Century Training #5, etc.

Today’s ride was scheduled for 17 miles at pace, meaning I needed to ride at the pace I’d like to achieve at the century: 18 mph.  I came in a bit under 17 miles, and a bit under 18 mph.  Here’s the deal: I’m getting wiped out on hills that last month I could attack with moderate effort.  Last month, I would routinely complete 25-mile routes on the same roads I’m riding now, averaging 18.5 mph or better.   Now I’m struggling to hit 18 mph, on shorter rides.  I’m tired, and my legs are close to blowing out.  I have no recovery weeks built into my training schedule, so this isn’t good.  This is a critical moment every cyclist faces (I think), the time to retool the training schedule.

Since June 20, I’ve had exactly two off days.  7% of the 2008-calendar has elapsed since then, and during that time I’ve logged over 20% of my total miles for the year.  That’s a lot of riding in a short period of time.  On top of that, my original training schedule put me on the bike six days a week, with a “brisk” ride (>20 mph whenever possible) and a high-intensity interval session on Wednesday and Thursday.  These led to pace rides on Friday and Saturday (the long ride, where I’ve sucked really, really bad for two consecutive weeks), and a recovery ride on Sunday.  Monday was an off day, and Tuesday was another recovery day.

This schedule just isn’t working, although I should point that I’m struggling with on-bide hydration and nutrition, and I don’t think my diet has been very good the last few weeks.  Anyway, I’ve adjusted the schedule following the advice at Cycling Performance Tips.  There is no actual schedule at the site, just general guidelines.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

• My Saturday schedule is unchanged.  I’m adding between four and six miles each week until I’m up to about 80 miles the week before the century.
• The Sunday ride will be 25% of the Saturday distance, easy spin (active recovery).
• Monday is an off day.
• The Tuesday ride will be halfway between the Sunday and Saturday distance, i.e., 63% of the Saturday distance, at pace.
• Wednesday same as Tuesday.
• Thursday is for high-intensity intervals, on my indoor trainer.
• Friday is an off day.

This puts me on the bike five days a week instead of six, and lengthens two of the intermediate-distance rides so my body doesn’t face such a jolt of new distance each Saturday.  The Wednesday and Thursday rides will top out at nearly 50 miles toward the end of the schedule, so this is still a demanding schedule.  I’m hoping the extra off day and the change in the interval schedule (prior to off-day) will help me.

On hydration: last year I developed a strict ten-minute hydration schedule that worked fine.  But I’m riding faster this year, and my weekly distances are longer.  I need to take in one full bottle (24 ounces) per hour, so I’m going to use a strict six-minute schedule.  That translates to ten 2.4-ounce hits every six minutes.  With two bottles and a camel bac, I should have enough liquid for a four-hour ride.  Even at 15 mph, that would get me through 60 miles.  I plan to use Gatordate in the bottles and plain water in the camel bac, and alternate.

On nutrition: I’ve never really known how much or even when to eat on the bike.  At Cycling Info, I was amazed at how much food Tejvan Pettinger carries for a 60-mile, 3-hour ride.  I haven’t eaten that much food on all the rides I’ve taken this year, combined.  No joke.  I ate one banana on my 44-mile on Saturday, which I guess is the equivalent of Tejvan biting his fingernail.  I found this discussion at PerformanceBike.  One PowerBar has 42 grams of carbohydrates, so I guess I’m looking at one PowerBar per hour on my “pace” rides.  That might get expensive.