Quote Originally Posted by Muirenn View Post
And the people I learned it from are definitely experienced cyclists with a lot of hard races behind them. (6 Gap Century, Mt Mitchell, etc.).
I think there's quite a bit of difference between training for a century at a comfortable pace, as opposed to training for a competitive race or to get your best/fastest time possible for a century. One is about endurance (where you may have quite a bit left in the tank when you are done, and finish feeling good), while the other is about speed (where you finish at your limit, potentially completely spent.)

So, I think that determining a strategy for completing a century depends on what your goals for the event are. Are you trying to turn in the best possible time, and keep up with the fast kids, at the expense of some of the fun factor and at the risk of blowing up early? Or are you looking to finish the event at a comfortable pace, at your pace, taking the time to enjoy the scenery, and not being too beat up when you are done? BOTH of those are totally legitimate goals. Somedays I want to ride for time, other days not so much. But I think that one needs to decide one's goals for an event before designing a strategy for it. And if the goal is a first time finish in at an enjoyable pace, then one should probably not take all their advice from a racer on how to do that. Likewise, if your goal is to "race it", then asking advice from a tourist is probably not going to result in optimal results either.