| Do you want to ride a century? Riding your bike for | | | | saddle. Many of the riders I have helped have actually |
| 100 miles can be a daunting task however with the | | | | reduced the number of miles they ride (often by |
| right training and preparation completing your first | | | | around 25%) and increased their fitness/speed by |
| century is more than achievable. | | | | around the same figure. The key to making |
| The key to successfully riding a century | | | | improvements like this is structured and varied training |
| The most important aspect of riding a bike for 100 | | | | workouts and knowing exactly when and how hard to |
| miles is having a structured training program or | | | | push your body. |
| schedule. Too often riders I talk too simply believe that | | | | Over the course of 100 miles a few percent |
| going out and riding as much as possible is the best | | | | improvement in performance here and there can |
| way to get fit for a century ride. Naturally there is | | | | make a huge difference. A good training program will |
| some truth in this however by simply riding as much as | | | | seek to gain small advantages in lots of different |
| possible more often than not you will slowly wear | | | | areas including bike set up, on bike nutrition, off bike |
| yourself down and increase the chances of getting an | | | | nutrition, training schedule, recovery techniques, kit |
| injury. | | | | selection. A 5% improvement in all of these areas |
| A decent training plan will firstly help you get the | | | | would yield an overall improvement that will |
| maximum benefit from the hours you put in on the | | | | dramatically improve your century performance. |