Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Training tips anyone? First centrury in a month.

I tried to ride a century a few months back but was rained out 40 miles in. Rain equals not a good time. So February 28th i have a tour de cure century. I haven't been riding as much as i have wanted to in the last couple weeks due to weather and work. Weekends ill ride with a B group 30 or so mies then solo 20 to and from the house. No drama rides, good pace 18-20mph feel good the whole time. During the week 40 or so miles after work. I did an 86 mile solo last month, it hurt a bit. What can i do in 5 weeks to get ready for this thing? I want it to be enjoyable and not a chore.

If you can already ride 70 miles ("30 or so miles then solo 20 to and from the house") (or is that 50?) then you're already ready, particularly if you're getting in 40 miles a week to sustain fitness. Possibly slow down a bit to a pace you can more easily sustain over the century. Buy some fenders if being wet bugs you, they'll help out quite a bit. In my experience, though, nothing will keep you dry forever, so the key is to be warm enough while you're wet, and then it isn't so unpleasant. There are a ton of threads on here about "riding my first century in X weeks", so skim through those for further advice.

Yeah, sounds like you're good. Slow down a bit, especially if riding into the wind, and you should be able to increase the distance okay.

The "enjoyable and not a chore" thing is a bit different. If you ride far enough, you're going to reach a point where it's not much fun. But what I've noticed is that part of the overall experience is the feeling of accomplishment afterwards, and not just the fun during the ride itself.

Train a bit faster than you want to ride on century day. And, don't overtrain in the last 2 or 3 days prior, only 10 or 15 miles each day.

If the 40 miles represents all weekdays total, you could benefit from more miles each night. On a century training plan, five weeks out, you would ride four or five 15 to 20 mile rides during the week, and slowly build to 25 to 30. 50 to 60 miles rides on the weekends are good now, and you might build up to 65 to 70.

If you have time to devote to that kind of plan, you might be better prepared and, potentially more comfortable. But, you could likely go 100 right now without trouble, and you never know what you'll encounter on event day. Best of luck; it sounds like you're well motivated.

Riding more during the weekdays is the plan. Wanna get on the bike 3-4 days and get the 30 mile loop in. Weekend ride also extend. Got 51 in saturday, 17.9mph av. Weather should be nice this week, but im on call so i cant go to far from the house ack. Thanks for the advice. I was thinking i might not have much time.

I tried to ride a century a few months back but was rained out 40 miles in. Rain equals not a good time. So February 28th i have a tour de cure century. I haven't been riding as much as i have wanted to in the last couple weeks due to weather and work. Weekends ill ride with a B group 30 or so mies then solo 20 to and from the house. No drama rides, good pace 18-20mph feel good the whole time. During the week 40 or so miles after work. I did an 86 mile solo last month, it hurt a bit. What can i do in 5 weeks to get ready for this thing? I want it to be enjoyable and not a chore.

The UMCA has some good articles on centuries and training at http://www.ultracycling.com/training/centuries1.html

Hello I am also doing hard training to do riding around 30 miles in weekdays but my legs feel pain after do riding.

+1 for UMCA (http://www.ultracycling.com/training/training.html). Great material there.

Not that it's much of a century tip, but more of an LD tip in general: Learn to love the rain.

My December R-12 ride (200k) was done entirely in the rain. All 10 hours and 30 minutes of it. Raining before I started. Rained the entire ride. Really rained hard for the last 25 miles.
The only miserable part was the number of flats I got.

Not that it's much of a century tip, but more of an LD tip in general: Learn to love the rain.

+1

If you can come to terms with what you're in rather than struggling against it, you'll have much more fun. Just as watching everyone stuck in traffic is funny when you're cruising by on your bike, watching other cyclists get miserable in the rain can be funny. But I have sadistic tendencies.