What is the average duration of...

[Hell-uv-a-job]

a century? How many hours long?

[Veronica]

Depends on the amount of climb in the century and how long you stop at each rest stop.

V.

[Hell-uv-a-job]

Like 8 hrs? maybe?

[SadieKate]

What? You stop at each rest stop for 8 hrs?

What type of terrain is your century? What is your average speed on that type of terrain? Have you done a metric over the same type of terrain? What was your average riding speed and how long did it take you?

Since everyone rides at different speeds over different terrain, there is no easy answer.

[Grog]

Well basically 160 km (about 100 miles) at 20 km/h takes 8 hours.

160 km at 25 km/h takes 6h25m or so.

160 km at 30 km/h takes about 5h20m.

I used a calculator to get to these figures.

So say you ride with a friend, drafting each other in a headwind, taking it easy, side to side, when it's easier, and are both decent riders with some endurance, you could maybe do this at 25 km/h, so 6h30, plus you stop at SAG (say 3X20?), so 7h30, plus a few 5 minutes stretching breaks? So 8 hours total would be safe.

But of course that's a totally hypothetic scenario. It really depends on you.

[Nanci]

I want to do the Valentine Century in Sanford, Saturday, if the weather is nice. It's about 120 miles from my house. There's one Sunday, too, in White Springs, the Sweetheart Century, but I'd rather ride on a Saturday.

You're down in the "mountainous" part of Florida, so anything near you will probably include some hills, but I wouldn't think very many, and relatively short, though steep.

It takes me about 7.5-8 hours to ride a century- less than 7 for the actual riding, but lots of stopping and eating at the SAGs. The fast people are in the 5-6 hour range.

If you look at the Florida Bicycle Touring Calendar

http://www.floridabicycle.org/fbtc/

You can find a whole bunch every month.

Nanci

[Hell-uv-a-job]

How long (starting from scratch... like couch potatoe fitness level) does it take to train for one century? Can you use a commuter bike? Mine is pretty light, a little less lighter than my hubby's road bike (a '05 Cannondale). I'm a big girl so I decided not to get a road bike just yet. I think if Oprah went for a marathon I can do a century. If i finish one I will send a picture to her show with a sign EAT YOUR HEART OUT OPRAH!!

[Veronica]

People do centuries on all kinds of bikes. Our first we did on mountain bikes on a self supported tour.

Our first organized one, we also did on mountain bikes.

There are all sorts of training sites out there. Do a Google search on training for a century and see what comes up. Right now I'm training to do a few doubles. I gave myself 5 months to get ready for the hardest one.

You can do it!

V.

[Dok-torr]

Just putting my two-penn'orth....
Its a great thing to set yourself a goal like a century. You do get a real sense of acheivement when you finally cross that line. Its very weather and terraine dependent on how much you enjoy it as well as fast you do it!
Having moved to New Zealand for a year or so we wanted to do as many events as we could while we were here, the UK is not as blessed with big events.
We did the Taupo Challenge in coldish weather- max 12 degrees, wet and windy and very hilly, in 6 hours. Then we did the Taranaki Challenge - flatter, still day but very hot 31 degrees in 5 hours 17 mins. We loved the Taranaki and were just glad the Taupo event was over!
If you are trained and have done some big distances, rested in the week prior and take plently of nutrition and hydration on the way round you won't need to stop for a rest. In fact those that did had a hard time getting going again. (On Taupo some riders even got hypothermia when they stopped and got to finish in the Ambulance!)

Good luck with the training.

[Nanci]

Don't forget that most Centuries have rides of much shorter distances included- like 37 miles, or 60 miles, or even shorter at the ones up here in Gainesville, so you can participate and get motivated and find out what it's like without having to go 100 miles. Centuries are really fun even if you just do the shorter rides!!

You're lucky, you live in a place where you can pick from several Centuries each month, so you don't have to pick a specific goal Century if you don't want to- just increase your mileage, and then a month or two out, when you are riding 60-70 miles, you can narrow it down to an event you'd really like to do.

Nanci

[Adventure Girl]

There's some good information about training for your first century here: http://www.teamestrogen.com/articles/asa_century.asp