I am planning to ride my first century on Sunday. I have done a 72 miler this summer, and a normal Saturday ride is about 45 miles. I commute to work on my bike, 18 miles RT, and since I have a shower at work I treat it as workout both ways.

So, here's the question: do I just keep riding as normal till Sunday, or do I need to take a couple of days off before the ride? Or whatever?

I wouldnt ride at all saturday. Eat Carby the night before and make sure you eat all day long, at least every hour. I did my first 100 this past saturday but i climbed 9000 feet so I ate about 3800 calories just on the bike. You will be fine, just dont go balls out straight out of the gate.

Good Luck.

Rest Saturday and get a good nights sleep.

This is sensible advice except for the calories on the bike. It's impossible to absorb more than about 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and 60 is a more realistic figure. That is around 240 calories per hour. There's really no point in consuming more than that while riding.

Biggest mistake I make, repeatedly, is to change something in preparation for a challenging ride. Yes, I might do a light spin the day before, but that's it. No big breakfast, no carbo loading the night before, no new stuff on the bike, no new apparel, no going to bed 2 hrs. early, etc.

As for your riding, it depends on you. I suppose that I recover more quickly than most. I would not do a hard ride the day before, but I would do a normal ride and just back it off a tad. Other people may feel differently.

My wife and I plan a 26 miler on Saturday - 13 miles to the brewery, 13 miles back. With rest in between. But it is an easy spin for me, since she is just getting to start to work on her fitness on the bike. I usually do a low carb diet (weight loss and amazing blood fat results), but will carb up the day before. I have gone to trying to take about a 100 cal hit every 45 minutes or so after the first hour, with a good bit of water, and will have a bigger "meal" after about 3-4 hours.

It has been interesting how hard it has been for me to make myself eat during the ride, but I know it is really important on this one to keep from bonking before I get to the end.

+1,000,000

I'd back off on the commute as a workout for the next couple of days. My best rides have come when I was on travel for work the week before a century, and forced to take some time off the bike. An easy spin (50-10 miles) the day before, and all that frustration that you didn't get to ride this week comes out on the road -- power! Conversely, when I ride up to the day of the ride (normal commuting, no extra stuff the last 3-4 days), the big day doesn't usually go so well.

Spin easy. Relax. Go to the movies instead of the brewery. Ride strong on Sunday!

Easy ride two days before, no riding the day before. Don't do anything to your bike other than lubing the chain and pumping the tires. Pump them the night before and then again the morning of.

If it fits with my schedule I like to take the day off two days before, and go for a short ride the day before. On that ride I'll go fairly easy except for one or two "opener" intervals done reasonably hard but not all out, for a couple minutes.

That's the best 'A' race prep, if I can swing it. Often there's work or travel that interferes and I have to do something else. It doesn't seem to matter a huge amount. If I can't ride the day before I try to get a longer warmup in before the race (if it's the kind of race where a warmup is needed).

Not to hijack the thread, but like the OP I am getting ready for my first century, (all of your advise has been great btw)

What do you guys do to recover after a century, anything special from a diet, excercise/rest, advil... perspective?

Thanks in advance

Don't eat beans the night before.

Ideally, some food and nap. If it's your first, celebrate. You may want to do a short easy ride the next day to loosen up the muscles a bit.

No one knows.

In general - whatever routine results in you being rested for the big ride would be best. I guess the big question for many people - especially commuters is: If I skip riding today will I be too tense to sleep well?

In any case - stress and anxiety are the enemies of athletic performance. Whatever.....

Especially if you paceline

Hey, did you make it back from the ride yet?