Century with NO training

[7rider]

Okay, folks.
So you think you're worried, wondering if you've got enough miles in to do a century?
A friend of mine just emailed me. She and her DH want to do the Seagull Century here in MD (Oct 7th). Her, I'm not worried about. I did the Patuxent River Heritage Ride Metric Century with her in June. She's not consistent on the bike, but she's a runner and in awesome shape. Her DH has spent most of his summer remodeling a bathroom in their house, except when he goes out and runs a marathon with no training before hand. In other words, a natural athlete, but lax in the training department.
They will probably borrow a flat bar road bike from my DH to do it. Although she'll ride a new flat bar road bike of her own, her hybrid and a 20+ y.o. road bike of dubious road-worthiness are both undoubtedly too small for him.
So, assuming only weekend riding (their commuting makes weekday rides impossible, except maybe for a short toodle around the 'hood at night), do you think 2 athletic folks have a chance of surviving a century?? What kind of riding should they do in the remaining 3 weekends they have?
Are they setting themselves up for pain?

[Geonz]

Yup. They are. But they'll probably love it.

[jenxxs]

Well, I'm also someone who tends to sign up for endurance events, but without enough time/discipline to train properly. I generally can only do decent-length run/bike/swims once per weekend, and even so for no longer than 3 hours.

If they're both decent runners, I'd predict they could do a century if they got in a couple of 40 mi rides, a few weeks before the event. They would definitely be sore afterwards, but they would make it OK. Also, the 40 milers should expose any critical bike setup problems that they should address before the event.

That was exactly my level of preparation (2 40 mile rides) heading into the two-day, 150 miler charity ride I did this summer.

[violette]

I just started to bike and I keep reading about "Century" . I have no clue what it is. Can someone explain?

[Adventure Girl]

I just started to bike and I keep reading about "Century" . I have no clue what it is. Can someone explain?

An imperial century is 100 miles. Metric century is 100 kilometers (usually 60 to 65 miles).