Training for a Century (my FIRST!)

[jehocu03]

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

[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

[jehocu03]

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

Madscott,

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

Jen

[madscot13]

Madscott,

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

Jen

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.

[Kano]

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

[motochick]

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

[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

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

[makbike]

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

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.

[cyclingmama]

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.