Building to a century, 8 minutes at a time

Triathlon Forum
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In this month’s Bicycling, Chris Carmichael gives his expert advice on training for your target race - in which YOUR target race is either criterium or century. Apparently, the key workout for success in century training is a trio of 8-minute intervals done at or above 90% (approximate for power and maxHR). This is in addition to some endurance rides and other unmentioned workouts. I often discard a lot of what he says because he gives advice from training freakish (read politely as atypical) individuals. Any thoughts or input on the actual value of this as the key workout? If it’s the way to go to train well for the century mark, then my intervals are a mixed bag of too long, too numerous, and too easy.

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If you’re doing your “intervals” at less than 90% of FT, then I’d say yes, you’re going to easy. I wouldn’t even classify them as 'intervals" per se, but rather just “tempo” or “sweet spot” riding.

Scott

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I spend alot of my rides everyday above 90%. Its nice at times not having a choice. Its hard not to go 90% of max with hills (mountains) that are so steep that standing in your easiest gear gets you up to 6mph. Lots and lots of steep inclines of up to 2 -3 miles at a time.

These workouts are nice but it won’t get me the distances I would need for a regular century ride. I don’t get the long slow easy distance rides. There are no such monsters where I live.

I have the Mingus Mountain Madness ride coming up in 3 weeks. I"ll probably not be able to walk for a week after this ride. 104 miles and 12,000ft of climbing, up, over, backup and over, Mingus Mountain.

The interval workouts are great, but it must be mixed with some easy distance rides. Yes, these short intervals are good, but you must add distance rides too. Distance is where I’m hurting.

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Put this in perspective:

  1. I’ve got a functional threshold a bit over 4 W/kg
  2. I typically cycle 550+ hours/10k+ miles per year
  3. I’ve been average an IF of 0.8-0.85 for several months. IOW - my rides are relatively hard.
  4. I’m all slow twitch

I’d say I’m in darn good aerobic shape. Could I go out and do a century tomorrow? Sure. Would I do it well? No.

Personally, I find the best way to get to a century is add 30 minutes to the long ride each week. The longest ride I’ve done this year has only been 4 hours. I’d need a little more endurance to be fully ready for a competitive 100 mile ride/race.