Lycosa

My other activities are hiking. My wife and I hike regularly. In fact, we rode our bikes to a local park then hiked 5 miles today. We're both sort of wildlife enthusiasts so hiking becomes quite natural. Those are pretty much my main sources of exercise... biking and hiking.

Lycosa

Some of you've asked whether we have a bail-out plan and we've talked about it. Depending on our location, we can be picked up either by my wife or my father who's house is at the end of the 100 miles.

When my wife and I did a century on beach cruisers 3 years ago our bail-out plan was to stealth camp, which we did. It just happened to be in the middle of the summer and terribly hot. I'll be carrying a tent 'just in case'. Our plan is to stop at a campground or stealth camp if need be rather than bail out completely. It would be awesome to make the 100 miles in a day... however, making the journey is as important as making it in a given amount of time. I couldn't pull it off on the beach cruiser...and rightfully so, it was brutal. My touring bike is a whole other beast and I've learned to appreciate gears. They are my friend.

My son however is pretty psyched about pulling off the century in 1 day. He's letting me set the pace so I don't have to chase him all day. This will be his first century in a day as well, but he's got a lot more miles in the saddle than I do. Riding the beach cruiser on that 100 mile trip made me and my wife give up cycling for 3 years...yeah, it was that bad. Florida in the high 90's and 100 miles of road on single speed beach cruisers. Not for the faint of heart!

I just keep thinking if I could endure that punishment over 2 days, I 'should' be able to handle 100 miles on a comfortable touring bike. I think this 52 mile ride should be telling of my endurance.

JimF22003

I just think it's cool you have a chance to ride with your son, not having any kids myself

As others have noted, lots of fit and pain issues don't surface until you've ridden 50 or 60 miles or more. I did 34 century rides last year, and I'd say on every one of them either my feet, or my butt, or something was feeling the pain by the end, even if my aerobic system was still going strong.

MassiveD

Well, if you look at my mileage report, what happened is that I basically did the equivalent of 2 evening rides, then hit 80 or 90 the third day. The fourth day was actually longer, because I added about 15 miles more when I lost some keys. So yeah ease into it. But that could mean do a 40 and a 40 on thrus fri, then take off on saturday. The body will up the strength very quickly. But where it gets tricky is what if you make 97.5 miles. No problem for me, because I wasn't headed anywhere that day. What if you feel like 100, but I take it you are going with your son? So really it is a problem to the second order of magnitude: Anything that can go wrong twice. I did have fit issues because it was a brand new bike, with a brand new Brooks. I had broken the Brooks in for half an hour, so that was good to go. But I had some knee pain. The moment I felt that I stopped and tweaked my postion. Plus with the injuries I had to rebuilt my pedals several times. And actually on the first few days, I had a situation where my big toe was stubbing the end of my sandal, so I had lost nerve sensation in that toe, which didn't return until about a month after the ride was over. Again, every time, I stopped and sorted the problem out right away. The first two days of 40 miles weren't some magic number, they were pretty much what I felt like doing. So then, with someone else, I would have had all those problems and potential doubts x 2.

Actually a pretty good idea for people doing multi month tours would be to start at your own pace, and then agree to meet at some date give or take, a week or so down the line. A lot of the resentments come into play when stuff gets said in the first few days, as each is driving the other crazy over pace etc...

This is probably just another one of those personal details, but I have never personally found a saddle even in the 100 dollar range, that was comfy day after 80 mile day that wasn't leather. A lot of them are good for 40 a day, but beyond that they are hell for me.

Machka 

How did the 52 mile ride go?


And 20 miles is pretty short to show up some fit issues. You can be quite comfortable on just about any bicycle over 20 miles ... it's when the ride gets longer that your shoulders, knees, ankles, and butt can start giving you trouble.

Lycosa

I have a B17 on my bike and I love it. As far as riding with other people, it'll just be my son and I and we're way past the resentment part. He really just enjoys that I'm going with him. He realizes my pace is slow and never seems to have an issue with it. When we're out riding, if I get too far behind, he'll pull over and wait for me to catch up.

So... here's how it went. Physically, it wasn't bad at all. I trucked along and took breaks when I felt I needed breaks. We brought Gatorade packets and every 3rd bottle of water was mixed with it. My daughter-in-law made us some homemade energy bars and they were delicious and hit the spot. We happened across a gas-station Subway around 1pm and had our lunch there. I actually felt pretty good.

For the downside... it was not a good day for riding. The wind was strong and I swear we were in headwinds both there and back. The Cross Florida Greenway multi-use/biking trail is definitely more oriented towards mountain bikes, but my son and I both run 700 x 42 tires which helped a bit more than if we had narrower tires. There's some sand to negotiate and also some pretty big ponds...errr...mudpuddles, but we managed along just fine. My Brooks saddle is just too nice really. It's broken in well enough that I'm not really saddle sore. I mean, it's a bit tender on the sit bones tonight, but not bad. My knees are good, no pain there. My back is also fine and although it did hurt a bit from time to time, I found that if I stretched out onto my bars, it helped a bunch. The only thing that really hurt that I can report is my bike helmet. It started rubbing, hurting, and gave me a headache. I ended up pulling it off while we were back on the bike trail away from traffic. I hadn't anticipated it hurting, but the duration of having it on caused me some grief.

Before I forget, thanks to all those that posed those links. I did read them all and found some good advice. One of the things that helped out on that trip the most was to stay aerobic. I set a pace that kept me from over doing it and going anaerobic. Whenever I went up against a decent grade hill, I geared down for it rather than push too hard.

All in all, the trip went well. Better than I expected. My son wants to go to a different state park on Sunday that would be a 64 mile round trip, but I'm not sure I should push it... or there would be any benefit from pushing it. I'm not sore, but it's not morning yet so I expect my legs will be a little more tired tomorrow morning.

Edit* Oh..and it took us about 8 hours there and back with plenty of breaks.

Lycosa

Another thing, I'm not much of an exercise expert, but what is going on when you reach that magical point of being warmed up and literally believe you could ride on forever? Man I love that feeling. It seems to hit between 5-10 miles for me and then it's like this very awesome experience. I noticed too that if I take too long of a break, I'll lose it and have to start again. That's just the best feeling! Whatever it is...

B. Carfree

A lot of folks have used that as a training guideline over the years. It's usually stated as increasing one's weekly mileage by ten percent each week. The main point is to keep pressing forward, but don't do huge jumps in training early in the game. It's a good recipe for avoiding injury, partially because muscles get stronger faster than tendons and partially because as you practice you will hopefully gain improved body knowledge and make small adjustments in your technique that improve efficiency and reduce strain on the joints.

That said, a one-off leap in distance for an event is different than bumping up one's training. First of all, you will likely back off your effort and distance in the days just prior to your century. Secondly, you will likely take a few days off to recover afterwards, so your weekly mileage may not change much at all.

BigAura

+ 1 to that.

I'd say that when you can do back-to-back 50 milers and not feel discomfort, during and after, then you're ready for your century ride. You sound determined and that probably counts the most, but there is no sense in torturing yourself. Enjoy the ride!

njkayaker

That approach seems much too conservative for cycling. Maybe it's a weight lifting thing? Anyway, there's no indication that it makes any sense for cycling. It's a odd recommend action (especially, with out any references).

nun

10% increases are maybe a bit conservative, but a quick Google will produce many examples of training plans that use that rule of thumb.

njkayaker

Does that mean it makes sense? For cycling? It's a lot conservative (Especially, for cycling).

The first link that Google returned (for me) for "ten percent training":

https://running.competitor.com/2013/10/training/the-10-percent-rule-fact-or-fiction_42570

It doesn't seem you actually looked at any of the links you found.

It's mentioned mostly regarding running and about half the links are critical of the idea. It seems mostly based on "folklore".

People are repeating it but they clearly don't know much about it.

And, for the OP currently riding 20 miles and wanting to do 100 miles in a month, it's useless advice. That it is unnecessary too makes it odd that it was even mentioned. It's strange that people are defending that bad advice.

nun

Chill dude

https://www.marincyclists.com/Default.aspx?pageId=131128

Machka 

It sounds like a good experience all around ... when you start doing longer distances, you start experiencing things like the headwinds going both ways, bicycle helmets that hurt, etc. ... and you figure out how to deal with them before you get to even longer distances.

About the 64 mile ride ... see how you feel today, eat and drink well during the day, and if you feel like you might be up to it, give it a go.

Lycosa

Thanks for the encouragement!

Actually, we're going to wait until next week for the ride. Not because I'm not feeling up to it, but because we're experiencing a deep freeze down here in Florida. It's definitely not as cold as you Northern folk get, but it's cold to me! So we're going to wait for our next day(s) off and both go then next week when, hopefully, it's warmer out.

One thing that's kind of bothering me. Tonight I went out in the garage and checked out what gear I was in and then calculated my gear-inches on Sheldon Brown's calc. The gear I tend to ride in the most is a paltry 40 gear inches (26x18). That's making me wonder if I'd have enough time in 1 day to do 100 miles. I'm thinking I ought to start working a little harder in tougher gears and get my speed up a bit... I'm 80% sure I have what it takes to get that 100 miles done. I'm just not sure if my speed is going to cut it though.

cplager

I'd be weary of drastically changing how you ride without training up to it. Going out too hard may mean not leaving enough in the tank for the end of the ride.

markjenn

A century can be done at almost any speed - heck, some have done it on unicycles - but most casual/recreational riders do it in 6-10 hours at average speeds of 10-16 mph (rolling average) which, with any hills, winds, traffic, etc., means you need to comfortably be able to cruise flat terrain a little faster, maybe 14-18 mph. If you're not able to do 15 mph more/less in cruise on flat ground for an indefinite period, you probably need to up your fitness to be able to comfortably complete the distance in a reasonable amount of time. Without your cadence, it is hard to convert your gearing to speed, but it sounds like you're probably cruising pretty slowly. I'd get a speedometer/odometer which should cost less than $20 or even $10 if you scrounge a bit.

- Mark

B. Carfree

You've misunderstood. The 10%/week increase in training miles is not a guideline that precludes riding longer rides than one's average daily distance. That's the point of it being a weekly guide. Also, it's a training mileage guide, not an event guide. The OP is over 100 miles/week currently, perhaps at 120. In four weeks time he can have his weekly miles up to 175 miles/week by increasing only 10%/week. Does anyone really think that someone who is doing 175 miles/week can't ride a flat century, especially with a young buck sitting in front breaking the wind?

I don't know where the 10% originally came from, but my experience with it goes back to the '60s/'70s in swimming, an activity that is quite similar to cycling (aerobic repetitive movements with a high risk of overuse injuries). We would take two protracted breaks per year, one after nationals or junior olympics and another between winter training and the spring season. Each time we restarted we carefully ramped up from what seemed like very low yardage by about 10%/week. It really doesn't take very long to get back to the kind of crazy-long workouts we did. Of course, we all appreciated when taper time came.

Machka 

I'm a southerner ... and we're having a cold snap in the middle of summer today. It only got to 16C.


Well ... it took you 8 hours to do 50 miles. That would be 16 hours to cover 100 miles. That's OK if you've got 16 hours to cover 100 miles.

I wouldn't change anything about how you're riding your longer rides, but pick a couple of your usual 20 mile rides, and start doing them faster.

Lycosa

That's what I was thinking. 16 hours is by no means a land speed record, but if I get it done, then that's what counts. I doubt I'll get it done in daylight, but that's ok too. If I do ok on this 64 mile ride, I'm going to go for the 100 miles in early to mid February.

njkayaker

If somebody had posted a link like this, it might have been OK. Otherwise, merely mentioning the name of the approach is unhelpful or irrespinsible.

It doesn't look like you actually read at the the stuff you randomly google.

StanSeven

Yep. The 10% rule applies to running and some other activities. Somehow it got misapplied to cycling but there's nothing to support that.

njkayaker

There's a serious lack of anything to misunderstand. There is no way the OP could have gotten all of what you said here from people's mere mention of the approach (merely mentioning it is irresponsible or not very helpful).

It seems like an old approach that wasn't really based on anything. If you google, it there is a lot of comments that indicate that it isn't necessary.

njkayaker

It looks like it's an old "folklore" approach even for running.

StanSeven

I don't think there is any data to support it. Medical professionals in the 80s looked at running injuries of mostly heavier runners that trained for races and marathons. The common thing they saw was too sudden milage increases. So someone came up with 10% and everyone nodded.