First post over here in training and nutrition...

I'm a recreational rider, but love to ride and love to push myself. Started riding again last August after coming of a 100+ pound weight loss. Just did my first 50+ (51.2) mile ride this weekend, in 2:52. Could have gone longer but time constraints prevented it. Certainly not a speed demon but respectable I think?

Anyway, I would like to complete a century before the summer is over. My problem is limited time to train. I have three kids, wife, house, etc...y'all know the drill. Most of my riding occurs after dinner, giving me 30-60 minutes usually to squeeze a ride in. I usually get a longer ride in on one of the weekend days, as I did the ride this past Saturday.

What would be the best way for me to use those after dinner rides to prep for a century? I know it's not ideal...but in the reality of life it's what I have to work with, and I'd like to use that time to my best advantage.

Thanks.

My advice is eat dinner after your ride, and just have a snack beforehand

If you can get up early (like 4, 5AM) you can get a lot of riding in before the sun even comes up. I plan to do some of that this summer when it gets hot and humid in the afternoons. I know people who train for ultra events need to do that.

Agree with the snack idea. You probably won't be performing too well in training if your stomach is busy digesting a full dinner. At least that's how I feel when i've tried it.

i did trainer efforts after dinner very often this past winter. i normally had an hour between the two and need at least that to feel comfortable.

what i did; eat a smaller dinner, knowing i would eat a post trainer snack. the issue i ran into was falling asleep. i found it difficult to knock out 8 min max efforts at 8pm then go to bed at 10pm. kind of amps you up a bit. later.

i love riding after a full meal. there is nothing worse than being the slightest bit hungry while out on a ride.

You're supposed to leave 3 hours between eating and training to get the proper benefit of the food that you eat, but in most cases, unless you are doing something moderately hard to hard (i.e. efforts above low endurance riding), it won't affect you that much. Most of the times that I have ridden after dinner, I have paid for it in the form of re-tasting my food, so I really wouldn't recommend it though.

i recommend to ancor for heavy rides on the weekends like your 50m ride.
on the weekdays, maybe just 2-3 nights split some routine of 1 day sprinting and another day spinning. or something like that.

Do a search on intervals or other forms of higher intensity training to make the best use of your time.

And if you have a weight problem do NOT follow the advice to eat a snack. Do not add calories! You just lost 100 pounds and the weight will come back very very easily.

If you're having a problem with being overfull on your evening ride--eat HALF your dinner before the ride, then nuke the leftovers and eat them after the ride. That way--pre-ride energy boost and post-ride recovery snack with no additional calories. Very clever!

Where'd you hear that foo-faw?