Century Training Advice
 

I have a goal. There is a charity ride in Feb of 2018 with various distances. I want to do a century to celebrate my 50th birthday. I have been riding seriously 4x per week, one ride being a long ride on Saturday for the last five months. My long ride is between 30-40 mi. I just upgraded my bike to a Fuji Gran Fondo 2.0 and got enough credit back from Performance Bike for a Wahoo Element Bolt bundle with speed, cadence and heart rate monitors.

I am overweight. 290lbs after losing 70 lbs so far. My goals are to lose more weight while training for the century and being able to successfully complete the century in Feb. I think I've got plenty of time. With my work schedule, I would like to have Fri & Sun be "off days" from training. I work full time Mon-Fri. I am looking for advice from the great wealth of knowledge here on training that will fit my schedule, how to train and even tips on nutrition for continuing to lose weight while training.

My schedule so far has been:
Mon-Weds, evening ride 10.5mile fast as possible.
Thurs, resistance training at the gym with a trainer.
Fri off.
Sat, long morning ride 30-40mi, recently with a small group who ride a little faster than me.
Sun off.

All advice is greatly appreciated.

If every ride is balls-out, you'll burn yourself out. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, working low-intensity rides (as in, children and old grannies pass you) into your schedule will help progress a lot. Keep increasing the distance of your weekly long ride gradually, too -- a good rule of thumb is that you have the capability to ride 50% longer than your previous longest ride, so it will be good to have rides of 65+ miles under your belt before the century.

Check out the Long Distance subforum for more tips. :thumb:

You've got somewhere in the neighborhood of 20+ weeks to get ready.... if you even add 5 miles to your weekly long ride each week, and stay static or reduce once it each 3rd or 4th week (that allows for if you're tired/ don't feel well, maybe life gets in the way and you miss a weekend ride), you have plenty of time to bump up that long ride to 75 miles. Then build in a couple of tapered rides the weeks before,... maybe a 50 mile one week and a 35-40 the week before. A 75 mile long ride three weeks before the century should put you in a good spot to enjoy the century and stretch yourself without making it a rough experience.

And work out any pain problems you may have, sore shoulders, hand, arms, whatever. Also start off on the ride slow, don't get caught up in the moment and start hammering from the beginning.

Get your on bike food sorted. Make sure you eat enough but not too much. Mile 50 will probably be your wall. Stay happy and eat/ride through it and it will pass.

Stop and stretch, don't let your neck, shoulders, etc...get too cramped.

Stand for a minute every mile or so to keep blood flowing in your lower bits.

For losing weight fast, cut out sugar and make the best food choices that you can. Eat plain, air popped popcorn to help get you through the sugar transition and tough spells. Do short, like 10 second intervals often. These need to be as hard as possible. Mix a few of those into your faster rides, take a few minutes recovery after each effort. Increase length to 15-20 seconds as your fitness improves. Be careful with your heart rate but work on ramping it up a little and this will help to keep the fires burning while off the bike.

Walk, A LOT!

Decide not to eat garbage. You cannot out exercise a poor diet.


Nice job on the weight loss and motivation!

I suggest riding Sundays, too, but I just like riding. Start gradually increasing the length of the long rides. Once you can do 70 miles without too much trouble you should be good for a supported charity century.

I have a supported century coming up in a month. It will be my 5th. I did my 1st 16 months ago.

If I read correctly that three days a week you only ride for 10 minutes and 30 seconds then that's almost a waste of time getting dressed for it. You only do one real ride a week and that's only 40 miles max. I would do a long 50+ mile solo ride on Sundays with maybe one rest stop and take a couple of days off during the week. If you can ride 60 miles solo and not die then a century ride in a group shouldn't be a problem.

I agree with the posts above. Get to where 60 miles no longer phases you. Learn to spin, when to take breaks, and what gearing to use. And for 100 miles, don't worry about speed. Worry about nothing. Enjoy the day. But do take about 4 days rest before doing the century. And carb up night before and morning of.

Excellent job on the weight loss, BTW. I have a friend in a similar situation, and it pains me to see him not really attempting to lose weight, but rather making excuses.

I think you need more saddle time in order to feel comfortable doing 100. Are you able to commute?

Three days a week I cannot average 60mph :lol: I'm riding 10.5 miles 3 days per week.

I like the idea of commuting. It would be a 9.5mi commute. However, with traffic and having to deal with showering and changing clothes, it would probably be better for me to add a morning ride to my evening rides. That would be doable during the week.

I second the comments about food, knowing the right food your body will handle is key to a successful endurance ride.

Also second the comments about getting a solo 60-70 mile ride, if you can do that, you'll be able to do a support century.

One point I haven't see in this thread that I would add: do some upper body and core strength training. I do push ups and use hand weights for shoulder/arm strengthening; and I like planking for core.

Good luck and keep it fun!

For reference, I ride 6-8 century (or longer) rides every year - supported, unsupported, and solo.

A 10 minute ride is worse than nothing. You don't even get warmed up before you're done. Sounds like a good recipe for a heart attack. Taking M-W and Sat as ride days, I'd do the following:

M - 10-minute easy warmup, then 40 minutes of riding hard and a 10-minute cool-down. 1 hour total.
Tu - Easy ride, no-burn and no breathing hard allowed. 1/2 to 1 hour, basically a warm-up and light use.
W - repeat Monday's workout.
Sa - long ride at moderate intensity (mildly aerobic) building to 60+ miles

You use the easy Tuesday ride to recover from the hard ride. That's how you build strength: stress the muscles, then rest them. Gaining strength comes on the recovery days. Ditto with the Thursday off-day. If you're lifting that day, work your non-biking muscles (upper body, core.) Saturday's ride builds endurance and toughens your butt.

As you get stronger, you may consider doing intervals on one of the hard days. If you're familiar with weight training, you're familiar with the concept of stressing the muscles to the point of failure. It's the same concept for intervals. They should leave you sore and depleted, more so than an hour at your lactate threshold.

Edit: I see above that you meant to write 10.5 miles in an hour? If that represents your 'as fast as I can' speed, you've got a way to go. Most supported century rides expect the rider to average 12 mph even factoring in stops, i.e. the stops will only be open from 8am to 4pm and if you take longer you'll be out on the road alone with no support, and arrive back to an empty parking lot. Or worse, well after dark. Not only that, but those unable to make the pace are generally the ones who take longer trying to recover at the stops, which only exacerbates their problem. Unless you can improve to the point that you can average 12-14 mph at your 'moderate' weekend pace, you might be better-served to aim for the metric century route. There's no shame in trying and failing by a small margin, but failing spectacularly indicates a gross failure in goal-setting.

There's no need for special training for a century. If you're riding 30-40 miles on the weekend now, just gradually extend that by adding a few miles each ride until you are comfortably riding 60-75 miles. If you can ride 75 miles on a casual ride, doing a supported century will be a piece of cake.

That's the beauty of commuting. You automatically get a morning ride and an evening ride. I actually started commuting in order to train for an event. I found that it was too easy to blow off a scheduled ride in the evening and had the thought that if I had my bike at work at the end of the day, I could just do my ride from the office and then ride home.

Then when I started racing I started working out with a friend in the morning before work. I'd leave the house early, drop my backpack off at the office and meet my buddy at the trail, ride the ride, ride back to work, shower, change, and be at my desk by 8:30. It takes a bit of planning, organizing, and efficient packing, but it's been worth it.

I know it doesn't work for everyone, but it's worth exploring to see if it could work for you.

Sorry for the confusion. My Mon-Weds Rides are 10.5 MILES. I complete the ride in about 45 min. I can maintain about 17mph, but have to deal with some major intersections.

Oh, you edited it. 10.5 miles is still almost nothing. You said you ride seriously four days a week but you are only doing one real ride, and that's not even solo, you're drafting the majority of the time. I didn't say anything about MPH. What I don't understand is why you're using one of your days off work as a rest day. That's the time to get the good riding in if you're really serious about doing a century.

+1

I loved my 10-mile commute (one-way), it got me in great condition. I did my first gravel century without much training beyond my daily commute. That first gravel century was brutal with a storm front dumping tons of rain and viscous winds. Many riders bailed, but I completed it and got hooked on gravel grinding.

All I can tell you is what I did to train up for a century ride.

My morning rides consisted of 15 miles just to keep my legs loose and in shape. On the weekends, I would take longer rides out of town, gradually working up to longer distances. My first goal was a metric century, or 62.1 miles, which took me several tries before I finally achieved that (had problems with leg cramps in the heat of summer). I finally achieved it, could have ridden more but was happy to have a metric century. I kept riding long distances on the weekends, the Saturday before the century ride I rode 76 miles, taking care to pay close attention to hydration, food, etc. All the next week I rode 15 miles every morning, but took Friday off so I would be rested up for the big day.

The day came, I rode with some friends which helped me keep a good pace, but eventually they turned off at the metric century turnoff point, and I was basically on my own. I just kept going from SAG stop to SAG stop, and with the exception of a couple of minor leg cramps I pushed on until I finally came to the end of the course back at the start/finish line. It was a great feeling to know that I had finally achieved a century.

Oh I should add that during training and during the ride itself, I did NOT pedal full speed the whole time. In fact, I made sure to conserve my energy by keeping at or just under my usual pace of 15 MPH. It was not a race, it was all about endurance, so it didn't matter how fast I finished. All I cared about was actually finishing. So go at your own pace, don't try to keep up with people who are faster than you because you'll burn yourself out pretty quickly.

Simple program:
Mon : Easy 1hr.
Tue : Off
Wed : 1hr with 3-6 hard intervals or climbing.
Thur : off
Friday : easy 1hr.
Saturday : long ride - start at 1.5 hr and increase 30 min each week until you get to 5 hr.
Sun : off

If you miss a day due to rain, just complete your ride on the off day.

"Almost nothing" is going a little far, I think. You can pack a lot of intervals into 10.5 miles and end up completely spent, or use it for a Zone 1/recovery ride, which you wouldn't want to be super long anyway. My daily commute is shorter and I derive a lot of training benefit from it.

More broadly, I agree with getting in more miles, and I think the OP has heard that advice loudly and clearly by this point. :)

Century Training Advice
 

First of all, congrats on the weight loss. Second, congrats on setting a goal. Centuries are something of a milestone achievement for cyclists. You've gotten some good advice here. You may want to get a coach to help you with your plans and to help keep you accountable. Ride with a group if you can so that you are not surprised by what it is like to ride with a lot of other people during your century ride next year. (I'm assuming it's an organized century ride.) I have a similar schedule to yours. I ride an hour in the morning Tu/Wed/Thur and then a long ride group Saturday, but I also do a 2-3 hour ride on Sundays. Tuesdays are usually intervals, Wednesday a slow, slow recovery ride, and Thursdays I climb hills. Keep it up and let us know how you do.

OP: Is your planned century an organized event or a solo endeavor?

OK, maintaining 17 mph is a lot different than 10.5 miles in an hour.

You might take a look at the book The Time Crunched Cyclist by Carmichael to get an idea of how he allocates a limited amount of time. He has a specific plan for the first time century rider.

dave

ps. If it were me I would drop the resistance training in the context of training for a century ride. You are quite short on 'saddle time' and I believe that would server you best. In the longer term (outside of training for a century ride), a different thing.