Training for a first Century Ride
verdemujer
Posts: 1,397 Member
Well - I have to put my words to reality. I mildly challenged my karate instructor to ride the Denver Century ride with me in June 2014. He said yes. I felt I had to put that out there because when we first started karate with him he said only running was true cardio. He gave me nothing but heck for perferring a ride over a run. Two and half years later and he is now riding bikes. He rides like he runs - sprints, playing cops and robbers. Its now a "passion" on his FB page. I like steady long distance rides. I haven't worked up to a full century yet but its on my goal list. A real distance riding friend from our Sunday social rides says he'll help with the training. He was talking about 30 mile rides every day. I work for a living, have a family and am committed to karate and cub scouts. I have basically 9 months to train and it's going into winter. So, question to all of you hard core riders. How would you train for your first century ride with all those other commitments? Will cross training with karate help?
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My first question would be what sort of distances are you used to already? You say you like steady long distances, but how far do you consider to be long? I did my first and only 100 miler this year, it took a while to break the 50 mile barrier, but soon after that came the 100km ride and the 100miler was just in my head after that. The thing that made it work for me was having a good base upon which to build upon, this was achieved through my commuting to work everyday at 10 miles each way. Do you get a chance to commute to work or your other activities? Can you stretch them out by a couple of miles each time? As far as winter is concerned, I would concentrate on maintaining or building upon your current activity and not dropping back. If you get used to not going out, it will be twice as hard to get back into the habit. Finally, dare I say, you have to be a little selfish and say that this is for me, it makes me feel better and everyone around me will have to adjust a little. Works for some, but not everyone.0
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there's no getting away from it, if you're going to ride a 100 miles, it's going to take a long time out there riding - even averaging a good solid 17mph, you're going to be out there at least 6 hours... and it takes time to build up strength and endurance to be able to keep that kind of average speed for that duration... I'm just starting reading up on a training schedule for Centuries and Sportif's myself, as I'm hoping to try and possibly broaden my own horizons in this field next season... If I come up with something workable, I may try nd document it, for people to try and follow a similar approach... sort of like a c25k plan but for bikes...0
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This is the free plan they offered up for last year's ride. http://www.optimizeendurance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Denver-Century-Ride-General-training-Plan_free_DCR13.pdf
There are actually 3 ride choices: http://denvercenturyride.com/ They don't have 2014 routes up yet but I bet they won't be much different.
My commutes in the summer are anywhere from 8:45 to 11 miles one way - it depends on if I'm dropping the kid at the YMCA before the real ride into work or going straight in from home. Weekend rides average about 20 to 30 miles. My biggest ride last summer was just under 40 miles. The only reason I ran into a wall on that ride is becuase my hubby hates to eat before he exercises and so we didn't eat lunch before the ride. That's a very bad plan for me to follow. I had snacks but it didn't help at the end - when the body runs out of fuel, it runs out of fuel. I have found that I'm never ready to quit riding when the family is done. I always feel like I could ride for another 20/30 miles when we finish for the day. At my current riding level, I'm never sore or tired. So I think I can build into it fairly well but I think it's going to have be shorter rides in the week with long rides on the weekends. That may mean I look at training long before anyone else is thinking about it.0 -
The .PDF file doesn't look all that bad as a "build plan" for someone who's just looking to get around the 100 to be honest. Even with that plan though there's no getting away from the fact that in week 1 there looking at a good 9-10 hours (for a frankly crawling pace 10mph average - I'm assuming that this is because the terrain is monstrously hilly... never having ridden in your vicinity, I'm guessing of course...) of riding time, and building on that to at least 14-15 hours in the saddle a week by week 4. Now, that's a long time to be out riding each week...
I ride maybe 10-12 hours a week myself, albeit certainly a little faster than the 10mph pace master plan that they were working on. I'm 100% sure that I could happily "get around" a 100 mile ride on the distances I do at the moment - however, over here, and on the continent where I'd like to do a few Sportif's, the terrain is FAR hillier than the areas I ride in generally, so I know if I'm going to avoid getting timed out and swept up by the "Voiture Balai" I'm going to have to get some serious work in before I enter anything.0 -
I'm a fellow hybrid rider, a little older and did my first century this year so hopefully you might find some of this helpful.....
My training was based around what time I could find to train rather than following a dedicated century training plan.
Over the winter and into spring I was doing lots of low heartrate endurance building on a Spinning bike. I can't tolerate cold so outdoors was rarely possible. These were mostly (but not exclusively) one hour sessions to fit in my lunchbreak plus a weekend two hour session. I also do other cardio and strength work so far from exclusivly cycling for exercise.
See http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/heart-rate-monitor-training-for-cyclists-28838/ for info on heart rate zone training.
Then in the spring I just started building up additional weekend rides adding roughly 10% distance each time until 50 or 60 was comfortable at a reasonable pace (15 - 16mph). Worked up to 80 miles and then just did it - the difference between 80 & 100 is really mental rather than physical in my opinion. I worked out a route that left me 20 miles from home once I had done 80 miles so I left myself no choice but to complete the ride!!
I used the 50 - 80 mile rides to get any comfort and nutrition issues sorted.
Best of luck and have fun.0 -
Good point on the "mental" aspect of it... I should sort of mention that "back in the say" I used to ride a bit more seriously than I do now - to the extent of competing in 100 mile (pb 4:22:05) and 12 hour (pb 238.75 miles) time-trial events, so the whole "distance milestone" thing doesn't really feature in my head anymore, but its definitely fair to say if you can ride 75 miles without problems, you can definitely push it to a 100 for a "one off"0
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I am not the requested "hardcore" cyclist, just want to share - for me normally 2 x 1.5/2 hour ride weekdays, 1 or 2 slightly longer weekend rides - total 8/9 hours a week. I guess what I'm trying to say is maybe don't really need to spend that many hours (eg 14/15 as in the .PDF program) make the rides good quality, the quantity will come & will come easy. In particular if the goal is just to finish
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Thanks everyone! I think I will go for it and just figure its going to take me a bit more time than eight weeks. It is a bit more hilly here. But a choice of terrains is certaintly available. You could ride here and never really encounter a hill much bigger than any where else. I have hills on every ride but I haven't gone up some of the hills in the major route. I know people who do and I think I'll need to ride parts of the one route long before the day just to have a feel for it. I did ask Joe what route he wants to really ride since they have several options. Maybe he'll have pity.
By the way - a complication for me is that I have ashma which showed up when I moved to here. It's mostly when I run and not on a bike though. My speeds run anywhere from 12 to 15 on normal and 5 up a hill - I try to keep it faster than I can walk. It makes me mad to ride a hill slower than I can walk it. And the only time I take medicine for my ashma is during my kickboxing class with Joe when he does extreme quick cardio sessions.
My 'new' bike is a speedy all carbon Specialized Rudy which is riding like a dream. It has some work to do as it has these really funky handlebars - see my photo. As soon as the new shifters are paid for, we'll put on the new road handlebars. I am also considering a larger front cog set as hubby says that has really helped him to keep up with the powerhouse riders with less wear and tear on him. Right now, I'm still riding the Redline which use to feel like a dream after my Canondale tank that I rode for 20 plus years. After Ruby, poor Blue feels like the tank.
One more question: Clips or not? I ride in clips on spinning sessions in the winter so I know how they work. I have trouble with them there and I know I'm not going to fall over on a spin bike. But I hate the idea of clips when riding outside. I haven't had a bike wreck since I was 8. I don't want one now 42 years later. I watched my hubby flip like a turtle last Sunday because he couldn't unclip fast enough. I don't think I would ever be that graceful. I have visions of hospitals when I think of clips. Are they really necessary?0 -
Clips! Definitely.
Yes you may do the embarrassing zero miles an hour topple over but that only hurts your pride.
They may help you save a big accident one day (they certainly have for me - almost did a 20mph face-plant on Saturday and without clips I would have been off for sure).
Plus better energy transfer, kinder to knees and when you are fatigued you can pull with your hamstrings to give your quads a break.0 -
Look forward to reading on your training.
I started out seriously riding in early 2012 and signed up for rides to motivate me to train. At the time I got my road bike in April (was riding a hybrid) my longest ride was 24 miles. By June I did my first metric.
In early Nov I signed up for the Palm Springs Century in Feb 2013. Prior to the century my longest 1 day ride was on Nov 3 (69 miles). I had knee pain which curtailed my training (turned out it was my knees being cold so got knee and leg warmers...problem solved)...did the Strava challenge Rapha Festive 500 between Christmas and New Years (500k in 1 week / 312 miles) and only 8 hours on bike in January pre-century.
I rode the 103 miles and finished.
Have since done two other century rides and have improved my avg speed each time. I'm doing Palm Springs again in 2014 and am leading training rides with team I am now riding with.0
