if you hit a wall at 45 with major back & leg pain good luck going for 100. I think you need to resolve those issues ASAP

I ride 40-50 miles a day for exercise (54 yrs old) and occasionally do centuries on my own if I have the time. They're not hard to do if you're already doing 40+ miles regularily.

But.. as others have mentioned, I'd definitely figure out the knee and back pain issue before proceding. You dont want to get some permanent or even semi-permanent injury forcing yourself through to 100 miles. Some discomfort is normal - I get it too when riding longer miles, but not outright pain. Good luck!

Being sore is your friend. It tells you that you exercised.

Having pain is your enemy. It tells you something is wrong. :mad: :mad:

Pain will wear you down as you ride and can become debilitating when an injury does occur. Resolve the cause of the pain and then enjoy the miles.

On long rides everything needs to fit just right, the bike as well as the clothes and shoes. It can take a lot of riding until you settle into getting eveything just right.

I've got a 2500 km ride coming up this fall, and to meet my schedule I'll need to average 100 km per day. My bike fits, I have just about broken in a new B17 saddle, and I will be using shoes, shorts, gloves, and pedals that I have put a lot of miles on already. I am more concerned with being comfortable for long hours on the bike than I am about my endurance, I'll be doing only 150 km per week before I begin.

Your plan sounds good, but you need to find out what is causing the pain. Being able to to 60-70 miles before your century will be enough. Do such a distance a week or so before your century, and then spend the days between spinning around.

The day before your century you need to eat a lot. Don't eat one or two large meals, eat several small meals (race horses are fed five times per day). This will distribute the food more evenly in your digestive tract, making it easier to metabolize. During the ride, eat before you are hungry, and drink before you are thirsty.

Find someone to ride with if you can (or hook up with a stranger on the ride), company and conversation make the miles pass more quickly, and take your mind off the work.

Once something starts hurting, it's going to keep hurting until you get off the bike. Check your fit, including your shoe-pedal alignment, that can do all kinds of weird things farther up your legs, especially knee and hip.

I tried to make the jump from 50 miles to my first century.
We were bucking a steady headwind all day,
I started getting cramps in my quads at abound mile 65, changed my pedal stroke to favor my hamstrings, and lost them at mile 72. At that point, I was struggling to make 10mph, and we had to ride again the next day, so when I saw a SAG van at the mile 80 rest stop, I was more than happy to hang up the bike.

thanks for the amazing insight and info. i greatly appreciate it. my muscles have had a tendecy to lock up every since i was a kid. i think its just being in a bike position for so long. i have changed a few things in my diet to add extra mg k ca etc hopin that will help and hope more time in the saddle will help. time will tell. i dont think there is anything physically wrong, at least more than the normal wear an tear. i will say it seams there is a diff of opinion on how many miles to ride before your ready. i live in the ozark mnts an everything is up an down, very very few flat areas. im hopin that will make up some of the lack of distance, along with some long rides. if i dont feel like im ready for it in august i will re evaluate, although quitting isnt really a option for me, i just dont do that.

If you train in the Ozarks you have the perfect place to train. Is the century ride in the Ozarks too?

Add a little more salt to your diet, it can help stop the muscle lock-up. Look on Youtube for bike-fitting videos, you'll find some useful information. If you are riding 45-50 miles on your weekends, you should have no problem riding 100 miles by August.

Here in Japan most of the country is mountains, some quite high. But outside the cities there is little traffic, and the roads are well-maintained. There are a lot of organized century rides here, but I haven't yet participated in one.

At 46, my 'rest' consisted of deliberately riding easy the day after a HARD ride, with "hard" being defined as one where I spend an hour or more at LT. At that age, 'tapering' should consist of easy rides for no more than the 2 days prior to the big ride.

ok, so lets talk fuel. there are suppose to be rest stops with snacks, drinks, etc every 10-15 miles. how much gel/water should i carry for the in between stuff. should i stop at every one or skip a couple to save some time.
the ride is in joplin mo, cant remember who ask but thats where it is.

That depends on what you need. I needed to stop at every stop on my first long ride. Now I can skip a bunch of them. You should know before the ride starts how comfortable you are with going 30 miles non-stop.

I carry water and sports drink on my bike. I always pack a few syrup waffles just in case there's some emergency where I get stuck someplace and need food.

You don't lose cardiovascular conditioning after a full week... Your first ride back will be sluggish, and possibly your second, but you could easily come back after a week and be in the exact same shape as before you took time off.

With that said, you should NOT take a week off before the race. If the ride is on saturday, do a normal ride monday and wednesday, a harder ride tuesday, then a medium difficulty ride on thursday, then a very easy ride (basically just spinning for an hour) on friday.

I ran D1 in college. My coach and I had these discussions all of the time.

Finishing a century is less about fitness and more about comfortableness on the bike. If you're uncomfortable, you'll be miserable. If you're out of shape you'll just be slow.

Is that the Gorilla century ride?

I usually stop at most of them, if for nothing else to fill my camelbak and stretch my legs. You don't want to linger too long or you'll get stiff.

its the svitek freedom ride milton.
thanks again guys, im listening intently to all the responses an will incorporate them into my training regimen to see what works best for my body.

ok, did 63 yesterday an felt pretty good. i coulda went more but really didnt want to. i ate and drank quite abit more on this ride an did much better. now i need to figure out what to carry an how on this ride. i have one water bottle on the bike and a pump mounted. i may get rid of the pump an put another cage on, although there are suppose to be stops every 10-15 miles so not sure thats necessary. my saddle bag is WAY to small to put anything in it so im debating on buying a bigger saddle bad. right now my spare tube wont even fit in it. let alone phone, tools, etc. but again there is sag service so do i need to carry the wt.

That's great news.

If a supported spring or fall ride has stops every 10-15 miles I only need one bottle. I can easily do 30 miles on a single bottle, and I can handle stopping at every other stop. In the summer I bring two because my part of the world is hot. On unsupported rides I bring 3 or 4 bottles, 2 on the bike and 1 or 2 in the jersey.

I have a very small bike bag, but there's room for one tube, several CO2 bottles, multi-tool and one tire lever. I think I have a small bag because of vanity. I just like how it looks.

Phone goes in a ziplock bag in a jersey pocket.

I just did my first metric century. I'd done a few rides in the 42-50 mile range (non-stop pedaling, high winds often). On the 62 mile metric century ride, I stopped twice, at 24 and 48. That is, I skipped every other rest stop. I carried a banana, some gels, an energy bar and a couple of regular fig bars (all in jersey pockets), and two bottles of water. At the stops I ate a little cup of pickles, drank half a cup of Gatorade, and had a gel pack. On the bike I ate half the energy bar, the banana, and drank a little more than a bottle of water. I finished with water and food to spare in my jersey pocket.

Basically, how much you carry depends on how often you want to stop. I stopped about every 80 minutes, and needed fairly minimal nutrition/hydration between stops. You definitely want to carry extra, just in case. I also wanted to finish in a good time, so I was in and out of the rest stops faster than most. I've I'd have started to feel bad, I would have stopped more, and rested longer, but knowing the rest stops were so available allowed me to push pretty hard and finish in good shape.

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but I find my muscle soreness after long rides got better when I upped my protein intake after those rides and the next day. No need for much protein before/during, but your stressed muscles need it during the rest/recovery phase.

Oh, and if it hasn't been mentioned, get some Aquaphor or Chamois Buttr or something like that. It really helps. I use it on all my rides over 20 miles.

Every 10 - 15 miles is a lot of stops; I usually stop at ~25-30 miles.

I eat a fig bars / granola bar or two and a banana, drink a bottle of water, and then off again.
I tend to drink a lot of water, so I wear a 64oz Camelback, and sip off of it all day. One bottle for Gatorade / mix, I try to make sure that's gone by the halfway point, and refill there.

I don't get along with maltodextrin, so I try not to use gels as a regular 'food' source unless I need to. I do carry a couple of the ones with the extra caffeine, in case I start to bonk, and need an 'emergency' refuel.

I also usually have a bag of peanut M&M's in my top tube bag, for those 'top of the hill' breaks on the second half of the day.

You could do what I did, and mount the pump and cage on the same screws. Of course the pump has an offset bracket so it's actually on the side of the seat post.

ordered some chamois buttr an a bigger bag tonite. will be here in a couple days. also did a short 23 miles, but all up an down hill the whole way. its hard to find something flat around here. plan on doing another 65 weekly, 75 in july, 85 once in august an then ride. im ready. thanks for all the help an advice. im still figuring out how i want to fuel an water, but have plenty of time for that.
one more question though, any special bike maintenance and/or tune ups etc before you go and how long before.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I've had some issues with back pain on longer rides ever since I was in a bad car accident a few years ago. What works for me is getting off the bike and stretching out for a few minutes every 2-3 hours, or whenever it feels like my back is going to start giving me problems.

I'll second what everyone else said about bike fit and maybe getting a doctor's opinion on it though.

One more thing I thought I'd mention. On the organized rides I've done the century is the least supported. Don't expect stops to be every 10-15 miles unless you do one of the shorter routes. The century route will have way fewer riders than the shorter routes and thus will be less suported.