training advice

[Starfish]

As your body gets used to the time on the bike... your speed will lift as you get "fitter" in terms of aerobic efficiency for that distance.

I'm sure this must be true, to a point.

But, I have to say, this was not my experience last year. I for sure got fitter for endurance and climbing. But, what with all the focus I put into going longer and doing a LOT of climbing as I trained for my climbing century...well...I did NOT get faster. They say your body learns to get good at the way you ride. So, lots of steady climbing endurance rides...you get good at steady endurance.

This year, I really want to get faster so I can do longer rides and get them done before dark. So, I am going to be doing intervals and working on speed a couple rides per week. Arnie Baker talks about this in his online book about Altitude Climbing Endurance. He says most riders will benefit from hard intervals so that they can make the cutoff times for those long climbing centuries.

(That said, all the advice here sounds great...your century does not look like a climbing century.)

[indysteel]

I think the advice you've gotten on training for a century is spot on. Increase your mileage gradually each week and try to do a couple of rides in the 70 to 80 mile range before the event. Two thousand feet of climbing over 100 miles isn't much, so it sounds relatively flat. If you like climbing, then by all means, climb. It carries a lot of training bang for the buck. That said, you also need to increase your time in the saddle, so do some long, flat rides, too.

Getting faster is, in my mind, a harder goal. I think you will see a modest increase in speed as you get fitter and as your body adapts to the stress of riding. That said, the only way to get markedly faster is, well, to ride faster. Find a group, if you can, that is a bit faster than your current comfort zone and try to stay with them as long as possible. Keep these rides relatively short--20 to 25 miles--perhaps. Interval training will also help, although I'm not expert on putting an interval plan together.

I was in your shoes more or less last year when I started riding. I made endurance, i.e., doing longer and longer rides comfortably, my first priority. From an aerobic standpoint, building a good base first lays the groundwork for speed work and hard climbing. I think you'd be wise to start there, too. Getting faster is a good goal, but I would suggest focusing on that only after you've build up your endurance.

More than anything, have fun and listen to your body.

[RoadRaven]

Wow, I'd forgotten about this thread! I must have been busy at work!!!

But yes Starfish - my suggestion was "to a point". Because Aly was beginning/getting back after injury, I was just meaning while her body gets used to being on the bike and she builds her endurance.

You are both right, Starfish and Indy... speed is a harder thing to build... you have to do specific training for that... like interval training or riding with faster cyclists and just sitting in with them (sort of like motor-pacing).

It is also important to remember that to lift your speed from 20kph - 28kph is much much easier than to lift your speed from 30kph to 32kph... the faster you want to go the more relative power you have to output... this mostly because of the increase in wind resistance.

On a calm day, if you are travelling at 20kph, you have effectively created your own personal 20kph head wind. So when I go out tonight to my TT, and aim to complete with an average of 32kph, I will be creating my own personal headwinds of 28-38kph, depending on what part of the course I am on. This is disregarding of course, any head, tail or cross winds I might encounter along the way.