Want to do Circuit of Cotswolds- first century

[smegger]

I really want to complete the Circuit of Cotswolds ride- 102 miles

I can commute to my work the full length- 25 miles

or drive half- 14 miles

and some evenings i should be able to put a ride in

recently I just haven't had the motivation to get myself on the bike that much in the past week or two, probably because I feel like I'm making myself and I've got a cold and its just always bloody dark! So I thought it would be good to aim for something. It would give me a reason to go on the bike. Also I find it quite hard to keep on getting on the bike alone and not riding with anybody. When me and my mate go on a ride theres just no reason for NOT be able to ride and we do distances of 40-60 miles most times.

So what sort of mileage should I be putting in to be fit enough for a century? Can I use the distance of my commute to train? Is it a necessity to go for longer rides like 60+ miles?

Thanks

Sam

[Naggers]

I think most people would say you could do it tomorrow.

You can handle a 25 mile commute before or after a day at work so 100 shouldn't be a problem if you have the whole day free.

Personly I find the mental side harder than the physical.
Riding with someone else certainly helps. One of my first centuries (maybe even my first?) was when I thought we were riding about 55 miles to Cambridge and getting the train home but the good people (from these here pages) that I was with had different plans and we rode all the way back too.

[vorsprung]

You can already do 60 miles easily

The "Circuit of Cotswolds" is on the 21st of June.  So you have plenty of time.

If you look at the profile Circuit of the Cotswolds | Route details - profiles it is quite lumpy

Start increasing your mileage now and aim to have done 80 or 90 miles in one ride by early april

It's quite difficult to find the time to do this.  Initially you could try taking a long route home one night a week.
If there is a cycling club near you, join them and go on their club run.  These are usually 50 miles or so and quite fast.  You might also want to spend a day on a sunday or saturday just riding all day.
That would be phase 1.  The idea is to give you the confidence that you can do the distance

Phase 2, from early April until the event you need to work on your speed.  Or your climbing.  Or your climbing speed
To do this find a hill that takes at least 5 minutes to climb.   Ride up as fast as possible.  Recover for 10 minutes by riding around on the flat.  Repeat until your speed up the hill starts to get much slower.

Another thing you could try at this stage is riding at your "race pace" but for a shorter distance.  Pick a longish route and try, after approx 30 minutes of warm up, to ride at the fastest pace you can sustain for the whole period.

Don't over do it when you are training hard like this.  Have rest days.  If you cycle commute the day after just take it easy.  Slow riding actually helps recovery.

But like Naggers says...you could probably do 100 lumpy miles next weekend if you really tried

[smegger]

Thanks for that really useful and motivating information. I haven't done a distance 60 miles in a while, did 45 just before christmas fairly easy with my mate.

To increase my mileage I think I will do a half commute on Mon, then on Wed do a full 25 there and back and try and fit a ride after college on Thurs (another hour ride or something).

Then when I get used to that I wanna try and do the full 25 there and back on the Monday and Wed and a ride on Thurs.

Thing is i'm usually doing something or seeing my girlfriend at Uni on the weekends so I'm trying to stick all the riding in the week.

But like you guys said, when you've got the whole day pretty much I should be able to do it if put some more mileage in.

vorsprung, i think on Thursday I will go to this hill I know which has a nice flat before it and practice on there; its nice one where it gradually gets steeper and steeper (until something like 10%) and lasts for about 10-15 mins.

ps this will go according to plan if I get all my college work done at my apprenticeship workplace!

[smegger]

Yesterday I finally did some riding. Went out and did 31 miles in something like 1hr 47mins with a few hills and of course it was dark and got quite cold near the end of the ride. I probably should've brought some food too, ah well, went ok though.

So hopefully it'll be a half commute tomorrow and the hill ride on thursday.

Cheers for the help guys

[gonzo]

You'll manage it without any problem. If you can ride 50 miles comfortably, you can manage 100.

To give you some idea how rapidly you can improve: Last year, I went from zero fitness to a 218mile 12 hour TT in 3 months. The first ride I did was a 50 mile ride and it absolutely killed me. All my training was done on 3 rides per week - 2x 10 mile TTs per week inc. a ride to the start and back (50mi total each day) and one long ride at weekends at a steady pace.

Anyhow, you'll be fine on the ride, just remember to take it steadily and eat lots.

[saturn]

Like gonzo says but if you need further encouragement this was my first imperial century ride in 2005, although I didn't discover it until after the charity event so rode it alone and made a donation because I enjoyed the route so much. I can only imagine that it would be even more fun riding the event with a crowd of other people out for the ride.

Before doing it my only rides of anything approaching that distance were one of 98 miles on an audax a few weeks before, 78 miles on a leisurely social ride (organised by Polar Bear of these parts) a couple of months before and only two others of over 50 miles. Most of my rides up to then were 20 - 30 mile pootles.

So I'm just backing up what everybody esle says, you're already there - just do what you're already doing  and add a few longish rides for experience eg maybe try some local 100km audaxes or a mini-sportive if you have one nearby.