Century training regime

[la02]

I am prepping for my first century ride ever and built this training regime. I am in good shape but I really want to be able to cruise through this century and get a great time instead of cruising through at a moderate pace. This is the training regime that I have built does anyone think it is too intense or I might not be giving my muscles enough time to recover?

Week M T W R F S S
E P B P P P
1 10 15 20 O 12 40 15
2 10 16 21 O 13 44 17
3 10 18 23 O 15 48 18
4 11 19 25 O 16 53 20
5 12 22 26 O 18 59 22
6 13 23 29 O 19 64 24
7 14 26 31 O 20 71 27
8 16 27 33 O 20 75 29
9 17 27 36 O 20 75 32
10 19 28 36 0 10 5 100

Mondays are easy rides, while T F S S are ridden at pace speed and W are ridden briskly. Does anyone think that I will over fatigue my muscles with this? Could I go even harder?

[mattm]

i can't tell exactly what your schedule is (cols don't line up), but it looks pretty packed!

sounds like you'll be set for your century with all this training. check out the STP training ("two-day") page, it's got another plan for doing (back to back) centuries. http://www.cascade.org/EandR/stp/stp_mileage.cfm

also, i suggest just doing a (solo or not) century as one of your training rides. i mean if you're getting up to 75 miles why not take it the extra 25 and see how you feel?

it'll make the real one that much easier.

best of luck!!

[Bacciagalupe]

Looks like a fairly typical century training plan to me. Slow increases in weekly mileage, 1 easy day and 1 rest day should do the trick. Plus you will likely miss a day here and there.

I'm using a similar plan this year. Biggest difference is that I'm going to mix in some short runs as well. That breaks up the monotony a little bit and adds a weight-bearing exercise as well.

Looks good to me....

[ericgu]

I am prepping for my first century ride ever and built this training regime. I am in good shape but I really want to be able to cruise through this century and get a great time instead of cruising through at a moderate pace. This is the training regime that I have built does anyone think it is too intense or I might not be giving my muscles enough time to recover?

Week M T W R F S S
E P B P P P
1 10 15 20 O 12 40 15
2 10 16 21 O 13 44 17
3 10 18 23 O 15 48 18
4 11 19 25 O 16 53 20
5 12 22 26 O 18 59 22
6 13 23 29 O 19 64 24
7 14 26 31 O 20 71 27
8 16 27 33 O 20 75 29
9 17 27 36 O 20 75 32
10 19 28 36 0 10 5 100

Mondays are easy rides, while T F S S are ridden at pace speed and W are ridden briskly. Does anyone think that I will over fatigue my muscles with this? Could I go even harder?

That looks like a very traditional approach.

I think that 6 rides/week is excessive for somebody training for a century. I think it's much more important to get quality time than to get a lot of time in the saddle.

If you are looking for some speed in a century and you are starting, I recommend that you work out 3-4 days a week. Spend one day doing intervals or hill work, perhaps one day doing tempo riding, a longer ride (say, 3-4 hours) on a weekend, and then just ride for fun on the 4th day (if you do it).

I've done singles, doubles, and a ride last summer with 124 miles and about 8200 feet of climbing training 3 days a week.


You do need some long rides if you've never done them before - a 70 miler is a good length to figure out what your century pace is and how to eat/drink.

[Machka]

I admire that you can follow a schedule like that ... I've never been able to. I'm not fond of structured training regimes.

However, you might consider adding an extra day off in there once in a while so that you don't burn out and can keep it fun. :)

Have a look over my article about riding a century for some extra tips:
http://www.machka.net/century.htm

And you might like to browse around the UMCA site for some further century tips:
http://www.ultracycling.com/

[Herman47]

The first thing that comes to my mind when someone comes up with a “century training regime” is: HOW MUCH CLIMBING WILL YOUR CENTURY ENTAIL?? Are your training rides ridden at nearly the same grade as shall be your (perhaps formal, organized and group) century?

While for a somewhat flat century your devised training regime seems to me to have more miles of training in weeks 7, 8, and 9 than I believe are actually needed, for a hilly century I suspect that your regime would work quite well, assuming the miles in training are at about the same grade as the century. I don’t foresee any problem here with overtraining, but be flexible to cut short that 36 mile ride a few days before the century if you feel that what it takes out of you will still not be completely regained by century day.

[chill123]

Hi - there is some more century training (http://cycling.dingdangdo.com/training/training_for_a_century.php) here. The key as mentioned above is to train in conditions (i.e. terrain) similar to that of your target ride. Good luck!