Agreed. My first was a supported ride with 4 rest stops including lunch. I'll tell you, a turkey and cheese sandwich never tasted so good. I highly recommend doing a supported century for your first time.

i am sure it is like a marathon . . . in that there are different levels
Surviving it - like doing the death march/walking past mile 20 (running) or mile 80 (bike)
Finishing it - not the death march, but not very happy
Completing it - some discomfort, but feeling okay at the end

and then several levels of having been trained properly for it.

+100 on this.

:)

Even if you want to do the century solo, make sure there are places to stop and refuel, sit down for a while on something other than a saddle, and places where you know you're not in the middle of nowhere without help nearby.

I've done a half dozen or so centuries a year for years. Very seldom have I ridden anything longer than 40 to 50 miles pryor to the first century of the year. As others have said, the second 50 is all about mind, fuel and hydration, hydration, hydration.

"When I was hungry, I ate. When I was tired, I slept. When I had to go, you know, I went!"

180 Miles - Baltimore to Ocean City, MD
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ap-to-OCMD.jpg

Actually, I stopped at convenience stores whenever I started running short of fluids, but I had to force myself to eat anything solid. The trip was made with a 25 pound backpack on and it was hot out (July 4th; return July 8; travelled only on those days). The biggest change that I made was to slow down--averaged 16 MPH on the return trip--and use different positions on the saddle (or standing) to call on different muscles groups to do the work.

If you can ride 50 non-stop, you can ride 100 with a couple of breaks. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. ;)

Not hard. I jumped from 60 miles (doing loop around lake washington) to 206 miles (Seattle to Portland) with no problem. You should be fine going from 50 miles to 100.

:roflmao:

Exactly!

i average 30-40, did only a handful of 50, and then jumped to 2 centuries over 2 days (with good pace to boot).

the supposed obstacle is nutrition/hydration. i took only a 15 min lunch break and 2 pee brakes; used about 2.5 bottles (half water half gatorage) and 2.5 packets of goo/gel per day

if you ride with motivated people its a lot of fun

That would be because some of us don't have this "group" you speak of to ride with.

Most of my centuries ... most of my rides in general ... are solo. I actually feel uncomfortable riding in a group.

In my first Ride the Rockies, we did 45 miles the first day, which was the longest ride I'd done at that time, and 100 the next (Steamboat to Vail with ~7,000' of climbing). It took me 11 hours to finish the century, with ~45 minutes total of breaks during the day. I was *totally* drained when it was done but I made it. You can definitely jump from 50 to 100 miles if you are in reasonable shape and you have enough time.

I was riding 25-30 miles a day to work and 30-50 miles a day on my days off 2 weeks ago i rode 70 miles on monday then last monday i did my 100 miles and boy was that painfull but i made it. For me 60 is about what i can do without much pain but i ride a 29pound rigid 10 year old cannondale mountain bike.

as long as you're in reasonable shape, have a bike that fits, and a decent pair of bibs, there is no appreciable difference between the two.

go for it at your earliest convenience.

Who needs bibs when you're standing on the 53x11 the entire time?

I completely agree with all the sensible advice above. However, my first century was done after a hard night on the tequilas until 2am and where my longest training ride had been a 6.3 mile stop/start commute. Century was relatively painless. That said, I am sure you would enjoy it more if you did not have a stinking hangover thrown in.

Yeah, but you're kind of an animal. ;)

I'm just saying that probably the most painless way of doing your first century is with a group in an organized, supported ride.

I agree that it's a great way to go. Prior to my first century my longest ride (done solo) was 65 miles. I rode the century with a group of about ten riders, fellow members of my cycling club. I had a great time doing my part in the paceline and getting to know a bunch of new people. I felt quite mellow and drowsy at the end, but I never suffered--not even in the last 15 miles.

it all depends on the terrain. if you can do a hilly 50 mile ride, you should be able to do a flat century with ease, as long as you manage your nutrition correctly during the ride. if the 50 mile rides you've been doing are flat, and the century is hilly, that's a completely different story! i did a hilly 59 mile ride two weeks ago that was far and away my toughest ride ever, and i've done centuries before, so i would say it has more to do with terrain than anything else...

and my longest ride was 57 miles, before i did my first century last year, but it was flat...

Make sure you take every opportunity to stand up out of the saddle, even early on in the ride. I hit a mental break around 65 miles, and need to take a few minutes off the bike to really make sure I get some good solid food in.

Just to amplify what has been said already: make sure that you eat!

I don't eat if I'm only riding 50 or 60 miles at an easy to moderate pace, but I would DIE if I tried to ride 100 miles without eating. I don't need to eat much for 100 miles (a couple of Clif bars and a PB&J sandwich is enough), but the tank is pretty empty at the end. For 200K rides I need to eat quite a bit more on the bike.

This also has a lot to do with the PACE too. If you ride a below your aerobic pace, you will burn mostly fat, of which you have more than enough for 100+ miles.

If you run above your aerobic threshhold, you'll burn much more carbs... which you will deplete and bonk.

So another great way to make your first century successful, is to ride it at a relatively slow pace.

I did my first century this year. My longest ride prior to it was about 25 miles. I hadn't learned how to do the nutrition / hydration thing. I bonked at about 60 miles and thought I would have to call a cab. After four or five bottles of Gatorade and a good spell lying flat on my back, I hit the road again.

About ten miles later I was off to the side of the road "draining" the Gatorade :)

All said and done I averaged almost 20mph in the saddle (total riding time of just over 5 hours). In addition to that I had about one hour of resting time (most of it at the 60 mile mark). Whole thing took me 6 hours.


MORAL: Call a cab at the 60 mile mark or you might find yourself peeing on the side of the road.

Great advice above (including avoiding Tequila :D). 1st time Century riders just need to pace themselves, eat, drink & not quit at mile 75 when your brain begs you to stop.

Well, I rode 82.65 miles today (04:41:change), solo, and that after not riding for the last 5 days or so; just haven't had the drive. I had the LBS install new handlebars (44cm vs 42cm) and new stem (130mm vs 100mm) and was excited, so decided while I was in H'burg to pick up the bike, I may as well head out to the Longleaf Trace (rails-to-trails) and see how the new fit felt. It was great. I just didn't have any idea I would ride as much as I did. My pre-ride nutrition then was obviously crap, virtually nothing. I picked up a couple gel packs and an electrolyte powder mix while in the LBS, and that was the extent of my ride's intake. Oh, and a twix and powerade at mile 54.

The ride was decent, weather was mild (high 80s and humid), for here anyway. I saw a few wild rabbits, a hawk (I presume it too was watching the rabbits), a dead snake (I went back to identify it, and wound up taking my first clipped-in-fall), a doe and her fawn (it was bounding down the trail for a ways until it found an opening to duck into - very cute), and several death rats (aka, squirrels). All in all, a great ride.

I'm looking forward now to the century, though I'm not sure when it will happen. I'm pretty drained, so I don't know if I will ride tomorrow or not, but if I do, it won't be a long one. My arse is killing me, and I feel my legs much more than usual.

I'll be sure to properly nutrionalize before the next long ride. I don't like the drained feeling, not sure if that's the bonk or not, but I definitely felt it.

+1

BTW, Kevin.....Sunday was my first century in I don't know how long. I did do one on the trainer this past winter, but that doesn't really count. It's amazing at what you can get yourself to do on a wintery day in February on the weekend when you're extremely bored.

If you can ride 50 miles and be comfortable on the bike, you can ride 100 miles as long as you pace yourself. Fueling/hydration is key. For me, on rides that require food, I will use a combination GU gels and Clif bars.....generally alternating between the two every 45 minutes to an hour. On the last hour of the century I just did, I didn't eat anything for the last hour, and my body noticed it in short order.