By Ken Schwarz, CRW Century Coordinator
This is the second installment of a four-part series of articles on preparing for a century ride. Are you thinking about tackling your first century this year? Contact ken.schwarz@crw.org if you are interested in joining the Century Training Program in August to help you prepare for the October 18 CRW Cranberry Century.
If you can comfortably ride 25 to 30 miles today but are unsure about 100, I have good news: your legs are probably already strong enough to ride a century.
That may sound surprising. After all, a century is more than three times longer than a 30-mile ride. Surely you need much stronger legs to ride three times as far?
Not really. The challenge of a century is not primarily muscular strength. The challenge is sustaining the effort for six to eight hours while managing fatigue. To do that, there are three things you need to train:
Aerobic Endurance: Your Foundation
Your aerobic system is your most important energy source on a century ride.
This is the system that powers you when you are cruising comfortably at a conversational pace. It relies heavily on fat metabolism. Fat is incredibly dense with energy: even a lean cyclist is carrying vastly more energy than needed to ride several centuries. Energy supply is not the problem.
Power output is. Your aerobic system can produce enough power for that conversational pace, but not much more.
This is why aerobic endurance rides are the foundation of century training. Long, steady rides teach the body to become more efficient at aerobic work. They improve your heart's ability to deliver oxygen, increase the muscles' ability to use it, and improve your ability to burn fat while conserving carbohydrates.
The majority of your century training rides should be ridden at a conversational pace with progressively longer rides through the season.
Here’s a useful test: if a pace leaves you feeling wiped after two hours, it is almost certainly too hard for a century. Slow down until you can comfortably sustain a conversation.
Anaerobic Reserve: Use It Wisely
Of course, real rides are not perfectly steady, and even a well-paced century includes moments when you have to go harder.
As effort rises, you begin mixing in more anaerobic metabolism.
This system relies heavily on carbohydrates stored in your muscles and liver. Unlike fat stores, carbohydrate stores are limited. Even a Grand Tour racer has only a limited amount stored. If you ride above your aerobic pace for extended periods, you’ll begin consuming a fuel supply that is both limited and difficult to replace quickly. Once depleted, performance drops dramatically.
This is why century riders talk endlessly about fueling and triathletes laugh about Ironman races as being “eating contests.” It’s critical to take in carbohydrates steadily during the ride so you do not run down the limited supply stored in your muscles and liver. The bananas, energy bars, and PB&J at the century rest stops are essential.
Even if you aren’t racing and intentionally pushing yourself above your aerobic comfort zone, there are many situations in a long ride where you will need that anaerobic reserve:
Heavier riders often need more anaerobic reserve on climbs. Riders in faster groups may need more reserve to handle accelerations. A rider taking long pulls at the front may need more reserve to deal with wind exposure.
So, while you will rely on your aerobic base for the foundation of your ride, your goal should be to 1) use anaerobic efforts intentionally rather than continuously and 2) ensure that you eat enough carbohydrate-rich food throughout the day.
A useful rule is this: ride the century mostly on fat and top up the carbohydrate tank continuously.
Contact Points: The Forgotten Limiter
Many first-time century riders assume their legs will be the problem. Often they aren't.
Instead, the limiting factor becomes the contact points.
Your hands support part of your upper body for hours. Your neck holds your head up. Your shoulders stabilize your position. Your feet transmit power to the pedals. Your saddle supports a significant portion of your weight. All of these tissues fatigue and can become very sore long before legs cramp.
Fortunately, they adapt to training as well.
The main way to train contact points is to spend progressively more time on the bike, assuming your fit and equipment are basically sound. A four-hour ride teaches the body something a two-hour ride cannot.
This is one reason why century preparation should include longer rides even when fitness already seems adequate.
Incremental Progression
Training works because it applies stress and then allows adaptation. Training stress stimulates your body with a little more than it is used to. During subsequent rest, the body adapts and gets stronger.
A useful guideline is to increase training stress by roughly 10-20% per week.
What many riders don't realize is that duration and intensity are not interchangeable ways to create that stress.
If you ride 10% longer at the same pace, training stress rises by about 10%. However, if you ride 10% harder for the same amount of time, training stress rises by substantially more than 10%. In fact, it rises disproportionately when you start to “redline” and feel yourself breathing heavily.
This is one of the most important concepts in century preparation. If your goal is to ride 100 miles, adding time is usually preferable to adding intensity. Long endurance rides develop exactly the systems a century requires.
Recovery Is Part of Training
Your body does not adapt while you are exercising. Your body adapts afterward, when you rest.
A hard or long ride creates the stimulus. Recovery creates the improvement. Training when you should be recovering can be highly counter-productive: instead of accumulating improvements you accumulate fatigue.
This is why two or three meaningfully hard or long rides per week, separated by recovery days, are often better than riding every day.
How Much Is Enough?
One of the most reassuring facts about century preparation is that you do not need to ride a century before riding a century.
As a practical matter, if you can comfortably complete a ride of 70 to 80 miles, you are ready. You do not need to extend your training rides all the way to 100 miles. You can handle that final step by arriving at the event rested, recovered, and fully fueled.
That is why the final week before the century is not the time to prove your fitness. It is the time to let the training take full effect.
What to Do Now
The Century Training Program begins in August. July is your month for preparation.
Use July to get comfortable in the heat. Even a well-trained cyclist’s body rebels against the first really hot days under summer sun. A few weeks of riding in hot weather and you will be used to it again.
With that summer heat, make sure you drink enough fluids and take in enough electrolytes to replenish what you lose in sweat. A bottle an hour is a good baseline, but on really hot days you could easily need more. It’s all too easy to lose track and forget to stay on top of this. If you suddenly feel tired on a long ride, the natural instinct is to dig deeper. But first ask yourself: have I been eating and drinking as much as I should? Often, the answer is not more willpower. If you have fallen behind, the answer is likely food, fluids, and electrolytes. Remember: better cycling through chemistry!
This is also the right time to address bike fit and contact points. If your hands go numb, your neck tightens, your saddle becomes painful, or your feet burn after two or three hours, solve those problems now. Consider getting a professional bike fit if you are unsure. Check shoes, cleat position, saddle height, saddle fore-aft position, saddle tilt, bar height, reach to the bars and the hoods. All of these affect your posture and balance on the bike and all can enhance or detract from your power, stability and comfort.
Good cycling shorts and chamois cream can also prevent small irritations from becoming major problems after several hours. You don’t want to be experimenting with new ones too close to the event itself, so July is a good time to get new ones if you need them.
Add a few easy stretches and core exercises during the week. You do not need an elaborate gym program—simple leg stretches and a few minutes of planks and dead bugs several times a week will help. The goal is simply to improve the flexibility and strength needed to stay comfortable as rides get longer.
Finally, use July rides to practice pacing, fueling, and hydration. Learn how to climb without surging and to shift before you are forced to grind. Use your gears to keep effort steady. Find your personal rhythm for eating and drinking before you feel depleted. The century will be yours if you learn to ride smoothly, fuel consistently, stay aerobic on the hills, and save enough for the final miles.
