Training for my first Century this August

Hello fellow cycling women! I bought my first road bike on 2/10/10, but before that, I was riding a mountain bike since last summer. I've been increasing my weekly mileage since I bought my new bike.

Lately, a typical week for me has been riding 4x/week, 2 or 3 of the rides are 2 hours and I can usually cover about 23 or 24 mi. I am doing a long ride on the weekends, and now I'm up to 45 miles. I'm averaging about 10-12 mph on these rides. I'm excited about the event, but at this current speed, I'll be lucky if I complete the ride in 8 hours.

Soooo, my questions are will my pace improve in the next few months with riding 4X/week? I am a full time student now and I plan on increasing my training when this current semester ends in May. I know I need to push myself but a lot of times I'm afraid I'll over do it. I'm still getting the hang of my new bike and the clipless pedals. So far, if I ride more than two days in a row, I'm getting pretty sore. Might help to add I'm in my mid forties and I'm about 80 lbs overweight, however so far, I have lost about 25 lbs!

If any of you can suggest anything I'm leaving out or let me know if I'm on the right track, that would greatly be appreciated. The people on this forum seem eager to help out....thanks in advance!
Liz

Welcome Lizzy Bee to TE. It sounds to me like you are on the right track if you don't burn yourself out. Remember that this is supposed to be fun.

If you are already riding 45 miles and continue training the way you are, you should have no problem doing a century in August. You will also find that your speed will increase with your mileage, strength and endurance. One of the things I enjoy so about cycling is that you can see improvement weekly which makes you want to push harder.

I did my first century (in was actually 109 mi) in a little over 7 hours with a 14.9 average but there are other things to consider besides time and speed. I wasn't prepared for the fatigue and mental stamina it took to complete 100 miles. Somewhere around 80 miles I almost had a meltdown and started cramping. I had to stop every 5 miles to keep my quads from cramping and the biggest hills were in the last 10 miles. I did a lot of self-talk to push through it and finish.

Are you doing this solo or do you have a partner to train with you? I would suggest you have someone experienced riding with you to help you through the last half. I would also suggest you do this on a charity ride where you have support and you don't have to plan rest and food stops.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress! It's an accomplishment to be proud of.

Thank you for your tips. I am looking at a few clubs in my area and I want to stay away from the ones that are "race-oriented." I'm going to check a few out and join their rides to see how I like the group. It's getting pretty boring singing and talking to myself!! Thanks again!!
Liz

What a great thread! I am also eyeballing my first century in July (and another one in Oct., if that goes well), but I'm nowhere near up to 45 miles in a single ride, yet...mostly due to living in the great white North. :p I'm really looking forward to that challenge, but it does freak me out a bit. The cramping thing is a real concern for me, as this was the deal-breaker with all 3 of my marathons. No matter how well-trained I was, how many electrolytes I ingested, or how painfully slow I went-out I hit "pre-cramps" by ~ the 16 mile mark, then the real deal would follow a few miles later.

Ok, so here's a follow up question.....is it better to ride more days (say 6) of shorter rides with one long ride on the weekends or ride 3 longer rides with one long ride on the weekend? Or does it matter? I have read basically these two approaches when training for a century. I could ride more frequently, say an hour a day, my schedule would allow for that. Currently I'm riding 3 two hours rides and my long ride on Sunday.

Any thoughts to share about this please?? Thanks again!!
Liz

I have done several centuries, both as charity rides within a certain time limit before the course closed and on cross country day trips where we started at the crack of dawn and rode until we were a our desination, in one case 15 hours later. Most of the time my speed is about 14-15 miles per hour which should average to just under 7 hours, but that is without any breaks , stops, hills, headwinds, heat, cold, rain etc.

On the first century I ever did which was on the Mississippi Delta in 80+ temperatures, high humidity and with an intermitent 20 mph head wind, for the last 20 miles, I was off my bike for five minutes every 5 miles- just plain old butt rest time.

The best training for me is to first build up to longer periods/ mileage on a bike ie 15 miles without a break, 20 miles without a break, 25 miles a break. My comfortable maximum is 30 miles or 2 hours. Once I can go the distance, then I work on speed intervals over that distance.

Since most of what I do is cross country, endurance is probably more important to me than speed, but at the same time, speed is a factor, especially on rides where the course closes at such and such an hour. If this is the case, quite often they will have a cut off point or time and unless I can make that easily, I won't try for a century. Still it is time to race the cutoff times as well.

The group (womantours.com)that organized the last cross country I did sent aloong a 6 week training agenda which had a good variety of short speed rides, and endurance rides so that by the last week we were up to 6 1/2 hours in the saddle.

I would think best use of your time would be several shorter more intense rides, using intervals to build strength and speed and one or two longer rides for TITs (time in the saddle) time.

Whichever way you go, take comfort in the fact that if you can do 75 miles comfortably, you can probably push yourself to do 100 or more. Have fun and remember to take a day off the bike in between sessions.

marni

Thank you Marni, that helps!!
Liz

Liz,

Congrats on the weight loss that is tremendous!

If you have a chance pick up the April 2010 issue of Bicycling an look on page 35. The American Diabetes Association has published some training guidelines for their upcoming "Tour De Cure" rides this season. The plan they have posted is labeled a "high intensity plan" but don't let that scare you. Simply use it as a guideline for how much time you should be logging on a weekly basis. If you don't like it or don't think it will work for you try bumping your mileage up by at least 10% each week. A couple of weeks prior to your century try back to back long rides (60 - 70) miles.

You shared that if you ride two days in a row you are sore - is this a muscle soreness or is it due to your bike? Did you have you take your bike and sit through a bike fitting (typically take a couple of hours). Is your saddle the proper size? Are you wearing cycling shorts? Having a bike that fits and the proper gear will make each ride a lot more enjoyable.

You are off to a good start, keep riding and have fun! Keep us posted on your progress.

Thanks for the additional info Marcie but I think it's just muscle soreness. I'm riding farther and longer and I'm using clipless pedals for the first time. Seems like with the clipless pedals, I'm using different muscles in my legs. My bike is pretty comfortable. Thanks again!

Liz

I've found cycling is like running. The long, slow rides improve your speed on shorter rides. I forget the name for it, but running books talk about it all the time. My first year I rode 10-12 and after a couple summers, I'm up to 14. Your pace will improve with experience. If you have a GPS, try making one of your shorter rides a "Pace" ride--riding faster for a shorter distance (riding with a faster friend is also good for this--my husband is my training buddy. I'll never be able to keep up, but I can try). Or spending one day a week riding a hillier route will improve your leg strength and make you faster on flat roads.

My first century took 8 hours--there's nothing wrong with that.

Getting in your long mileage is the most important.

Marcie,
Is this the article in Bicycling you were talking about?
http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6...9050-1,00.html

Thanks!
Liz

Liz,

That is the chart that is found on the page I posted. Also along with the chart there was several suggestions for fueling starting 48 hour before the ride, 24 hours, breakfast, snacks, etc.

Hope it helps!