How to completely fail at finishing a Century
 

Trust me: if you need advice on this, I have some recent solid experience…How to completely fail to finish your first century in two years:

· Ride short distances all year, with no rides over 50 miles.

· Wait until a month prior to the ride to ride with a group and increase your average speed.

· When your comfortable-speed paceline breaks up, go with the faster riders.

· When that groups drops a couple of riders, allow one of them to encourage you to hammer it past your comfortable pace.

· Make sure the aforementioned rider, if a stranger to you, completely ignores you at the next rest stop, not even offering a self-introduction or eye contact - therefore beginning your path to psychological uncertainty.

· Leave the rest stop alone, enduring the next block of miles with nearly nobody in sight. Your already cooked legs will be joined by a crushed spirit, devoid of the teamwork and potential camaraderie you expected when you were back in that perfect paceline.

· When the cut-off comes to choose between the metric and standard century, with literal dark clouds looming ahead, convince yourself that soldiering on through the full century will be the longest miles you will ever suffer in the saddle… then choose the short way back.

I did everything else for this ride correctly, just as I had previously successful iterations – equipment in place, nutrition both before and during, all according to experience. The biggest mistakes, IMHO, were improper base training miles (especially endurance miles), and burning myself out in the first 1/3 of the course. I could have finished, but it would have been with the sort of suffering that would possibly put me off of riding long distances ever again.

Not a failure if you can recognize and correct the issues. We didn't get to the moon without several failures that we learned from. So too you can just set yourself up to do another attempt and hopefully all will go well.

One more bullet point: Don't bring along any ride buddies to help pace you and keep you company.

I'm a "lone wolf" rider most of the time; there are a handful of rider/acquaintances who ride at roughly the same pace as I, but none of them decided to come to this event.

I've ridden six century rides on my fixed gear bike. I'm a big fan of setting my own pace.

I believe you posted the best How Not To Ride a Century I ever read. It should be required reading for all new century riders and a good reminder for the more experienced.

At least you got the last part right- cut it short when things aren't working out. The organizers surely don't want folks straggling around the route after everyone has gone home.:rolleyes: I like it when the century and metric routes stay together until 40 miles or so, gives people time to see how their day is going. I enjoy those rides more with friends. I've been encouraged (badgered) to go long when I hadn't planned on it as well as cutting short to stay with friends who weren't feeling it. It's all fun when snacks are involved.:thumb:

My first century, I was about ready to die at the 75 mile mark. I was completely wrong on pacing and hydration. I managed to finish but it was NOT pretty. My second century, the following year, I think I did better on pacing and a bit better on hydration, although not enough to compensate for the heat - mid-upper 90's and humid. I don't ever want to feel like that again! But my subsequent centuries, maybe 15 or 16 were much better. Finished tired but nothing like those first two.

Treat it as a solo, unsupported ride at your favorite pace.

Lately I am trying to concentrate more on hydration the day before a long ride, and enough pre-ride hydration just before the start of the ride.

Two guys I've done several long rides are kind of the opposite of a hammerfest.
One of them likes meandering routes with plenty of biergarten-type stops.
I prefer a steady pace with minimal, very short stops on long, empty roads.
More than five minutes of stopping and my body thinks we're really done for the day.

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From an experienced old phart who has had his own incompletes I commend you with acknowledging your century failure, analyzing the event, recognizing the errors made and having the gumption to let others know what in your opinion would be some not to do actions.

:thumb::thumb: for your next adventure.

I would disagree with your theory about base training miles. You can definitely complete century rides without having to slog out a whole load of long, slow base miles beforehand. There are other more efficient ways to achieve much the same effect on less than 10 hours per week training. I've completed half a dozen really hard mountainous century rides this year without doing any training rides longer than 60 miles and I only did a couple of those before my first event. Most of my training rides were 1-2 hours max. When you are short of time to ride it's all about training smart for these longer events.

Anyway sounds like pacing was your real problem here. That and perhaps not training very effectively (whatever it was you were doing on those short rides).

I agree with this practice. I heard an ultra runner espouse the theory that one needs to train to 30% of the big event. I know if I can consistently ride 30 miles, I'm good for a century. To me, that means daily, as in 200+ miles/week. I think that's enough riding to be able to ride a century whenever you want. That's a bit more than the 10 hours/week mentioned above, but I think it's the same idea. One benefit is you're unlikely to injure yourself badly with those kinds of days. You'll find the kinks, try out solutions, and either get stronger or stop aggravating things.

Yeah I'm doing more interval training than you, which gets the job done in less time. In the lead up to my first century this year I was training between 5-10 hours per week. But with very specific conditioning. Over the course of the season I've been ticking along at 6-12 hours per week. It works for me and is sustainable long term without burning out. Rest, recovery and diet are very important too. I have experimented with longer training hours in previous years, but I don't find them sustainable or any more productive. I know one local guy who does a lot of mileage, but he doesn't get any faster. He would probably do better than me on multiple century rides, but those don't interest me. I find 100 miles with plenty of climbing is enough for a full blown non-stop effort. My favourite distance is actually a metric century as I can ride those pretty much flat out, which can be fun in a competitive group.

What most inexperienced riders don't realize is that there is a huge metabolic wall at around 70 miles. Unless you've trained yourself to ride through this barrier, you're getting into dangerous territory pushing past that as an older rider. I did my first 100 mi. ride at 25 after riding 20-30 miles several days a week. At that age I could push though for the full 100 miles although I was pretty much destroyed at the end (the Circle Akron Ride of 1976). At over 50 you're kidding yourself if you think mental fortitude will allow you to successfully complete endurance events you haven't trained for. Like Pete, above, noted, for the well trained rider about 65 miles can be done at full gas enjoyably and 100 done without too much discomfort. At my peak, I found that being on a bike for 100 miles was just boring. I always found that 65-70 miles with a lot of climbing, followed by a couple of beers, was was enjoyable.

What exactly is your definition of a century? Nearly non-stop?
It looks like your goal is not a century. Your goal is unrealistic expectations and you are succeeding. LOL. But yah, I know 90% of weekend warriors are the same.
Another point not said, is don't pretend you are Edmund Hillary and Lance on the same ride. Get real. Take 6 or 7 hours on a flattish ride. Done.
I've only occasionally had a chance to try keep pace with a little group that happened along. It sure can boost speed 2 or 3 mph, so what's the problem? Probably somebody trying to go gung ho at 23 mph, instead of 19.

I actually did your first point for the first time this year. LOL. What with covid lockdown nonsense. Turned into a tough 12 hour slog, with my new roadster and nexus 7i. 8Hr15 moving I think. But then, most of my long rides I get home exhausted. Only once did I have even a 1 man peloton happen along for about 20 miles, on what did become my best ever 133.6 mile day. So I expect a group of 6 or 10 would be a piece of cake if at a reasonable pace, allowing another 3 or 4 mph. Gung ho pace is just self defeating. IMO.

I find that doing a long ride once a week is best for getting strong legs. The in between just doesn't matter. IMO. I just go ride 20 or 30 miles to and after lunch or supper on sunny days. I can feel my legs bulking up 2 days after a century. Doing nothing but re-hydrating actually helps. My style obviously has nothing to do with you guys. I have done 3 centuries in the last 2 weeks on my 1973 CCM with a new SA RD3. Last one was 11Hr25 clock, with 2.5 hours breaks or slow sightseeing.
BTW. I can mostly guarantee I go the full distance, because I go half that far and have to get home. LOL. A couple times the headwind kicked up, so I turned back. Only one time I failed on a 130 mile ride, because I got a rear flat and wasted over an hour. It got to be 11:30 near bedtime and I was exhausted. It was near the airport, so I went and got a taxi for the 20 miles. Still it got to be 1:00 am when I got home.

This seems to be a good approach.

Having a "base" is a plus, more for some than others. I'm sure some people can do a couple medium rides then go do 100 without issue, while others need more training.
To me, having a base of many years of riding helps me cope with difficult rides. When I was younger I could prepare for any ride by doing a 50 a few days before.

Yes, pacing is critical, too. Although I used to be able to blow myself up early in a ride and always finiish.

To the OP, it's just a bike ride. So you didn't ride as far as you intended. If you want to make it happen I'm sure you'll figure it out. If not, no big deal.

I just have a different type of "base". I take this approach:-

https://thesufferfest.com/blogs/trai...nched-athletes

I think it's just more realistic for anyone who doesn't have the 16+ hours per week available to build a "base" the traditional way. I'm not suggesting this way is better, it's just more realistic for busy non-pro riders and it is pretty effective (for me anyway).
Trainer Road have a similar philosophy too. It's all about quality over quantity when you have limited training time.

It's also one of the reasons I don't aim to ride any longer than a century. It's plenty of distance and time on the bike for me! I can finish strong and recover fully in a couple of days too. Metric centuries are great too - often more fun since pacing is less critical so I can afford to burn some matches along the way. I can knock those out in 3-4 hours with plenty of hard climbing involved. Full centuries definitely require more strict pacing, especially if there are mountains involved.

When I was working I was only on the bike for about 10 hours per week, at least for the last few years on the job. I figured 10 hours was about the minimum I get get away with and still have some level of fitness.
Since I retired obviously I have more time to spend on the bike but have been riding around 15 hours per week. I thought I would be able to do more but physical issues have conspired to limit me a bit. Plus, I still try to ride with the A group and chase younger people in the hills.

I'm not sure what the "traditional way" is but for me I just meant having "miles in the bank" as we used to say.

Having done lots of centuries helps because you KNOW you will be having those feelings, those thoughts, those cramps and tired legs. It doesn't take too many centuries to know that you shouldn't be hopping on the first pace line that comes by either. Knowing how to ride long climbs helps a lot too. But some of those "how to complete your first century" articles are just ridiculous - like working your way up to a 95 mile ride the week prior to the big event.

OP how far did you go?

Always wise to shut it down if you are cooked.

All my centuries have been self-supported with only water stops.
Last one did not end well. Crashed on railroad tracks at mile 98.
I was fatigued and not thinking about crossing tracks at a right angle.

Now I am not so caught up on mileage and more concerned with my health and wellness after another recent crash.

The way it sounds, he took the metric option when it became available. So, still a good ride.

Several years ago I set up my trainer in the basement, calibrated my power meter (not actually but close enough with the Kurt Kinentic), and followed one of the Carmichael programs. I posted my “journey” here and pulled off riding a hilly century with relatively little outdoor work. You could resurrect it somewhere maybe. If you can find a slow group that would be cool, but sometimes a man just has to do what man has to do.

absolutely. 62 miles is nothing to sneeze at. Well done!