Centuries

After spending a little time at the team estrogen forums this morning looking for posts about skyrocketing HRs and what to do about them, I came across a link to a 10-week century training schedule. My mission got a little sidetracked.

Did I mention that the century I want to do this year is exactly 10 weeks away(Elves & More TX Cycling Classic, no link available yet for this year's event)? No, I haven't mentioned it at all, because a) I didn't realize it was that close, and b) I'm not sure I'm actually going to do a full century for that ride. I said back in January that I wanted to do one by the end of the year, but I was hoping that it would be more like November-December--not to mention a flatter course. However, I haven't been able to find much in the way of 100-mile flat charity rides in November and December, so it looks like October is going to be it.

Can I be ready in 10 weeks? I don't know. I still want to do HR training...but I think that, other than the weekly "hills" ride, I can do both with the same schedule. The first rides are 10-12 miles, so I could finish them in an hour even keeping my HR in check. Hopefully, by the time the mileages start really going up, I'll be able to increase my speed enough to keep my times down. Taking an hour after work to ride 10 miles is one thing...taking 3 hours to ride 30 is another. I'd run out of daylight.

Still, I think I want to give this a shot. I'll know within a couple weeks whether my HR and century training regimens can co-exist. If they can't, they can't. I'll sign up for a shorter course in October and tackle the century next year. If they can, though, I'd love to get a century under my belt in 2005.

So, this week's training schedule looks like this:

Monday - 11-mile moderate ride (140s avg HR, 155 max)
Tuesday - 11-mile hill ride (I'd like to see a 155 or less avg here...I know it's going to spike a bit)
Wednesday - off
Thursday - 11-mile moderate (140s avg, 155 max)
Friday - off
Saturday - 22-mile easy (120s-130s avg, 145 max)

I moved the sample schedule back one day because I can't do Sunday morning rides every week, and my proposed century is on a Saturday anyway.

The HR numbers may change, but the tentatives are based on a desire to stay at 50-70% of max HR, calculated on a resting HR of 62 bpm and a max of 195(It also corresponds, give or take 5 bpm, with the 180 rule for finding my anaerobic threshold). I'm sure the hill course is going to take me into the 80-90% range on the climbs, but it's only once a week. If I can average 155 (70%) on that one I'll be happy.

The distances are 10% higher than the sample because my century course will be hilly. I was tempted to up the mileage 20% because I'd also like to do the century in less than 6 hours, but I decided that's pushing my luck. I'm thinking 7-8 hours is going to be more my speed on this first one.

So, this starts tonight. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: First workout stats--11.3 miles in 47 minutes (14.4 mph avg), after 5 minute warmup ride. Average HR was 142, very-brief high of 161. Once I figure out a comfortable range of gears and precisely when to shift, I think everything is going to be okay. :)

I think the warmup was really the key. On these weekend rides I've been doing, I've been going a pretty good pace right out of the driveway.