Training for a Century (my FIRST!)

Hey ladies! I am new to cycling and LOVE it! I have posted on here before (about clipless pedals) and found the information wonderful, so I have decided to post again!

I have decided to work towards riding a century ride (not a race) on Sept 6th. Right now, I can bike about 20 miles in 90-120 minutes, depending on the terrain and wind speed/direction. As a novice cyclist looking to complete a HUGE cycling feat in 4 months time, I would appreciate any advice regarding proper training schedules and/or goals, pre-, post- and on-bike nutrition, etc etc. I'd love to hear about others' century rides and training. Any wisdom you can give me would be great! Any help finding books or websites regarding century training would be great too!

Also, I wanted to know if anyone in MN (specifically the twin cities area) is training for endurance rides like a century and if they would like to train together occasionally or just motivate one another? OR, does anyone in MN know of some good, safe, long training ride routes?

I hope to hear from some of you soon! Thanks!

Jen

Slowly increase your mileage by about 10 - 15% each week. Work toward long rides on the weekends. Do you know what the terrain of the century will be? If it is hilly make sure you incorporate hills into your training rides. I found it helpful to keep a riding log (bikejournal) for it allowed me to see the progress I was making as I worked toward my first century. Since it is an organized ride make sure you learn to ride in a group. See if your local bike club offers a "new rider clinic."

Think of your century as being 4 twenty-five mile rides back to back. If this is an organized ride they should have SAG stops about every 20-25 miles. Keep your stops short but long enough to get off your bike, grab something to eat/drink and visit the restrooms. I try to keep my stops around 15 minutes or so. If they have a true lunch stop keep it to about 30 minutes.

The biggest thing to remember is to have fun! It is no a race so ride your ride. Don't allow yourself to get caught up in a pace you can't maintain throughout the day. If you start out to fast you will be dead early in the day.

Hope this helps. Just know once your are bitten by the "century bug" you will be infected for the rest of your life! It is a great infection to have.

I am training for my first one as well. When I started, I was doing 15 mile rides and now I can do 65 by myself in very hilly terrain with no problem. I did a flat ride of 73 and that is my longest to date. I would increase my longest ride each week by 3-5 miles. Then I would set distance goals that were doable but challenging a month out. So, set yourself a goal for the first week of June that is much longer then you can do now. You can do it! Sept is forever away!

Brenda

PS Keep a log, great idea, I use one too.

I'm training for my first century as well - Labor Day weekend - there is one coming up Memorial Day, but I know I'm not ready for that yet. I've just started riding and loving it. I know here they break it up into 4 25 mile sections here, I'm looking forward to it, but nervous as well since I feel like I have a long way to go in the training department.

How much do you log keepers record in your log?

I just do it in WORD on my computer. I do: ride time, distance, average speed , and comments like where I went and how I felt or the weather conditions like wind etc.

Brenda

I responded to your other thread which was the same as this one. So, I moved the response over here.

So, training for a century is like any other training. Your first century, you will not be trying for great speed, but endurance, so you probably just want to train your endurance, first and foremost. So if you are riding 20 miles now and you have 4 months to train May June July August and September, what you want to do is gradually up your mileage on the weekend and various days in succession. How many days a week do you ride now and how far?

So if you ride 20 miles on the weekend and a couple of times during the week, what you want to do is this:

Gradually, up your mileage and time in the saddle.
Up next week to 20 miles on weekend, and three other times during the week go for a ride - 20 miles if you can, if not get what you can in during the week.
The second week, do the same during the week and then try for 25-30 miles on the weekend.
The third week, do one ride during the week that is a little longer than you have been doing, do a 30-35 mile ride on the weekend.
The fourth week, take a little breather - i.e. do 3 smaller rides during the week and a 20 miler on the weekend. Do these rides as slowly as you would like. This is your rest week.

The next month
Do one ride during the week that is a little longer than you have been doing, do the rest shorter, and do a 40-45 mile ride on the weekend
Second week Try to add hills or harder efforts on one of your weekday rides; do 45-50 ride on weekend
Third week, do regular rides on the week and do 50-55 mile ride on the weekend
Fourth week is your rest week again. do regular rides and an easy flat and at your leisure 30 miler on the weekend.

The next month
First week: Do one ride harder and longer in the week, do a 55-60 miler on the weekend
Second Week - Do one ride harder and longer in the week, do a 60-65 miler on the weekend.
Third Week - Do as much as you feel you can during the week and do a 65-70 miler on the weekend.
Fourth week - is a rest week, take it easy, ride if you want a little, don't go too far on the weekend. YOU ARE ALMOST THERE

If you can ride 70, you can ride 100. NO doubt about it!

So you can see that you are now into August - If this schedule is a little too much ramping up for you, slow your increases down a little. Rest is the key in getting better. This schedule will have you off on say a friday, Sunday and a wednesday so you will have rest. and make sure the 4th week in the training in each month is at an easy pace and your are not going too far so that your body has a chance to recuperate and get stronger.

spoke
You can see, that this type of schedule (which is called periodization) has some very basic attributes. You slowly increase your workload for three weeks in a row (Gradually do not do too much at once); then you have a 4th week which is what you call and active rest week. Then, you go back into your build phase again, three weeks of gradually building on the base and a fourth week of easy going riding to rest and let your body build on the gains it has made. Take an easy week right before the century, don't stop riding but just taper it off and take it easy.

Again, you do not have to ride 100 miles before the century. If you can ride 70-75, you can ride 100. Your neck might be a little stiff, but YOU WILL MAKE IT and your WILL BE VERY HAPPY!

www.bikejournal.com

+1 on what's already been said... YOu don't have to work up to 100 miles all the way... marathoners don't practice by running 26 miles ;) I b'lieve a general rule of thumb (though humans have a fair amount of variation) is that for a special event wtih food and rest stops you can go 3 times as far as what you could go on a normal day - so when you get to the point where a 35 mile ride doesnt' leave you tired out the next day, you're probably ready to taper down and do a 100 mile ride. Or you might find that you want to do 35 miles every day :)

(unlike marathons, you don't need the same kind of recovery time, either. Cycling is a lot easier on the bod.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by motochick

I am training for my first one as well. When I started, I was doing 15 mile rides and now I can do 65 by myself in very hilly terrain with no problem. I did a flat ride of 73 and that is my longest to date. I would increase my longest ride each week by 3-5 miles. Then I would set distance goals that were doable but challenging a month out. So, set yourself a goal for the first week of June that is much longer then you can do now. You can do it! Sept is forever away!

Brenda

PS Keep a log, great idea, I use one too.

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Motochick,

What is the ave speed/difficulty level that you train at? I am wondering because I have never trained for an endurance sport before (I've been a hockey player for over 15 years).

Thanks!
Jen

Quote:

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Originally Posted by makbike

Slowly increase your mileage by about 10 - 15% each week. Work toward long rides on the weekends. Do you know what the terrain of the century will be? If it is hilly make sure you incorporate hills into your training rides. I found it helpful to keep a riding log (bikejournal) for it allowed me to see the progress I was making as I worked toward my first century. Since it is an organized ride make sure you learn to ride in a group. See if your local bike club offers a "new rider clinic."

Think of your century as being 4 twenty-five mile rides back to back. If this is an organized ride they should have SAG stops about every 20-25 miles. Keep your stops short but long enough to get off your bike, grab something to eat/drink and visit the restrooms. I try to keep my stops around 15 minutes or so. If they have a true lunch stop keep it to about 30 minutes.

The biggest thing to remember is to have fun! It is no a race so ride your ride. Don't allow yourself to get caught up in a pace you can't maintain throughout the day. If you start out to fast you will be dead early in the day.

Hope this helps. Just know once your are bitten by the "century bug" you will be infected for the rest of your life! It is a great infection to have.

---

Makbike,

I LOVE SWISS ROLLS TOO! haha

Anyways, when you say increase 10-15% per week, do you mean if I am riding 20 miles, three times a week and then doing a 25 miler on that weekend, the next week I should ride 22-23 miles during training rides and 27-29 miles on the longer weekend ride? Is this correct?

Jen

Wish I was back in MN so I could train with you for my own century.

I'm not sure where you are in the TC's but I was based in St. Paul and so my ride sort of revolves around the river.
A nice starter loops is just around the Mississippi river. I would do loops of these for more distances and because it is easy to make it shorter if you need to. there are several bridges you can cross: the ford bridge, lakestreet bridge, franklin, and others further north but I'm not sure of the names. since the river is on one side and depending on the side of the road you ride on, traffic will not intercept you. the traffic tends to be pretty low anyways. I think this is a supersafe route.


the grand rounds extends that to more of minneapolis.
http://www.byways.org/explore/byways..._n_go_2243.pdf -

there is another route I really like that also follows the river. I only did the shorter 30 mile distances mostly due to traffic. this follows a lot of the mississippi river on the south and west side of st. paul. it is on a bike trail but I usually switch to road because part of the trail was really broken up with a lot of debris- judge for yourself. or maybe they fixed it.

http://www.bikeclassic.org/event/ind...ion=course_map

you can also bike the gateway trail for a real long ride.

m

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jehocu03

Makbike,

I LOVE SWISS ROLLS TOO! haha

Anyways, when you say increase 10-15% per week, do you mean if I am riding 20 miles, three times a week and then doing a 25 miler on that weekend, the next week I should ride 22-23 miles during training rides and 27-29 miles on the longer weekend ride? Is this correct?

Jen

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Jen,

You are correct. I always applied the 10% to my daily mileage. I guess in the end it would not really matter if you applied it to daily mileage or weekly for it would all work out the same in the end.

Jen - I am also training for my first century, July 28. I am starting now, 4 days a week. I'm starting at 10-12 miles on weekdays, 20-25 on weekends, increasing weekday rides by 1-2 miles per week and weekend rides by about 5 miles per week, up to about 60-65 miles. I'm not really planning on doing more than 65 prior to the event day.

I have done multi-day rides in the past, with 70-85 miles per day, but never a full century in a single day. And my last multi-day was 5 years and 2 kids ago, which seems like a lifetime.

Geonz - thanks for the bikejournal link. I've been looking for something like that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madscot13

Wish I was back in MN so I could train with you for my own century.

I'm not sure where you are in the TC's but I was based in St. Paul and so my ride sort of revolves around the river.
A nice starter loops is just around the Mississippi river. I would do loops of these for more distances and because it is easy to make it shorter if you need to. there are several bridges you can cross: the ford bridge, lakestreet bridge, franklin, and others further north but I'm not sure of the names. since the river is on one side and depending on the side of the road you ride on, traffic will not intercept you. the traffic tends to be pretty low anyways. I think this is a supersafe route.


the grand rounds extends that to more of minneapolis.
http://www.byways.org/explore/byways..._n_go_2243.pdf -

there is another route I really like that also follows the river. I only did the shorter 30 mile distances mostly due to traffic. this follows a lot of the mississippi river on the south and west side of st. paul. it is on a bike trail but I usually switch to road because part of the trail was really broken up with a lot of debris- judge for yourself. or maybe they fixed it.

http://www.bikeclassic.org/event/ind...ion=course_map

you can also bike the gateway trail for a real long ride.

m

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Madscott,

Is the 30 mile route you sent have designated bike lanes on the roads?

Jen

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jehocu03

Madscott,

Is the 30 mile route you sent have designated bike lanes on the roads?

Jen

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most of it is road bike lane. you can ride the trails on the river parts that take you off of the road if you like. also there is a quick spurt through downtown St. Paul (not very downtown at all) that is on the road without a bike lane.

if you bike around the rivers you can stay on a bike path the entire time- or close to it.

Madscott, I think Jen was asking about marked bike lanes, in the streets, rather than the multi-purpose type trails.

Last time we were in the Twin Cities, perhaps we were just not in the right places at all, but as relatively new bike riders, like commuting and such, we noticed what we thought was a stunning LACK of marked lanes for bikes!

(Here in Boise, they disappear at all kinds of nasty places, but we sure have lots of them!)

Karen in Boise

Jen, most of the riding I am doing right now is focused on distance and being able to DO the distance. I have always been a masher, so I am working towards spinning at a higher cadence than what feels comfortable. Just to give you an idea, 80 used to feel fast to me. I can comfortably do 90-100 now. I also do a lot of climbing because I live in a valley and have nowhere to go but up. My average speeds are very low because of all the uphills and because I ride them so slow. I rarely ride where I climb anything less than 1900-2000 feet. As of late I have really enjoyed my 4000 ft climbs. Slow and steady!

I think you will do just fine with so much time to prepare.

Brenda

jehocu03, thank you for asking this question. I recently stared riding and looking to do some of the longer rides possibly a century this year also. I live in St Cloud, MN and I feel like I'm the only newbie rider in this city. I have found that doing the rails to trails and some of the rural hilly roads are helpful for me. I guess that doesn't help you in Minneapolis, good luck on the that one.

I've picked up really good information here for the endurance training part from all the responses that you recieved. Good deal.

As for the journal part of it, I've been using http://www.mapmyride.com This site keeps track of a lot of information in one place. I like it because you can actually keep track of your trips on a map and review them later. A little setup work but really easy to use and the information is always available.

Keep up the good work with the training and good luck with the century.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madscot13

Wish I was back in MN so I could train with you for my own century.

I'm not sure where you are in the TC's but I was based in St. Paul and so my ride sort of revolves around the river.
A nice starter loops is just around the Mississippi river. I would do loops of these for more distances and because it is easy to make it shorter if you need to. there are several bridges you can cross: the ford bridge, lakestreet bridge, franklin, and others further north but I'm not sure of the names. since the river is on one side and depending on the side of the road you ride on, traffic will not intercept you. the traffic tends to be pretty low anyways. I think this is a supersafe route.


the grand rounds extends that to more of minneapolis.
http://www.byways.org/explore/byways..._n_go_2243.pdf -

there is another route I really like that also follows the river. I only did the shorter 30 mile distances mostly due to traffic. this follows a lot of the mississippi river on the south and west side of st. paul. it is on a bike trail but I usually switch to road because part of the trail was really broken up with a lot of debris- judge for yourself. or maybe they fixed it.

http://www.bikeclassic.org/event/ind...ion=course_map

you can also bike the gateway trail for a real long ride.

m

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along the river you can have both MUTs and bike lanes. summit is on the road bike lanes.

That's my goal this season. To ride my first century. Great advice here (as always). Thx for posting... I'll be reading and riding right with you (in pedal spirit). :)M