Oh also the easiest part of the ride for me was the last 15 miles. I got a second wind plus i was high on exhaustion. I stopped riding at exactly 100 miles but i felt great like i could have kept going. I think that is pretty common so you have that to look forward to when you start feeling like "uhgh when is this going to end!?"

I stayed off the bike two days before my centuries. Pre-meal was big the night before but not crazy and mostly carbs. Before the ride I normally have 2 cups of strong coffee, 2 cups of oatmeal, 1 cup of yogurt, and a bagel. Also a banana if available. Don't forget the morning constitution.

Pace yourself. Start doing longer rides (60-80 miles) and identify what effort you can muster. Figure out how many matches you have and their duration; extra effort for surges, attack, hill climbs, etc. Study the route and identify likely spots where you may burn your matches. Use Ride with GPS and find out the gain. You need conserve as much of your glycogen as you can and make it last the whole ride; you bonk when they are gone and it's not pretty. Scale that back 15-25% for start of the century. You can always increase the effort toward the end of the ride if you are feeling good.

Get used to ride with the group. Find out who has similar capabilities and who you can suck wheels. Learn to draft (get comfortable riding close and identify who you should leave room) and proper signals used by the group.

Use the 10-20-30-40-50 (in km and adjust to your target speed as needed) rule. 10 - hard effort to remain target, 20 - sightly more effort, 30 - on target, 40 - ease back, and 50 - coast (e.g. don't waste energy pedaling hard down hill). Learn to use RPE objectively and it's correlation to HR if you don't have a power meter.

Get use to eating on the bike and keep eat along the way 200-300 cal per 60-120 min. Stay hydrated. Learn your bodies signals on when to eat and drink. Switch up positions during the ride and stretch when possible. Don't have to long of a rest stop (15-20 min tops). Have some TUMS to neutralize craps and Avail (ibuprofen) for soreness/muscle pain. I don't use chamois cream; experiment and get use to it before the ride if you haven't use it before.

Most of my rides I alone 60-80%. For first 20-30 miles I'm with the group but we lose cohesion when we hit the hills. We regroup at designated rest stops but it get pretty fragmented after the first regroup. I'm in between groups. We have three: A, B, and C. Only As & Bs attempt our century group rides (training for the Death Ride). On rides under 60 miles and <50 ft/mi, I can stay with Bs, ~40 miles and < 50ft/mi, I can hang for dear life with the As (~21mph average) on their easy days. Our centuries are typically 80+ft/miles, so I in no man's land quick. Again learn to PACE.

last (imperial) century I did was in the middle of last years TdF Challenge IIRC, so it certainly wasn't something I "tapered" for beforehand, and I was out on the bike the following day as well...

Prep. was my usual longish ride breakfast - bowl of Porridge with a handful of mixed nuts/dried fruit thrown in, and probably a Bagel with some form of preserve on it (jam/marmalade etc)

2x750ml bottles of fluids - one with SIS Go energy drink, the other with a High-5 tablet dropped in. I generally take along a couple of Torq Gels and a Clif Bar, but other than that, I had a Cheese and Ham Panini, cut into 3 "bite sized sandwiches" and foil wrapped individually to keep them "shirt pocked friendly". Stopped at around 60 miles at a cafe, mainly because I NEEDED a caffeine top-up, where I also scrounged a refil of the 2 water bottles (adding a high-5 tablet to each).

On a organised ride, with refreshment stops, frankly, I'd have done it with a couple of spare gels/bars (just in case the food stops at the end had run out because i'm SLOOOW ).

Best advice I can give is, start off 2-3mph slower than you think is comfortable, try and find a group of people riding along at the same pace, tag along, join in, and have a natter with them - company makes the ride go much quicker/easier. When it comes to hills - if there are bigger ones at least - ride up them at your own pace, don't half kill yourself on the first hill just to stay with somebody you only met that morning. And most of all, Enjoy It!

I completed my first century just last month. I ate more carbs than usual the night before, but no junk! My breakfast the day of was pretty normal but I did eat more oatmeal than I usually do. Make sure you stay hydrated even if you don't feel thirsty. Have fun! It's a great sense of accomplishment....

My first century was the Civil War Century through VA/PA. Dude, hilly is not the word. I cried, I walked hills, they ran out of everything by the time we finished. Maybe I should have trained.

Go slow, it's hard, but cadence and a good HR zone are key in long course rides. Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate and fuel, like every 20 minutes or so you'll want to snack. Drafting is awesome, so play nice and draft rather than attack.

Know what the climbs are going to be, look at the elevation gains and understand what they mean before you go.

DZ Nuts is your friend, so too is sun screen (CVS now sells sunscreen in a squeeze pack - genius!)

I have ridden a 96 mile route to our summer cottage 25 times over the past 10 years. I usually ride solo. My (successful) routine works like this: The night before, I'll have a double serving of oatmeal for supper with fruit. The morning of the ride, I may have just a banana before I start. I can't ride on a full stomach. And you always want to have a decent B.M. before you start. I take my first stop at around 33 miles at a gas station. I take a restroom break and buy a medium cappuccino. I eat some of my nuts and dried fruit and refill my water bottle. My break lasts no more than 15-20 minutes. Less if I can swing it. If you break any longer than that, you may start to stiffen up. My next stop is at the 65 mile mark at another gas station. Restroom break, snack, water, refill, and sometimes another cappuccino. (Great energy drink: caffeine and sugar.) It usually takes me around 6 hours to do the actual riding, excluding the breaks. I try to average around 15 miles per hour. Speed and direction of the wind plays a big part of my overall time. My best time, I averaged almost 19 mph. I had a sweet tail wind and I rode 50+ miles of the route in the pouring rain. Nothing to make you go faster than the thought of getting dry and warm when you're done. Longest time was battling an absolutely wicked north wind. Took an hour and 1/2 longer. If it's really hot, you want to make sure you drink enough. Try to take a swallow every 2-3 miles. I had a few of these rides where when I reached our cottage I had nothing in me left to pee. The best tip I can tell you is to enjoy yourself. It's not a race. You are only competing with yourself. You can make it as easy or as hard as you choose. Have fun!!

Excellent - I think you are well along in being prepared for the big one in September!

Start slow (slow and comfortable for YOU) and don't get excited. You only have so many matches. It will be hard to watch people zoom away from you, but relax and enjoy. If at mile 80 you feel good, that's the time to hammer.

Water is all one needs unless there is a medical necessity (see http://sportsscientists.com/sports-science/fluid-heat-thermoregulation/). Mix carbohydrate for a quick pickup; that the only active ingredient that counts in most sport drinks. I tried Nuun on one century and that was enough. I was dehydrated for the latter half of the ride and drink like a horse for the next two days. Never touch stuff like it when I was racing (some 25 years ago) but my mileage was shorter (60-70 miles tops). Was wondering why I reacted opposite to the advertised virtues when I came across studies cited in the post. Besides being a poor college student back then, we scoff at needing Gatorade and such. Even when I was in the army when we were given the choice only the lazy ones drink them and call it quits after 30-60 minutes. Imagine working in 110+ deg F and wearing EPA level C type protection that consist of 3-6mm butyl rubber thick apron, gloves, and gas mask over heavy cotton jumpsuit for four to six hours. Mask was on about half that time (ambient air not SCBA like the fireman uses). Fun times.

Congrats; nice recap too. How was the saddle issue?