Chelan Century Ride Century Bike Challenge in Lake Chelan Washington

Coaches Corner

3 Rules for a Successful Century

DRINK! - SPIN! - PLAN!

The plan starts long before the day of the ride. What is your pan for achieving your goal (mind/body/bike)?

PLAN

Mind: I enjoy training with friends to help build a community of success (making a goal and telling your friends helps to achieve that goal and they are usually supportive). That goal can also be a personal rallying point, something worth striving to achieve. Also, for the big event ride, mentally visualize what success looks like… it may not be easy getting across the finish line, but it sure feels good when you arrive. Most of all, enjoy the ride… the training, the socializing, the support, the scenery. Bicycles are the ultimate convertible. You actually get to interact with the environment around you.

Body: I like to plan on 8-10 weeks of training (3-6 days/week with cycling specific activity), weekly mileage increase of about 10% per week, with a ride at least 2-3 weeks prior to the destination ride of about 70% of the distance and similar terrain. This 70% ride should also be a test of your nutrition (see “drink” below) and pace/position (see “spin” below). Also, listen to your body during training, what is it telling you? Does your neck hurt (handle bar position OK?), shoulders hurt (are you tense descending?), eyes dry/tired (do you have eye protection?), skin sensitive (sun screen for exposed skin, chamois cream for you bottom/bike shorts), hands numb (is your seat level or nose-up?), bottom hurt (good seat and good bike shorts with a seat pad), feet numb (shoes too tight, soles too hard, pushing down too much, wiggle your toes, pedal in circles), lower back hurt (change position during the ride and rub it out at the rest stops), legs hurt (spin! Relax, don’t go out too hard, shake out your legs at the rest stops, I bend over and give my quads a quick massage to move the lactic acid), knee pain (pushing too big a gear, cleat position, saddle height), cramps (hydration? electrolytes?), hungry/low energy (did you follow your meal plan)?

Bike: If you are doing a century, a road bike is my recommendation (mountain is OK for 33 and pushing the limits for a 66 mile/100 KM metric century). The bike doesn’t need to be a $2,000 wonder bike, but it needs to work and fit you well. I like to use that 70% ride as the test of the bike set-up (bike should have been tuned up, tires, chain, gears, brakes, wheel, and position OK – don’t make any big changes after this point, new handlebar tape is acceptable if you need to “dress-up” your bike for the big ride). I also like lots of positions on the bike (eg. drop road bars with clip-on aero bars give me 6+ hand/shoulder positions) so I can avoid fatigue from just one position. Also, always carry a pump/tube/tire levers/patch kit/mini-tool on your rides. Ideally you have practiced how to change a flat tire on your own, but if you have the kit, at least a passing cyclist can help you (I always ask riders who are stopped by the side of the road if they need help).

Blood: For those of us with the additional challenge of diabetes (or any chronic disease), you need a “blood” plan for both the training and the big destination ride. It’s good to use this plan to discuss the ride with your doctor too. See if they have any recommendations (I did this with my Endocrinologist who is also and endurance cyclist before my trans-con ride). My diabetes ride plan includes BG target for bedtime the night before the ride, BG target and corrections morning of the ride, size of breakfast and # of grams of carbs, drinks and snacks for the bike, temporary insulin pump basal rate, bolus plan (all of these are a function of the ride distance/pace/time of day), blood check schedule, high/low BG limits, and emergency back-up plan. If you would like to discuss specifics, I would be happy to volunteer what works for me, but what is important is discovering what works for YOU.

Ride day plan: All of the above (mind/body/bike/blood) should be considered for your personalized plan for the destination ride event. That plan should include: who will you ride with, what pace, drink/nutrition/food stops – NO MORE THAN 5 MINUTES EACH, use the bathroom every 20 miles (if not you’re not drinking enough), what is your emergency back-up plan (cell phone?), have all your stuff out the night before (including numbers on your jersey and bike) check it twice. I have seen too many riders who forgot their bike shoes.

DRINK

“Drink” is my surrogate for your ride nutrition plan, and probably the most important part of it. I have done a century ride with nothing more than the RIGHT drinks, but most people want to also include the right solid foods. I plan on drinking 1-2 water bottles each 20 miles. If you don’t have to use the rest room at each stop, you’re not drinking enough. You also need to factor in how you get electrolytes (in a sports drink, food, pills, etc). Lack of electrolytes can lead to muscle cramps. Also, stay ahead of your energy needs (for a century you may be burning 6000 calories). The higher intensity pace you ride, the larger proportion of those calories will be simple sugars from your glycogen stored in your muscles (at a lower intensity, the body burns fat and I could ride all day on my fat stores, but at a lower pace). At those higher intensities where I am mostly burning carbs, my body has about 1-2 hours of stored glycogen… and you DON’T want to wait to refill your carbs until you run out (AKA the dreaded “bonk”).

SPIN

This really goes beyond just keeping up a 90-100 RPM cadence. It includes not pushing too hard at the start (the spirit of “spin” is to stay relaxed and within your pace). Know your own pace and don’t be afraid to find other riders who are closer to your pace if you are going beyond what you can sustain. Keep pedaling, even if it is just “soft-pedaling” on a downhill so that your legs keep the rhythm and blood flowing. Pedal 360 degrees (some call this pedaling in circles). If you only have flat pedals with no clips or cleats, you can increase your power by 20% by adding clips or cleats and pedaling in circles (push you foot and knee forward at 12 o’clock, down at 3 o’clock, scrape the dog poop off your shoe at 6 o’clock and pull-up at 9 o’clock). During training, mix in rides where you ride the whole thing one gear lower than what feels ideal, just to increase your cadence. Also, mix in days where you don’t ever push down (leave off that 90 degrees of down power stroke). This will force you to work the other 270 degrees harder.

Other things to consider…

The above are just the basics. Other things to work on after you have mastered Drink/Spin/Plan:

drafting and pace lines can save 20-30% of your power consumption at higher speeds.
Intervals (and sprints) on the flats to give your rides (and heart rate) variety. This adds over-load which can lead to more rapid physical improvement and help with top-end power.
Hills are another kind of interval (but better because you win the prize of a view from the top), but different in that they favor power to weight ratio over all out power.
Bicycle commuting. I do it every day and love it! The morning ride wakes me up before the first meetings of the day. The ride home allows me to de-stress. I get 1 hr and 30 minutes of exercise each day, with only a small increment over what it would have taken to drive.