100 Mile Race - Need Help

Just pay off the bet now and save yourself the suffering and humiliation 🙂

Cycling isn't a sport you can cram for and if he's a Cat 3 rider (not a pro license category btw, but still shows dedication to the sport) he's almost certainly been at this a while and there are some smokin' fast 50 year olds out there.

Have fun with the challenge and search these forums for SST (Sweet Spot Training) if you want a good solid way to build cycling fitness. Don't bother with the weights and eat a healthy diet including plenty of healthy carbs daily (think fruits and veggies, not cupcakes). Train regularly like 4 to 6 days per week for a couple of hours per session or more and don't do a lot of slow easy junk miles.

Good luck, but if I were a bettin' man I'd put my money on your friend...
-Dave

Very simply...he saw you coming, as posted above, pay off now and train very hard for next Oct hoping he stops riding. Read a few race results and the Master's Class and their times.....:eek::eek:

.....btw, I'm 50 and it is fun to blast past a "30" something while riding

Farmguy said:

Very simply...he saw you coming, as posted above, pay off now and train very hard for next Oct hoping he stops riding. Read a few race results and the Master's Class and their times.....:eek::eek:

.....btw, I'm 50 and it is fun to blast past a "30" something while riding

We have two guys that cycle with us (there are more in our group in their 50's & 60's) that are incredible cyclists. Last weekend the 67 year old did a 130 mile ultra endurance training ride and ended with an 18 average. I wasn't there on the ride but everyone was talking about it. I was told that he pulled the group the majority of the way and would have had a better overall speed average, but had to slow down and wait for the group on several occasions. I am in awe of the guy everytime I ride with him and struggle to hold his wheel when he chooses to crank it up.

pbb2102 said:

I made a pretty big bet with a 50+ year old guy that I could beat him in a cycling race if I had enough time to train. I am 23, played D1 sports in school so I'm in pretty good shape but I have no idea how to train and have never ridden a bike seriously before. I bought a nice bike a couple weeks ago and have been riding it for a couple hours every couple days and I try to use the spinning bikes in the gym when I can. I realized by getting on the bike these last couple weeks that this is going to be a lot harder than I thought. He is a level 3 pro (I don't even really know what that means) but I'm pretty sure he can average around 22 mph for the 100 mile race, it is completely flat.

Can somebody please help in the basics. I am looking for:

1) Eating - what should I eat throughout the work day (from when I wake up to when I go to bed) also what should I eat before, during and after riding the bike/training - should I be drinking protein shakes, eating snacks...

2) Lifting - how is lifting for cycling different than other sports

3) Training - how many times a week, how long, what should I focus on

4) Supplements - don't want anything too serious

I have until October 10th to do this, I am not even sure if this is physically possible but I would love some help if anybody has any thoughts. Thank you very much in advance.

It'll be a tall order to do this before October 10th... but not impossible. I've seen a few people who are about the same age as you who have been involved in other, non-cycling sports, attain results similar to what you're after in a similar time frame.

Eating - depends on your weight right now. The less weight you have the better but you don't want to try and train on a 1400KCal per day diet either unless you have about 20% bodyfat to lose. For most people just cutting out the junk is fine. Skip the beer and burgers...

Lifting - as you're pretty young and have been involved in sports I'd skip the weights completely. You really don't need them on a bike unless you have an oddball muscle imbalance that predisposes you to a possible future injury.

Training - You need to be able to do ~22mph for 100 miles or put another way able to do 22 mph for a tad over 4.5 hours, so there's a couple of ways you can look at this but if you have a limited number of hours to train try getting a couple of longer rides in at the weekend - maybe 2 and a 3 hour ride and a couple of higher paced interval efforts during the week 2x20minutes - hard.. You also need to be able to do this in the position that you intend to use during the race. If you're allowed aero/tri bars during the ride then use them - if you're not then don't bother training with them. Try to aim for being somewhat comfortable with getting a 3 hour ride in during training at your 'race pace' prior to the ride and during the ride don't go bonkers up the hills - it's all about averaging out the effort.

Nutrition is one very overlooked part of training/racing. Find something that works for you and make sure over the course of a few months that it really does work for you. I dig Hammer Perpetuem - I can drink the stuff all day and use it as a primary source of 'food', using only other stuff only for variety and I find that a drink is easier source of fuel than chewing alot of stuff while riding pretty hard. It's quicker, easier and combines both hydration and nutritional aspects in one go. One key rule is never try to replace everything you use - 300KCal per hour is the absolute max you'll want to eat/drink unless you're 6'6" and 300lbs. Any more and you'll likely end up sitting on the toilet with the squirts after 4 hours, which is almost as bad as not eating enough.

You'll probably need a bike fitting too. As time is of the essence, I'd hunt down you local Specialized Body Geometry Fit dealer (or similar) and get them to give you the once over on the bike and set your shoe/cleat position.

Supplements... It depends on what state of health you're in. Probably wouldn't hurt to make use of your medical insurance (if you have it) and get the doc to run a full blood panel and check for any deficiencies and take it from there. I wouldn't go wolfing down a bunch of vitamins and iron tablets in the hope that such 'treatment' would be a mini-me version of EPO.

Bike "skills" - get used to pacing and drafting. Get someone to teach you how to ride in a paceline properly and gain confidence in riding a couple of inches off the back wheel of the rider infront without staring at the wheel and how to position yourself in the event of a cross wind. You can save a massive amount of energy doing this. Don't even think of riding on a set of aero/tri bars in a pace line - even the Pro's have trouble doing this as witnessed in the recent Tour de France TTT stage. Brake before a corner - not during, you can carry much more speed when you're off the brakes going around the corner. Get a comfy pair of shoes and mitts and at least one pair of very comfy shorts.

And... have fun. The training will likely hurt like hell after a while but don't forget to take time to rest and recover. Overtraining and getting too tired is almost as bad as not training but it's unlikely you'll get to that stage in this timeframe...

pbb2102 said:

I made a pretty big bet with a 50+ year old guy that I could beat him in a cycling race if I had enough time to train. I am 23, played D1 sports in school so I'm in pretty good shape but I have no idea how to train and have never ridden a bike seriously before. I bought a nice bike a couple weeks ago and have been riding it for a couple hours every couple days and I try to use the spinning bikes in the gym when I can. I realized by getting on the bike these last couple weeks that this is going to be a lot harder than I thought. He is a level 3 pro (I don't even really know what that means) but I'm pretty sure he can average around 22 mph for the 100 mile race, it is completely flat.

As someone else said, your opponent saw you coming!

Assuming that you still want to go through with your bet, read on.

pbb2102 said:

1) Eating - what should I eat throughout the work day (from when I wake up to when I go to bed) also what should I eat before, during and after riding the bike/training - should I be drinking protein shakes, eating snacks...

Eating for training is different to normal non-training eating.

What you need is fuel (food) which is nourishing and which will give you enough energy to allow you to study/work and train effectively.
In terms of weight control, if you can shed weight between now and the race, it will help you to perform more efficiently.

In terms of food intake, I would suggest that you start eating pasta-based foods like lasagne/spaghetti.
These are a good form of fuel and nourishing.
Porridge is another excellent energy source which delivers energy throughout the day.
Cut out alcohol completely if possible - cut out/minimise sweets.

pbb2102 said:

2) Lifting - how is lifting for cycling different than other sports
.

there is no requirement to lift weight - the only weight that you need to lift is to get your carcass on to your bike!

pbb2102 said:

3) Training - how many times a week, how long, what should I focus on

This is the critical part.

You need to start training today.
You need to measure out a plan so that you develop between now and October the ability to complete/race 100 miles.

For any beginner, i would suggest using time on the bike, as opposed to distance covered on the bike, as an initial training target.
Therefore select say a 3 hour ride, as opposed to trying to cover
50 miles.
Time spent on the bike in the initial stages, should be the measurement that you use.

It's going to be difficult to get you up to doing 20mph for 5 hrs between now and October.
But it can be done.
You have 12.5 weeks from today until 10th Oct.

I would aim to be doing the following ;

week 1 : aim to get 15 hours cycling on the bike.
week 2 ; aim to get 20 hours cycling on the bike.
week 3 ; same as week 2.

After three weeks, you will have 55 hours training : say you're riding at 12mph = 660 miles.
I would then start to look at cycling specific distances : start with 40 mile target and see how you get on.
if you succeed, then prgressively increase the distance of your trainnig spin, while maintaining hours/distance on the bike.

Cycling training is a slow buildup of stamina/endurance
Your body needs to acclimatise itself to stress of working hard for several hours at a time on the bike and in order to do this it will need to be training to tolerate the level of work/energy required.

pbb2102 said:

4) Supplements - don't want anything too serious

.

The only supplements I have ever taken was to ward away colds/flu infection.
I take vitamin C and zinc supplements.
You need to ensure that you stay healthy between now and October in order to train.