100mile ride with only 4 weeks of training

Training
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Hello,

I’m starting in a 100mile road cycling Event in 4 weeks and I want to make the most of the short preparation now.

Until June this year I was actually able to train very regularly 3-4 times a week, and I have also run the race before, so I am confident that I have a good endurance base and I will be able to do the distance.

In June my son was born and literally turned everything upside down - including my training of course.
So in the last 2 months my training time was greatly reduced.

In order not to suffer too much during the event but also to have some fun, I wanted to ask which training sessions I should prefer. Long, easy rides? Should I also train in the threshold?
Maybe some of you have been in a similar situation before.

The race has 100miles and about 2200m of elevation gain.

I’m happy for any advice!

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If you trained regularly before (which it sounds like you did) muscle are just there they’ll just need awakened, the only thing that goes more after a short break is the top end sprint but endurance muscles take ages to disappear. IIRC there’s some good podcasts/ threads on the subject and if you are using AT/ Planbuilder how it’ll dial you back in. My instinct would to be not to go overboard but relax and enjoy the event.

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Nutrition nutrition nutrition was a game changer for me. With little training, these sort of distances became fairly easy.

I set alarms on my computer (1040) to eat a gel regularly (e.g. for 40g gels I set the alarm every 24 min for 100g/hr)

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There is an article in Bicycling somewhere that will answer this question… :crazy_face: :crazy_face:

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You started by calling it an event, but closed by calling it a race. What is your goal? Just to finish and have fun? Then I’d say rest up, do a few long weekend rides (maybe one of 60-70 miles?) and have a sound nutrition strategy.

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For me it is more of an Event i want to enjoy while keeping up with my mates. But i also want to feel prepared as it still is a challenge i want to finish in a good spirit.

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Congrats on the birth of your son! That’a a huge step.

Depending on how much time you have, one of the Time Crunched 30 or 45 plans might be the right choice — I did that around the due date of my daughter earlier this year and it was nice to know there was work to do that would keep me sharp while also not being a huge time suck.

I would also agree with @Noegros that dialing in your nutrition will make a huge difference — switching to 100g/hr of liquid carbs has made a huge difference for me, YMMV.

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Thank you :slight_smile:

I will look for the article and also take a deeper look into nutrition strategies.

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Oh jeez…I’m sorry @reber196. My post was somewhat in jest. The joke is that at least every year, sometimes more, Bicycling has an article that is titled “6/8/10 Weeks To Your First Century!!”

But there probably is such an article that could help you. Case in point…

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Yep. Selene Yeager has been almost every US “first time century” rider’s guidebook for the past decade.

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Oooh now i got it :joy:
Never heard of Bicycling here in Austria

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Ahhh! Congrats on becoming a dad @reber196!

Being a parent is one of life’s greatest joys, but they do turn things upside down for a while, haha.

You can also take advantage of Plan Builder to make you a quick 4-week plan leading up to your event. This is probably the best option to take the guessing out of the equation and go straight into training.

Depending on how much time you have available, Plan Builder can build you a plan with as little as 3-4 hours of training per week!

As a fairly new mom myself, 3-4 hours sounds pretty awesome with a newborn :slight_smile:

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