Training for First Century

[Deborajen]

Thanks for the information. Trek, thanks for the links (and the ride report!). I agree there is much more written about training for running marathons than about riding centuries. We kept an issue of Bicycling magazine that had an article about training for a century but it was geared towards a good performance (not just finishing), and I've also read a few short articles that basically say that if you're a "fit cyclist" (?) you can ride a century most any time. I'd just like to finish and not be miserable, but I'm not worried about a time goal. And I run, ride (not a lot of mileage), and strength train so I consider myself to be fit, but we went on a 35-mile ride yesterday and it pretty well whipped me. It did have a long, gradual, uphill stretch going straight into the wind that was worse than the whole rest of the ride. My husband said the hill was hard but it didn't take anywhere near as much out of him as it did me. I'm sure part of that is difference between men and women, but he's basically a couch potato so the fitness thing is a little hard to measure.

Deb

[CamsShel]

My husband printed this one out for me...

http://www.bicycling.com/freedownloa...INING_PLAN.pdf

And I found this one while looking at freewheel stuff...

http://www.kanbike.org/pages/training.php

He's training to do an MS ride in Sept...and I have a 4 month old, so I won't be using them for a while, but they look like good resources. I think there's a 100-day training shedule somewhere out there but I have too many bookmarks to find it.

:-)
Michelle in OK