Granturismonut

As a way of motivating ourselves my wife signed us up to ride the Pedal for the Cause century ride. I got 6 months to get back into shape to ride a century. I'm at 332 lbs now, not really focusing on weight but on seat time and eating better. I know we can do this.


If anyone would like to donate to my ride I'd really appreciate it.

https://www.mypedalthecause.org/riders_profile.jsp?MemberID=94329

DWhitworth

See you out there. I have been doing PTC for 4 years. The century route is a bear.

DaveW

Willbird

Having enough low gearing is the key thing I think, no need to get in a hurry, my first century was very flat, but the return 40 miles of it was into a steady headwind that had me in my lowest gearing just struggling to keep pedaling, I made it but that made it very unpleasant.

Bill

DWhitworth

I don't know the original poster's fitness/training level, but the PTC Century is a pretty tough ride for a charity non race https://ridewithgps.com/routes/14452623

(I know that a lot of people in CO or CA ride 4800' climb on a commute to work )

I ride this ride in no hurry with a lot of stops (it took almost 8 hours/7 hours ride time) and my bike has a 34/36 granny gear and, at least for me, the toughness of the hills on this ride are worse than riding in almost any wind. This is a pretty serious ride IMO.

DaveW

mcmoose

Here's my two cents for meeting your admirable goal.

You see the event route's elevation map between miles 28 and 85? You need to find terrain similar to that to train on... at least two rides a week, three is better.

Start with whatever makes sense for your current fitness level... let's say 20 miles. You've got roughly 25 weeks to train, so...

Up your mileage 10% each week for 10 weeks. That will get you to the point where you can do a 50 mile ride.
At that point, switch to where you're doing one longer ride a week (40-60 miles) and one or two shorter ones (20-30) miles. Do this for a couple of weeks.

Okay, you're now 4 months into training... Time for a reality check...

Where's your weight at? How do you feel after a 60 mile ride (i.e., or you dead or is there still something left in the tank)? Could you tolerate more saddle time?

If the answer is yes, start stretching you long ride, at least one longer ride every other week. You want to have at least one 75-80 mile ride under your belt that doesn't leave you crippled the next day. You don't really need to ride a century before you ride a century (!). The energy of the event will carry you through (unless 25 mph winds kick up).

If the answer is no, make the bold decision that you love the sound of Metric Century and do the 65 mile ride. That's still a huge accomplishment!

And keep an eye on your body while you train. Some sore muscles are okay; joint and/or nerve pain are not -- they're a sign that you and your bike aren't fitted for each other.

Oh, and the others' advice about having enough low gearing is right on!

I wish you the best of luck and lots of fun!

Granturismonut

Thanks for everyone's input. I did find the elevation map for the route, following advice I've tried to find a few local hills to help train, luckily my town has a few long steep hills. I'll make sure to be bring a bike with a triple.

NoGears

4800' stretched out over 100 miles is not bad at all...I'd almost call it flat. It's hard to map a 50 mile route where I'm at without hitting 4000'+. Last "big" ride I did on New Years was 40 miles and over 6000'. That was a leg killer and one I never want to repeat.

DWhitworth

FWIW, the major hills are concentrated in about 30-40 miles.

DaveW

NoGears

Gotcha...that makes some difference for sure. I've yet to crack the 100 mile mark. 86 is my best and that's due to a navigation error or I would have had my century that day.

breadbin

I don't have a definite goal like the OP but i'm going to use this advice. Seems sound to me I wonder is there an equivalent to the Couch25K for cycling?

DWhitworth

Bringing this to the top, did the OP end up doing the Century yesterday? It was brutal hot and humid here, but I did (most of) it....

https://www.strava.com/activities/1200297106

The 12 miles I skipped were on purpose/planned. A very brutal 8 miles of climbing and another 4 mile loop in a park that is also brutal (and at mile 76)

DaveW

Granturismonut

I ended up doing the metric century, 1 member of our team had made the switch from recumbent to diamond frame bike and had trained very little. I think I could have done the full 100 but I not doing without the whole team. I will be back next year it was a blast.

DWhitworth

This was my 5th year and PTC is (IMO) a very high class, well run organization and puts on a heck of an event!

Congrats to you and your team and hope to see you next year!

DaveW