Getting ready for your first century

With our first 100-mile ride of the season coming up Saturday (and near-perfect weather in the forecast), many of you will be riding your first century ever. It's quite an experience, one that's unique for each cyclist.

My key piece of advice: Pace yourself. Even though our route is not technically challenging, don't start out riding as if you're doing a 30-mile day. Find a pace that's comfortable ("happy") for you, and save energy for late in the day when you'll need it (and, incidentally, when we might be dealing with some headwinds.)

Here's a random collection of links about people riding their first centuries:

• Door County Century in Wisconsin.
  
• Solvang Century, including many of the roads we'll ride on Day 5.
  
• Death Valley, from a rider who knew when her body was telling her to stop.
  
• And from way back in 1992, some clueless idiot succeeds despite not knowing the first thing about actual serious cycling and doing several stupid things along the way.