Joan Price: Cycling Your First Century

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You're training for your first century (100 mile ride). How can you train most effectively, without getting bored out of your skull by the endless miles and repetition of routes?

Variety, variety, variety, says Edmund R. Burke, Ph.D., past Olympic coach, Director of Exercise Science at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and author of Serious Cycling (Human Kinetics, 1995, $18.95), Fitness Cycling (Human Kinetics, 1994, $14.95), and other bicycling-performance books. Here are his tips for punching through the mental plateau and training efficiently.

Ride with the pack. One reason training gets bor-r-ring is that you're usually riding alone. Spice it up once a week by taking a group ride with your local bike club. This breaks up the monotony, gives you people to talk to, and acclimates you to riding in a pack. Many solitary cyclists get nervous when they're tire-to-tire with other riders, says Burke, so train for close company as well as for speed and endurance.
Shorten your goals. Relying on goals that are too big and too far off in the distance can short-circuit your best efforts. Set some shorter-term goals to guide you towards the big one by entering a couple of half-centuries or metric centuries.
Diversity training. If you repeat the same course over and over, you'll definitely be ready to puncture your tires so you can stop. Instead, alternate several different courses. You'll not only break up the boredom, "you'll get a different physiological training effect and more bang for your buck," says Burke.
Training 101. Pepper your endurance rides with some high intensity rides for speed and power. And at least once a week, do a 60-70 mile ride to work up to that century.
Get off the road. Grab your mountain bike and do some off-road cycling for a change. "It will give you a heck of a workout and a different environment," says Burke.
Get off the bike. Cross train with activities such as in-line skating and hiking up hills, which complement your cycling by using the same muscles.

On the big day, bring clothing for weather changes and plenty of food and drink. "If you don't eat and drink continuously, you're gonna bonk," says Burke. Cyclists replenish fluids better with a Camelback system than a water bottle, according to a study Burke conducted. The water-bottle cyclists did not drink enough as they rode and slugged it down at rest stops. The Camelback carriers kept sipping the whole time and drank significantly more fluid.

"Prepare yourself, take food with you, pace yourself," says Burke. "I see cyclists doing it on blood and guts rather than common sense. A century is not an easy undertaking. It's not like a 10-mile run. You'll be out there six-plus hours--that's a long time on a bike."

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