Training for the Prudential Ride 100 - advice needed

Stevo_666

I could do with a few pointers here folks.

I've never done a 100 mile ride before - my longest previous ride has been the London Brighton (about 55 miles). I usually manage to commute to work on the bike 3 times a week with a 23-24 mile round trip each time, so I am doing about 70 miles a week but in fairly short stretches (especially when broken up by traffic light stops etc as it's in London) and not very hilly.

A few questions:
- Is this enough for basic training?
- Should I ramp it up a bit as it get closer - say chuck in a few decent weekend rides?
- Anything else I should be doing?

These probably sound like newbie-type questions but I've not really done any methodical training before, just ridden. There's also the small question of my riding buddy who I have to beat on this one after he dropped in the last 4 miles of the London-Brighton ride last year :oops:

izza

The Ride London is a relatively flat/fast course compared to many sportives.

Depending on where you live:

- throw in some more base miles at weekend. Start at, say, 30 miles and build up to 60 miles
- if you haven't got the time on a weekend grab an hour to do some hill repeats
- try and do some faster paced riding for an hour e.g. Richmond Park or Regents once a week.

alihisgreat

If its convenient then you could lengthen your commute to get more miles in during the week? Longer weekend rides wouldn't be a bad thing, and 'proper' training (like hard interval sessions) would make you stronger surprisingly quickly.

Its probably relatively easy to get round the course without doing too much more than you're doing now, however the stronger you are the more you'll enjoy it?

bahzob

With your current level of fitness you should have no problem finishing the ride.

Just to get some confidence on this and give yourself some experience I'd suggest planning to do 100 miler as soon as convenient. I did this when I was starting training back when I was fat and in my mid forties when 25 miles seemed like a long way. It was hard but I managed and since then have done 100s of 100s and on occasions ridden far longer in a day.

If you want to get a bit more serious and give yourself the best possible chance of beating your mate I'd recommend buying the "Time Crunched Cyclist". It has a number of training plans that you can follow, including one specifically focused on doing a century. It's written with real life in mind so doesn't require masses of time and the workouts can hopefully be incorporated into your commutes.

Apart from helping train for the Pru doing this will also give you a good introduction to planning and following a training routine. This will be very handy if, having done the Pru you fancy doing something else or want to set a faster goal for the Pru next year.

Other main tip is, if not already done so I'd advise getting a good bike fit. This should take a few hours and require you to ride a bike (some cheap options just measure your inside leg). This will cost a bit but is worth every penny if you expect to be spending a lot of time cycling in the future. It will more than pay for itself over time.

phreak

From what has been said of last years ride there are often some good bunches forming, thus making it a very fast course. It might help you to get some practice in riding with a group of people so you can draft confidently. Maybe join a local club for a few of their weekend rides.

Stevo_666

Thanks all, some very good suggestions here.

The longer commute - on the way home at least, the weekend rides/hill repeats and laps of Regents Park (office is less than 300 yards from the park) are all potential easy wins for me. Have also done a bit of googling on interval training - looks painful but worthwhile if I want to drop my mate on mile 99

Quite a few other good things to chew on longer term as well 8)

alihisgreat

Stevo 666 wrote:

Thanks all, some very good suggestions here.

The longer commute - on the way home at least, the weekend rides/hill repeats and laps of Regents Park (office is less than 300 yards from the park) are all potential easy wins for me. Have also done a bit of googling on interval training - looks painful but worthwhile if I want to drop my mate on mile 99

Quite a few other good things to chew on longer term as well 8)

Do you have a turbo trainer?

Stevo_666

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Thanks all, some very good suggestions here.

The longer commute - on the way home at least, the weekend rides/hill repeats and laps of Regents Park (office is less than 300 yards from the park) are all potential easy wins for me. Have also done a bit of googling on interval training - looks painful but worthwhile if I want to drop my mate on mile 99

Quite a few other good things to chew on longer term as well 8)

Do you have a turbo trainer?

No - anything static like turbos or treadmills do my head in, I can't wait to get off them. Pity as it would be good for a bit of extra training, but I just would not use one.

Toks

If you're not bothered about how long it takes you as long as you complete P100 then don't change a thing. It will be a bit of a slog but you'll get through it. Or how about allowing yourself to enjoy it more, by riding faster, being a bit competitive and kicking your friends proverbial. That means do some training.

A steady diety of 1-2 hour rides in Regents or Richmond Park (2-4 times per week) would help. Perhaps drop two of the commutes and replace them with proper midweek training rides. Then once a week/10 days/2 weeks, when poss, do longer ride 3-5 hours perhaps. Generally ride fast in the short rides and steady pace in the long rides.
If you can do 7 laps of Regents in 60 mins or 2 laps of Richmond Park in 45 mins there won't be a lot of people queuing up for your back wheel but its a good indicator that you'll be fine (assuming you remember to eat and drink) in all but the most hilly sportiinves

Stevo_666

Toks wrote:

If you're not bothered about how long it takes you as long as you complete P100 then don't change a thing. It will be a bit of a slog but you'll get through it. Or how about allowing yourself to enjoy it more, by riding faster, being a bit competitive and kicking your friends proverbial. That means do some training.

A steady diety of 1-2 hour rides in Regents or Richmond Park (2-4 times per week) would help. Perhaps drop two of the commutes and replace them with proper midweek training rides. Then once a week/10 days/2 weeks, when poss, do longer ride 3-5 hours perhaps. Generally ride fast in the short rides and steady pace in the long rides.
If you can do 7 laps of Regents in 60 mins or 2 laps of Richmond Park in 45 mins there won't be a lot of people queuing up for your back wheel but its a good indicator that you'll be fine (assuming you remember to eat and drink) in all but the most hilly sportiinves

Definitely want to do some training.

The main constraint for me is time - busy job and family stuff at weekends, so dropping some of the commute will probably lose me time on the bike as it will be hard to make it up elsewhere - the plan is to extend the commute home a bit and do some intervals and hills on the way, which what I started to do this evening.

I'll give the Regents Park thing a try. There a few lads at work who are also signed up for the 4 x 25 mile relay on the Ride 100 so will be able do a bit of 'chain gang' riding with half decent cyclists. Though I do need to be commuting on the bike to be near the park and have something to ride.

Have also started to sort some weekend rides in the North Downs which have some decent gradients.

PBo

I'm in a similar situation to you. Commute 23 mile round trip 4x a week.

Did you find the training plans on ride 100 website? I also have a plan provided by my charity place which I could send you if you pm me your email.

Essentially, the main change I've made is to do one club ride a week. 3-4 hours,40- 50 milers. This is for several reasons.

To up the miles without boredom kicking in
To get used to group riding
To access the advice and experience of other riders.
The other change is just to slightly vary the way I ride my commute. Full out some days, 5-10 mins slower others. Hard up climbs, easy up climbs, intervals etc. even mixing in over spinny and super mashy.

Also, I now commute fasted. (Apart from coffee and a glass of OJ). I was eating two breakfasts as I'd feel hungry again at work! According to one of my plans this will help with your body accessing fuel. It's also helped me lose several kilos which now won't be hauled up leith!

Everyone says that it's a fast course with lots of groups forming, making it easy to draft along at a good pace. Although I believe that the downside of this is that if you haven't trained at riding in a group at a good pace, you will get caught up and in effect go off too fast.

If you can get out early on Tuesdays or Thursdays my cycle club do hour chain gangs around regents from 7-8. All welcome. (Due to child care, I don't do them!)

florerider

Stevo

all the replies seem speed related, but you have to survive the distance. You need to get up some 70-80 mile rides in to get used to the distance and time in the saddle. The other 20 or so will just come on the day.

Be wary about drafting and groups, if you are not doing the distance routinely you may get caught up in something moving too fast too soon and burn out. I would be more concerned about the distance than any hills - if you want speed and hill training do it via time trialing efforts. Use you HRM to gauge effort and time.

The ad hoc groups that formed on the Dragon were not very well disciplined - I preferred to keep out of them - especially on the hills where often they slowed far too quickly and were then very difficult to break away from. Had similar experiences on other events - especially at the start. Surprising number of people start relatively fast, but flounder on the first slope, let alone hill - don't get caught in them.

Mikey23

i think the first slope comes at 40 miles!

arran77

Just MTFU ya wuss :P

Stevo_666

@PBo - good point about the ride 100 website, I've been ignoring them as they seem to bombard me with emails. Not sure I can do without the breakfasts - I eat like a horse at the best of times due to having a freakishly high metabolic rate and get really grouchy when I'm hungry. Ta for the chaing gang tip - I am already sorted with some of the lads from work who are doing it so may bump into your lot.

@Florerider - agree with you on the drafting thing and pacing yourself sensibly. Me and my mate are determined to do this at our own pace (until the last few miles anyway :twisted: ). I am starting on the longer weekend rides this weekend - will do a 40 miler round the North Downs on Sunday and will work up from there over the next 4 months.

@Mikey - it's a bit like the London Brighton then when the only real hill comes about 45 miles in at Ditchling. Except that you're less than halfway on this one when you hit the hills...

@Arran - go away

Stevo_666

PBo wrote:

Did you find the training plans on ride 100 website? I also have a plan provided by my charity place which I could send you if you pm me your email.

You have PM mate I need to up the training on account of a second challenge that has just come in