A century ride (100 miles on the bike, or 100km for a ‘metric century’) is one of those milestones that many of us cyclists aspire to achieve. But if you’re new to riding, or you’ve only been used to riding shorter distances, it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to upping your mileage and getting ready for a very big day in the saddle.
We caught up with cycling coach, Josh Brandwene, and his client Leonie to get a ‘both sides of the coin’ perspective on the journey towards ticking off that first 100-miler. Leonie is a personal trainer, and when she first got into fitness 5 years ago, powerlifting was her first love. Then, a couple of years ago she decided she wanted to do a sprint triathlon… which meant buying a bike! While she loved the feeling of being out on two wheels, she never really did any long distance riding… in fact she describes herself back then as a ‘go hard or go home’ type of rider, who could never make it past 30 or 40 kilometres.
In this video, Leonie shares her journey from short distance rider to endurance cyclist – and Josh gives us a coach’s perspective on what it takes both physically and mentally to prepare for your first century ride.
It’s hard not to feel inspired by Leonie’s infectious enthusiasm for riding longer distances on two wheels – and as you’ll find out, she’s not stopping at 100 miles! If her story has you feeling inspired, we’ve popped some of our key takeaways from the video below to help guide you on your way to your first century. You can also get some more advice from Josh on how to improve your cycling endurance by checking out his recent blog post!
How to train for your first century ride: Key takeaways from Leonie’s journey
Take a methodical approach to training
If you’ve favoured shorter distance rides, and particularly if you tend to go fast or go home, training for a century will meaning adjusting your approach to training.
If possible, work with a coach or check out some of the brilliant training resources out there such as the Her Spirit app, so that you can formulate a structured and methodical training programme that you can fit into your week. That last part is vital – your training plan needs to be tailored individual to your circumstances, your fitness level and your goal so that it’s achievable and it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
To be able to keep upping the distance and tackling those longer rides as you build up your time in the saddle, you’ll need to embrace Zone 2 training and understand that not every ride can be fast and furious. Depending on how you’re wired, this will come easier to some than others! Josh talks in more detail about this in his article on improving your cycling endurance, but essentially – don’t worry about your average pace and just focus on holding a nice, steady effort that doesn’t leave you feeling exhausted after the first 30 minutes!
Trust the process… but don’t be afraid to ask questions
Building up to your first century ride will take time and patience. Getting to the level of fitness and endurance you need to cycle 100 miles won’t happen overnight, and at the start it might sometimes feel like you’ll never get there. Trust the process and stay consistent and soon you’ll be eating up those miles with ease!
Trusting the process (and your coach) doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions, though. In fact, as Josh and Leonie discuss in the video – communication is key so that as an athlete, you can understand why you’re doing the sessions that you’ve been set. And so that your coach can make sure they adjust the training as needed to keep you feeling healthy and happy. Even if you’re not working with a coach, take a bit of time to do some reading into the science behind your training. Understanding how each session is going to benefit you makes it that bit easier to stay motivated.
Your training doesn’t have to be perfect all the time
If you’re working with a coach, be honest with them about how you’re feeling mentally and physically. Or, if you’re self-coached, take a moment to check in with yourself. Training has both a physical and mental drain and sometimes it can be important to adjust your sessions to reflect this, rather than being rigid and digging yourself into a hole.
Leonie talked about how her last big ride before Ride London was terrible: “After that ride, it took me the whole of the next week to get my brain back in a positive place because it was so hard. I loathed it… It really did knock me.” Building on this, Josh said: “Make sure you work with a coach who repeatedly asks the athlete how they’re feeling and who is willing to adjust the programme. I deviated from the initial plan for after Leonie’s big ride, based on how she was feeling not only physically but also taking into account the mental side. There were sessions for her that were more on the fun side for her. What mattered at that point was re-gaining her mental freshness. That’s where adapting a training plan based on an athlete’s feedback – where they are mentally – is key. The weather for Leonie that day was awful, it not only took things out of her physically, it’s mentally exhausting riding in conditions like that. It’s best to arrive at the start line motivated and excited. One or two sessions where you don’t complete exactly what was planned, take a back seat to being fresh and enjoying the event.”
A key point from Leonie was the importance of telling your coach how you’re feeling: “Your training doesn’t have to be perfect all the time. If you’re having a bad time or you’re worried about something, tell your coach.”
And from a coach’s perspective, Josh said: “When you’re building fitness and putting stress on the body – we all react differently to this stress. We need to celebrate the adjustments that we make by asking for feedback. You’re playing the long game when you’re going through training cycles – there’s no such thing as perfectly linear.”
The best way to train consistently and to arrive at the start line of your first century ride feeling excited and ready to go, is to be adaptable. To take into account the cumulative effect of training stress and life stress, and adapt your training so that it’s maintainable.
Learn to channel your nerves
Whether you’re doing an official event, such as Ride London, or you’re taking on your first 100 mile ride as a personal, solo challenge – it’s natural to have a tummy full of nervous butterflies. As Josh discusses in the videocast, one of the best things we can do to manage our nerves is to start by acknowledging that nerves are normal – and actually, they’re a good thing because they show that you care.
Josh says: “We tend to ‘judge’ our nerves and we say ‘I shouldn’t be nervous’. If anyone says ‘don’t be nervous’ ignore that advice. It’s 100% okay to be nervous – it’s something that matters to you. Your nerves are a signal to your body that you’re about to do something important. They have a function. It’s a matter of learning how to use them to your advantage. The goal isn’t to get rid of the butterflies, it’s to organise the butterflies so they can fly in unison and serve a purpose for you.” For Leonie, ‘organising the butterflies’ meant literally getting organised. In the lead up to Ride London, she carefully planned what she would do on race morning and when – so that she felt in control of the controllables.
Josh also discussed the importance of acknowledging your fears and working through them: “It’s natural to have fears in your mind. And if all you do is try to push these fears down, they’re not going to go anywhere they’re planted in your brain.” Take a moment to think through the scenarios you’re worried about and how you’ll handle them – going through this process will help you to stay calm and deal with whatever the day throws at you.
Finally, in those last moments before you’re about to set off – try not to overthink or let your nerves take control. You’ve done the work, you’re ready for this. Thinking about the nerves won’t get rid of them, so instead do some deep breathing exercises and channel that energy into the miles ahead.
Life is too short not to try
Taking on a big challenge is scary. Putting yourself out there, putting aside your self-doubt and your fears. Committing to the training process… and running the risk that, despite all that, you might fail. It’s enough to put many people off from even trying. And that means they’ll never get to experience the joy, the sense of accomplishment and the surge in confidence that comes with plucking out that goal you’ve gone tucked away in the centre of your heart, and giving it a go.
If you’re reading this and you’ve still got a seed of doubt as to whether you can take on a big challenge such as a century ride, we’ll leave you with Leonie’s parting words: “Yes you can! Life is too short to not try. Give it a go, you never know what amazing things you can experience until you try.”