100 miles target acheivable?

marcusww

I started riding road bikes last October and have done 800 miles and after this weekend 2 x sportives at 47 miles - (meon valley riser at a 14.7mph ave. no wind but 3000 ft gain) and this weekend Wiggle Spring at 58 miles but with less hills.

On my own, I ride weekly 30 - 50 miles over the hilly south downs but have never been riding for the whole day! I can average about 15mph over 50 miles.

I have a colleague that wants me to do a 100 miles sportive on 19th may that is not hilly and with 3 stops. There is no record breaking attempts here - it is just to do the milestone of 100 miles over the day.

Do you think it can be done after only riding a maximum of 58 miles ever or should I be doing some longer distances to see if I can last longer times on the bike? Has anyone ever done a big jump in distances?

ju5t1n

I'd say yes. But there's only one way to find out

CiB

You can do 58, which is 60, so build up to 80 over the next couple of weeks or so, have a weekend off then do the 100. It'll be hard, you'll probably think it'll never finish but then it will and you'll wonder why you thought it was such a milestone afterwards. If you try to beat 6 hours you'll regret it; equally if you spend 8 hours on your bike you'll regret that, so pace yourself for about 7 hours in the saddle with enough breaks to keep yourself fed & watered.

Sprool

yep go for it, pace yourself, remember if its a flat route you do get to sit down the whole way. Take it easy and enjoy it!

supermurph09

I've not done that many more miles than yourself, although most of my rides I would class as hilly. I'm doing an 80 mile Sportive / 7800ft climbing on Sunday and then looking to do my first 100 on the May Day bank holiday. I've done 60 miles so far and all my rides are solo. I'd see no problem you making the 100, especially with a mate. As others said, a sensible increase over the next few weeks, then a rest, you'll be fine. Let us know how you get on!

sadlybiggins

In short, yes. As others have said, pace yourself, particularly early on, and eat and drink regularly - little and often from about 1 hour in. If you can do 58 now, you can do 80 as CiB says. If you can do 80, you can do 100 on the day. Don't get carried away when you feel good and equally don't get despondent when you don't; just concentrate on turning the cranks.

canny_lad

CiB wrote:

You can do 58, which is 60, so build up to 80 over the next couple of weeks or so, have a weekend off then do the 100. It'll be hard, you'll probably think it'll never finish but then it will and you'll wonder why you thought it was such a milestone afterwards. If you try to beat 6 hours you'll regret it; equally if you spend 8 hours on your bike you'll regret that, so pace yourself for about 7 hours in the saddle with enough breaks to keep yourself fed & watered.

^^this. Keep your pace sensible and eat & drink plenty. Good luck

Kieran_Burns

I basically stepped up from 100Km to 100 Miles in one go (last year) and was fine. I went through a dip at about 85 miles due to not getting the food / water quite right but afterwards realised the biggest hurdle was mental.

(this is on the back of 12 miles each way commute 3 or days a week and the odd weekend 100Km ride out)

marcusjb

From where you are to riding a century is very achievable for sure. Pace yourself, eat and drink well and 100 miles is a great goal to have. You said it yourself - don't try and break records this time. The goal this time is the distance, not the speed (go out to have a good time, not to do a good time).

Make sure you're comfy on the bike - as you go up distances, you'll start to notice new things being uncomfortable - remember what they are and take steps to address them before the next distance.

Despite being completely metric in my head (and audaxing points being per 100km), I still have a little celebration every 161km!

sarm34

I bought a new cube agree GTC last year 4 weeks before the notts great bike ride, never ridden a road bike before nor done any more than 10 miles at any one time, I did the 100 miler in about 6 hours , ars* hurt like hell, knees buggered and was **ckered beyond belief, but I did it and am signing up this year with about as much training as last year , god help me

Kieran_Burns

sarm34 wrote:

I bought a new cube agree GTC last year 4 weeks before the notts great bike ride, never ridden a road bike before nor done any more than 10 miles at any one time, I did the 100 miler in about 6 hours , ars* hurt like hell, knees buggered and was **ckered beyond belief, but I did it and am signing up this year with about as much training as last year , god help me

Watch out for me I'll be there as well. Last year was my 1st century as well. Your time is v v impressive: It took me 6:30 hours to complete and I got some major tows along the way!

R0B75

I started riding a proper road bike last August and until today the biggest ride I've done was a smidge over 100k, 63 miles. I've pretty much only been riding once or twice a week on rides ranging from 20-40 miles (a couple of longer ones too) but in that time I've even gone 3 or 4 weeks without riding at all for one reason or another. As Kieran says, a lot of milestones are in the mind. I didn't think I could do it but I would have easily done 100 miles today as I had enough energy but heavy rain and wind hit me at 80 miles, it was just miserable and I couldn't see very well.
Ended up on 91.5. I now know I can do it if I get the food and drink right.

I too am signed up for the Notts Bike Ride 100 miler, looking forward to it now after today.

Kieran_Burns

Incidentally... I'll be pretty obvious. I'll be the one with a Contour HD strapped to his head

pride4ever

Marcusww wrote:

I started riding road bikes last October and have done 800 miles and after this weekend 2 x sportives at 47 miles - (meon valley riser at a 14.7mph ave. no wind but 3000 ft gain) and this weekend Wiggle Spring at 58 miles but with less hills.

On my own, I ride weekly 30 - 50 miles over the hilly south downs but have never been riding for the whole day! I can average about 15mph over 50 miles.

I have a colleague that wants me to do a 100 miles sportive on 19th may that is not hilly and with 3 stops. There is no record breaking attempts here - it is just to do the milestone of 100 miles over the day.

Do you think it can be done after only riding a maximum of 58 miles ever or should I be doing some longer distances to see if I can last longer times on the bike? Has anyone ever done a big jump in distances?

Absolutely but the last 20 will likely be tortuous.

R0B75

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Incidentally... I'll be pretty obvious. I'll be the one with a Contour HD strapped to his head

Well its a good job I know what you look like as I'm sure there will be many who will have cams, probably me too

marylogic

pride4ever wrote:

Marcusww wrote:

I started riding road bikes last October and have done 800 miles and after this weekend 2 x sportives at 47 miles - (meon valley riser at a 14.7mph ave. no wind but 3000 ft gain) and this weekend Wiggle Spring at 58 miles but with less hills.

On my own, I ride weekly 30 - 50 miles over the hilly south downs but have never been riding for the whole day! I can average about 15mph over 50 miles.

I have a colleague that wants me to do a 100 miles sportive on 19th may that is not hilly and with 3 stops. There is no record breaking attempts here - it is just to do the milestone of 100 miles over the day.

Do you think it can be done after only riding a maximum of 58 miles ever or should I be doing some longer distances to see if I can last longer times on the bike? Has anyone ever done a big jump in distances?

Absolutely but the last 20 will likely be tortuous.

Presumably the sportive route map will show if the last 20 miles are tor·tu·ous
adjective
1.
full of twists, turns, or bends; twisting, winding, or crooked: a tortuous path.tortuous full of twists, turns, or bends; twisting, winding, or crooked: a tortuous path

marcusww

Well did the wiggle 60 mile new forest Saturday standard route and felt ok at the end despite the pouring rain! No where near as hilly as the meon so legs were ok. We averaged about 15 mph which we thought was high but there were some good long flat roads. I do agree and am sure that the food played an important part and seemed to have found a good eating pattern.

We only stopped at the first food stop and stuffed our pockets with the freebies. I ended up with more food / gels in my pockets than when we started!

So very tempted now to go for the 100

teisetrotter

100 is fine. It is the pace you set that is important. Eat and drink in good small amount and it will fly by. Just did the Peterborough100 .... which cycling to the start and back meant 140m. Now we are all pretty damn fit, but none of us had done much above 70m before.

These ActionResearch ones are like a picnic. Every 20 miles there is a food stop with oodles of homemade goodies, friut, jelly babies etc. The food stop was massive.

We were all shocked by the amount of completely and utterly out of shape people were on the ride just to get charity money. No training, huge tummies ....... etc. But as it was (except the wind) a very easy ride it was all very nice and easy.

ellotreacle

Marcusww wrote:

I started riding road bikes last October and have done 800 miles and after this weekend 2 x sportives at 47 miles - (meon valley riser at a 14.7mph ave. no wind but 3000 ft gain) and this weekend Wiggle Spring at 58 miles but with less hills.

On my own, I ride weekly 30 - 50 miles over the hilly south downs but have never been riding for the whole day! I can average about 15mph over 50 miles.

I have a colleague that wants me to do a 100 miles sportive on 19th may that is not hilly and with 3 stops. There is no record breaking attempts here - it is just to do the milestone of 100 miles over the day.

Do you think it can be done after only riding a maximum of 58 miles ever or should I be doing some longer distances to see if I can last longer times on the bike? Has anyone ever done a big jump in distances?

I'd say definitely, I'd only done about the same mileage as you and my longest ride was 43 mile, last weekend I did 75 miles, felt good after as well, surprisingly!! Have got my first century in 5 weeks.
Pace yourself and make sure you keep your body fuelled, either food or gels, which ever suits you.

Good luck, hope you enjoy yourself.

gsvbagpuss

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I basically stepped up from 100Km to 100 Miles in one go (last year) and was fine. I went through a dip at about 85 miles due to not getting the food / water quite right but afterwards realised the biggest hurdle was mental.

(this is on the back of 12 miles each way commute 3 or days a week and the odd weekend 100Km ride out)

Pretty similar to me, I stepped from 48 solo to 100 with no real issues. Eat properly, paec yourself early and it should be fine.

slowbike

right - sod it ... after reading all that lot I'm going for a century ride this year ...
It'll probably be solo though ... or might get a mate to join in for some/all of it ...

Captain Slackbladder

Got my first 100+ planned in 4 weeks, CTC route of about 120miles (in at the deep end)

Currently riding about 130miles a week - 70 commuting and a ride out on the roadie Sat/Sun....managed to complete the Tour of the Borders sportive last Sunday (70miles) Was a decent test a month away from the hundred+

Planning to ramp the training up a little over the next 3 weeks, hopefully i'll be good to go...