ystress

I am targeting my first century ride this year and I was wondering how many breaks (if any) people take on their century ride?

Machka 

Well there's one guy who posted in the Road forum who said his organized ride has a rest stop every 10 miles ... so I guess the answer to your question could be anywhere from 0 to 10 stops.

Me personally ... in general I sort of aim for 2-3 slightly longer stops (10-15 minutes), and then whatever is necessary for adjustments and photos (1-2 minutes).

bmike

As many as you need.
As few as you want.

Ride Your Own Ride.

Carbonfiberboy 

One stop is all you really need if you carry liter bottles or a camelbak. But two stops is better so you don't have to obsess about fluids. And it's nice to get off one's butt for a few minutes every 30 miles or so. More stops is not better. You don't say if it's a supported ride or just going out alone or with friends. In either case, be sure to have some food in your jersey pockets, wrappers pre-torn, so you can do the 250 calories/hour thing, or bring powder packets if you do the Perpetuem/Sustained Energy thing. So plan on 2, but do what you need to do.

ystress

I appreciate the help and everyone's thoughts. When I first heard about a century ride I thought it was a non-stop ride. As I have learned about century rides, I came to understand that people take breaks during the ride. I have read about various suggestions regarding caloric intake management and fluid management and they have been helpful. What I was curious about is the effects of taking breaks on my ability to complete the century(muscle fatigue, cramping, etc.). I am also curious about the impact of these breaks on the mental enjoyment of the ride. I know I can go at my pace, but I hope to gain knowledge from others experiences.

DanteB

Breaks are kind of a personal thing, meaning so poeple take few and ours a lot. It also has to do with weather and terrain. This past weekend I was doing a double century and they have rest stops about every 2-3 hours of riding. I never stop on the major climb of the day, no rest stops on it anyway, but this time I took a quick break to cool down since the temp was around 95 degrees. So it's up to you as to how you feel.

spokenword

It all depends on what constitutes mental enjoyment. If you have a competitive mindset, then you might enjoy riding with other fast riders, staying in a paceline and grabbing little victories in town line or county line sprints; and if the rest stops are every 10 or 15 miles, you might feel like blowing past every other one just to keep a good pace up. That's perfectly cool.

If, on the other hand, you're more of a bike tourer, and you like stopping for ice cream or a cup of coffee at a little shop that you've never ridden past before (and might never ride past again) then you might stop at more places than just the official rest stop. That's perfectly fine as well; so long as you finish within whatever course closing schedule has been posted. You paid an event fee for a 8, 10 or 12 hour day on a bike, might as well get your money's worth.

There's a 200k that I've done three times now, and at mile 28, there's a small town market that supposedly sells some fine homemade root beer. The first year that I did it, I had a crash earlier on and didn't stop because I felt like I needed to make up for lost time. The second year that I did it, I was in a paceline with guys who didn't want to stop, and I wound up posting a personal best that I was rather proud of. This year, I was feeling really good on the ride kind of hoping to beat last year's speed on the 200k, so I didn't stop. Two flat tires later dashed my hopes for that personal record, and I am still haunted by the bloody temptation of that root beer.

As far as muscles and cramping go ... I tend to find that personally, I do better if I work through the cramp and just keep pedaling, but in my past experience, if the cramping becomes frequent, then it isn't a bad idea to stop for a few minutes, just to let your legs recover. If the cramping resumes, then it's a sure sign that you've bitten off more than you can chew, and you just really need to back off on your speed, rehydrate and mind your electrolytes. Also, depending on what your diet may be for the ride, you might find that you'll have trouble digesting stuff while on your bike. If you're leaning on a lot of solid food -- (ie. cheese, sandwiches, jerky, etc.) -- and if your stomach feels little heavy or bloated during the ride. you might just want to stop, sit, drink for a bit and give your body a chance to relax and digest.

maxine

Most organized century rides that I've done have had stops every 20 miles or so. When I'm riding on my own, I generally don't stop unless the ride is over 40 miles.

As far as whether taking breaks will affect your ability, mentally and physicall, to complete the ride . . . that's a highly individualized thing, and will also vary for each rider depending on the ride conditions.

I did an MS150 ride one year for which the century day was broiling hot with extremely high humidity, and in an area in which shade trees were few and far between. I stopped about five times on that ride, often just to sit in a sliver of shade for a few minutes and pat myself down with a damp cloth, because I know from experience that my tolerance for high heat/humidity is not so great. Mentally, I didn't want to stop that much, but I knew that physically, I probably needed to do it.

And then there are some days, some rides, when physically everything's ticking along, but mentally I just want to get off the bike every now and then and walk around for a minute.

As others have said, pay attention to your mind/body, and ride your ride, stop when/where you need to. (Try not to stop for too long, though, or try to keep moving around just a bit -- your legs might stiffen up some otherwise.)

CliftonGK1

For me, it all depends on the ride.

On a 200k brevet I will probably only stop at the controls. On a personal century, I might take a few more breaks to snap some pictures. During an organized century (like the TdC coming up this weekend) where there are rest stops every 15 miles, I might skip one or two of them if my bottles are full and my bladder is empty. Last year during the same TdC ride, I hit every single rest stop to fill my bottles because it was 95 degrees and very humid; this year is not going to be so hot, so I can probably skip a few stops.
I'm not out to set any personal records, so stopping for 3 - 5 minutes here and there isn't going to ruin my ride on an organized century.

Jim from Boston

On my usual organized century with with breaks every 20 miles, that works for me, as well as when I ride solo centuries. From reading this thread that might be excessive, but I do keep them as short as possible. I do tend to psychologically break the ride into 20 mile segments. Next ride (in July) maybe I'll try to cut down.

BTW, on a previous thread about centuries and breaks, the concensus was that when you tout your time it should be total time including breaks rather than just time on the bike. It seems logical, but did engender some discussion.

Richard Cranium

Take a break anytime there is something going wrong with your ride. If you have to go - then go!

If you need to re-adjust your shorts, or get something out of your eye, or put on more sun screen then stop and do it! There is no way - "a new rider" can plan his/her century break schedule. You'll have to try and ride one to find out what you need.

DanteB

The more LD rides I do the more I find out there is no norm. Sometimes I live on a liquid diet and other time I want lots of soild foods. Sometimes it seems I can go for ever and others I can't wait to get off the bike. But the one thing I won't do is not stop if I'm low on fliuds just because I don't feel like stopping. If there is a rest stop I'll stop quickly and re-water and get going. Ride your ride and do it for yourself, stop when you want to.

The Octopus 

Stop whenever and however long you need to to make your ride fun and consistent with your goals and expectations. I've done centries where I've probably stopped ten times or more. And I've done centuries where I never once stopped the bike (in one 24-hour event, I did not stop at all for the first 180 miles). Both were fun experiences, but let's just say they were very, very different kinds of cycling!

Machka's got some great advice on her web page about riding centuries, especially for riders for whom that's new territory.

10 Wheels

Richard knows his stuff.

Make your stops short.
You cool down on long stops. 5 t0 10 minutes max for me.
Sometimes Porto Cans and Drink Lines are very Long.
I carry 4 bottles with me.

akansaskid

On organized rides, they’re scheduled for you, anywhere from 10 to 20 miles apart for the ones I know anything about. Only rode of these and didn’t like the inherently inflexible nature of them.

On your own rides, whenever you want. Who’s keeping track? If you’re competing against some standard or even yourself, then there are lots of good posts here and elsewhere suggesting what works best for that person. If instead you just want to ride 100 miles that day, the only limitation is when you have to be home.

All my rides are solo, and I’m not competitive. Guess you could say I’ve just done a lot of 100-mile day rides. But along the way you learn some things:

1) Your need for a break is not a function of miles, but time in the saddle. Pushing 7 mph into a 30+ mph headwind can make a 15-mile leg torturous. Going the other way, 40 miles just flies by.

2) If you carry everything with you, you can break whenever/wherever you want. If, like me, you don’t carry much, breaks are defined by the next town down the road in more remote areas.

3) I need more frequent breaks when it’s below freezing or above 100.

4) If you’re a male well into middle age and are keeping your fluids up, breaks are more numerous than in your youth.

ystress

Thanks everyone for sharing their experiences and insights.

USAZorro

I like to get out of the saddle and stretch my legs a bit when I encounter steep hills.