Century

[Sequimboy]

You might find the Cascade Bicycle Site useful for training information used in the Seattle to Portland ride. It's a bit of overkill but developed over decades.

http://www.cascade.org/eandr/STP/

[Hank Stamper]

Originally Posted by dponder

We (3 people) did a 27 mile ride yesterday at 22 mph.

You could do it tomorrow. (assuming a reasonably flat century)

[Touch0Gray]

OP...sure you can....no real big deal....a century is only a 100 miles....Just make damn sure you have a good/comfortable saddle and you are set up right...NOTHING will stop you faster than knee pain!

[sweeners]

Originally Posted by AdamM

but thinking to running, avoid cycling's version of marathon plodders. They go long, but slow and have terrible form.

Hope this might be relevant to OP and not a thread hijack.

To avoid falling into the "marathon plodder" category, how do you build distance and speed at the same time? My event is early July. If I can only get 2/3 spins per month, should I concentrate on distance between now and April and mix speed and distance sessions from there onwards?

[spade2you]

Originally Posted by Touch0Gray

NOTHING will stop you faster than knee pain!

Hand pain, toe pain, saddle sore, back pain......there are plenty of things to stop ya, eh?

[AdamM]

To avoid falling into the "marathon plodder" category, how do you build distance and speed at the same time? My event is early July. If I can only get 2/3 spins per month, should I concentrate on distance between now and April and mix speed and distance sessions from there onwards?

Joe Friel is doing a series on coaching novice athletes that gets at what I was referring to:

http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/blog.html

Check it out.

[deadlegs2]

Bonk will stop you.. My 2nd 100k I got through 50m and felt ok..12 miles to go.. Course was mismarked and at 62 I saw a sign saying 17 miles to the finishing town..I suffered on but I saw grown adults on the verge of tears for the last 17 miles.. I've seen the same thing in centuries at the 80mi and 90mi marks.. As I said before the OP ought to do some 50mi 100ks before his planned century.. Bonking at 50 during a century is not fun or rewarding or healthy..

[Touch0Gray]

Granted, I've only done maybe 8 or 9 centuries.....but if you can ride 50, without getting off the saddle, you should be good to go for a supported century with rest stops.
BTW there is a difference between a century and a metric century! I generally don't even bother changing clothes if I can't get a good 30 or 40 in!

[deadlegs2]

BTW did someone imply there was no difference between a metric and a century? Sure he can do it.. lots of people ride 10 miles at a time , rest stop to rest stop.. All this telling someone who doesn't even own a bike and who has only ridden 25 miles to " go for it" is kinda funny..He'll be lucky to not be 80mi road kill if he doesn't know how to manage his effort past 50miles.

[chocy]

As a person who tried a solo century three months into my first season, I can confirm that you can do it. but It will be hell.


Remeber that 20-30 mile shortish workout and century requires a different mindset. Century is all about pacing yourself so that you finish the distance whereas for 20-30 mile ride it is short distance either all out TT style riding or hard interval workout. The comfort on the bike (if you need to be OK on your bike over 60 miles in my opinion) is more important and endurance is more important. ALso you need to know how to hydrate yourself and supply sufficient nutrition as well.

I thnk you have more than enough time to get there. Just need to slowly increase the mileage every weeekend. I say if you can do metric century or more casually century should be a rewarding achievement. (though it can still test you. For me 80-90 miles seem to be the test of the will segment.)

good luck and enjoy the process!!

[Tweezak]

I did my first century this year and it didn't go well. I was in great cycling shape and fatigue was not an issue. The problem was dietary: THERE'S TOO MUCH FREE FOOD!!

I'm an opportunistic feeder and when there's unlimited vittles in front of me I find it difficult to rein myself in. I pigged out at too many of the rest stops and with the hard work I was doing, my stomach stopped digesting. My gut bloated like a dead possum in the sun. As a result I was unable to take in any nutrients and I bonked severely. I managed to finish but I really suffered. It was a few hours before my stomach started accepting food again and even then it was very difficult to swallow.

Two weeks later I did another century. This time I nibbled snacks here and there. Very little eating. My main nutrition was in the form of a Gu pack every 25 miles or so. Of course I had a sandwich for lunch but nothing huge or heavy. At the end of the 100 I felt like I'd just ridden 20 miles. Fresh and strong. It was amazing.

A week later I did another century with lots of hard climbing. I employed the same tactic and had the same great results.

So, be warned. It is very easy to eat too much on a century.

Oh...I'm not a racer, just an enthusiast. Note that I do a lot of miles. I ride 30 miles a day round-trip to work. That adds up to about 600 miles a month so I'm in pretty decent condition but I don't get a lot of long-distance training. This didn't seem to hurt me in the centuries because of the frequent rest stops.