I just finished a century today, first half pretty flat, second half some rolling hills and of course wind. It took me 6 hours, 57 minutes total time with three rest stops. I only stopped long enough to fill water bottles, mix in some Hammer Gel, grab some food and take a pee then off I went, no lounging around on the grass. A sub 6 hour century has eluded me for years, been trying for 18 years and the best I could do is 6 hours, 32 minutes once on a totally flat century on a day that I was feeling real good.
So what's the secret? How do you train for a fast century. I use a heart rate monitor to guage my effort so I don't blow up before the end of the ride.
Originally posted by melvyng I just finished a century today, first half pretty flat, second half some rolling hills and of course wind. It took me 6 hours, 57 minutes total time with three rest stops. I only stopped long enough to fill water bottles, mix in some Hammer Gel, grab some food and take a pee then off I went, no lounging around on the grass. A sub 6 hour century has eluded me for years, been trying for 18 years and the best I could do is 6 hours, 32 minutes once on a totally flat century on a day that I was feeling real good.
So what's the secret? How do you train for a fast century. I use a heart rate monitor to guage my effort so I don't blow up before the end of the ride.
Originally posted by melvyng I just finished a century today, first half pretty flat, second half some rolling hills and of course wind. It took me 6 hours, 57 minutes total time with three rest stops. I only stopped long enough to fill water bottles, mix in some Hammer Gel, grab some food and take a pee then off I went, no lounging around on the grass. A sub 6 hour century has eluded me for years, been trying for 18 years and the best I could do is 6 hours, 32 minutes once on a totally flat century on a day that I was feeling real good.
So what's the secret? How do you train for a fast century. I use a heart rate monitor to guage my effort so I don't blow up before the end of the ride.
Mel 😕
Mel
I was in a similar situation to yourself, although maybe slightly faster, chasing a sub 5 century and not looking likely to get it. Well I entered a 100 mile TT and what do you know 4:45 and should have been quicker just forgot to eat. The point is entering a timed event focuses the mind and makes you work harder to achieve a good result. Give it a try
Faster bike? More miles would be the first advice, or faster 🙂 If it were me I would do the math. How fast do you have to go in each 15 minutes? Get ahead of that in the first 15 minutes and just keep going. Have you ever gone out too hard? If not, take the negligible risk of upping your overall effort and pace.
Another idea --ride with somebody who *has* done it (both in training and on the century)
my stepdad rides 750 miles at one time. I am getting into cycling and he tells me the secret of getting a faster century is keep on training. He has a coach and tells him everything the caidence the heartrate and everything to do in a wekk. keep on tranin for 100 miles and then one time just say i will do it in this time and try as hard as u can. the more u train the more u are getting used to that ride and it wont be so long to so u can do alot longer ride. oh yeah his fastest time for 100 miles is 4:20
Miles, miles, miles. It's the only way to do it. I just completed a century and posted a time of 05:31:30. That's about 18.2 mph (101.1 miles). I trained for it by doing over 600 miles a month for six months. The course was pretty hilly to boot (western PA). Simple math tells you that if you're not averaging 18+ mph, you're not going to do it.
You might also want to consider drafting to save energy. If you could find two or three friends to ride the century with, you could all ride much faster. Drafting in a pace line saves upwards of 30-40% of your energy. I did a century with four other strong riders earlier this year and we completed the route in 04:40:25. At times we were speeding at 26-28 mph. Speeds we would never be able to achieve alone.
Originally posted by melvyng I just finished a century today, first half pretty flat, second half some rolling hills and of course wind. It took me 6 hours, 57 minutes total time with three rest stops. I only stopped long enough to fill water bottles, mix in some Hammer Gel, grab some food and take a pee then off I went, no lounging around on the grass. A sub 6 hour century has eluded me for years, been trying for 18 years and the best I could do is 6 hours, 32 minutes once on a totally flat century on a day that I was feeling real good.
So what's the secret? How do you train for a fast century. I use a heart rate monitor to guage my effort so I don't blow up before the end of the ride.
Mel 😕
I like the Chris P solution: jump onto a pack going 18 mph and suck wheels the whole time. Apart from that, believe more training miles at your goal pace and above will be the answer. You could start doing most of your training rides at 18 mph, with maybe one fast session a week where you push 19-20 mph for a shorter distance.
You mention using a HR monitor. What zone or % of max are you riding? Have you tried just going harder, ie into your LT zone? As Geonz said, if you hold 18 mph for 80 miles, and then blow up, you're not really out anything.
