Going stupidly into a century on crap mileage - doable?

So it's 6 weeks until the first century of the Summer. A year ago I was putting in >100 miles/week and doing long rides of 46-65 miles. Now a good week is about 50 miles...for a multitude of reasons. I've just completed a half-marathon that took my focus for the Spring, but mostly because I've sort of lost my riding partner.

My DH is training for a 100 mile mountain bike race in June and bought a Mukluk this Winter. I really regret encouraging either of those things, to be honest. He's always off riding trails and training. I feel a bit cheated on, truthfully. He knows it and he's feeling guilty--now that he's in Moab and Fruita for 8 days, but it's sort of a too-little-too-late thing and I'm irked. We went through something similar before he bought me my road bike...and everything was great when we had that to do together, but I am in no position to mountain bike with him most of the time...because I'm horrible at it and slow and it's not something we can do with our 11 year old DS (we bought our road tandem so that we could have him along and not have to pay for childcare all the time). So he used to abandon me for long rides with friends on his road bike...then I was able to join in, but now he's off with friends on mountain bikes and mukluks and I'm feeling really hurt, again.

So I spent the Spring sacrificing a lot of rides, since I really loathe riding alone. And the really irritating thing is that the group he rides with are a bunch of people who also loathe riding alone, yet it's OK for the wife to have to do that. :mad: And the rides are generally at least an hour away, so it's even more time that he's gone.

I bailed on my Summer Duathlons plans and am now not sure I'm going to be ready to do a century so soon, either. I'm frustrated, because I feel like I'm sacrificing my needs and wants for him. He turned 40 and is in some ridiculous midlife-crisis state where he feels the need to race himself to death. Somebody please smack me if I act like such a fool in a year. :rolleyes:

What I really want to know, after my oversharing, is if it's even possible for me to do a century if I'm only doing 30 milers as my "long" rides 6 weeks out. Some weeks my mileage is that single ride. It's sad. :o I have decent running fitness (20-30 miles/week for the past couple of months), but have no clue if that would carry over on the bike. I did 3 centuries last Summer and also rode across the state (147ish miles), but I was well-trained for those. Last year I pedaled >4000 miles...this year I'll be lucky if I manage half that many.

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Originally Posted by Muirenn

Sigh, "it's okay for a wife to..." Been there. :)

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He actually had the nerve the other day to text me saying something to the effect of "embrace solo rides" I very snarkily shot back with "oh, you mean like your friends do (he has friends who WILL NOT RIDE ALONE...EVER)?" He didn't respond to that, 'cause he knew that was a really dumb thing to say to me. ;)

You know, speaking of men and women, this is exactly the kind of thing a man wouldn't think twice about. Running marathons on no training at all. How many times have you heard that ... and how many times has it been a woman? :p I met a kid the last time I did TOSRV who said he'd ridden 35 miles that year. Total mileage.

You can do it. You may be sore afterward... but if you want to, you can do it.

(((Zoom-zoom))) If I lived closer or gas wasn't so expensive, I'd drive up and ride with you. (You'd rapidly find out that I'm crazy and talk or sing to myself on rides (artifact of riding alone), but that's okay, right? ;))

I can't offer any advice on the century/training, though.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

You can do it. You may be sore afterward... but if you want to, you can do it.

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I guess I know I can do it...but I don't want to be bringing up the rear and struggling to keep up or forcing others to soft-pedal for all those hours, since it's a sort of social century fundraiser for a friend's scholarship fund in her dad's name. The party doesn't start until everyone is done. It could be a long wait for everyone else... :o

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Originally Posted by Owlie

(((Zoom-zoom))) If I lived closer or gas wasn't so expensive, I'd drive up and ride with you. (You'd rapidly find out that I'm crazy and talk or sing to myself on rides (artifact of riding alone), but that's okay, right? ;))

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Ha, I do that too...sing and talk. I'm sure anyone who sees me gives the crazy woman a wide berth! :p

You have 6 wks. to "harden up". I don't know how complicated it would be to rearrange your schedule to build in more riding daily even if it means cycling for training, as well as cycling for errands with weight, etc.

As for your hubby, let him go to his own cycling.

Though you may think you need the extra motivation/drive to cycle with others in a group, just think abit differently from the standpoint of setting your own time limits to a complete a ride within xxxx hrs.

You seem way more self-sufficient on a bike alone than some of us...enough to probably camp on your own for a few days, cycle-touring.

And maybe one day you'll do it. :D

I am not being facetious....dearie is now cycling in Provence, France. He has been cycling solo in Burgundy and Provence area for over 2 wks. Of course I wish I was with him, but I'm at a different stage in life (not retired vs. him). Late summer he has plans to cycle south from Canada to California (again, he's done this before. This time a different route.)

It's been like this zoom-zoom for nearly the last 10 years. At least once a year, he goes off solo bike-touring for at least wk. or more.

Dumb as this may seem, I'm glad he's cycling solo at his own pace and learning about stuff around him. Because he has no one to share cycling adventures at the end of the day, I'm the willing ear...which I really am, being a cyclist too.

So I take some of his wonderful photos from some trips and blend them with mine for a thematic blog post. :D:) He does the same with some of my photos for his blog posts. :D

Take every advantage of being a cycling couple...either together or temporarily apart.

Live well, every day zoom zoom. Go forth on the bike.

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Originally Posted by shootingstar

Live well, every day zoom zoom. Go forth on the bike.

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That is really excellent, right there.

I wish I liked riding solo more. I LOVE running solo...in some ways I like being solo for a run more than running with people. Then it's at my own pace and I can listen to music or audiobooks or podcasts. On the bike the sound of the wind in my ears starts to make me nuts and I get sorta nervous the further I get from home...paranoid about mechanical issues or a flat. Right now I need to have one of the bottom bracket bearings replaced on my road bike and it's becoming increasingly bothersome. It's an hour drive each way to the shop, so I've been putting it off. But it's negatively affecting my ride quality. I cut a ride short on Thurs. because I thought it was my chain squeaking, but DH said he just cleaned and oiled it recently, so the bearing must be getting worse. It has been just clicking up until now.

The Tuesday night women's rides not far from me have finally started back up. I just need to find a Tues. night that isn't already occupied. Hopefully in a couple of weeks that night will be free.

About the century... I did one with no special training at all. Just my usual riding of anywhere between 12 and 65 mile rides, with short, steep climbs. I think the longest ride I did that year was 68 miles. Sure, the century I did was flattish, but with vicious headwinds. I mean vicious. I finished in 6 hrs 27 minutes riding time, which was fine with me. The last 15 miles were hard, but I was fine the next day.

I just wonder if I can even get up to 60-70 miles before then. Right now I'm mentally done by 30. So different from a year or two ago.

Maybe you shoud do loops near your area if you are afraid of technicals.
This year I had to prepare for a very long mnt bike marathon and since there were rarely people who were eager to ride 8 or 9 hours per day, I rode alone most of the time. I wanted to do the marathon more than I hated to ride alone. So, I took trails that are near my home and did loops so in case of a technical or some accident, I was able to go home quickly.
Changing a flat tire is easy so you can learn how to do it.
I also think you'll be able to do the century but it's always better to be self confident and prepared.
Good luck!

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Originally Posted by shootingstar

..Take every advantage of being a cycling couple...either together or temporarily apart.

Live well, every day zoom zoom. Go forth on the bike.

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Absolutely this, every word, including the rest of the post that I didn't quote.

I love cycling, my husband does it strictly for fitness. We rarely ride together, though hope to do more together when dd starts school in September. I can see while you feel a bit stranded and betrayed. I think that your dh could reasonably be expected to take on the parenting on Tuesday nights, or to organise childcare a couple of times a week so that you can go. Can you take the initiative and put a plan together with him so that he can help organise things for you to get your training back up? Good luck. I think you can do this.

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Originally Posted by hebe

Can you take the initiative and put a plan together with him so that he can help organise things for you to get your training back up? Good luck. I think you can do this.

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That's most likely what I'm going to have to do...say "I'm riding X miles on this day...you can join me or not." I think I need to accept that if I want to ride I simply need to get used to doing it on my own...at least until after the mountain bike race. But this has definitely colored my view on any future races of this sort. It simply takes him away for too much time. It would be bad enough if all of his training were from home, but each training ride is generally requiring 2 hours in the car (and frequently a stop post-ride for dinner with his friends), so that's 2-3 more hours that he's away.

Considering your level of fitness across multiple sports plus the history of having centuries under your belt, I would think you have time to train enough to do this. Perhaps your hardest hurdle will be mental versus physical, but if you want to do it, it will be within your reach. You are an accomplished rider and that speaks for itself.

About the couple time riding issue, well I don't have much to comment on here except to say, if it's possible, I'd try to find some riding buddies besides your DH right now. Who knows, this might prove to be very enjoyable for you, more than you might think.

Best of luck whichever choice you make.

Zoom-zoom - I think you and my husband should have a b1tch-fest together. I think he can relate. He made mention of this to me last night in car when he said that since he's missing out on all the riding he wanted to do this year because of my injury, that he should be able to dictate what we do next year. (wrong!) When I probed further, it was about me doing less triathlon and more riding with him. He's the same way, hates riding alone (but he also sucks at making regular dates to ride with other people). It's really frustrating for me when he started out all encouraging for me to take up tri, and now he's changed his tune.

ANYWAY.... the purpose of this post is to tell you that I would bet you'd be fine. Run fitness does translate to some degree, so you won't be bringing up the rear completely. You will be sore though - and not just your rear. Your shoulders, back, butt, etc...because you won't be used to being in that position for extended periods. BUT, you said that you are done after 30 miles...is that 30 miles alone? If so, then my guess is that you'll be good to about 60+ miles with company. And then you'll just have to suck it up for the last 40 or so if you want to do it. Physically, I think you can and that you won't be totally lagging behind. You may not be setting any PR's, but you aren't completely starting from scratch, either.

Zoom--I do a lunch time ride on Thursdays if you want to meet up. It's only about 25 miles, because I have to get back to work. Let me know if you are interested and I'll send you the details. I'm also hoping to do about a 2 hour ride on Sunday morning/early afternoon.

DH and I have a hard time balancing our schedules too. We both feel like this 100 XC race is pushing us over the edge. Both of us are feeling guilty about taking time away from the kids, each other, the house . . . It's a difficult balancing act.

Hang in there! And I think 6 weeks is plenty of time to train for a century (at least it better be because I'm hoping 4 weeks is enough time for me :eek:). You have a solid base of endurance and strength from your half marathon training. I find that transfers pretty well over to the bike.

As for the century, you can certainly do it, but you may be in pain and you probably won't be as strong throughout as you'd like to be. Cardiovascularly you'd probably be fine because of your running, though. I say train for it and see how you feel as you get closer. Look for other centuries that are after this one and if you don't feel ready for this one, then do one of those. Is there a half or metric option for this first one?

As for riding alone, I have a few thoughts. One is to talk to your husband about giving you at least one day a week, preferably on your long riding day. You might remind him that this is about more than exercise and training. It's also about your marriage and doing things together. Whether its cycling or something else, you really should have something you share together. You might have to both compromise to figure out when you can do that one long ride a week, since the day you want to do it might be on a day he typically does a long mountain bike ride with his buddies. Try to be flexible and hopefully he will too. Also, try not to be irritated during the conversation. Be sweet and tell him you miss riding with him and would love it if he would do this for you.

Another option, of course, is to find another riding buddy. I have both my husband and a good friend of mine who have been riding buddies. My husband is so much stronger than me that I can't do every ride with him. There are some rides he'll do all the pulling on the flats and wait for me at the top of hills. He can stay in his big ring and get a better workout at a slower pace. Sometimes he'll do a lot of standing. And I can do his recovery rides with him, but when he wants to go all out, there's no point. And he's not going to want to ride my pace every time (though for a while there I was at a level where it wasn't such a vast difference.) But we do enjoy riding with each other for certain rides and having that "thing" we share. We have done a lot of events together where we didn't really "ride" together on the event, but we prepared for it the day before, went and ate our pre-event meal, loaded the truck and traveled there and back together, and shared our ride stories.

However, the person I rode the most with was my friend Dawn. (I say "rode" because between my health issues and her new job, we haven't really ridden together in a year . . . but that's about to change drastically!) Anyway, we rode 3 to 5 times a week together for a couple of years, sometimes with our husbands, but mostly just the two of us. We were great training partners and motivated each other to get out on days one of us didn't really feel up to it. I'm the one who got her into cycling. She had been a runner, but after some nagging I convinced her to give cycling a try and she's so glad she did. Maybe you have a friend you could "suck in" to cycling?

If not, I also have a cycling club I ride with. Do you have a cycling club in your area? Mine is all levels. They regroup at the top of climbs, etc. They offer various ride options. On Sundays they have a women's only ride. While the majority of the rides are during typical "non-work" hours (Sat/Sun morning and Tue/Thur evening), a small group formed to start doing rides on Wednesday mornings. I have done those a few times, but since I had my riding buddy, we often just did our own thing. If I didn't have her, I would have certainly done those rides more and may start doing them soon since my buddy now has an 8-5 job (which SUCKS!). Also, I got hooked up with a women's only group that rode on Wednesday nights, different from my cycling club.

There are people out there to ride with. You just have to find them. Search the internet and/or start asking around at your local bike shops. Your husband found people to ride with. So can you!!! :)

By the way, I also ditto the comment on riding close to home if you have to ride alone and don't feel comfortable getting too far away. Do loops close to your house. If you can do that a couple of times a week and one long ride with your husband further from home, that might be a reasonable compromise. But I still say you should work to find a good riding buddy and/or group, club, etc.

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Originally Posted by limewave

Zoom--I do a lunch time ride on Thursdays if you want to meet up. It's only about 25 miles, because I have to get back to work. Let me know if you are interested and I'll send you the details. I'm also hoping to do about a 2 hour ride on Sunday morning/early afternoon.

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Funny...those are actually the 2 days/week when I am guaranteed mileage. Thurs. nights a friend of ours south of GH does an organized ride from his house and Sundays are JDRF team training days.

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Originally Posted by Jiffer

However, the person I rode the most with was my friend Dawn. (I say "rode" because between my health issues and her new job, we haven't really ridden together in a year . . . but that's about to change drastically!) Anyway, we rode 3 to 5 times a week together for a couple of years, sometimes with our husbands, but mostly just the two of us. We were great training partners and motivated each other to get out on days one of us didn't really feel up to it. I'm the one who got her into cycling. She had been a runner, but after some nagging I convinced her to give cycling a try and she's so glad she did. Maybe you have a friend you could "suck in" to cycling?

If not, I also have a cycling club I ride with. Do you have a cycling club in your area?

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We do have a Tues. night women's ride that meets 20 or so minutes from my house, I've just not been able to fit it into the schedule yet this year. It always seems like there's some conflict on Tues. nights.

I have a friend like Dawn. She desperately wants to start mountain biking, since her boyfriend enjoys it and she wants something to do other than just run (we met through running). She's really struggling to come up with the cash for a decent bike, though. I wish I could buy her one and just tell her to pay me back when she can. It would help if her ex would actually pay his child support...her car needs brake work and she's not been able to have it done, thanks to that doofus. :rolleyes:

Thanks again for all of your great support and advice, ladies. It's reassuring just knowing that so many of us deal with similar frustrations.

Whatever you decide to do Zoom-Zoom, I know you will be awesome and have a great time.

I have to ride by myself if I want to ride - trail or road. I am just too slow and I've ridden by myself so long now that I am uncomfortable riding with others. There is no other choice so I just learned to do it. I can certainly understand not wanting to do it if you have a choice in the matter, and I am sure you can work something out with your DH when he understands how important it is to you.

I am trying to change that for myself this summer, trying to make myself get over the shyness and go to group rides, and to at least ask friends who happen to be cyclists if they would like to go on an occasional ride. Part of me hates to ask since my speed is so slow (<14mph) but it would be nice sometimes :)