Planning a century and would like opinions on my current training schedule

[RoadRaven]

I don't know. I have never trained for a century.

But the only way I have got better on a bike is not by doing workouts at the gym, or other exercise.

The way I get faster on my bike, and the way I ride longer and longer distances, is to ride more... for longer, or harder.

And thats how I would approach a century. And I would make sure that before I rode the organised event, I would have ridden several century training rides... and if possible would have ridden the actual course at least once.

Good luck and we will be looking forward to hearing how it all goes

[kaian]

Thanks for the tips. For me, upper body and core work is very important. I've had 2 bouts of upper back/neck pain and 1 bout of shoulder tendinitis in the past 3 years. I have to make sure I do specific exercises to keep my upper body strong for fear that I will have more overuse/postural injuries and problems. I try not to overdo it and plan on keeping the upper body stuff on recovery days or lighter spinning days. I don't use super heavy weights and often include therabands into the workout. I don't work out my legs with weights during cycling season.

Right now I am at 40 miles for my "long" ride - which is not too difficult for me since I was doing that amount last year and got up to 60. I think doing a century will be hard and a little painful, but I feel good about doing it. I just hope I get a dry day that isn't too chilly. I do live in Michigan afterall!

[Brandy]

My first century is in 6 weeks and here's my rough plan for long rides, increasing mileage 10% each week...

week #1 (next week) 57miles
week #2 63 miles
week #3 70 miles
week #4 77 miles
week #5 start tapering down mileage
week #6 Cool Breeze

We did 51.9 miles today and in addition to one long ride each week I plan to get in two or three 25-35 mile rides and maybe a couple of Spinning classes each week. I also lift weights at the gym, but I think I will cut back the intensity of my leg workout so I'm not sore.

[Jen Jen]

My first century is in 6 weeks and here's my rough plan for long rides, increasing mileage 10% each week...

week #1 (next week) 57miles
week #2 63 miles
week #3 70 miles
week #4 77 miles
week #5 start tapering down mileage
week #6 Cool Breeze

We did 51.9 miles today and in addition to one long ride each week I plan to get in two or three 25-35 mile rides and maybe a couple of Spinning classes each week. I also lift weights at the gym, but I think I will cut back the intensity of my leg workout so I'm not sore.

I think all of that sounds like a good idea. Cutting down on the leg workouts sounds smart, and from what I read, once you can ride 75 miles, you're probably ready to do the century. If it's possible, maybe you want to add a week 7 and somewhere in the middle take a break where you don't increase mileage? They always say we don't improve on our rides, but during our rests.

[Brandy]

I think all of that sounds like a good idea. Cutting down on the leg workouts sounds smart, and from what I read, once you can ride 75 miles, you're probably ready to do the century. If it's possible, maybe you want to add a week 7 and somewhere in the middle take a break where you don't increase mileage? They always say we don't improve on our rides, but during our rests.

Cool Breeze is 6 weeks from Saturday! I can do some tweaking of the schedule though and work in a rest week

[Geonz]

If you google or altavista "training century bicycle" you'll find a lot of options for "fast centuries" and survive vs. thrive and all kinds of fun stuff.

[latelatebloomer]

Just wanted to second the benefit of core work. When I was going through my "scaredycat" month, I kept at my ab work pretty diligently, and as SOMETHING is really helping me on the hills these days, I'm guessing it's the stronger core. My first century is Oct 7 and I'm using a training schedule that Nancy posted. Good luck to all of us headed for that first century - October is going to be a PROUD month for TE new riders!