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Did my first century ride in about 20 years yesterday. Was feeling pretty great until about 70 miles in when I really started to flag.
Family life means I just don't have the time to get on on many long rides so just wondering what sessions (pref 1-2hrs max) are best to prepare for that level of suffering that only 4-5 hours on the bike can deliver? Is this where fasted sessions work well so you are running on depleted energy from the get go?
next time just have a fish supper and a can of coke around the 69 miles mark
What's the appeal of suffering?
Have you got anything like my local wall to do many repeats?
https://www.strava.com/segments/16314395
From memory, the most I've done is ten, did the climb at a steady pace six times last night. Hope to start doing frequent loops of that segment again, as prep for tackling the cat2 Belch Y Gross climb from the south, which also has 20% stretches over the 1300ish foot climb.
Fasted sessions don’t teach muscular endurance, they teach your body to use fat over carbs when cycling at low intensity.
1-2hrs at endurance pace training is fine, the closer you can measure and match your optimum power for that - z2 - the better. Â For quality over quantity use a Turbo.
Re the 70 mile bonk did you eat? Â You need to keep your fuelled on the bike before and during the ride not just after.
turbo in the house, so you can hear/help MrsP as and when needed ?
Thought I fuelled ok-maybe not as much early on as I could have and the pace was higher than expected. Not a proper bonk just cummulative fatigue from the pace and mileage.
I do Zwift, so Z2 sessions on the turbo are fine if that's what works. Just wasn't sure if there were better types of sessions.
I did the Dirty Reiver last year on mostly sweet spot sessions on the turbo trainer. I actually think that the core strength training that I did (2-3 25 min sessions a week) was what stopped me falling apart too much.
Sounds like you just need to snack while riding.
I do sweet spot and tempo sessions with erg mode on zwift find that works really well. As above, strength training helps off the bike and make sure you fuel and hydrate well.