Heathpack 

Hi all, I posted a question once in the past in which I mentioned that I bought a bike last March and rode my first metric century back in Aug. I noodled around aimlessly on the bike in Sept and semi-took Oct off. Currently on vacation in Maui, but when I'm back home will start training for the Palm Springs Century on Feb 8, after a 6-10 week break, depending on how you look at it.

While lying on the beach in Maui, I've hashed out the bones of a 10-week training schedule. I work long hours, but mostly only work four days a week. Looking at sunrise/sunset times, I realistically cannot reliably ride on the road on weekdays that I work. This is not a matter of daylight vs night, having lights, etc- it's a personal safety thing for a woman riding alone after dark.

Its no issue for me to get up early and I have a nice covered patio in my So. California back yard, so setting up a trainer is do-able. But if I could realistically train for the century 3 days a week, this would be preferable. Total cumulative mileage in the training plan is about 1000, with a trainer could maybe add another day per week & 250ish miles to the plan.

What say you- trainer, yea or nay?

H

bikerjp

If you can ride 60 miles you can ride 100. Sounds like you are in decent shape. Ride as much as you can to stay in shape. Your plan has you riding 100 miles over 3 days a week for 10 weeks? That's pretty short rides if you are trying to gear up for a century. Get out and do 60+ mile rides on the weekends. Add a couple hours a week on the trainer if you really want. Trainer time probably won't hurt, but it's boring. Ride outside as much as you can - you're in SoCal.

Personally, I think you posted just to brad about being in Hawaii

TexMac

While up there don't forget to do the Hanna trip and Haleakala mountain drive.
Bike trainer for sure. I got mine first time this year and i'm following a winter training program that doesn't last more than 1.5hrs per session.

Heathpack 

Well actually, the plan includes three weeks of very minimal riding. Two for logistical reasons (we are away) and one in the week before the ride which is intentional.

The long rides (one per riding week) start at 50 mi and work up to 97 mi three weeks before the organized Century. (I know people say you don't need to go past 80 mi, but I personally need to do the 97 mi ride for psychological reasons.)

Total mileage per riding week varies from 60-190. One long ride (50-97 mi), one recovery ride (18-20 mi) and one fast ride (25-35 mi). But some weeks zero mi, which is why the average comes out to be 100 mi/wk.

If it makes you feel any better, it's been raining in Maui for 2 days now. And I have a cold.

H

CbadRider

^^This. Three days off will allow for at least one good long ride outside a week. If you need people to ride with, stop by the SoCal regional forum; there are lots of people looking for others to ride with.

Heathpack 

Lol, we took a horseback ride down into Haleakala crater last week. Beautiful, other-worldly and a little grueling 2 hour ride down (haven't been on a horse in maybe 15 years). Then it started to rain. And it rained for the next 2 hours as we climbed out of the crater. Not a warm rain either, air temps in the 50s. At least it kept the horses cool, I guess. It was a little bit more of an epic vacation excursion than we had expected!

H

rpenmanparker 

Riding 97 miles to train for 100 is bizarre, psychological issues or not. If you can ride 97 miles, why not just go the extra three and blow off the organized century. You absolutely don't need or "want" to do more than one training ride of about 65-70. No more than that. Listen to those who know.

rpenmanparker 

OP, ride the trainer as much as you like, but it is pure torture. A trainer is good for losing weight and for building aerobic capacity. It doesn't really help build distance endurance. My brain would turn to mush if I tried to spend more than 45 min on a trainer in one session. That won't help with condioning your hands, your feet, or your tush. Only distance over time will do that.

FLvector

Do you ride with a group or a partner as you train? I find doing long rides over 50+ miles a bit boring and prefer the companionship and higher pace that occurs while riding in a group. It sounds like you need to work more on your base and increase your time in the saddle, so I'd suggest increasing the length of your recovery ride and fast ride. If you can increase the length of these rides and get a consistent 150+ miles/week, you should be able to forgo the trainer. Adding the trainer into the mix certainly won't hurt either way and will help to condition your butt for these longer rides. If you are comfortable riding in a pace line, the century ride will be much easier for your first one. If you plan to do a solo century, I give you lots of credit.

TexMac

- I read Bradley Wiggins book where he was hurt and was on a bike trainer to help him with endurance for Tour De France. I think you can build endurance if you know how to.

Heathpack 

Well the organized century is with some friends, which is the reason not to blow it off. And the actual goal is a different (more difficult) century ride in late April, so this one is meant to be either a stepping stone or the thing that makes me learn I'm not cut out for a century ride.

I don't get the idea that if you can ride 60 miles you can ride 100. I've ridden 60 miles and I'm pretty confident that I could not have ridden another 40 that day. I guess from my perspective, since I'm by no means 100% confident that I could ride 100 mi, riding the practice century before the organized century is something akin to proof-of-concept- if I'm not ready, physically incapable or simply don't like the distance, I guess I'd rather figure that out before I haul myself a few hours to Palm Springs.

Of course I'm willing to listen to an actual set of reasons that I shouldn't ride the distance in prep to ride the distance because I've never prepped for a century before. What are they?

H

Heathpack 

I did for the Metric Century and I agree that was very helpful. So far I'm not having luck talking that friend into riding the Palm Springs Century, so I may be doing this training alone. All the organized rides I can find in my town are almost predominantly male and faster than me. I might go that route if I can make the details work.

My cycling friends unfortunately live in Huntington Beach, Pasadena, Koreatown and Santa Barbara, whereas I live in Santa Clarita. We are 40 min to 2 hours drive time from each other, which makes it hard to train together.

H

TrojanHorse

There are usually 11,000 riders or so at the Tour de Palm Springs so "solo" doesn't really factor into it.

Centuries (at least recreational, non-race centuries) seem to depend on sorting out your fit and nutrition for 100 miles, and mental fortitude. The rest is gravy, and I think that's why people say if you can ride 80, you can ride 100. TdPS is pretty easy for a century - largely flat and hopefully only windy for the first 15 miles or so.

There are a million cycling paths in Santa Clarita - take advantage of them on your days off and use a trainer if you feel like you need to. The easiest training plan I ever saw for a century was to ride 200 miles in each of the preceding two months. Obviously, more is better and at least one 80 mile ride is good too.

Heathpack 

But is there a Problem per se with riding the full distance prior to the event? It seems like some in this thread tell me I need more miles and time on the bike, but that I'm "supposed" to split it up into more rides of fewer miles. What's better about two 65 mi rides vs one 90 + one 35? Ok, the first combo has 10 more miles in it, but it takes big chunks out of two weekend days when I've got other stuff in my life that needs doing. Am I going to keel over in violation of some training principle through ignorance?

H

WestPablo

It's such a good life!

Machka 

Yeah ... go for it. Trainers are inexpensive and a good way to get some extra riding in when riding outside is less than ideal.

If you work 4 days a week, go for longer rides outside 3 days a week, then do 30-60 minutes on the trainer another 2 days a week.

Another idea might be to go to spinning classes 2 days a week, if you can fit it into your schedule.


[HR][/HR]

And yes, if you've comfortably ridden 60 miles, you should be able to ride a slow 100. The key there is that when you feel really comfortable with the 60 mile distance, you can do quite a bit more, but you'll likely have to take it easy.

And don't listen to those who say, "You absolutely don't need or "want" to do more than one training ride of about 65-70. No more than that." ... that's nonsense. Take it from someone who has ridden more than 100 centuries and rides longer than centuries. Ride as much as you feel you need to ride before you do your century. In fact, if you ride several 65 to 80 mile rides before your century, you'll feel more comfortable with your century for several reasons:

-- you'll have more of a chance to sort out your nutrition
-- you'll have more of a chance to sort out your bicycle fit issues
-- and you'll build endurance ... feeling comfortable in the saddle.

Riding those distances also gives you a chance to ride longer distances in various terrain and various weather conditions.

RollCNY

You aren't violating any grand rule. Most people recommend shorter rides so that your bottom and inner thighs get used to sitting, sweating, and hopefully not chaffing. If you go to far for your conditioning, you put yourself in pain, and won't ride the next day. It is really more about acclimatization to riding than anything else.

If you want to do 97 miles one day on the weekend, enjoy yourself. No rule will be broken.

Personally, I wouldn't bother getting a trainer. Trainers are great for structured training, or intervals, or meaningful workouts that you can cram into 45-90 minutes. Your bigger worry is comfort and saddle time. Also, a trainer can make riding a chore, and draw some of the fun out of it.

An organized century is really not very hard. It is really 5 20 mile rides back to back if you make use of the rest stops. Fill your stomach, chat up strangers, and have the will to get back on the bike. It is not the equivalent of a marathon as far as physical strain, so don't psych yourself out too much.

valygrl

I don't know if you need one, but if you decide to buy one, shop on craigslist for a Kurt Kinetic, Kurt RockNRoll or Cyclops trainer. Fluid trainers are nicer. New, they cost $300 or more, but people sell them used all the time.

I got a cold when I went to Hawaii on my honeymoon, too. It was still really nice.

John_V 

For the OP, a little story that you can use any way you want.

This year, our team got a new member; the wife of one of the Battalion Chiefs in the fire department. She is an avid runner and has done several full marathons in Florida and elsewhere. A few years ago, she had a brain tumor removed that almost killed her but she made it through and continued running. She later purchased a used road bike from her cousin and started cycling through the summer months and was doing 32 mile rides a few times a week. The problem she had with the bike was that it really didn't fit her properly. She didn't really know how a bike should fit and rode it as is, adjusting nothing but the saddle and that wasn't adjusted properly either.

Her first ride with the team was a 32 mile charity ride, which she did with no problem, including climbing over two very long and steep bridges that cross one of the shipping channels leading into the gulf. Her second ride with us was three months later, in February, and was a metric century charity ride on mostly flat terrain. She finished this ride without any problems and didn't even seem tired at the end of it. After this ride, she went back to doing her 32 mile ride routine. In April, we did the MS 150 and she was ready for her first century. While Florida doesn't have what most riders call hills, the ride did go through some of Florida's hilliest areas and the first 35 miles were all rollers. She finished her century in 6 hours 28 minutes (ride time) and did the 50 mile return ride the next day over much of the same roads as she did the day before.

After her first century ride, she came out and did some training rides with us in another area that has some decent hills (for us, anyway) and that is when we noticed that she wasn't shifting gears in the climbs. When we asked, she told us that nobody has shown her how to shift the gears and the gear she was in was the same gear as when she bought the bike. So, she did her 32 mile rides, her first metric century and her first century, riding in one gear, and still managed to keep up with the rest of us on the charity rides. Not bad for someone who has been riding for just over a year.

This may or may not do anything for you, but I thought it may just be enough to inspire you to think differently on your approach to riding a century. BTW, she did this at age 51.

rpenmanparker 

Regarding a problem riding the full distance before the event: actually yes there is. First, what's the point? Either of the long ride beforehand or of the event after if both are the same length. You're training for the event, not training for the training ride. And if you can ride 97 miles on a whim, why are you asking questions about training for 100? This just doesn't make any sense. Second, distance exercisers like marathon runners space out their full marathon efforts, because the long run is very hard on the body. Not quite so much with century cycling because cycling is easier on the body, but there is still a healing process after a century. You don't want the training to make it more difficult for you to complete the event. You want to be building toward the event, not be coming down from a training ride that was just as hard. Third, two medium long rides is better training than one very near century ride. Fourth, it is unlikely your training ride will be as well supported as the event. That means you will actually find the training more difficult and less pleasant, maybe even more dangerous than the event. There is no value to all that. Hey, I didn't make this stuff up. What I am telling you is classic common sense training lore for distance events.

EDIT: After thinking about this a little further, I can crystallize my objection to your idea of near century training rides for a first century event in this analysis and question: You train to be able to do a certain distance. In effect each training ride is training for the next longer one. If your time is limited to train, and you want to ride 97 miles to train for the event, when are you going to "train" for the 97 mile ride?

Bah Humbug

Not everyone finds it torture; PeriPedal and TrainerRoad plus Netflix or another source of video to watch makes it much better. That said, yes, I wouldn't rely on it solely for a century, but a hard ride or two per week on it will raise your power and make the century much easier.

merlinextraligh

Riding 3 consecutive days outside, and taking 4 consecutive days off is not an ideal training plan.

Riding a century, particularly if you don't care about how fast you do it, is not that hard, so you can do it on that training plan.

But if you want to be stronger, faster, and have better endurance, mixing in some trainer time will help a lot.

Use the trainer twice a week, on your work days for 30-60 minutes, doing intervals, and you will be dramatically stronger, than if you just do the long rides on the weekends.

By doing intervals on the trainer, you gain speed strength, and endurance in a short period of time, which keeps the trainer from being mental torture.

And the "intervals" don't have to be terribly structured. For example, they can be as simple as going as hard as you can hold every commercial, and recovering during the show itself.

Heathpack 

I think you fundamentally misunderstand what I am training for. I would like to ride a century ride in April that has more elevation change than I normally ride in. This will present three challenges as I see it: 1. The distance (which, no, I cannot ride on a whim. I can ride 50 miles on a whim, which is why I'm starting with that distance in my training), 2. The climbing in the context of the distance, and 3. The group ride aspect. The goal is not to just push the pedals around one time in my life until the computer says 100mi. Immediately, I am prepping for the Palm Springs century, which is in turn prep for the other century.

I'm also pretty unclear as to what you think the plan is. Im not (nor did I ever claim to be) starting with a 97 mi ride. The progression of long rides goes: 50 mi, week off (away for Thanksgiving), 55 mi, 61 mi, 67 mi, 73 mi, 80 mi, 88 mi, training break (away), 97 mi, 65 mi, 60 mi, rest, event.

It's not hard at all for me to SAG my own ride. My town is full of bike paths that I can ride in all kinds of looping patterns, and I know where all the water fountains are. It's pretty easy to loop past my own house as part of the pattern which is in fact what I was thinking of doing for the longer ride- three thirty ish mile loops starting and ending at the SAG stop of my own house. And finally my husband is a great SAG driver. If I plan to ride into a canyon or somewhere remote that has no cell reception, I give him my ETA and he meets me there, drives past me a bit, waits for me on the side of the road, then watches me until I'm out of sight, then he leapfrogs me and we continue the process. Sometimes to get the climbing in I really have to ride from my house out into some canyon and then back.

H

TrojanHorse

Don't over think it and don't over worry about it either. All that training you do ahead of time gets you fit enough and conditioned enough to enjoy your time in the saddle on Feb 8. The more training you do (without over training and injuring yourself) the easier the actual ride will be but there's no cutoff where you will fail if you don't ride X miles before hand.

For instance - somebody who rides 500 or more miles a month can probably just go ride a century cold turkey and not even worry about it. Somebody who rides an average of 100 miles a month may struggle trying to get all 100 miles in one day. Find a balance in there that works for you and don't over-sweat the details like worrying about whether you rode 60 or 65 miles last Saturday.

Oh, another thing you need to figure out is how to accommodate changing temperatures. It was 35 degrees at the start last year and up into the high 70s or so at the end. I forgot to start my garmin for a few miles so the temp in the graph below is 40 or so, but it was (@*#& freezing before that. Click on it to see a bigger version.

Heathpack 

FYI, the days off are not entirely days off. They would be swimming, weights and yoga. Most weeks one day off, sometimes two. But I could easily cut out some of the non-cycling time and add a trainer ride. I have trouble doing intervals on the bike actually for logistical reasons that have to do with terrain (the flattest terrain I can ride is bike paths along riverbeds, I can do the intervals on the uphill leg but cannot raise my heart rate no matter what gear I'm in or how fast I pedal on the downhill leg). I actually have wanted to figure out how to get some interval training into the mix- somehow I didn't think of the trainer for that. That's a big plus to getting a trainer, I think. It will let me do something that I haven't been able to fit into the mix.

H