Training & Nutrition - Have I lost it? Endurance.

Due to an injury, I have been off the bike for two months. Last two weeks, I have been on the trainer some. Nothing serious. 20-25 minutes. Put on my heart rate monitor. Got it up to 150 plus for 5-7 minutes. Did not feel too winded. Cadence probably 90 rpm's.
I have a rim driven trainer and hybrid bike on it with 52/19 gearing, I think? Do you think a trainer's greatest resistance is anything like the resistance of a real hill.?
My group talks of some 100 mile rides in Arizona in late October. Be 3-4 weeks before my injury is somewhat normal. So maybe I will have in 3 weeks of serious training before the ride.
After two months of virtually no rides, think in 3-4 weeks, a century with some significant hills will be possible.? Would you try a major ride with this kind of time out? How much fittness do you loose in two months? thanks. hope I can do it. Been a long dry spell.

There are no set answers, depends on prior conditioning - could you do a similar ride before the injury? Age is significant: each decade adds its own
decrement to capability and recovery time. When I was in my 20's and early
30's 8-12 weeks ran me from low level to race level conditioning, and centuries were not regarded as a big deal. Now 30yrs later I would estimate 6mo to 12mo to recover conditioning lost to a layoff of 3+ months. It also depends on how much time you have to ride during the week. Training takes time and intensive training can leave little time for other activities. If you can ride 4-5x/week for 30-80miles then you are more likely to achieve your goals.
What you propose sounds marginal but doable if they are not talking about
multiday rides, 100mi ea day, but you are going to have to get out there cerca
Oct 1 and see how 40-50mi feels and extend each week til you are at 80+ before deciding what to do. Steve

Endurance is much more persistant than other types of conditioning, e.g. speed, power. Hills may be more of a problem. If you can hold off on committing for a while, you might start ramping up some distance work at whatever rate your body will cooperate with. I'm guessing it'll come back fairly quickly, although maybe not quick enough. Like Steve says, work at it, see how it goes, and then decide.

Good Luck!

I read in a cycling book not sure which one but it said 1 month off the bike would take 2-3 months to get back to where you were before the break.

You haven't lost anything. It has just been misplaced under your biking shoes. Just keep pedaling around looking for your endurance, and, lo and behold, eventually you will find it!!

do all the other things off the bike to help you. eat properly, rest properly, mentally get into it.
i'd be more concerned with power, not endurance - since you seemed well trained prior to your time off the bike.

You can do it. I would caution against trying to keep up with others. Ride at your own pace.

I think OUTASHAPE had it right.

From my observations, doing a century is pretty much a matter of pacing yourself and taking the time. If you are in not so great of shape, it just takes longer.

I belonged to a club in Michigan and we had an annual quad century. That is a tour that had a century each day for 4 days. Some people did that without ANY training at all! Of course, they rode really really slowly and got an ice cream cone at every possible location but they did do it.

Now doing a century in a certain time frame takes the conditioning.

When fitness professionals talk about cases where people stop training, they say you could probably go 2- 3 weeks tops without losing fitness.

After that, it's something like 15%- 20% of your fitness is lost PER WEEK... and sometimes more, depending on how much you trained- and that's years trained- like the athletes who are professionals verses the average individual that does some recreational fitness outdoors. Professional athletes may lose their fitness, but it would take longer for them to lose their fitness than the average recreational athlete, and when they eventually do start up again, they have the muscle memory to quickly build up their fitness. For the average individual, it will take longer.

With only 3- 4 weeks to train, and having so much time off, I would say you would not be at the fitness levels of your friends. It is true what outashape and Pat said- you could do a century, but your century would be SLOW. I don't think you'll be able to keep up with your friends, especially if they're going at higher speeds. Being deconditioned, and only doing 7 minutes on a trainer is no indication that you'll be able to do 7- 10 hours at a high cadence at a fast pace (miles per hour). Maybe you could do that century in 10- 12 hours, but if you're doing it alone, and you expect to be fit enough to do this with your friends, you may not be ready for this century.

Normally, if someone came to me in a deconditioned state and wanted to do a century, I would give them about 8 weeks at least- building up the endurance first, then as the endurance increased, building on adding the mileage- some long slow distance days, other shorter, interval days, at least one day of hills, and then a day or two off. I would gradually increase the training sessions over time, eventually getting them to the point where they could keep up a high cadence over a 50- 75 mile ride. The other days would still be long slow distance, hills, and intervals, with the rest day(s) added in. Once they could comfortably do the 50 -75 mile ride comfortably for 2- 3 weeks straight, then I would consider them ready for a century with other folks who've also been training for the century and have higher speeds. Otherwise, I would suggest they did the century on their own and kept it at a slower cadence and speed.

You can certainly try to train for this, but my guess is that in your attempt to get your endurance and back to where it was before, you may end up overdoing it and overtraining, and that has me a bit worried for you. The best thing I could tell you at this point is train the best you can, and the week before the ride, take a practice run with your group for a 50- 75 mile ride. If you can keep up with them, then you know you're training will have paid off. If you're struggling, seeing double, feeling sick or queasy, etc., listen to your body- skip the century and continue training and do the next century when you're ready.

Whatever you decide- good luck.

Koffee