In between training periods
 

I have been following the 8 week intermediate gran Fondo plan on strava to train for my first century which was supposed to be this coming weekend.

Due to work I cancelled the century but stuck with the plan, mostly. Where I cut up was it was a 3 day a week plan but I did 4 days. The fourth day was usually a 2 to 3 hr EM ride. The Saturday ride was a scheduled big ride, 4 hours plus which I usually knocked back to 3 or 4.

So my next big initiative is a grand Fondo in November. I figure on picking up a 12 week plan to do for that which give me aboit a month to start.

So what do I do between now and then? I've only been seriously cycling since October - but started about 3 years ago with a year off prior to October. This was my first training plan that started only two months ago.

My goals still remain to be able to do a century, but also to get faster. I'd like to be able to do some faster group rides and also not have my century take forever.

I'm guessing dig up a base building plan for the next month? Do I do the last four weeks of that plan or the first four? Any recommendations of a plan?

Also, I run 1 to 2 days a week. Not much, fairly new to running, just about 30 to 40 minutes each time. Should I increase the frequency of that during this period?

You don't need a plan at all. You just need to ride your bike a lot and especially ride it hard up hills a lot. The only thing you have to be careful of is not to overdo it. A plan doesn't even help with that because the designer doesn't know you.

So just ride your bike as much as you reasonably can when you're not involved in a particular plan.

You've summarized me in the first two sentences. I however have not come to grips with the final sentence.

If I'm gonna do it, might as well overdo it. ;)

Uh, no. That's the hardest thing for the self-coached to learn. Screw that up and you get overtrained. All that hard work for nothing.

Thanks. This makes sense. And will make the lady happy as it sounds like a month of riding for the fun of it.

Not that riding with a structured plan, watching the weight peel off, & avg speed increasing wasn't a ton of fun!