Riding a century! By our very own John Flanagan.

To ride a 100 miles is a major accomplishment for any amateur cyclist, and may seem daunting to a new cyclist.  It’s actually surprisingly easy.  Our Cycling Editor, John Flanagan, outlines his method of achieving the distance, and includes a straightforward training plan to help you get there.

The idea

Let’s not muck around here.  100 miles is quite a long way.  If you set off from Central London with the aim of doing 100 miles, you would get to just north of Coventry.  And when you watch the final weather forecast before you set off on the morning of your ride, you realise you are doing more than a third of the length of England…… so how did I do it?

The Training Plan

If you like riding your bike, then training is a lot easier than you think.  The trick it to start small and build up distance gradually so you don’t burn out on a ride, completely destroy yourself (and your morale) early on and most importantly you don’t injure yourself.  Realising I could already ride 20 miles quite easily on my long ride, and that a few days commuting a week would give me an extra 35 miles, I set upon my start goal of 55 miles in the first week.  Looking at most training literature pointed me in the idea of increasing my exertion (distance) by around 20% a week, and having spoken with a couple of strange friends who like running marathons they advised me of the need for tapering.  With a calendar and a calculator I looked at when I would like to ride the century and did some basic calculations.  This is what I came up with:

Actually Training

Writing the distances down on paper was the easy bit, as was the weekend ride – it was the commutes during the week I struggled with.  I was lugging a heavy rucksack with smart office clothing, spare cycling kit, hair gel, food and my laptop around on each ride, and I really struggled on the first couple of weeks.  Afterwards it became normal.  The other thing I had to consider was getting enough energy in me on the longer rides when they began to creep up…. Bananas, Mars Bars, energy drinks and energy gels all came in useful when out, as did a good carbohydrate meal the night before.  Breakfast had to be porridge.  My target speed for the rides was 12-13 miles an hour.  Not exactly Bradley Wiggins territory but the idea is to complete the distance.

The Ride

Having worked up to 65 miles in one ride on week 8, I knew I had a fair way to go to do the extra 35 miles, but I found it remarkably easy.  I had a wobble at about 80 miles where I thought I couldn’t finish (what cyclists call “bonk”), which I overcame with a Snickers and a cup of tea from an Esso Service Station I happened across.  I did the last bit of the ride with some mates too for moral support.  When I hit 100 I was ecstatic….. so much so I pushed on to 110!  What was my next objective?  Same distance, just a little bit quicker.

Fancy trying my method?  Then please let me know how you got on below, I would love to hear your thoughts.