disadvantage of reading while walking is that I walk more slowly. I may start off quickly, but with most of my attention elsewhere, I'll find that I've slowed down. But reading during my walking/bus-riding commute is often a very nice motivation to get out of bed on workdays.
Maybe I'll try walking to work when the weather cools off. Just walking from the bus stop can make me unprofessionally sweaty and pink in the summer. I'm only 3.5 miles away, but it takes me over an hour because I'll want to stop and look at things.
One disadvantage of reading while walking is that I walk more slowly. I may start off quickly, but with most of my attention elsewhere, I'll find that I've slowed down. But reading during my walking/bus-riding commute is often a very nice motivation to get out of bed on workdays.
Maybe I'll try walking to work when the weather cools off. Just walking from the bus stop can make me unprofessionally sweaty and pink in the summer. I'm only 3.5 miles away, but it takes me over an hour because I'll want to stop and look at things.
I used to love walking long distances, but I've become a lot more sensitive to noise over the years and can't stand the noise of traffic along most streets (not to mention the odor of the exhaust). The decibel levels of the streets where I live are quite high, which exacerbate my tinnitus and feelings of irritation. I find walking in "nature" to be boring. I prefer urban walking for practical and leisurely purposes, but it's hard to do that around here. I'm thinking of moving to a smaller quieter town. But even small towns have loud arterial roads. Ugh, god damn the cancer of cars! It's annoying how many cities have been decimated to be overly accommodating to cars at the expense of being able to walk comfortably. I feel limited and somewhat imprisoned where I live because of all the loud streets. I can only tolerate walking on certain streets for so long until I have to retreat into a quieter building or car. This drastically limits my mobility and necessitates the use of a car to get around for the sake of my sanity.
@HSpencer: I find public tennis courts take up far too much real estate for the amount of use they get. I've read a few articles that point out that public tennis courts and golf courses turn out to really be used by a just a small (& well-off) group from w/i a community. Think about it - generally, very few low-income people play tennis or golf. What you end up having is low and middle-income people subsidizing the wealthy -- building playgrounds for those most able to afford their own!
My community has had an ongoing 2-year debate over whether to build a skate park or tennis courts. The skate-parkers presented my thoughts above to the city council. Still, no decision and the city missed out on TARP funds.
Love the simple idea of a walking path. Seems like a realtively low-cost project with low-cost maintenance and liability. The few that I've seen seem to be well-enjoyed by many. Tennis courts not so much.
Often, with these public recreation projects, the decision on what gets built depends on what the city council members themselves participate in. 50 and 60 year old council members don't skateboard.
My city just built a $12 million, 5-story, centrally-located city hall. (No TARP funds were used.) It's 2 miles from my home and probably w/i 4 miles of 90% of city hall employees and city residents. There's not one bike rack or shower in the place. Simply, the decision-makers aren't athletic. These inexpensive ideas never occured to them. It's not part of their lifestyle.
My community has had an ongoing 2-year debate over whether to build a skate park or tennis courts. The skate-parkers presented my thoughts above to the city council. Still, no decision and the city missed out on TARP funds.
Love the simple idea of a walking path. Seems like a realtively low-cost project with low-cost maintenance and liability. The few that I've seen seem to be well-enjoyed by many. Tennis courts not so much.
Often, with these public recreation projects, the decision on what gets built depends on what the city council members themselves participate in. 50 and 60 year old council members don't skateboard.
My city just built a $12 million, 5-story, centrally-located city hall. (No TARP funds were used.) It's 2 miles from my home and probably w/i 4 miles of 90% of city hall employees and city residents. There's not one bike rack or shower in the place. Simply, the decision-makers aren't athletic. These inexpensive ideas never occured to them. It's not part of their lifestyle.
I walked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. One thing that walking did was change the perception of distance compared to driving. Whenever I would ride with someone in a car, driving made short distances seem long and long distances seem short. It also changed the perception of speed. I'd be gripping the seat when we went faster than 25mph.
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dot_com_vet
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- Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:07 am
I walk about two miles a day on average back and forth to work and to eat and run various errands. I haven't driven a vehicle in four months. This, of course, is all forced considering I'm deployed to a desert base. My point, however, is that your body adapts amazingly well to walking after doing it for a few weeks. I don't even notice it anymore, matter of fact, I enjoy it and look forward to it. It's relaxing and allows me to clear my mind or think about the day ahead of me as I'm walking. I typically walk about .7 miles in 10 minutes (leisurley pace).