Congrats! A write up of the experience would be interesting - any other things you might change next time etc. etc.
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Don’t know what I’d change next time, it’s pretty apparent I squeezed all I could from myself, kind of tough (I think) to ride tempo for that long. Aside from marginal gains with a more aero bike and wheels (I have a base model allez with stock wheels), I’m probably maximized at this point.
I’m sure this will cause some consternation but I consumed 1180 calories in the form of 6 sis gels and 2 bottles with beta fuel. I had more with me, of course, but that’s all I needed and somehow all my prior centuries fall in the same ballpark with fueling. I only had a cup of coffee and a couple of cookies before I left the house.
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I’m training for your FTP lol. You basically did the performance (cent <5h) im working towards nice. Fastest I did was 5h34 (shame)
The fun is in the journey! I have no idea what my next non-racing goal should be!
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One more observation that I noticed when I got on a desktop this evening, my best 20min power was at the end (239w, and it was up to 22min) so pretty cool I was still doing a good tempo at the end
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Impressive you effectively managed a kind of negative split - suggests your pacing and energy management was pretty decent
Personally I find that aspect tricky (and inconsistent) on longer rides.
Case in point I did a 100k ride on a pretty flat route on Saturday and it was a hot day. I was aiming for the magic 20mph average but failed - hitting 19.7. I was totally on track (according to my Wahoo bolt) sitting at around 20.3 up until about 9 miles to go and then my energy just disappeared - possibly dehydrated as I’d been killing the carbs / nutrition in a way that was in line with previous 90 minute efforts.
I’d be interested to learn how you (if at all) consciously managed your energy expenditure and how you settled on either a target speed / HR / watts envelope you felt within margins you could hold over the period? This for me is a learning opportunity from someone who’s been successful where I’ve failed 
Follow up question ….
What’s your approx Kg? This helps give context for the fuelling - albeit circa 1200 calories over 5 hours is still 240 an hour so it’s not too surprising (to me anyway) if you are a modestly framed rider.
I’m assuming (but may be wrong) you’re not a cart horse like me (6’3” circa 93kg). 
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wow! i want to be like you when i grow up
To answer your weight question, I’m about 71-72kg at the moment. Initially, I was thinking of trying to maintain 218w (I know, very specific) because I had once run the course through bestbikesplit and it recommended that as a target to meet the pace. Early on in my ride yesterday I was averaging 230 and was feeling good, so I just went with it and figured even if I dropped off the power that maybe I’d get some wiggle room by keeping a higher power. In fact, all I had on my head unit was elapsed time, 3sec power and lap power, so I was pretty unaware of my actual speed. I was more interesting in hitting the power and seeing where that landed me, as opposed to trying to manage power and speed.
I think doing adaptive training and some of the long sweet spot stuff thrown at me lately helped me get really good at doing long tempo as well, but the stars seemed to align for my effort
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Awesome- thanks for the reply 
During the covid lockdown last year, we had a few virtual team competitions going on. One of them was top average speed for 100m solo effort. I did many solo centuries with a few of them being “record attempts”. Our rules only counted moving time (within reason), so we allowed for a store stop and stop lights didn’t totally kill you. It’s certainly harder and more impressive to do this based on elapsed time, but we did moving time because it’s really hard to find a route around here where you don’t have to stop a bit to get out of town. We also don’t want folks motivated to run stop lights, etc trying to keep their speed up. My take aways from multiple attempts:
More important than pushing a high speed is avoiding stopping and low speeds. I guess this is somewhat obvious, but it’s amazing how quick zero’s or single digits will pull down an average. Pick a route that minimizes stops.
Wind really matters. A tailwind doesn’t help as much as a headwind hurts. The lower the wind, the higher the average speed on same power. Wind timing can be helpful. Check out the app “windy” to see how wind speeds and direction are forecast to change. Depending on your “rules”, timing the wind might be considered cheating, check with your local officials… Tailwind both ways can be done on a rare day with proper planning, but I wouldn’t count that as a valid speed test.
Steepness of climbs matters. Overall elevation certainly plays in, but I find gradual climbing to be much less of a penalty compared to really steep stuff (even if the elevation is the same). The problem with the steep stuff for me is that I’m trying to keep power steady and you can burn a bunch of time at 4-5 mph on steep climbs.
Aero - wear a skin suit, deep wheels, aero bike if you’ve got it, but the most important thing is to find a somewhat aero position you can hold for 5 hours. It’s a long time on the bike, so this is a balance. Aero bars bolt on at least 1 mph, so that’s an option if it’s your thing.
Pacing - I got my best times with really flat pacing at high endurance and never getting above low tempo. NP right near the upper end of endurance on all these attempts. Much like any TT, you can benefit by pushing a little more into the wind and up hills, but in a very measured way.
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Haven’t done team competitions like this, but have done a lot of solo centuries over the years and played around with things to get more speed. A couple more I’d add to your list is:
- I’m actually faster on a slightly rolling course than I am on a pan flat one. I find it easier to achieve any given average wattage by having some variation than by trying to hold steady watts for 5 hours. And gentle inclines where you’re moving slower mean you can shift hand and body position around more to give aching muscles a break without too much aero penalty
- The average speed killer for me is steep and/or technical descents. Anything where you’re having to brake and/or are hitting speeds of >30mph where you’re wasting a lot of expended watts on wind resistance not speed. The other way around isn’t so bad - I don’t mind punching over the occasional steepish climb if it’s followed by a nice long gentle decline
- In the context of trying to hit a PR then including some fast wide roads with a reasonable amount of free flowing traffic is a great way to get some free speed. UK TTers know this well! Many PRs have been set on dual carriageways with a constant stream of cars going by and giving a nice draft.
Doesn’t necessarily make for a very relaxing or enjoyable ride though.
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Calling it a competition was probably a little generous. It was really just some of the folks on our team talking smack on group chat, trying to stay sane with a little competition during the early days of covid. We also had a couple virtual strava KOM challenges where you’d compete on combined time on several different types of segments.
I’ve head about that strategy in UK as well. No thanks. Any car close enough to pull me along is a car I’d rather avoid. You can definitely feel the pull/suck when travelling with fast traffic, so it doesn’t surprise me that it’s significant.
Context for fueling, AND hydration. 5 hours in any sort of spring/summer/fall (and most winter rides, too) for me would be 4 oversized bottles. (Quarter-horse sized at same height, upper 80s in kg).
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So I was thinking that the watts vs speed was a bit off on my ride, obviously super happy with both the watts and the speed, but I think depending on the day/conditions I might be able to get faster. I was messing around with an app called mywindsock, which plugs into strava, and it does provide estimates of time for a course given the forecast for a particular day. Just for fun I plugged in this coming sunday, the 20th, and for the same power it estimates I could do the century in 4:46/21mph, so I guess I have my next challenge!
Just out of curiosity, what’s the road surface like where you ride?
I made a sub-5hr century attempt yesterday. I’m in the mid-west USA so it was easy to plan a pretty flat route (around 2000ft). Went headlong into the wind for the first half and rode the tailwind back. Took two Zefal Magnum 1L bottles, one with homemade carb drink. Couldn’t tell you the calories as I only ate homemade gels in reusable flasks. My total elapsed time ended up at just under 5:13. Had to stop way more than I had wanted to, including one stop to buy more water. Thought i could do it with only the two 1L bottles but I was wrong. My moving time ended up at 4:57:44 though. So I’m calling that a win 
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I did a 100mi ride/fondo even this weekend and turned it into a solo effort, while taking advantage of event aid stations for quick stops and taking on plenty of fluids. I brought all my own food, but took on their Gatorade at 3 stops, to have full large bottles between each stop. Knocked down about 6 large bottles along the way, along with a fair amount of food.
I didn’t specifically plan nutrition to a hard degree, but I made sure I was eating and drinking LOTS along the way. Running the numbers after the fact, shows I did pretty good on cals and carbs for purely guessing and just throwing food down at roughly 20-30 min intervals.
I am thrilled to have nailed my effort and beat 5 hours. Especially so when comparing to the same event last year that I rode within a group. Turns out I did better power on my own as a more steady TT effort. Set tons of All-Time PR’s for 2.5+ hours at around 8-10% better than anything I have done at that duration.
Full details in the Notes of my ride.
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Ride in the flatlands! Strava recorded this as having elevation gain at 2,812ft. I took 2x 750ml carb bottles, 2 gels and 2 cereal bars. Quite dehydrated when I arrived home though. Oh and I had to stop twice to pee!
I might try something like this again this year as thinking back, it was a great ride.
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good job guys, I feel like I influenced everyone, so you’re welcome lol
definitely have the 4:45 goal for a future attempt, if it does happen it’ll probably be early Sept during recovery week for CX specialty and right before the season kicks off around here
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