Tips for a 100 miler



I will try to work this out

Tuesday evening - 60 minute session of stretching

Wednesday morning - 45 minutes of stretching
Wednesday evening - 60 minutes of very light spinning on the trainer and a few minutes stretching

Thursday - 5:30 am to 8:00 pm business travel

Friday morning - 60 minutes on gym spin bike with the last 30 minutes ramping up to high intensity short duration intervals.
Friday evening - check over the bike and take all my bike/gear over to load up in the truck.
 
Felt_Rider said:
I will try to work this out

Tuesday evening - 60 minute session of stretching

Wednesday morning - 45 minutes of stretching
Wednesday evening - 60 minutes of very light spinning on the trainer and a few minutes stretching

Thursday - 5:30 am to 8:00 pm business travel

Friday morning - 60 minutes on gym spin bike with the last 30 minutes ramping up to high intensity short duration intervals.
Friday evening - check over the bike and take all my bike/gear over to load up in the truck.
It's your call of course, but I'd at least make Wednesday a light Tempo ride instead of easy spinning. Cutting out training cold turkey usually doesn't work too well and Friday may not be enough to get your legs going again after nearly a week of rest.

Rest is good, but too much can really hurt going into an event. OTOH, if your important event is really the following weekend (the sub 5 century) then you're on a long but good peaking cycle if you finish this weekend's ride and get back into a cycle with moderate duration but good intensity your final week.

Good luck and keep us posted either way,
-Dave
 
Just a few more, find foods that works for you now and stick with it, even in the week or so before the ride, no new foods, eat a nice light breakfast the day of the event, no grease. Also, hydrate hydrate hydrate....the week of the event drink lots of water, the color of your pee will give you a good idea how much you need, light yellow. The first 50 miles you will be eating and drinking for the last 50....set a watch or timer to remind you starting now while training, get in the habit to sip or drink often. A Camelbac is a real good way to drink, it carry's almost 3 bottles and for me I drink a lot more whenever I carry a Camelbac. If I hydrate for 4-5 days before a 100 mile ride, I can do the event on 4 bottles of water or 1 camelbac in 80-90 degree temps. Plus in heat, a Camel bac filled with cold water helps keep the upper body cool.

You can train for 100 without ever riding 100, if you put in a solid week of 25/25/25, then a longer one Sat or Sunday you will be fine.


As the saying goes,

...... its not the miles you ride but the ride in your miles.
Train hard and the 100 will be a blast.
 
Dave you know your stuff :)

As things would go with work, traveling until late last night and then having to get to work early this morning I only had time this morning for a few intense intervals of the "openers", but I am glad I did. The first few felt horrible, well to be honest they all felt horrible, but as I walked out of the gym on the way to work my legs felt a little different. A little better. I will load up on the carbs today, take my gear and bike to the equipment truck after work and hopefully get to bed early for the early morning traveling.

I still feel very fatigued and again some of that is due to work stress and with this economy I have to do my best to hold on to that first. The Cat-2/3 was cut a few weeks back perhaps because his focus was not where the company expected for this hard economic season, but then I digress.

I imagine tomorrow I will struggle in the first ten miles and it will feel horrible, but my hope is that my body will start to adjust and open back up. My hips and legs still feel very tight despite all the stretching I have done this week, but I have faith and will look to the positive.

Since this is not a race and just an event I will not push as hard as I wanted this year. There are chances of rain and storms expected, but I hope it is not like last year when we started in a hard down pour for the first 30+ miles. Not bad climbing, but descending fast on the switchback is not worth the risk. My post event report may not be impressive power numbers or finishing time. I do hope to report that I finished the entire ride and that I have overcome the fatigue.
 
The energy system required to ride 100 miles is the same as for a 60 mile ride. As long as you pace yourself well and eat and drink as described here, it won't be a problem.

Don't make it out to be some insurmountable feat.
 
Don't worry about spending too much time trying to wolf down extra helpings of carb rich foods or supplements. Some, sure... but don't go crazy. All that will likely happen if you go on a pasta/carb binge is that you'll have to find a porta-potty en-route and hope the 'turtles head' doesn't poke out far enough to stain your chamois.... What you stuff in today has gotta come out either Saturday or Sunday, no? :p

As velomanct pointed out, if you can do 60 miles then you can do 100. Just pace it sensibly and keep to YOUR limits and you'll be fine. You probably spend alot of time watching the power on the 3 bigger hills, but be careful on all those pesky little 'rollers' too - those small hills that constantly appear often take more out of you than the longer hills. Don't fall into the trap of thinking "well, it's only 1/3 mile to the top of this, I'll just honk up this one out of the saddle..." 20 little hills and 80 miles later and you're toast.

When you get over 4 hours a lot of how you perform on a bike is due to bike fit, pacing and feeding. Sure the guys who do the RAAM do get some long training rides in but most of the top guys don't recommend much in the way of training more than 4 hours on a regular basis.
Have a good ride!
 
Felt_Rider said:
Dave you know your stuff :)

As things would go with work, traveling until late last night and then having to get to work early this morning I only had time this morning for a few intense intervals of the "openers", but I am glad I did. The first few felt horrible, well to be honest they all felt horrible, but as I walked out of the gym on the way to work my legs felt a little different. A little better. I will load up on the carbs today, take my gear and bike to the equipment truck after work and hopefully get to bed early for the early morning traveling.

I still feel very fatigued and again some of that is due to work stress and with this economy I have to do my best to hold on to that first. The Cat-2/3 was cut a few weeks back perhaps because his focus was not where the company expected for this hard economic season, but then I digress.

I imagine tomorrow I will struggle in the first ten miles and it will feel horrible, but my hope is that my body will start to adjust and open back up. My hips and legs still feel very tight despite all the stretching I have done this week, but I have faith and will look to the positive.

Since this is not a race and just an event I will not push as hard as I wanted this year. There are chances of rain and storms expected, but I hope it is not like last year when we started in a hard down pour for the first 30+ miles. Not bad climbing, but descending fast on the switchback is not worth the risk. My post event report may not be impressive power numbers or finishing time. I do hope to report that I finished the entire ride and that I have overcome the fatigue.
Hope the weather is better for you this year Felt. My buddy is going again this year, his sixth time, but I'm sitting out as with 2500 riders now it's gotten a bit big for me. We had some good times with a little group driving up on Friday and then staying over Sat night. After cold beers and pizza at the finish, it's nice to go back to the hotel to shower, then go out on the town.

You're smart to go easy on the wet descents. A few years ago, a guy came around on the first descent in the wet ~ 35 mph and promptly crashed while braking in a turn right in front of me. He was shaken up, but able to crawl off the road. I moved his bike to the side and stayed a few minutes to arrange med help.....they were just down the hill two corners working another crash.

FYI, our clock times two years ago were mid-pack, 7:10 or so, with ~6:30 ride time. My buddy, 25 years younger and 20 lbs lighter (as I should be), can climb a lot faster, and should beat me by 30 minutes over the 100 miles and 9500 ft vertical event. But he often goes out too hard, then is forced to slow dramatically later on. It's too easy to get sucked in to a fast group going by early, but as others have said, pacing yourself is the key to a good finish. Regardless of what the finish-line clock says, remember to have fun along the way, and enjoy plenty of beer and pizza at the end :)
 
dhk2 said:
Hope the weather is better for you this year Felt. My buddy is going again this year, his sixth time, but I'm sitting out as with 2500 riders now it's gotten a bit big for me. We had some good times with a little group driving up on Friday and then staying over Sat night. After cold beers and pizza at the finish, it's nice to go back to the hotel to shower, then go out on the town.

You're smart to go easy on the wet descents. A few years ago, a guy came around on the first descent in the wet ~ 35 mph and promptly crashed while braking in a turn right in front of me. He was shaken up, but able to crawl off the road. I moved his bike to the side and stayed a few minutes to arrange med help.....they were just down the hill two corners working another crash.

FYI, our clock times two years ago were mid-pack, 7:10 or so, with ~6:30 ride time. My buddy, 25 years younger and 20 lbs lighter (as I should be), can climb a lot faster, and should beat me by 30 minutes over the 100 miles and 9500 ft vertical event. But he often goes out too hard, then is forced to slow dramatically later on. It's too easy to get sucked in to a fast group going by early, but as others have said, pacing yourself is the key to a good finish. Regardless of what the finish-line clock says, remember to have fun along the way, and enjoy plenty of beer and pizza at the end :)
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dhk2 said:
Hope the weather is better for you this year Felt. My buddy is going again this year, his sixth time, but I'm sitting out as with 2500 riders now it's gotten a bit big for me. We had some good times with a little group driving up on Friday and then staying over Sat night. After cold beers and pizza at the finish, it's nice to go back to the hotel to shower, then go out on the town.

You're smart to go easy on the wet descents. A few years ago, a guy came around on the first descent in the wet ~ 35 mph and promptly crashed while braking in a turn right in front of me. He was shaken up, but able to crawl off the road. I moved his bike to the side and stayed a few minutes to arrange med help.....they were just down the hill two corners working another crash.

FYI, our clock times two years ago were mid-pack, 7:10 or so, with ~6:30 ride time. My buddy, 25 years younger and 20 lbs lighter (as I should be), can climb a lot faster, and should beat me by 30 minutes over the 100 miles and 9500 ft vertical event. But he often goes out too hard, then is forced to slow dramatically later on. It's too easy to get sucked in to a fast group going by early, but as others have said, pacing yourself is the key to a good finish. Regardless of what the finish-line clock says, remember to have fun along the way, and enjoy plenty of beer and pizza at the end :)
Sounds like me :)
So far I am feeling pretty good this morning, but I guess the test will be the first climb to see if I have recovered from the training fatigue and as you say not get caught up in chasing people up the first and second mountain. I need to reserve the best I can for Burkhalter's Gap at the 80 mile marker. I am sure my pace will be good enough to make the time cut off to do the last climb.
 
Dave & dhk2, my ride report is rain, rain, rain and more rain.

Of course my thread post concerns was different than the original OP since my concern was going into this event with a deep fatigue. With a week of rest, a lot of stretching, a session of tempo riding on Wednesday and a bit of openers on Friday, I believe I felt a little better, but since it was a down pour from the start my group decided to take the 62 mile turn off option as we were told it was going to get worse.

Because of the weather I decided not to push very hard and reserve for the century this coming this weekend, but on the first climb my legs felt pretty good and on some flats I could hold a descent pace. I still don't feel like I am all the way back. One in our group is a registered nurse and exercise physiologist and is suggesting I start supplementing iron for a little while to build up hemoglobin and help get out of this fatigue.

This event we only stopped at one sag stop to get a weather report of the ride ahead and I only used the food, gels and liquids that I brought rather load up on the junk on the tables. This certainly works better for me rather than eat something that my body is not familiar with on these types of rides.

My power numbers on my blog at the bottom, but again I backed off to reserve for next weekend since this event was a wash out.
 
Felt_Rider said:
Dave & dhk2, my ride report is rain, rain, rain and more rain.

Of course my thread post concerns was different than the original OP since my concern was going into this event with a deep fatigue. With a week of rest, a lot of stretching, a session of tempo riding on Wednesday and a bit of openers on Friday, I believe I felt a little better, but since it was a down pour from the start my group decided to take the 62 mile turn off option as we were told it was going to get worse.

Because of the weather I decided not to push very hard and reserve for the century this coming this weekend, but on the first climb my legs felt pretty good and on some flats I could hold a descent pace. I still don't feel like I am all the way back. One in our group is a registered nurse and exercise physiologist and is suggesting I start supplementing iron for a little while to build up hemoglobin and help get out of this fatigue.

This event we only stopped at one sag stop to get a weather report of the ride ahead and I only used the food, gels and liquids that I brought rather load up on the junk on the tables. This certainly works better for me rather than eat something that my body is not familiar with on these types of rides.

My power numbers on my blog at the bottom, but again I backed off to reserve for next weekend since this event was a wash out.
Yeah, too bad about the weather again this year. We had rain over here in Huntsville all day today too. Hope things are better for your event next weekend.

My only further advice is too learn to enjoy the excellent rest stop food and drink selections that you've paid for. Last year at our club century a rest stop run by our racers featured BBQ sandwiches and smoked scallops hot off the grill. Appreciation of gourmet fare during a mountain century event may be something that takes a few years of training, but it's worth it :)
 
Felt_Rider said:
One in our group is a registered nurse and exercise physiologist and is suggesting I start supplementing iron for a little while to build up hemoglobin and help get out of this fatigue.
I hope you don't go to the same hospital that they practise at. :p

If you're suffering from an iron definciency anemia then you'll likely benefit from taking an iron supplement but I'd go to the docs and get a full blood panel done (including iron and ferritin - the ferritin you may have to specifically ask for) to get a true picture of what's going on.

If I recall correctly your diet featured some good iron rich foods.

If you're not iron deficient then you may be doing more harm than good.
 
swampy1970 said:
I hope you don't go to the same hospital that they practise at. :p

If you're suffering from an iron definciency anemia then you'll likely benefit from taking an iron supplement but I'd go to the docs and get a full blood panel done (including iron and ferritin - the ferritin you may have to specifically ask for) to get a true picture of what's going on.

If I recall correctly your diet featured some good iron rich foods.

If you're not iron deficient then you may be doing more harm than good.
Agreed
I have a steady diet of lean red meat, nuts, seeds and chicken.

Back in the training groove this morning and I am changing my schedule around a little and see if I can get out of this slump. Work stress continues to increase, which is fortunate on one side to have work, but has been tough on training. Living priorities are setting the current structure, but I am sure I am not alone in this.

Of course some of my friends that have lost their jobs, which are becoming numerous, are getting hard to hold their wheel because they have more time available for training. My preference is to stay employed. :)
 
dhk2 said:
Yeah, too bad about the weather again this year. We had rain over here in Huntsville all day today too. Hope things are better for your event next weekend.

My only further advice is too learn to enjoy the excellent rest stop food and drink selections that you've paid for. Last year at our club century a rest stop run by our racers featured BBQ sandwiches and smoked scallops hot off the grill. Appreciation of gourmet fare during a mountain century event may be something that takes a few years of training, but it's worth it :)
I have never been to an event that had such nice food stations.
Storms are predicted for next weekend as well, but hopefully soon the south will start getting a break soon from the rain and storms.
 
FWIW,
I just did my first ever 100+ mile race this past Saturday (104 miles to be more precise). In fact, the last time I even rode a century was some 15 years ago. This year I've only done one 70+ training ride, and a few 50 - 60+ milers. IOW, I don't get into a lot of miles, but I do ride 6 times/week. Most of my off-season training consisted of 1 hr SST rides or slightly longer Tempo (L3). Before the race my CTL was around 78 with a slightly negative TSB. The day of, I had a normal breakfast and didn't carboload leading up to the race. Some would say that I was actually ill-prepared for a 100 miler.

Putting aside the fact that only 5 riders showed up to race in my category (M35+A), it did have some short lived attacks and was by no means an easy ride as we did not get combined with any other group (don't ask, because I don't have an answer). It was mostly flat with several short power climbs. We ended up sprinting it out, and I took a close second.

The temps felt like 50 - 65 F (10 - 18 C), I drank three bottles of First Endurance EFS, and downed not quite two 5 oz. EFS Liquid Shots (800 kcal total). Keep in mind that I weigh 123 lbs/ 56 kg. I did experience some cramping towards the end, but as we all resigned to a sprint we slowed down and I recovered well. Total time was 4 hrs 20 min for an average of 24 miles/hr.

Conclusion for this n = 1 experiment is that consistent training and sensible nutrition is more important than exorbitant mileage. :)
 

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