Todd:
In general I have a pretty good recall of various topics and thoughts from long ago posts, but I don't remember that one. You are the man!!
And my "longings" for Mariella have been well controlled. Focus was on getting Lynn a pair of Progressor 8's and on biking. Mariella is suffering (silently, I hope) in the darkened silence of storage.
I can understand how concerned you probably are about that many miles on a bike. It was only my first full year of riding when Lynn and I decided to take up Glenn's invitation to do a Metric Century at his Farm Ride in August. But she is right, committing to do the ride was the necessary first step, because from there the focus becomes one of "what training do I need to do" in order to
even have a chance at completing this, and Lynn was a little bit hesitant as well, especially since in her world of Marathons and Triathlons you always train at longer distances than you are targeting to compete at. I had aspirations of doing a 50 mile ride prior, never worked out. Lynn and I did a couple of 40 mile rides (from Central Park across the GW bridge to Piermont and back) that included some hills. We decided that we felt fit enough after those rides that, given another food and rest break, we could add another 20 miles (and having the bail out option of the SAG wagon was considered a real possibility).
Lynn is very consistent in cadence and speed, and was good about taking the lead and holding me back to a steady pace, and we did amazingly well. Our group even turned around at one point and rode back into a town to stop at the local ice cream parlor (sort of a self manufactured rest stop). And, surprisingly, we were in the top 25% of arrivals (multiple ride distances). Both of us were able to get massages before things got really busy.
Near the end of the ride, Lynn rode up beside me and asked how I was doing. I told her amazingly well, considering. About that time another woman came muscling by at a slow cadence, and Lynn decided to pace her. I had forgotten that she had said all along that she wanted to finish the ride strong. I tried to catch up, but couldn't handle the pace and I don't think I saw her again for the remaining 3 miles!! It was very good for my humility to see how quickly they dropped me. -- but she couldn't do that now!! --
What helped me the most wasn't riding long rides so much as thinking of it as multiple 20-25 mile rides. So I would ride 20, take a 15 minute break and ride another 20. And I was amazed to find that I felt that I had enough left that I could ride another 20 after a second 10-15 minute break. And we did. Ohhh, and I unintentionally dropped her on the 6 mile ride back to the hotel after the "end of the ride" dinner at the namesake farm.