This podcast episode delves into the profound experience of undertaking day three of Ragbrai 52, aptly designated as the century day, wherein participants traverse over 100 miles of challenging terrain, grappling with formidable heat and relentless headwinds. The narrative unfolds through the lens of psychological strategies that facilitate the completion of such an arduous journey, emphasizing the importance of breaking down the monumental distance into manageable segments. I articulate the necessity of controlling the controllables, as well as maintaining an awareness of pacing and hydration to navigate the day effectively. Furthermore, I reflect on the invaluable emotional support derived from companionship during this endeavor, underscoring how mutual encouragement can significantly enhance one’s resilience. Ultimately, this episode encapsulates the essence of not merely conquering miles but forging deeper familial connections through shared challenges and experiences in the great outdoors.

A profound exploration of the century ride during Ragbrai 52 reveals the intricate interplay between physical endurance and psychological fortitude. Nicholas Kleve, the speaker, recounts the day's taxing journey, characterized by over one hundred miles of cycling through oppressive heat and against formidable headwinds. This formidable undertaking serves not merely as a test of physical prowess but as a canvas for deeper reflections on the nature of perseverance and the human spirit's capacity to overcome adversity. Kleve articulates a pivotal strategy for managing the overwhelming nature of such a challenge: breaking down the monumental task into smaller, digestible segments. By focusing on completing ten-mile increments, riders can cultivate a sense of accomplishment that propels them forward, thereby transforming the daunting prospect of a century into a series of manageable achievements.

Throughout the episode, the speaker emphasizes the enriching experience of companionship during such arduous endeavors. Riding alongside his daughter, Mya, Kleve illustrates the emotional support that emerges from shared struggles. This concept of 'emotional drafting'—the idea that mutual encouragement can buoy one's spirits and enhance performance—underscores the importance of collective resilience in facing challenges. The speaker advises listeners to control what they can, from hydration to pacing, while maintaining an awareness of external conditions that may be beyond their influence. This approach fosters not only physical preparedness but also mental agility, essential for navigating the trials of endurance cycling.

As the narrative culminates, Kleve reflects on the deeper meanings embodied in this century ride. It transcends mere physical achievement, emerging as a poignant testament to familial bonds and shared experiences. The interactions with fellow riders serve as a reminder of the communal spirit inherent in such events, reinforcing the notion that undertaking difficult tasks with loved ones not only forges unforgettable memories but also cultivates a legacy of resilience and adventure. This episode ultimately serves as a clarion call for embracing challenges, reinforcing the belief that through shared struggles, we can deepen our connections and enrich our lives.

Takeaways:

• The most arduous day of Ragbrai 52 was marked by mental resilience and physical endurance.
• Psychologically, breaking down a century ride into smaller increments proves beneficial for maintaining motivation.
• Controlling the controllables during challenging rides is crucial for optimizing performance and comfort.
• Emotional support from riding partners can significantly enhance the experience of long-distance cycling.
• Reframing pain as a testament to perseverance can transform one's outlook during strenuous activities.
• The journey of completing a century ride fosters deeper familial connections and shared legacies through shared challenges.

It hey, hey funky fam.

It's Nicholas Cleave and this is the outdoor funky podcast where we ride, explore and keep it funky.

Today's episode is about day three of Ragbrai 52, the century day.

100 plus miles of grit, wind and mental toughness.

Let's dive in.

Well this ride today we focused on Esther Vild Armstrong, Armstrong to Swee City, then the Bangkok and then we had Tatanka to wooden and then we hit Crystal Lake and from Crystal Lake we actually that's where we broke off in and hit the century loop and then we ended up kind of in, I believe we went through to, let me see here we hit Tatanka again, wooden and back to Crystal Lake and then through Forest City if I remember right.

And so we were just a little over a hundred miles for the day.

What were conditions like?

Well, it had some intense heat in more mid afternoon and we were pushing some headwinds that made this one one of the toughest days.

Now you know, we're three days in.

I'd say it was, it was the toughest day so far.

Now Maya and I crossed the finish line together.

It wasn't a race, but we crossed the finish line of completing a hundred miles side by side, shoulder to shoulder, bike next to bike.

Now let me talk a little bit about the, the psychology of a century ride.

Now I'm no psychologist, I'm no like psych, I'm no medical person, but I think there's some, some basic psychology that goes into being successful with completing a hundred miles in a day.

You don't have to ride 100 miles, you ride the next five or you ride the next 10 or you ride the next 15 or you ride the next three.

You don't, don't focus on, oh, I have to ride 100 miles, I have to ride 100 miles.

If you focus on the big picture, if you have a big goal and you try to focus on the big picture, you're going to get yourself overwhelmed.

I think of there's an old adage about how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

You don't try to eat a whole elephant all at once, right?

Well that same thing with biking a century.

Now my strategy is I break a century day into 10 smaller rides.

So I do my first 10 miles is the first ride and once I'm on my second 10 miles, oh, I got my second ride of the day going.

Once I get to the, my to the third 10 miles up, I got my third ride going of the day and that's how I think of it now, Maya, I was talking to Maya about it and she likes to break it down into three mile chunks.

She chunks it down even more and she's got those mental checkpoints that help keep her moving.

Or sometimes like if she's got five miles or like five miles, she'll say, oh, I got a three mile ride in a two mile ride, easy peasy.

So she tells her, oh, I can do a two mile ride easy or I can do a three mile ride.

And she's constantly reform formatting or reformulating like oh, okay, 10 miles.

Hope I got, I, I got three, three miles rides and then a one mile ride.

You know, she's constantly breaking them down in much smaller increments and that's okay too.

That's what works for her.

And I found that to be beneficial when I kind of looked at it through her eyes.

I like to do 10 mile chunks, she does smaller.

And that absolutely works.

I encourage you if you're doing a big, I don't care if you're running a big, big distance or you're biking a big distance, chunk it down.

Next thing is control your controllables.

You can't stop the wind, but you can shift your mindset.

You can't stop.

You might have a certain distance to go.

You can't change the distance, you can't change the heat, you can't do anything about the weather.

But what can you control?

Well, maybe you need to adjust your gear or make adjustment on your bike or adjust your seat a little bit or make sure you're hydrating early or make sure you're, you're using.

They have something, they have this stuff that you make sure you have your bike shorts on with something called butt butter that you use.

That kind of helps with some of the friction so you don't get like sores in your behind from like rubbing on your bicycle seat, your saddle of your bicycle for so long.

Making sure that you do that, making sure that you put some block on when you're out there.

Because if you don't put sunblock and you're all going to get fried.

You got to take care of your skin and put some of that stuff into it in order to take care of yourself.

That has to happen.

And so that's where I'm talking about controlling what you control here.

There are some things that you just can't control and don't focus on those things that you can't control.

I encourage you to protect your pace too.

And what I mean by protect your pace is that don't get caught up too long in one spot.

If you make too many stops, you're going to just draw out your day longer and so have some, maybe some shorter stops.

If it's a long day and you know it's going to be a long day, give yourself some longer stops and that's okay.

But try to still keep going.

I know it's for.

For us where, where I think we had to get 70 some miles in on a ride before we could to get our patch.

You get a patch if.

If you do the century day and you have to get to the.

To the check in.

It's kind of like a check in, I guess there's a spot on the sentry loop where you pull over and you get there, you show them your wristband and they give you a patch.

And you've got to get to that point by a certain time or you don't get your patch.

And so that's where it's like.

It feels like you're really pushing a lot earlier in the day now.

I ended up taking a little bit of a nap under a tree.

And so once I got to that point, I know I could sacrifice like half an hour we were there probably a little bit longer, kind of getting some water and kind of debriefing and that was okay too.

It was important for us to take a little bit of that extra time there to kind of recover to kind of push through those last 30 miles now.

But I was very mindful of our distance and the time that we had to allow and to make sure that we didn't push it too late in the day.

So those are some things just being mindful.

When I'm talking about controlling what you can control, that's something I could control is being awareness of how many miles I have still and how much time I spend.

How much time we spend at certain stops.

So that's something to think about.

Another thing is doing some emotional drafting now.

There are some miles you mentally pull each other if you're with someone.

So like.

Like there were some miles that I was encouraging my daughter Maya.

There were some miles she was encouraging me.

And I think there's.

When you're with someone, there's power and presence.

Just knowing that someone's riding beside you that can help change everything.

So I feel that someone I'm riding with, with steel with.

With my daughter.

If I'm riding on other rides with other family members or friends.

And so you kind of emotional on bicycle, you can like physically draft people where someone rides in front and if you ride behind them, it makes it where you're not hitting the wind.

And you can cut wind and take turns kind of cutting through the wind.

That's like some drafting on bicycles.

Cars do that, bikes can do that.

But this emotional drafting you can do by kind of helping pull each other along by doing that encouragement.

So that's something I encourage you to think about too, especially if you're doing a long distance ride with someone else to make sure that you're encouraging each other and checking with each other and being that support to one another and then getting that momentum over motivation.

That's right, having momentum over motivation.

Because you don't wait to feel ready, just start pedaling.

There were days I didn't, this morning, for example, I did not feel like starting the century, but I did.

And so motion builds momentum.

And so actually getting your body moving, your head might be tired, your heart is tired, you might not feel like it, but once you get moving, once you build that motion, you, you get momentum.

And boy, does it make a difference on a big challenge day like a century day.

And so that's what I want to encourage you to do.

And one final thing is to reframe the pain.

Every ache is proof that you kept going when you could have stopped.

Now the soreness does fade, the pride doesn't.

I will say this.

I'm not a doctor, I'm not a medical person.

There are times when, you know, if the pain gets to be something, you may have to stop.

I mean, I'm not giving any medical advice here.

I just know for myself and I know for my daughter, you know, there were days that we felt pain.

There was a sore knee or there was other part, I had a sore wrist earlier in the week.

The first couple of days, there's days where you can feel like you're hurting.

And reframing that to the narrative that, hey, you know what, yeah, I'm sore, but I'm going to keep going and kind of reframing that thinking in the part of, you know, that's part of the process.

But once again, there is a time and a place where it's like if, if, if you're gonna, if, if you're gonna do something where it, you gotta know your own body, you gotta know your own limitation.

And there might be a time and place where you have to pull over and you know, they have medical people on Ragbright and I know my daughter stopped, has stopped there and had them check on her knee because she's got a knee that kind of gives her once in a while some trouble and got some.

Had them put some biofreeze on it to kind of help with it.

So.

But it's not like it's the point where she can't work through that.

It's just, you know, pain is kind of, can be kind of a part of.

Part of the process.

And so once again, it's just that proof that, hey, you keep going when you could have stopped.

And so the soreness does fade.

But I say that once again very cautiously, because I don't.

There is a time and a place where you might have to stop or get some medical advice on if you should keep going or not.

So that's.

I encourage you.

But you know, common aches and pains, very typical in rye briar.

You're going to feel sore, you might be hurting.

You might just kind of part of the process.

So.

Final takeaway.

This century ride was more than miles.

It was a moment of connection that I'll never forget.

I. I think about.

I was in line to use the restroom, my daughter was in line to use the restroom when we were at our century checkpoint.

And we were standing there and there was a fella in front of us and his family was there and started talking to him and he was talking to us about his family is big.

They do training and do endurance race events together.

Now, this was like the patriarch of the family.

And he.

He offered advice about the importance of doing hard things together as a family can bring a family closer together.

He talked about doing Ironman with his wife and with.

With his children and other marathons and other races and how much that can impact a family and how healthy that can be for our family.

And he was very touched seeing my daughter and I riding together.

And when I told him that my daughter's the one who wanted to do this ride this year and she really wanted to do the century and kind of pushed us to do the century.

I'm not that hard to convince to do a century, to go after a century.

I like the challenge of it, but I didn't have to convince her.

And that was.

That's great.

But this fella, this gentleman, was very inspired by that, seeing that younger parents are out there doing stuff with their children and doing hard things.

And he encourages us to keep doing that.

And I think that's thinking about doing hard things with my own kids and getting moving.

The hikes we've done, the biking we've done, the paddling we've done the hard times that we've gone through with outdoor experiences, that is bonding, that's connecting.

And to hear another person, another family talk about how important it was to them, that's genuinely very moving to us.

And so it made me realize that we're not just logging miles here.

We're building a shared legacy.

This wasn't just about finishing a century today.

It was about showing my daughter what's possible when we do hard things together.

That's ultimately what it was about.

And my family does have a deep connection to exercise, to outdoor experiences, to nature.

And this ride, this century ride and this whole week just adds to that.

And that endurance is part of our story.

And funk is.

Is part of our family trait.

So as we bring this century day to a close, I want to remind you to go out, explore, be yourself, get outside, get funky.

Bye now.

It.