Century Training
A few people have asked me what training I did for my century ride.
I’m currently riding 4 days a week (well, I took 10 days off at JavaOne and on vacation). Monday/Wednesday/Friday, I do a 15 mile ride which takes about an hour. It has some up and down hills, and a steady 2.5 mile hill in the middle. I try to ride that hill at a somewhat painful steady-state, where my legs are hurting but I don’t feel like I’m going to die.
On the weekend (usually Saturday), I’ll go on a long ride. I started at around 30 miles in March, progressed to 50 miles in May, and then peaked at 70 miles the week before the century. I aim for a pace that will leave me tired at the end but not so I couldn’t ride more if I had to, which obviously varies based upon the distance.
For the century, I found it to be hugely useful that I had ridden the bulk of the course before, so that I knew where all the hills were and how steep they were.
I’m planning on adding more mileage as the summer progresses, and perhaps a new bicycle.
Oh, and I haven’t yet gotten around to getting a heart rate monitor yet, though that would probably be a useful addition. I bought Chris Carmichael’s book a while back, and I’m planning on trying some of his training drills – I would really like to be able to bump my average speed up a few miles per hour.
What is your time goal for the Century? I had always heard that 8h is a good max. time to try and achieve. I suppose it depends on the amount of socializing you do during the ride.
My time goal was 7 hours. I managed 14.9 MPH over the 101.75 miles, come in at 6:49:22.
That’s on a very hilly century, with 2900 feet of elevation gain. If it was a flat century, I’d expect to do it in less than 6.
I think 8 hours isn’t a bad max time to shoot for. The century I did gave you 10 hours total to do the century, and taht would give you two hours of break time.
Congratulations on your accomplishment. Now all you need to do is run a marathon then you can join the "Century vs. Marathon. which is tougher?" debate.
I’ve done both once. The answer is easy to me: the marathon is much tougher.
I’ve found running just to run to be very boring, so I don’t think there’s a big chance I’ll do a marathon.
My uninformed opinion is that a marathon is tough even if you run slowly, while the toughness of a century depends on the course and the speed at which you ride it.
How is running just to run different than biking just to bike?
At the risk of offending my running brethren, biking isn’t boring for me the way that running is. I watch the road, shift, look for traffic, look at scenery, eat, drink, avoid mothers with strollers, etc.
And the fact that I’m travelling lots faster means that I get to see more
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