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

[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!

[kaian]

I just want to say that taking a break every 4 weeks or so has been very beneficial. If I don't make an effort to take a break, my body will (without warning me). Twice already my body has let me know that it doesn't want to increase 10% the next ride after about 4 weeks of increasing mileage. When I don't take a break, I end up having a crappy long ride. So...for anyone else training for a century, take a break or just don't increase once in a while. After taking a break, I find that I ride a lot better on my next long ride!

When I say "break" I don't necessarily mean taking a whole week off, but maybe decreasing intensity on rides that week and doing a shorter ride on my "long" day.