Check, Check, 1-2-3

Circumnavigate Cayuga Lake, the longest of the Finger Lakes, on a bike - check.

Complete first century ride - check.

See Mom happy as a kid on her new bike - check.

Decompress after a long week at work - check.

Discover Snickers makes a dark chocolate version of their beloved candy bar, which saved me in the last 20 miles - check.

Forget to wear sunscreen and receive a burn - check.

Avoid a flat - check.

Out sprint a charging dog 60 miles in - check.

Wave to every other cyclist I saw - check.

Have a great time - check.

Today I completed two major life goals - to ride my bike around Cayuga Lake and to complete a century ride. It was a pretty long and strenuous week at work so when I woke up this morning and saw the forecast for a perfect day to bike, I thought "What the heck, let's give this thing a go." I googled a route and this MapMyRide website came up. My route differed only slightly, with a detour to say hi to Mom and Dad and a number of stops to stuff food in my face (which I didn't bring enough of...). The highlights of the day included stopping by to see Mom and Dad - Mom was acting like a little kid on her new bike; outsprinting a charging unleashed dog at around mile sixty - I think he was old and out of shape, kind of like the rider he was chasing down; and avoiding the dreaded bonk at mile 80 by purchasing a Dark Chocolate Snickers bar even though it cost me the same as what two regular Snickers had earlier in the day - highway robbery comes to mind.

I chose to start in Ithaca because I thought it would get most of the big climbs out of the way early in the ride. This was true for the most part but 34B drops into Lansing and then climbs f-0-r-e-v-e-r out until the right onto Sheldon Road. That climb about did me in... I made a big effort to try to drink frequently (every 10 to 15 minutes) and eat something every 45 minutes or so. Toward the end, the drinking fell off but the food intake picked up. I consumed two Snickers, a Power Bar, a Gu gel, two and a half water bottles of Gatorade and 3/4 a liter of Pepsi. I am finding caffeine to be a real boost to my ability for finishing the longer rides I've done this year. This is probably some form of cheating but I'm going to go with it for now.

It was a very picturesque ride although my camera batteries died so I didn't bring it with me. Next time. 

All told, it was 6 hours and 40 minutes of riding for just over 102 miles, averaging 15.3 miles an hour. I was averaging up in the 17mph range but fell off with the climbing at the end.  This puts me over 500 miles for the season, well off last year's pace but I've been pretty busy during the week and there isn't a trail out my front door like there was in Rochester...