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Permalink Reply by S on July 5, 2009 at 3:49pm

There's quite a bit out there on improving your speed but the basics are that you want to do hard workouts 2-3 times a week but have a day or two in between the hard workouts to recover. There's a few different types of intervals that focus on different things. For example, if you're working on your lactate threshold or climbing, you might do intervals that last for 5-15 minutes. Intervals for top end speed or to improve your sprinting might be anywhere from 15 seconds to 3 minutes.

If you're just going just trying to go fast in a century, you'll probably want to do the longer intervals and not really care about improving your jump. However the tricky part is figuring out how fast to go. You should probably read a book on bike racing or use google to find a page explaining this.

Oh, the speed that you finish a century depends a lot on whether you're doing it solo or with a group. With a good paceline, you should be able to do it in 4-5 hours easily since you're drafting for a bit of it and that makes things much easier. Solo is a little harder but still doable.

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Permalink Reply by o0_dan_0o on July 5, 2009 at 5:21pm

h3 said:

6:10 is amazing, Dan.
Why not set your sights on a 6-hour century that you feel good after?

well, i figure that would be part of it.

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Permalink Reply by o0_dan_0o on July 5, 2009 at 5:46pm

S said:

There's quite a bit out there on improving your speed but the basics are that you want to do hard workouts 2-3 times a week but have a day or two in between the hard workouts to recover. There's a few different types of intervals that focus on different things. For example, if you're working on your lactate threshold or climbing, you might do intervals that last for 5-15 minutes. Intervals for top end speed or to improve your sprinting might be anywhere from 15 seconds to 3 minutes.

If you're just going just trying to go fast in a century, you'll probably want to do the longer intervals and not really care about improving your jump. However the tricky part is figuring out how fast to go. You should probably read a book on bike racing or use google to find a page explaining this.

/p>

thanks. this explains what i was trying to figure out in simple terms. ive read the complete guide to distance cycling, and the regimen explained goes into heart rate zones and stuff, but it didnt tell me what you just did.

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Permalink Reply by o0_dan_0o on July 5, 2009 at 7:55pm

oh.. yeah, i thought it was improperly spent training. yeah, im not gonna be a hardcore roadie.

ridedirty said:

"junk miles" is what hardcore roadies call any distance you ride that isn't training or a race. i wouldn't avoid "junk miles."

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Permalink Reply by S on July 6, 2009 at 12:57am

o0_dan_0o said:

oh.. yeah, i thought it was improperly spent training. yeah, im not gonna be a hardcore roadie.
ridedirty said:

"junk miles" is what hardcore roadies call any distance you ride that isn't training or a race. i wouldn't avoid "junk miles."

It is, junk miles are basically miles and time spent where you ride a moderately hard pace. Basically, you're riding too hard to recover from a previous workout but not as hard as you would do in a workout. Your body is being stressed too much to heal and recover but not being stressed enough to improve your strength or endurance. So it just ends up doing nothing or hurting you in the long run, but it does let you brag about how much mileage you ride each week. It's surprisingly easy to end up doing these if you don't take the time to make sure that you either rest or ride easy days between intervals or hard workout days.

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Permalink Reply by Ali on July 6, 2009 at 8:34am

A 6:10 century by yourself is more than respectable. 5 hour century is something like shooting a round of golf that is under 100. It takes a lot of work, and is not easy. Also you would need at least 3 or 4 other riders who is willing to do the work as well. It is all about consistency when it comes to riding a long distance such as a century, so you would also ideally start out at an area where you will not need to stop too often as every single time you have to stop and then work your way to 20 mph it is not only lost time but it is also wasted energy to work back upto that 20. Actually you will need to clip along around 22 or so to maintain an average of 20.

As S said; intervral workouts is what you need to be doing. They will not only enable you to ride longer and harder but also will give you a little more snap on your legs towards the end of the century. Most unexperienced riders' legs will turn to mush in the last 40 miles, this is usually due to either being inconsistent with your effort(Doing a hard effort for 2 miles and then resting for 3 miles, there is only so many of these cycles your body can take...) OR exerting yourself too much towards the beginning and having nothing left in the tank towards the end.

-Ali

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Permalink Reply by Todd Allen on July 6, 2009 at 6:15pm

I know some older guys who have done 4 hour centuries but they did it riding expensive super low partially fared racing recumbents. Being a tech geek I find that cool. Even so, they still had to bust ass and do lots of training and reach a level of fitness beyond what most of us are willing or able to do.

I've never been faster than myself either, even on a quality racing recumbent. At least until I started using electric motors on my bikes. I should have grown up by now, but I still like speed.

Anyway, more power to you one way or another. Have fun going as fast as you can.

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