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Next month I'll be riding in my first Century ride here in Honolulu. I am a newbie . . . having recently purchased a road bike . . . and decided that since I've lived a sedentary life_style_ for more than three decades, I'd better limit myself to half-a-century .  since I haven't done anything like this before and recognize the fact that training is essential as well as preparing nutritionally, I would welcome any advice from those of you that have done centuries in the past. Specifically, I'm looking for how many miles a week I should target on riding, frequency of rides per week, nutritional advice (pre-event, event, post-event as well as pre-training session, training session, recovery). Thanks in advance John Borders Honolulu, Hawaii Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

Centuries are not as difficult as you might be led to believe. Try riding something like this: M - 30 miles - normal pace T - 20 miles - normal W - 40 miles - leisurely R - 15 miles - fast F - 30 miles - normal S - rest (or leisurely ride) U - rest (or leisurely ride) Start again. Do this for 2 weeks or so, and you should have no problem with a century. (Good rule of thumb is to train at ~ 30% of what you plan on riding) Take a light ride the day after the century also - a couple of miles.  It'll help you recover. Take care, -phranc

For myself, I found that the psychological factor was the biggest problem. Find out the distance between rest stops and figure that if you can go twice that far without stopping on the same type of terrain, then it'll be a piece of cake.  I just recently tried a century (shortened by lightning).  The first 60+ miles was one loop while the rest was another loop with only one rest stop.  After the 60+ loop, I just told myself that it was 18 miles out to the rest stop and then back home.  Good luck!

Next month I'll be riding in my first Century ride here in Honolulu. I am a newbie . . . having recently purchased a road bike . . . and decided that since I've lived a sedentary life_style_ for more than three decades, I'd better limit myself to half-a-century .  since I haven't done anything like this before and recognize the fact that training is essential as well as preparing nutritionally, I would welcome any advice from those of you that have done centuries in the past. Specifically, I'm looking for how many miles a week I should target on riding, frequency of rides per week, nutritional advice (pre-event, event, post-event as well as pre-training session, training session, recovery). I see all sorts of people on centuries, from hard core roadies on $5000 dream rigs to ~really~ heavy riders to freds on the most hideous dept store MTBs and they all seem to finish OK. I think what matters is that you have some miles in your legs and can tolerate sitting on a bike for six or more hours. If you can get to a point where your normal training ride is 30-40 miles, you're getting at least 100 miles per week, and you can do a 65 or 70 miler once a few weeks before the big event then I think you are ready. Please note that this is _base_d solely on my experience - Bicycling Mag reruns the same preparing for your first century article every year and it is a lot more detailed in terms of training and nutrition so you may want to try to look this up. A lot of my methods are admittedly flawed - for instance, we tend to use beer as a recovery fluid and I know this is not recommended by most fitness experts. Also, pick an easy century for the first attempt if that is at all possible. Preferably one that is flat and has a tail wind the whole way ; ). If you can finish one easy century you will have plenty of confidence for the tougher rides in the future. - Doug (doing Amtrak and Lighthouse 100's in Sept.)

Try riding something like this: M - 30 miles - normal pace T - 20 miles - normal W - 40 miles - leisurely R - 15 miles - fast F - 30 miles - normal S - rest (or leisurely ride) U - rest (or leisurely ride) I trained for a 12 hour mountain bike endurance fest with less weekday mileage than that! And sometimes I took the weekends off too. Try something more like: Saturday or Sunday: ride 3-4 hours not too fast (start with 3 or even 2). Eat a little something every hour. Drink plenty of water. Wear real bike shorts. Stand up to pedal every so often to relieve your butt. Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday: do it again, but just do 2-3 hours. Forget the speedwork! You aren't racing. Forget about riding every day! You need time to recover when you're starting out. Just try to get some sustained mileage in a couple times a week.

simple   as much LSD as your schedule allows with atleast one or two rest days per week.... BTW   LSD = Long Steady Distance Vandy Ride Hard...Fall Harder