Training for 1/2 century

Quoted message said:

I'll be riding the Solvang 1/2 century in 2 weeks. I've been training
since January. This past Saturday I did 55 miles. What advice for my
last two weeks of training. How much riding? how many miles per ride?
how soon before the actual ride should I stop riding? Any advice is
appreciated.

You're already there! You'll find the miles go by more easily on an
organized ride, with lots of other cyclists out there to provide mental
encouragement. Best bet is to just ride for fun, without worrying about
training or goals. The worst thing at this point that you could do would be
to lose sight of the fact that cycling is a fun thing to do.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Glewis said:

I'll be riding the Solvang 1/2 century in 2 weeks. I've been training
since January. This past Saturday I did 55 miles. What advice for my
last two weeks of training. How much riding? how many miles per ride?
how soon before the actual ride should I stop riding? Any advice is
appreciated.

Like Mike said, you're MORE than ready. Why not do the century?!?

I just did the Palm Springs Century a few weeks ago, with zero training OR
planning. Three of us piled in my heap at 3 AM, rolled into town around 6,
and were ready for the 6:40 start. (Naturally, it was more like 7:10 --
could've used that extra :30 sleep!) Granted that's a flat course, but
still...

Start easing up a little on your rides (intensity as well as distance) --
nothing at all day or two before event -- you want to be JONESING to ride
once the time comes. Have fun.

Bill "doing a 42-mile mtb 'epic ride' that day" S.

On 28 Feb 2005 19:58:29 -0800, "Glewis" <[email hidden]> from

urlhttp://groups.google.com/url said:

I'll be riding the Solvang 1/2 century in 2 weeks. I've been training
since January. This past Saturday I did 55 miles. What advice for my
last two weeks of training. How much riding? how many miles per ride?
how soon before the actual ride should I stop riding? Any advice is
appreciated.

You're good to go now. You won't have to do anything special other than have
some good food and a good sleep the night before. Fifty-five miles will just
begin to touch your long-distance reserves. You probably won't even have to
eat on the bike.

Congratulations! You did it!

Glewis said:

I'll be riding the Solvang 1/2 century in 2 weeks. I've been training
since January. This past Saturday I did 55 miles. What advice for my
last two weeks of training. How much riding? how many miles per ride?
how soon before the actual ride should I stop riding? Any advice is
appreciated.

Taper off for the last four days. Your only concern is leaving your
event on the training field. IMO, given the excitment of the event which
will pull you through, you can do the full century.

If you've already ridden 55 miles you're certainly ready to do 50. You
may want to go for the metric century or a 75 mile ride if offered. If
the course is flat you could probably do the hundred. After doing a 75
mile ride last summer I know i could have done the century but time and
weather were a concern. There is nothing worse than riding in an event
such as the solvang and thinking "I shouldve done the xxxx mile
ride"!!!

If you can do 55, I'm fairly certain you can do the 100.

I'm counting on that theory being accurate. I'm doing the full
Solvang Century, too.

See you there . . . and I don't want to see you turning back at the
half-way point ;-)

Paul Cassel said:

Glewis said:

I'll be riding the Solvang 1/2 century in 2 weeks. I've been training
since January. This past Saturday I did 55 miles. What advice for my
last two weeks of training. How much riding? how many miles per ride?
how soon before the actual ride should I stop riding? Any advice is
appreciated.

Taper off for the last four days. Your only concern is leaving your
event on the training field. IMO, given the excitment of the event which
will pull you through, you can do the full century.

If you are riding 4-5 days per week, it's probably not necessary to taper
to do a 1/2 century for physiological reasons. It may help psychologically,
b/c after two days off the bike, I'm jonezing. ;-)

If you taper at all, I'd just do an easy spin ride on the day before at 80%
of your normal distance.

What I would suggest doing the first of the last two weeks is increasing
your speed work, if anything. You already have the mileage and if you can
mentally be prepped to ride faster it will be more advantageous.

I say this because several times I was looking for some improvement and I
got the idea to ride faster, and just changing my point of view caused
about a 10% improvement and allowed me to jump my speed up two gears (at
80-90rpm). I think at times we get mentally 'lazy' and end up 'slogging'
too much. For some reason, spinning up to 90rmp cadence and going up a gear
seems many times nearly as easy as riding in autopilot.

The thing to be aware of in my experience is to deal with the post-event
drop off in your riding. For some reason there seems to be a bit of a
mental drop-off after the high of riding the event - plan ahead to go ride
your normal routine the following week, but don't push it the first couple
of days. Even if you just get on and ride 30 minutes the following day, it
will help stave off this effect, I've found.

jj

Glewis said:

I'll be riding the Solvang 1/2 century in 2 weeks. I've been training
since January. This past Saturday I did 55 miles. What advice for my
last two weeks of training. How much riding? how many miles per ride?
how soon before the actual ride should I stop riding? Any advice is
appreciated.

YOU'RE READY!!!! Congratulations on doing 55 miles. That's a great
milestone, and you should feel proud of yourself.

Some gurus might disagree... but my belief (and it is shared by many)
is that anyone is capable of doubling their longest training ride.

Accordingly, you should try the century. Your legs will be fine. The
biggest challenge will be how much your butt will hurt. Not much you
can do about that except tough it out. But you can do it! Go for the
100!

Even if you don't ... you're so ready for the half that you'll be
amazed how easy it will be for you.

And, if you don't do the century this time around... do one later this
year! You can do it, and you'll love the feeling of accomplishment.