keith_b00ne

I only average 20 miles per week. Usually it consists of 2 - 10 miles or 1 - 20 mile on weekends. My longest ride has been 35 miles. I am wanting to be able to ride a century by fall. Do I have enough time to train? What do you recommend? Please note that my schedule is typically full on Monday and Tuesday's and my only time to train is from 5:00 pm - dark.

The Micah

You have more time than me. I get home at 7:00 on weekdays. I ride at least 10 miles every day, and more on the weekends, time permitting. I wish I had more time to ride, but I'm still getting 70+ miles per week. I'm gonna start going on long rides soon, and step my mileage way up. My goal is to eventually complete a century also.

40-Dan

Join the club. I just got back into riding 2 weeks ago.

Since I was on vacation last week, I was able to put in 95 miles for the week in 4 days of riding with rides of between 17 and 30 miles each. I did a 40 miler yesterday. Now that I'm back at work, I'm not sure how I'll be able to get in even that many miles considering family commitments.

There is a ride coming up in mid-august that has both a century and a metric component. As of now, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle the metric, but I have until the 8/1 sign-up deadline to make up my mind. If I feel better about my chances by then, I'll do the full blown 100 miler.

Dan

GuitarWizard

Get a lighting system and ride at night....you'll need more miles in your legs/body if you want to not feel like you're going to die on the bike during the century.

chipcom 

Keep up your weekday riding, maybe increasing your distance to 20-30 miles, then try to do some longer, 40-60 mile rides on the weekends, and you'll be fine - unless you are racing or something.

Kenal0

I am sure everyone is different but I would say you need to get more rides in the 50-60 mile range before attempting a Century. Of course that will depend on the difficulty of the Century and your conditioning but just sitting in a saddle for over 6 hours in itself is a test. If you can get a few more 35 mile rides in then maybe try to find a metric century to test yourself out with.
Just my .02
Kenal0

superdex

yup, what Kenal0 said. You'll need to lengthen one ride a week (do you have 3-4 hrs to ride on the weekends?), increasing by 5-10% each week up to 80-100mi. Your midweek riding is good stuff, but you'll need to be in the saddle for a few hours at a time to really know how your body feels, what it needs, bike fit, etc....

Froderick

My first century was last month. Prior to that my longest ride this year was 42 miles, and so far I've never exceeded 100 miles a week, excluding the century. I was plenty nervous about my readiness, but it went of better than expected. I think the key, given the lack of mileage, was that I like hills, even though I'm right at 200 lbs.

With three kids, their activities, and a working wife, I'd have almost no mileage if I didn't commute to work most days, which means leaving the house at 4:00AM. If your only time to train is 5:00 - dark you have more time than I do, so go for it. Heck, a fall century gives you at least two months to train.

Journeyman

I am also considering a century in September, a moderately hilly century. For those experienced with the long distance, what would you consider for common sense training benchmarks between now and then? I can do the metric but the Century would be a more aggressive goal but I don't want to be stupid about it. I also don't have an extremely large amount of training time during the week.

jman

chipcom 

Easy solution to a lack of riding time - make it a part of your day, ride to work.
If your century is moderately hilly, make sure that climbing is part of your weekly routine.

keith_b00ne

I have heard that you can ride a century as long as you can ride 150 miles in a week. Would this be an accurate statement?

GuitarWizard

Well....you could complete it, but again....if you ride 7 days a week at like 20 miles per day, your body is not going to be accustomed to sitting in the saddle for several hours at a time.

Kenal0

I would definitely try to get in a few longer rides between now and the century. There is quite a big jump between a 20 mile ride and 100 mile ride. You should try to bridge that gap more. Take your time at the beginning, make sure you follow the proper guidlines for nutrition and drinking before, during and after the ride and you should be fine. If your goal is just to complete the ride with no time expectations then you can take a nice leisurely approach and not put too much pressure on yourself.
Kenal0

Lucky07

Just try ramping up your mileage. Try doing 30 miles in a day, then 35-40 the next week, etc. If you can work up to 60+ miles in one day, you'll be in good shape for the century.

ElJamoquio

You'll be fine, even only biking two-three times a week. Just make sure that one of those times is on the weekend. Start with a thirty or so miler and add, making sure you're comfortable on your bike.

I think most problems (certainly mine) weren't really muscular - they're joint/skeletal (including sit bone problems) - i.e., wrist pain, rear pain, neck pain, and back pain.

voldemort

I'm shooting for my first century in Sept. or Oct. (to avoid the heat, hopefully). Kids and family make it a challenge re: time. So...I made time by giving up 45 minutes of sleep in the morning to dash and ride most weekday mornings. And on those weekends when I want to sleep in just a little, instead I still get up and out the door before my wife or kids get up and do longer rides. Once anyone else is awake, its a lot harder getting out the door. My wife thinks its a midlife crisis (which I guess she thinks is better than the addiction that it really is). Yesterday was a new high of 62 miles, and it was easier than I had expected. So I guess I'm doing something right.

Hambone

My commute is 13 miles each way, I started out riding in on Mon, home on Tues, in on Thurs home on Friday.

I up'ed the mileage and tried to get in some extra miles on weekends/evenings but probably never averaged more than 100 mi/wk before my century in the spring. I finished without a problem!

You just do it... Get on your bike and ride. The share of the purse is the same zero dollars for the guy who comes in first as the guy who comes in one hundred and first. Take your time, have fun, and sign up tomorrow.

mc92

The best way to drastically increase your mileage tolerance is to focus on building the cardio-vascular system by keeping the the gears low and the cadence high. A treadmill or elliptical can also help with this if you can't get on your bike. If you try to crank out a century with your legs you'll be sorely disappointed.... no pun intended (well, maybe it was). You'll also run the serious risk of stress damage on the joints & tendons if you cram in a lot of training miles in a short period of time. Unfortunately, there's really nothing you can do to simulate saddle time, so stand on the pedals when you can and keep the blood flowing to the nether regions.

Good luck!

dr_cantalope

When you do get out, work on your cardiovascular training (easy gears, fast spinning, get your heart pumping). A century is a function of your heart and lungs, not your legs. Also, try to do 1 high mileage ride a week (like on the weekend). And when you do ride the century, make sure you are constantly eating. An intake of about 250 calories per hour (that's about 1 of your favorite brand of energy bar) is essential. Eating a bowl of pasta the night before is not going to get you through 100 miles. You NEED to replish while you ride.

I just rode my first century 3 days ago. Set yourself a goal (i.e. a time limit). I wanted to ride a sub 6 hour century, so I broke the ride into 12 parts. If I covered 8.5 miles every half hour I would be riding at 17 mph, and be able to cover 102 miles in 6 hours. Riding 12 consecutive 8.5 mile stages is much easier than a single 100 mile stage (obviously change these numbers to meet your specific goal). Also it allows you to gauge how you're riding, while you're riding.

godspiral

Depends entirely how fast you go. Your legs are surprisingly unaffected by speed, but if you are stressing out your heart and lungs, going slower will let you go further. Slowing down, granted, is a little easier on the legs too. If you ride 400 miles per month, I'd expect the biggest challenges to a century will be hands/butt related. Mid range training rides would be mostly useful in identifying equipment issues.

nova

Ill secound that. Im not having a easy time finding time for big rides this year but i still manage 2 rides to and through silver creek a day totaly about 14 miles pluss a 20iish or 2 sat and sundays. I know i could do at least 50 right now with out any real problems long as my bike doesnt fall apart.


Busted a sdowntube shifter mount uses all thread to hold it to the frame. Not gona be easy to find a replacement. Guess its time to save up some money for a upgrade to brifters. So right now i got it held on with 4 or 5 threads so worried im gona snap it off again. Im quite a agresive shifting person Tend to slap it right to the gear i want.

john bono

It isn't how many miles you ride per week, it is how many miles you ride per trip. If you can reach a point where you are comfortable riding 50 miles through somewhat challenging terrain, you can probably do a century. Doing 100 miles per week by riding 12 miles 4 days a week and one day of 52 is better than just doing 15 or so miles 7 days a week. Get your self comfortable riding over 40 miles(or better yet over 60), and a century will be no problem.

Psimet2001 

Follow the adice of a lot of the people who have posted. Take your weekend rides to 40-50 range. Do that for a couple of weeks then try a metric century (62.5). During the week ride 2-3 times. If you get pressed for time then make one session an interval session. Try to make one weeknight ride at least a 20 miler.

Assming you make it through the metric allright then proceed with the imperial century. Like others have mentioned...after 30-40 miles then all you are really pushing is your limit to handle seat time and alignment/joint tolerance.

Hambone

you have to be able to find one of those old downtube shifter brackets which go around the tube...

grahny

I'm working on getting ready for a century in sept (not a race) and from what I've found the hardest part is by FAR sitting in the f'n saddle for a long time... this weekend I did 70 miles sat and 60 miles sunday.. towards the last 20 miles or so on the 60 my "sit bones" were barkin'! very uncomfortable... I actually just ordered a saddle cover to add a little cushioning to the saddle (which is more of a race oriented saddle) to ease my body into getting used to the amount of time it's going to be on there.

My 'training' for riding upwards of 100 miles was doing 30 mile rides 3-4x a week for about a month, then 50 mile rides for 2 weeks, now up to the 60-70 mile rides on the weekends (with 40 mile rides during the week when weather permits) which I'll continue for a couple weeks before upping to 80+ on the weekends.... but of course, that's how my body is telling me to go about it... my 70 mile ride was me in the saddle for about 4.5hrs and the 60 was around 4hrs (would have been better timing but my tush was calling the shots at that time... had to do a lot of standing).... I'm averaging around 17-18mph on my rides.

...again though, I think time in the saddle is huge as well as overall conditioning.. 15mph average will take 7hrs to complete plus rest/break/eating time... something to think about.