Me! Me! I did my first century last year at age 63 "just because". Rarely had the opportunity before. I fully intend to do more for the same reason.

But you do need a bike that is comfortable enough to ride all day, because, well, you will be riding it all day.

I ride scores of centuries and several (five to twenty) double centuries each year, all self-supported, all by my lonesome except when my wife joins me on a tandem (the best rides!). When I was young, I often rode supported centuries and double centuries, but it's been years since I did that. My wife thinks I'm just too cheap to pay for them, and she may be right. I really just don't want to ride around hordes of cyclists who tend to crash and never do their roller training.

The only advice I have to offer is this: Know Thyself. Don't kid yourself into thinking you don't need a break if you do. Fatigue can kill by causing you to make a dangerous decision that you would normally avoid. Try to pick a route that does not require much from your noggin when you are at a mileage that is beyond your prior limit. Riding is fun. Going beyond where you have been before is fun and satisfying, but not if you make a silly mistake that causes unnecessary suffering. If you are so close to finished that you can taste it, but you are racing the sunset and thus not inclined to take a break you need, there is no harm in calling it quits and pulling out the phone. It's just an arbitrary distance, you'll do it another day.

most of my century and longer rides have been just because I felt like a long ride that day. After a point, you will realize 100 is just a number, like any other, and the mystique goes away. Enjoy your ride, rest when needed, eat plenty, and have a slice of pie along the way.

I would suggest experimenting with food before the long rides, find out what works for you and what to avoid. Unlike 10wheels, I can scarf a huge lunch and enjoy the rest of a long ride if there isn't a ton of climbing right after eating.
I also have to avoid gels and too many Clif bars or Powerbars or my stomach gets weird. Regular food works best for me.

I love riding. many years ago I rode like a devil, 100 mile+ ride were a blast. Not time frame to finish, sometimes a day sometimes two. it had been 15 yeras since I was on a bike. 6 minths ago I got back on. At 52 I still love it, a few months back I did 51.5 miles in a little over 3 hours and I loved it, I felt like I only rode 15 or so. I just signed up for my first century, its a 103 mile ride with hills. I have 6 more months to get ready for it. I am jazzed to be able to do this. AND I am doing it just because I love riding!

Yes. Did many Centurys last year for fun including the Mountain Mama 100+' per mile climbfest. That was a GREAT time. Did a couple solo.

My first century was a spur of the moment thing and I had only been on a bike for 5 1/2 months prior to that with one ride being 65 miles and two in the 70's. Total mileage before that century was ~2000
Had no clue what nutrition or hydration on the bike meant.

To me figuring out nutrition and hydration is the largest part of a ridding long distances. Figure that out and you have it licked like a tootsie pop.

I didn't realize so many of us were doing solo and unsupported 100+ mile rides so often. Seems kind of odd to me that I have never done that. I have done quite a few solo rides in the 70-80 mile range and have enjoyed them.

Thanks for the inspiration. I'll have to try that some nice day. I think I'll do it on the monstercross bike so I can make it a mix of paved and unpaved back roads. Also, it's easier to haul plenty of food and extra clothing layers on that bike.

Takes me about 100 miles to warm up, so I don't do that many centuries on my own. The rides I'm training for usually benefit from more structured training and riding 100 miles is only good for keeping my weight down. There is one 100 mile ride near here that always kicks my butt, no matter how good my fitness is, so I usually try that every summer just to make myself feel like I need to work harder.

I only rode over 100 miles 12 times this year if you count the 750 miles I rode in 3 1/2 days as one ride

Well, I can't claim "so often". I don't ride 100+ so much, but I do get to do 70+ pretty often. I like riding solo, which usually means unsupported too. Riding with someone, especially in a paceline for increased speed, means not being able to see what's around you, not being able to slow or speed up as you prefer, not being able to stop any old time as the whim strikes.

As some here said, riding a long distance requires you know yourself. You must eat enough and it must be the right stuff. You must drink enough water and be wary of salt depletion on a hot day. You must know how hard to push so that you don't wear yourself out unnecessarily and yet go fast enough that the trip won't take foreverrrrr.

When you finish you feel great!

Every weekend it doesn't snow and cover my favorite course with ice. 100 miles has become the standard for me to say I actually did something. now 200 miles... thats something I'd like to do in one ride if I actually had the time between work and kids. It takes 6 hours to ride 100 miles so I can get up at 4am and be back before 11am. It would be great to have all day so I could ride 12 hours. Like the above posts my biggest issues were balancing fluid/energy intake with the pace to get back in 6 hours. Eat too much and you slow down, don't eat enough and you just run out of gas - not nice at all. Still its a fun way to spend a Sunday morning.

Despite being off the bike for two months in April and May because of emergency surgery, I managed to get in 19 100+ mile rides this year. I think about 5 of those were organized events. The rest were all solo rides. My last century was last weekend. It gets harder to do the longer distances when the days are shorter though.

I don't enjoy all of these rides though. Some are really not fun at all. Thankfully most of them are.

In some cases it comes down to riding a century in order to be in good enough shape to ride a century....

Meh. I do 2-3 centuries per year, on average and lunch is almost required. Unless you're going for elapsed time, which I rarely do. Anything over about 20 minutes though and you have to warm up all over again. That wastes a lot of time; so I keep other stops relatively short.

Just need to make a quick comment about supported and unsupported rides. I guess for me supported 100 mile rides are social events. Unsupported 100 mile rides are typically "reflective/introspective" events... if that makes any sense.

I entered a 60 miler earlier in the year with the difference being that it was at Night. London to Brighton starting at Midnight. I knew that I would be riding home from Brighton-30 miles and that bought it near to a full century so I did a couple of laps round Clapham Common at the start to take me above 100. I normally ride long distance solo and although 5,000 riders were along with me- I still did the ride on my own. Prefer solo rides on that sort of distance as I can ride at my pace.

Only thing is that the 30 miles back from Brighton I normally do with a break. Not this time as I knew that if I stopped- I would be phoning the SAG wagon to finish the ride. And before leaving Brighton-I had my usual 70 mile break at a cafe with a bacon roll and coffee instead of the usual 5 minute break and extra snacks and water.

I did 23 centuries in 2005 just to say "I did it". But that was all for the fun of it!


Gina and I have done 4 centuries on our tandem so 3 months ago I talked her into a flat century on her single just to say "she did it". Overall it was fun but this ride was a more of a to say "she did it".

101 miles @15.8 average and she was smiling at the end of the ride....and yes, Gina is 50.

The first time that I rode 100+ miles, I did it solo, and just for the heck of it to see whether I could. I was riding the route of a local club's group ride, that had a metric, a 42, and a 21 built into it from the same starting point. I had ridden the metric several times previously. I set out with plans to just do the metric. When I got back to the start point, I took a short snack break (like 3-5 minutes) and on the spur of the moment, feeling still pretty fresh, I took off again over the 42 mile route. It was in the spring, with longer days, pretty mild, not a lot of wind. No big deal. I was tired but nowhere near exhausted at the end of 104 miles.

For my next trick, two months later, it was 100 and 75 miles on consecutive days in a charity ride. I have to admit that I had to really tough it out the last 10 miles of day 2, riding uphill into the wind.

No. Almost always. No.

In general, being on a bike is 'fun'; being out and about, experiencing the environment, all that good stuff all of us know about. However, my primary motivation is fitness and health.

I've ridden five or six centuries this past year, almost all of them unsupported solo endeavors. The organized one was a double-metric century in honor of my birthday, (double my age in miles). My usual route is fairly flat out-and-back route; from an interior valley to the beach. Except for stops to change a flat tire, the only time I stop is at every 25-mile marker. The first one to grab a bite to eat, the halfway point to enjoy the beach scenery and eat, and at about the 70-mile marker to fill up the water bottles and eat again. I'm pretty wasted around the 80-mile point and wish I were finished with the ride.

What works well for me is two large water bottles and three Clif bars. There is a convenience store at the 70-mile marker where I can get more if needed. I try to start early, so water isn't needed so much. It is still relatively cool, and the route has a slight downhill to the beach. Coming home in the afternoon, it has warmed up considerable, so much more water is needed. Thankfully, in the afternoon, there is the on-shore breeze to help me get back to the car.

I love the route. The scenery through the orchards. Only bummer is that about a quarter of the route has heavy vehicular traffic. Ear plugs help with that.

It's amazing how your perspective changes. Up till less than three years ago. I had only cycled occasionally, with the longest stretch +/-35 miles. A century or a ride across the state seemed like impossible nonsense. About then, I figured out my body was no longer cut out for some of the younger men's sports. And I was more than a little over-weight. So I threw my energies into cycling. I did four centuries this past September during 2 week ride to the Black Hills and back. One was a 144 mile day. Riding a Surly LHT with 30 lbs of pack. One of my goals next year will be to do a double century. But yes, it's all fun!!

Actually, I am not sure how fun it is, but century rides are extremely satisfying

Reminds me of a guy in our club who used to lead a "Double Half Century" every June 21st, the longest day of the year: 50 mile out&back ride in the morning before work, then another (different) 50 mile out&back ride in the evening after work.

Me too but they are fun too. :-)

I did this for the first time this year. I took up cycling last year, and this year one of my goals was to complete my first century. I completed my first metric century in May, and throughout the summer slowly increased the length of my rides. I picked a relatively easy organized century in early September for my first century ride, but we experienced such perfect riding weather the week before, I decided to do a solo century. I planned a route based on loops, sticking mainly to the MUP I ride most often. I put a cooler with extra water in my car, and refilled my water and food supplies at the halfway point. Due to my inexperience, I planned too many water/nutrition stops, and so my ride took a bit longer than I would have liked, but I finished strong and had a blast. I plan on doing more centuries--most solo--in 2013.

I love century threads no matter how many we have. Summer before last was my first century and it was info like this that coached me. I am 55, very athletic and type 1 diabetic. I takes snack bars, listen to my body, drink more water than needed and ride solo. I have fun but oh man it hurts at the 85mi mark.

My last training ride is usually around 85mi. I've learned not to ride the almighty century if temps go above 85 even though I do shorter rides in 95deg here in northern Michigan.

Here you go! https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=urban+century Haven't done it yet this Christmas vacation. It turned cold and windy on me.

Don in Austin

I've gone thata way for hours and turned around and went thisa way for hours In a day.
I never really consider how far, I have no computer,,I'm old school I guess.

When I want to go 100 miles to somehwere and back,,or 200, or 300 I'll take my Harley XD