RichardGlover

Currently, I'm riding ~40 miles on weekends. I'm targeting a metric century in February, and an imp century in April.

Just found out that the Tour de Cure in NC has back-to-back centuries - one Saturday, one Sunday. It's in June.

At the moment, I think it'll be a stretch to do a true double century that fast, but what about a century, followed by another the next day?

Any tips from those who know?

Carbonfiberboy 

~9,000 people do it every year. It's called STP. ~1000 do it in one day. I think the double is easier. Of course STP is flat, only 3000' on the whole thing IIRC. It just a matter of a little training.

10 Wheels

40 miles is where one first runs into problems.

You have to drink and eat while pedaling.
Take a sip every 15 minutes, eat a bite of a breakfast bar every 30 minutes.
Stand up and pedal in a high gear to stretch your legs and back. Lets the blood flow in your butt.

Get some longer rides in. You should be able to ride 40 miles without stopping.

StephenH

Generally, I don't think it'd be that different. The real test is when you do the century in April. If you get up the next morning and feel fine, then you probably wouldn't have much trouble with the two centuries. If you can barely crawl out of bed, then rethink it.

I think each century I've done, I could have done another the next day if need be, even though I might have been pretty slow.

Machka 

As you start building up your distance now, ride the next day.

So if you go out next weekend and ride 45 miles on the Saturday, go for a 10 mile ride the next day. The following weekend do 45 miles again, and 15 miles the next day. The next weekend do 50 miles and 15 miles. Or something like that. Gradually build up the ability to ride longer and longer distances two days in a row.

Vireo

You are correct! A double century in ONE day is much easier than a back to back centuries. I just did back to back centuries on Saturday and Sunday . Here's my reasoning for why I feel it's harder. On back to back centuries I ride a lot harder because I know it's only a century.

OP- Machka makes a good recommendation. I would do what she says and see how you feel. Then add a little more mileage on the second day. I know that my second day is usually a good day on the bike. By day three DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) sets in which makes day three the hardest day. On day four and five of back to back centuries I start to feel really good. But everyone is different.

znomit

I don't know about easier. Its different.
I usually feel worst on days 2/3. Maybe I'm used to the achy legs by day 4?
Certainly do not get the sore leg muscles on a one day double but mental fatigue can be an issue and my upper body takes a beating if I'm in a hurry.

Skankingbiker

I did my first full century this year. Even though I ride a lot and the course was relatively flat, I was wiped at the end. I really started to feel it around 80 miles. Based on my personal experience, I would not recommend doing back to back centuries until you have completed one. I spent the day after spinning and spinning in a low gear to get the cramps out of my legs and had zero energy.

You know your own body. But I would see how you handle a single before boing back to back centuries.

icyclist 

A few years ago, a friend and I rode the Wildflower Century, out of San Luis Obispo, CA. The next day, we rode the Chico, CA, Wildflower Century.

Without a doubt, the hardest part of the challenge was driving to the second venue, 370 miles from the first one.

crockett

I am doing the inaugural "Double-Triple By-Pass" in Colorado this summer... 120+mi/10,000+ on Saturday, and return to start on Sunday - 120/10,000.

Never done something like it before (tho, have done the "normal" Triple By-Pass...)

Ouch. BUT, I'd say (and am saying) ... just do it. And, put in a lot of miles and TITS before setting forth on your adventure!

Bacciagalupe

Are we talking two metric or two imperial centuries? (i.e. 120 miles vs 200 miles in one weekend)

I'd say "no problem" for two metrics. You might be a little sore but it should be doable if you're in good shape.

Double imperials, hard to say without knowing your physiology and so forth. The main issue is that ideally you don't want to increase your weekly cycling total by more than 10% -- so double imperials means you'd have to ramp up very fast.

This will mean several potential, albeit mostly minor risks, such as:
- overuse injuries
- depleting your glycogen stores, which will increase your chances of bonking (especially on the 2nd day)
- good ol' discomfort
- mental fatigue with cycling (esp. on 2nd day)
- possible heat issues (NC in July, I expect, will be a tad warm)

FWIW I'd say do a single century early in the year, and if possible look into back-to-back later in the year (e.g. fall). At that time you'll have more experience, and after doing a century you'll know if doing two in a row still interests you.

RichardGlover

Imperial.

I've got 19 weeks. My current weekly miles is about 110. Math says I can increase by 10% to get well over 200 in 8 weeks. Also, at the 8 week point, I'll be able to commute my normal 55ish miles and still be able to do 2 75 mile rides on the weekend. That gets me training at a level where I should be able to drop the commute the week before the event, and still be able to handle the 2x100. All nearly three months before the event.

I'll have issues that longer rides will reveal, but I can't address them until I've gotten there.

Right now I'm focusing on nutrition. I've got it beat; I'm just looking for a lower-cost solution. I'll know more each week.

I know what my next problem's going to be, and I'm pretty sure the solution starts with a professional bike fit.

Carbonfiberboy 

As you get stronger and increase mileage, I suggest making the first of your weekend rides quite a bit longer and much harder than the second. I've found maxing at 80, occasionally 100, miles to be about right. During that first ride, attack the hills full gas, or as hard as you judge you can and make it over the top without blowing up. Maybe not every hill, but most of them. You're building the ability to repeat and also exhausting yourself before day 2, when you will go much easier, but at ordinary pace, not recovery. Because day 2 is also shorter, maxing at 50-60 miles, it won't contribute so much to training load. Going hard is just as critical as mileage, perhaps more so. As long as you are getting recovered during the week, riding day 2 with tired legs will build great endurance.

As you increase training load, take your morning resting heart rate every morning and be ready to back off if it goes up say 8 beats from your recovered HR.

RichardGlover

I'd just like to say that I certainly appreciate everybody's help in this forum. If I come across cocky or arrogant in my responses, I apologize for that, and appreciate that everybody has treated me like the happy-go-lucky ignorant newbie that I am.

There's so much to learn that I find myself overwhelmed at times... I'm confident that I can ride the distance, but as I train more I realize there's so much more I could do to make it easier (e.g. pacelines? Yeah, I've seen those before; should probably learn how to do that and practice it or something).

Anyway, thanks. If it's not too annoying, I'll update my training progress here. It'll be fun to watch me learn the hard way everything that people have been trying to gently teach me all along!

seedsbelize 

Riding in a paceline makes it so much easier. And there are not many things that are more blissful.

timmythology

Hey Richard

The Cascade Bicycle club in seattle has a nice training guide designed for back to back centuries, used for the Seattle to Portland Ride.

I think you have a lot of really good info to work with from this thread.
I will add this, try and relax, the training will happen if you let it.

Vireo

Today and yesterday I did back to back centuries. I felt better this time on the second day then I did a couple of weeks ago when I did 70 and 86 the second day. I really think you'll be fine by riding consistently two days in a row so you feel and learn how your body reacts.

Vireo

Thursday and Friday, 3/3 and 3/4 respectively I did back to back centuries. Five days earlier I placed first on the 2011 Spring Death Valley Double Century. Final results are not out yet but here are the preliminary results. (Steady headwinds in both directions). I'm waiting on the official results and report from the race director should be out soon. AdventureCorps put on another great event despite the 80+% DNF for the Double Century!!

Carbonfiberboy 

Way to go!

There's recent research which shows that training while glycogen depleted builds endurance faster than about anything else. Does 85% greater time to exhaustion get anyone's attention?
https://www.nutrifit.co.uk/Conference...ete%20high.pdf
This is the greatest advance in training methodology that I can remember. The practical thing one can do is, instead of training every day, train every other day, moving the training one would have done on the off day to the training day, separating the two bouts by about 4 hours. Which is not easy to do if one has a life outside of riding. This may have something to do with why riding long on both weekend days is so effective.

The downside of course is that riding while glycogen depleted hurts. Not near as much fun! And one has to be even more careful of overtraining.

skiffrun

RG -

I didn't check, but I assume the NC Tour de Cure will again ride from Cary to Pinehurst (or whichever neighboring village lends its name -- they all "run together" and I can never tell when one stops and the next starts) on Saturday. (Yes, golfers, THAT Pinehurst.) And ride from Pinehurst back to Cary the next. (OR, did they finally adopt a central location start and finish for both days similar to what the MS-150 based out of New Bern has done for ... many years?)

Anyway, the course(s) will likely be a bit easier rollers than you are typically riding -- assuming you are riding around Jordan Lake area. There will almost certainly be rest stops every 15 to 20 miles, so you can ride rest stop to rest stop if you have to. If you don't ride like a madman on Saturday, you should be able to handle Sunday, at perhaps a bit slower pace.

The above paragraph assumes reasonable first-week-of-June temps. If, however, we get the kind of temps experience (was it) two years ago, the heat may well be your toughest obstacle. I seem to recall that about four or five years ago, the last time they rode from Cary to Oxford, the attrition rate the second day was near astronomical values due to the heat (we always have humidity).

If you are riding 50 miles or 100k every Saturday by then, you'll be able to ride the back-to-back centuries. Especially true if your typical Saturday ride includes going up Big Woods, or Jack Bennett, or Lystra once in a while.

RichardGlover

Exactly so.

I'm actually riding the course as laid out, when I can. Daughter is 8 1/2 months pregnant, is having a rough time of it, and has been to the hospital 5 times in the past 3 weeks. Puts a crimp in my weekend rides when I have to be within 30 minutes of home at all times.

Yeah, I've heard about that year. I don't worry about it being hot. If it's hot, I'll ride slower, drink more, and chew down some electrolyte pills. The only weather I really worry about is thunderstorms. Riding in one of those can be miserable.

skiffrun

I don't understand that sentence. I skimmed the thread, but found no indication of "the course as laid out". What does that mean?

There's a thousand -- very slight exageration - courses around/near Jordan Lake, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, etc. -- many with cue sheets available on-line -- e.g., I found six routes on the NCBC website originating in Cary or nearby, I found 7 start locations with what appears to be about 47 different routes on "TriangleCycling(dot)com" -- cue sheet forum, I did not look at the CBC forum or elsewhere.