how to train for my first century ride ?

glennbo said:

[font=Comic Sans MS]i will be participating in my 1st century ride in june, i've been riding for 3 years and the longest i've ridden is 68 miles, which took me 5 hours to accomplish. I am 39 years old and i do not have a typical bikers body, i am 5 ft 8 inches tall and weigh about 230 lbs. i need tips on how to get in shape for this ride and what type of training regimen i need to follow to --- please provide me any words of wisdom you may have 😎 [/font]

Buy a motorbike? 🙂

There are numerous threads on precisely this subject. For example, cyclingforums.comt329463.htmlOpen ↗. You might want to do a search and read some of these threads first, then ask more specific questions. I'd suggest using the advanced search function, Cycling Training and Power Training forums, with keywords "first century" and see what that gets you.

glennbo said:

[font=Comic Sans MS]i will be participating in my 1st century ride in june, i've been riding for 3 years and the longest i've ridden is 68 miles, which took me 5 hours to accomplish. I am 39 years old and i do not have a typical bikers body, i am 5 ft 8 inches tall and weigh about 230 lbs. i need tips on how to get in shape for this ride and what type of training regimen i need to follow to --- please provide me any words of wisdom you may have 😎 [/font]

I'm a little older than you and 3 inches taller. 2 years ago when I was overweight at 185 pounds I did a century in 6 hrs 45 min with the temperature
in the latter part of the ride at over 30C. I stopped only once for 5 minutes and survived on 3 bananas in total for that day. The last 20 miles were hard in the searing heat and high humidity.
At your height and weight and very little time to do anything, I have to go along
with MB - get a motorbike and think about doing a century next year.😉

glennbo said:

[font=Comic Sans MS]i will be participating in my 1st century ride in june, i've been riding for 3 years and the longest i've ridden is 68 miles, which took me 5 hours to accomplish. I am 39 years old and i do not have a typical bikers body, i am 5 ft 8 inches tall and weigh about 230 lbs. i need tips on how to get in shape for this ride and what type of training regimen i need to follow to --- please provide me any words of wisdom you may have 😎 [/font]

You can do it if you work on increasing your endurance now. Try to do one ride a week of progressively longer distances. Start with 70, then add 5 miles a week until you're up to 85 by late May. Take a week or two to taper down, and you'll be fine.

Don't worry about your speed at all. If you average 13.6 mph for 100 miles, like you did on the 68 mile ride, you'll finish the century in 7:20 minutes, which should be well before the finish line closes down for the day. Even if you're the last rider in, which is doubtful, so what? At our club century, the two guys who finished last out of 400 riders came in with huge smiles. They had accomplished their century goal, and that's all that matters.

[quote="glennbo"][font=Comic Sans MS]i will be participating in my 1st century ride in june, i've been riding for 3 years and the longest i've ridden is 68 miles, which took me 5 hours to accomplish. I am 39 years old and i do not have a typical bikers body, i am 5 ft 8 inches tall and weigh about 230 lbs. i need tips on how to get in shape for this ride and what type of training regimen i need to follow to --- please provide me any words of wisdom you may have 😎 [/font][/QUOTE

Ignore the idiots who say buy a motorbike. I'm not the typical cyclist either, 5'11 and 280lbs, and I've done 2 centuries and numerous metric centuries. Bicycling magazine has a 10 week program to riding your first century. Do a google search and you'll find it. If you've already ridden 68miles at one time then you are much farther along than I was when I started training for my first century.

Two key questions. One, what is the course and specifically how much climbing? Two, are you riding alone or with one or more others? Climbing and drafting are huge factors, especially if the distance is a stretch for you.

Well there you are MB, we're both idiots. Must be nice to be intelligent like Cali.😄

RapDaddyo said:

Climbing and drafting are huge factors, especially if the distance is a stretch for you.

Boy, that's sure true. My very first century ride was a couple of weeks ago. I live 200ft above sea level in North Carolina but flew to Utah to ride what ended up being a surprisingly hilly century course (about 7500 feet of climbing according to my Garmin), the last 15 miles into a stiff headwind. I rode almost the entire course w/o any drafting--mostly because I was solo much of the time. The combination of the altitude change, the hills, the wind, and the lack of drafting made it more challenging than I was expecting... but I will say that I still finished without any major aches, pains, or soreness.

Bottom line: from now until June is plenty of time to prepare if you've already gone nearly 70 miles. Just slowly increase your long ride, take your time on the course, and feel free to stop at all the rests for food/stretching/recovery.

--Steve

ZimboNC said:

Bottom line: from now until June is plenty of time to prepare if you've already gone nearly 70 miles. Just slowly increase your long ride, take your time on the course, and feel free to stop at all the rests for food/stretching/recovery.

Good advice. I would only add: (1) find a course with a total of ~100' of climbing and (2) draft behind three sumo wrestlers.😄

RapDaddyo said:

Good advice. I would only add: (1) find a course with a total of ~100' of climbing and (2) draft behind three sumo wrestlers.😄

Besides the training a very important aspect I would like to put some stress on is food. Train yourself to feed yourself on the bike. Most of the times I have been tired on the bike on 3+ hr endurance rides was simply due to lack of proper nutrition.
Otherwise get out there and have fun! You can do it.

glennbo said:

[font=Comic Sans MS]i will be participating in my 1st century ride in june, i've been riding for 3 years and the longest i've ridden is 68 miles, which took me 5 hours to accomplish. I am 39 years old and i do not have a typical bikers body, i am 5 ft 8 inches tall and weigh about 230 lbs. i need tips on how to get in shape for this ride and what type of training regimen i need to follow to --- please provide me any words of wisdom you may have 😎 [/font]

ride one before u do it? 😕 🙄

dhk said:

You can do it if you work on increasing your endurance now. Try to do one ride a week of progressively longer distances. Start with 70, then add 5 miles a week until you're up to 85 by late May. Take a week or two to taper down, and you'll be fine.

Don't worry about your speed at all. If you average 13.6 mph for 100 miles, like you did on the 68 mile ride, you'll finish the century in 7:20 minutes, which should be well before the finish line closes down for the day. Even if you're the last rider in, which is doubtful, so what? At our club century, the two guys who finished last out of 400 riders came in with huge smiles. They had accomplished their century goal, and that's all that matters.

This is very encouraging...considering that last saturday i my long ride was 3hrs. sunday i rested...monday i did a 40min light spin on my trainer and today i did an hour and a half ride with some decent hills. my goal is to ride tue, thurs, and sat with sat. being my long ride i'll increase it by 5miles every week like you suggested.

one other thing i want to shed at least 20lbs by june 3. a few years ago i dropped 40lbs in 13 weeks by cutting out all sugar and carbs. this time i'll need those carbs for fuel... any suggestions on what my diet should look like to achieve the weight loss with out compromising my fuel levels?

[quote="cali-largeguy"]

glennbo said:

[font=Comic Sans MS]i will be participating in my 1st century ride in june, i've been riding for 3 years and the longest i've ridden is 68 miles, which took me 5 hours to accomplish. I am 39 years old and i do not have a typical bikers body, i am 5 ft 8 inches tall and weigh about 230 lbs. i need tips on how to get in shape for this ride and what type of training regimen i need to follow to --- please provide me any words of wisdom you may have 😎 [/font][/QUOTE

Ignore the idiots who say buy a motorbike. I'm not the typical cyclist either, 5'11 and 280lbs, and I've done 2 centuries and numerous metric centuries. Bicycling magazine has a 10 week program to riding your first century. Do a google search and you'll find it. If you've already ridden 68miles at one time then you are much farther along than I was when I started training for my first century.

netscriber said:

Besides the training a very important aspect I would like to put some stress on is food. Train yourself to feed yourself on the bike. Most of the times I have been tired on the bike on 3+ hr endurance rides was simply due to lack of proper nutrition.
Otherwise get out there and have fun! You can do it.

thanks, i'll do it

glennbo said:

This is very encouraging...considering that last saturday i my long ride was 3hrs. sunday i rested...monday i did a 40min light spin on my trainer and today i did an hour and a half ride with some decent hills. my goal is to ride tue, thurs, and sat with sat. being my long ride i'll increase it by 5miles every week like you suggested.

one other thing i want to shed at least 20lbs by june 3. a few years ago i dropped 40lbs in 13 weeks by cutting out all sugar and carbs. this time i'll need those carbs for fuel... any suggestions on what my diet should look like to achieve the weight loss with out compromising my fuel levels?

You're correct you'll need carbs for fuel while training. Suggest you don't try to lose 20 lbs of weight quickly by going on Atkins. To maintain energy, would suggest you cut no more than 500 calories a day from your diet, and not worry about the resulting weight loss. Keep the good protein and low-gylcemic carbs, cut the fat and sugars back... chips, snack foods and desserts go first. You can lose a lb or two a week this way, and that's plenty. But you likely know this stuff already.

Don't ride too long during the week, keep extending the saturday rides, and you'll be ready. You might make one ride during the week slightly faster, maybe 1-2 mph over your normal pace, but not more than that. Also suggest you make your longest-ever ride two weeks before the event, then cut back on the final training Saturday to maybe 50-60 miles. You want to taper and recover for the century, not go in tired and overtrained.

During the event, stay hydrated and fueled (but not too much), and keep to your steady aerobic pace despite seeing faster groups pass by. It's easy to get excited and go out too hard, only to suffer and slow down on the second half of the ride. If you can find a group going at your pace, or slightly faster, hook up with them and draft as much as possible.

glennbo-
#1 - you can do it!
#2 - i am 40, 5'7'' and 220 lbs and have been thinking about a century at the end of summer and you're motivating me to do it. thanks, man.

check out my new ride...
fujibikes.combikes.aspOpen ↗

any thoughts on this bike or fuji in general?

ride on, people.

glennbo said:

This is very encouraging...considering that last saturday i my long ride was 3hrs. sunday i rested...monday i did a 40min light spin on my trainer and today i did an hour and a half ride with some decent hills. my goal is to ride tue, thurs, and sat with sat. being my long ride i'll increase it by 5miles every week like you suggested.

one other thing i want to shed at least 20lbs by june 3. a few years ago i dropped 40lbs in 13 weeks by cutting out all sugar and carbs. this time i'll need those carbs for fuel... any suggestions on what my diet should look like to achieve the weight loss with out compromising my fuel levels?

In March I went on Atkins and it definately affected my cycling for the first month. It took awhile for me to get to a happy medium in regards to my fuel consumption when riding. Now what I do is the night before a long ride, for me friday, I eat a moderate amount of carbs. Not carbo loading like i used to . During the ride i have some lo carb bars i eat, and bananna's and peanut butter. These are all good carbs that my body burns while riding. During the rest of the week I stick to the regular Atkins diet. I have dropped 20lbs following this regime since March 1st. It took a few rides where I bonked for me to work out the correct balance. Since you are training for a century in June I wouldn't mess with your diet right now as you don't have enough time to properly adjust. Eat properly, cut out the junk food, and you'll see some weight loss. Then after the century ride you can start dieting. Just my 2 cents though.

glennbo said:

This is very encouraging...considering that last saturday i my long ride was 3hrs. sunday i rested...monday i did a 40min light spin on my trainer and today i did an hour and a half ride with some decent hills. my goal is to ride tue, thurs, and sat with sat. being my long ride i'll increase it by 5miles every week like you suggested.

one other thing i want to shed at least 20lbs by june 3. a few years ago i dropped 40lbs in 13 weeks by cutting out all sugar and carbs. this time i'll need those carbs for fuel... any suggestions on what my diet should look like to achieve the weight loss with out compromising my fuel levels?

Just to be clear, losing 20lbs will only affect you in the century if the route has a lot of climbing and I strongly advise (anyone) against a first century with much climbing. Not to discourage you from trying to lose 20lbs, just to help you understand the effect (or lack of effect) on your performance in the century. Now, if your century has a lot of vertical and you are also overweight, then you really know how to pick a challenge.

cali-largeguy said:

In March I went on Atkins and it definately affected my cycling for the first month. It took awhile for me to get to a happy medium in regards to my fuel consumption when riding. Now what I do is the night before a long ride, for me friday, I eat a moderate amount of carbs. Not carbo loading like i used to . During the ride i have some lo carb bars i eat, and bananna's and peanut butter. These are all good carbs that my body burns while riding. During the rest of the week I stick to the regular Atkins diet. I have dropped 20lbs following this regime since March 1st. It took a few rides where I bonked for me to work out the correct balance. Since you are training for a century in June I wouldn't mess with your diet right now as you don't have enough time to properly adjust. Eat properly, cut out the junk food, and you'll see some weight loss. Then after the century ride you can start dieting. Just my 2 cents though.

Cali,
you're 2 cents makes a lot of sense to me. thanks for the suggestions