Training Plan
Written by Ian MacLean, www.imfit.ca
Generally speaking there are two goals for people who take on a century (100km) ride.
The first is just to finish, happy, smiling, taking pleasure in the simple completion of the journey.
The second is to finish fast. Time is of the essence, average speed is monitored, and a time goal is the focus.
These two goals require slightly different approaches to training, and we will focus on the former here, as it is
generally the first-time century rider who needs the most guidance.
Training to Finish:
To finish your first century ride, the primary focus should be on simple volume. Building the body’s tolerance to the time and distance you will be in the saddle is of utmost importance. Average speed takes a back seat for the first-time century participant. Over a period of weeks, you will want to be slowly, but steadily, adding time to your rides, gradually reaching a point where you can spend 4-5 hours in the saddle in relative comfort.
A basic 4 day/week training plan would go something like this.
Monday: OFF
Tuesday: Flat road spin, low heart rate, high cadence, for 1 hour
Wednesday: Ride through rolling terrain, small hills, moderate heart rate for 1 hour
Thursday: OFF
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Flat road spin, moderate heart rate, high cadence, for 1hr 15min
Sunday: Long Slow Distance Ride, through hilly terrain, low heart rate, spinning a high cadence over hills, for 1hr 30min.
Each week, add 10-15% to the duration of each ride until you have reached a maximum time of roughly 4-5 hours for your long rides on Sunday.
It is important to ride over a variety of terrain; flat roads to allow the body to recover, rolling terrain to build power, and long hilly rides to simulate the conditions you will experience on the event route.
You will notice that there is no mention of specific heart rates. Heart rate training zones are very specific to each individual, so the only discussion we can have in this generic guide is ranges. Ideally, you should have a good idea of what your Anaerobic Threshold (AT) is, and base your training zones on that number. Low heart rate would be in the 65-75% of AT range. Moderate heart rate would be 75-85% of AT. High heart rate would be 85-95% of AT. Very high would be 95-105% of AT.
For those who don’t know what Anaerobic Threshold is, essentially it is the point at which your body is no longer creating energy with the presence of oxygen. It is also the point at which levels of lactic acid are accumulating in your muscles at a faster rate than your body can clear them. In layman’s terms, it’s when you start to feel that “burn” in your muscles. Once you have reached your threshold, if you continue to maintain that level of exertion, you have a very finite amount of energy production left in your system. At some point, your body will shut down and will no longer be able to sustain the level of effort you are requesting of it. This is known as the “Bonk”, or hitting the wall.
Training at percentages of your AT allows you to build up your ability to produce energy with the presence of oxygen, also known as aerobic exercise, and it will also help to increase the amount of time you can spend at or above your AT.
Determining where your Anaerobic Threshold occurs is best done in a lab through a full Breath Gas Analysis, but a field test can be done to find an estimate. For most cyclists, a 20km time trial done at maximal effort will do the trick. Your average heart rate over the 20km’s will be a fairly good approximation of where your AT is.
A century ride is what is considered an endurance event, and endurance events should always be performed at an aerobic level. You don’t want to flirt with your AT over a 100km ride, as each time you approach that point, you are running the risk of hitting the wall, and not finishing the event. Maximal aerobic fitness should be the training goal, and the simple plan above will help you to get there.
Adapting to a More Modest 50km or 25km Goal:
The same basic essentials apply, no matter what distance you are training for. A steady progression from week to week is necessary to avoid a plateau in fitness. A focus on proper rest and recovery to allow the body time to grow and rebuild is also a must.
The only difference from a 50km training plan and a 100km training plan is the amount of time you spend on the bike.
For the beginner, a starting point of 20-30 minutes for your first three to four rides is a good start. As with the 100km plan, add about 5-10% to your weekly mileage each week, until you are comfortable being in the saddle for about 2.5-3 hours. Most cyclists of an average fitness level should be able to complete 50km in roughly that time.
The same importance should be placed on riding over a variety of terrain, rolling, hilly, flat, for the reasons laid out in the 100km plan.
For guidance as to heart rate training, refer to the appropriate section in the 100km training plan. The same basic premise applies, regardless of the distance you will be riding.
Nutrition:
Just as heart rate training zones are specific to each individual, so to is nutrition, perhaps even more so.
If you talked to 10 different cyclists about what to eat and drink on a century ride, you would no doubt get
10 different answers, ranging from nothing but water, to bagels, bananas and flat Pepsi!
For most of you, the nutrition plan for the day will fall somewhere in that range.
As individual as nutrition is, there are a few guidelines to keep in mind.
Hydration:
This is the number one most important element of your on-bike nutrition. The body’s ability to produce energy, cool itself, keep heart rates under control and digest food are just some of the things that are directly linked to hydration levels. If you allow your body to become dehydrated, you are severely limiting your performance potential on that day. Dehydration will lead to low energy levels, higher than normal heart rates, an inability to digest food, and depending on environmental conditions on the day, hypothermia or heat stroke are possible. The average rider, working at a moderate exertion level in moderate temperatures should consume approximately 16oz each hour on the road.
It is important to understand that more than just water is necessary. The body sweats out a variety of minerals and electrolytes needed for proper functioning, and if these aren’t replaced at regular intervals, performance will suffer. The most common symptom of low electrolyte levels is muscle cramps, sometimes severe enough to end your day quite painfully. The staff at Via Ciclante can guide you to a number of products on the market designed to replace these electrolytes in a tasty, easily digested drink mix powder.
It is important to keep in mind the effect your environment has on hydration. The hotter it gets, the more you sweat, the more water and electrolytes you will need to replace. The average Tour de France rider will consume between 30-40 16oz bottles of water and sports drink over the course of a hot 5-hour stage.
Your goal for each ride should be to have the same body weight at the end of the ride as you did at the start. If you’ve lost 1 or more pounds over the course of a ride, you did not replace all the fluids you sweated out during the ride, and are running the risk of reduced performance and recovery. If you remember a couple of years ago in the Tour, Lance Armstrong allowed himself to become dehydrated during the time trial, and lost 3kg of body weight over 45km. It took him two days to get that body weight back, and his performance suffered for close to 4 days after.
Carbohydrate Replacement:
Again, very specific to each individual, but there are some common rules to follow here as well. Over the course of an hour on the bike, working at moderate heart rate levels, the average 170lb male will burn in the neighborhood of 500-700 calories. If you are only riding for an hour, you don’t need to worry about replacing these calories during the ride; in fact, up to about 500 calories expended each day don’t need to be replaced at all if you are looking to lose weight. However, if the ride is longer than an hour, the calorie expenditure continues to multiply, and the longer you ride, the more likely you are to run out of gas if you don’t replace some or all of those calories. That average 170lb male should be looking to replace about 250-350 of those expended calories each hour for events of 2 hours or more. This should keep enough gas in the tank to keep you going to the end.
There are a variety of products on the market designed to be used for exercise nutrition. There are enough bars, gels and drink mixes on the market to dedicate entire stores to the sale of them. Again, the staff at Via Ciclante can utilize their own experiences with these products to help guide you in your selections.
One very important thing to understand with both hydration and carbohydrate replacement is that you must train with what you plan on using during the event. Never introduce something new and untested on the day you plan on completing your goal event. The digestive system needs to be trained the same way your muscular and cardiovascular systems need to be trained. Use your training rides to find out what works and what doesn’t. It’s okay to make some mistakes nutritionally during training. That is how you learn, so that everything goes smoothly for you on the big day.
