Need advice on training for a century ride.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Bolo Grubb
Can anyone recommend a good book or web site to help set up my training?

How long should I have to train to be able to do a century? Etc, etc…

I am fairly new to riding and so far my longest ride has been 30 miles. I know I have a long way to go in order to ride a century but have no ideas on training.

There is a Century in Nov and on in April. If possible I would like to ride both. If I do not have enough time to train for the one in Nov then I will skip it or go for one of the shorter options they have for that ride.

Thank you for you help

The Cyclist's Training Bible by Joe Friel has some good stuff in it.

victor

my main goal is to complete the century, having never done one before.

I have plenty of ( I think). My first Century is schedule for Nov 20.

I can ride on the weekends and during the week. Although I work Monday through Friday so I have to train around that, but should not be a problem.

This last weekend I did 20 miles on Both Saturday and Sunday and felt like I could have gone longer but did not want to over do it, just getting started. Based on information from here, other web sites and some of the suggested books, I plan on increasing my "long ride" mileage each week by 10%

Here is my riding plan for just my long weekend ride. You will notice there is a 2 week gap in September, I will be out of the country on Vacation during that time and with out a bike. I will be able to run during that time though to help keep up my conditioning.

Goal Distance
07/10/2004 20
07/17/2004 22
07/24/2004 24
07/31/2004 27
08/07/2004 29
08/14/2004 32
08/21/2004 35
08/28/2004 39
09/04/2004 43
09/11/2004
09/18/2004
09/25/2004 39
10/02/2004 43
10/09/2004 47
10/16/2004 52
10/23/2004 57
10/30/2004 63
11/06/2004 69
11/13/2004 76
11/20/2004 Century

I plan on doing intervals and such during the week. My goal each week is to ride 5 days+ out of 7.

Does this sound good? I am willing to listen too and consider any tips for anyone.

ps I am also planning on running a 10k on Thanksgiving ( the annual local Turkey Trot) so I will be mixing in some running during my cycling training.

Do you think this might be too much? or is the plan sound?

I'm in the Phoenix area also. My goal for 2004 was to do a century, and I probably would have done it if I hadn't ended up pregnant! So my goal got pushed back a bit, and now I am hoping to do the Tour de Phoenix in April - it's a 70 mile or 25 mile ride, rather than 100. I had (briefly) considered doing the Tour de Tucson, but since I will be recovering from a late-August c-section and no riding for months, I don't think I would be ready for that. My longest distance previously had been 34 miles, so I will have a lot of work ahead of me!

Bolo: Your schedule plan for the progressively longer ride of the week sounds good, but I'd be careful with "riding 5 days a week, and doing intervals".

You don't want to do too many miles during the week, so that you can recover and be your best for the long ride on the weekends. Riding 2-3 times during the week for may an hour each should be plenty....I wouldn't aim to ride "5 days +" at all.

A couple of old rules: 1) undertraining is a lot better than overtraining; and, 2) you only get stronger from recovery, not from training. These sound simple, but I'm convinced most of us who train ourselves violate them all the time.

Suggest you don't do any hard intervals during this endurance build-up plan. Just climbing the hills on your long rides will be plenty of hard work. Your goal should be to build up endurance, not speed, so that you finish your first Century without too much suffering. The speed will build as you ride more Centuries.

dhk said:

Bolo: Your schedule plan for the progressively longer ride of the week sounds good, but I'd be careful with "riding 5 days a week, and doing intervals".

You don't want to do too many miles during the week, so that you can recover and be your best for the long ride on the weekends. Riding 2-3 times during the week for may an hour each should be plenty....I wouldn't aim to ride "5 days +" at all.

A couple of old rules: 1) undertraining is a lot better than overtraining; and, 2) you only get stronger from recovery, not from training. These sound simple, but I'm convinced most of us who train ourselves violate them all the time.

Suggest you don't do any hard intervals during this endurance build-up plan. Just climbing the hills on your long rides will be plenty of hard work. Your goal should be to build up endurance, not speed, so that you finish your first Century without too much suffering. The speed will build as you ride more Centuries.

I understand what you mean about overtraining. WHen I say 5 days a week that is 2 rides on the weekend and 3 rides during the work week. I will be on the look out for signs of overtraining.

During the work week I can only get in a hour or so ride before work. So not a lot of miles and how hard I go will depend alot on how I feel. Definately some easy recovery rides during the week.

pyccku, I am also planning on doing the Tour of Phoenix. If I can do the Tour de Tucson then I know I will be able to do the Phoenix one.

I am hoping to go on my first club ride this weekend.

The 10% rule is based generally off of weekly mileage & once you start getting into multiple hour rides. If you can handle 20 miles - in a group you should be able to handle a 30 to 35 on the weekend & then start working up higher (Average miles for the Saturday group rides). FYI - for group rides look at the description - some are no drop some give Average Speeds - for the averae speed ones, make sure you can ride on the flats within a mile of that average speed - riding in a group will help you make up that slight diffrence.
Depending on where you live in Phoenix there are plenty of great rides out there. Might I also suggest that you ride Monday through Thursday & Saturday or Saturday, Sunday & Tuesday through Thursday. This takes into account DHK's comments and allows for a day of rest before the hard day, a day off after the big ride / rides and allows the rest of the time for speed work, etc...
If you start feeling run down make sure you take a step back.The weekend before te El Tour - by all means ride - just don't try to step it up - that allows you a little recovery & hopefully just a little more energy for the ride the next week which you will need. That also applies during the week - cut back on the speed work & ride sensibly instead of "Oh my, I have this ride next week - I need to make sure I am ready - I had better do a few more laps"
November should be doable & I hope to see you there - good luck & let us know how you do.

Doing a century is a goal of mine. I am 53 and after along hiatus am back on the bike. In 1987 I did 83 miles and was about done for the day. I am now giving myself about a year to get ready. I mght be doing the metric century at the Seagull in MD this Oct. Good luck in your endeavour.

doug

I rode in the BP MS 150 this year (180 miles in two days from Houston to Austin, split 100/80). When I was younger, I used to bike all over the place, but I had never seriously done it for exercise. My first organized ride was around this time last year at a distance of 30 miles. I rode around the neighborhood every so often, but I did no serious training for the MS 150 until around February/March, when I started a series of rides that kicked off with a 32-mile ride in about 32-degree weather (brrrr)! From there, I ramped up to about one or two rides every weekend, increasing distance on Saturdays and doing shorter, but harder rides on Sundays for recovery. In March-April, I pretty much had two rides every weekend, from 40 miles all the way up through 84 miles. The idea was to peak at 100 on the MS 150 itself.

I'm confident that as a result of my training, I was able to complete the two days without suffering any injuries or abnormal pain, and ahead of most of the other 13,000 riders.