100 miles in sub 5.5 hours

Covenline

Want to cycle 100 miles in under 5 miles, I currently do 10 miles in 45 mins

so If I trained 3 times a week and did three different sessions

Long slow distance
Continuous hight intensity
Intervals

What sort of distances should I be doing

EG
LSD 60 - 100 miles
CHI 20
Intervals 4 * 3?

Anyone here got any advice?

Cheers

ba

start by cycling with a club. make sure to get long distances over the weekend as its not quite possible on a weekday. so +80km spin on sat, and the sunday spin pushing into +100km.

during the week try get out for a 2 hour spin, aiming to cover at least 50km.

at the moment, and at that pace (10 miles in 45 minutes) it'll take you 7.5 hours to cover 100 miles, so you got a lot of work to do.

a break will also need to be taken during this epic ride of yours. for eating etc.

i'm not a trainer but thats what i used to do for training (with some intervals) but doubt you'll need to do em....

kincsem

I know nothing about cycling. Do you intend doing this on the road, or on a track?

If you do 10 miles in 45 minutes that equates to 13.33 miles in one hour.
At that pace it would take 7.5 hours to do 100 miles, assuming you continue at your 10 mile pace. I doubt anyone can sustain their 10 mile pace to 100 miles. So I assume tiredness would add a minimum of an extra 10% or 7.5 x 1.1 = 8.25 hours.

I can't see you dropping your time (not yet done, only assumed) of 8.25 hours to 4.99 hours. That is a 65% increase in speed.

Am I missing something?

Chips Lovell

1. Use the metric system. It'll make it much easier for people to respond to your questions.

2. Ba's advice is good, but I'd add the intervals into the mix too.

3. How long are you giving yourself to hit this target? Essentially you are talking about moving from a 20kph average (over a very short distance) to a 30kph average. That's a big, big jump. A lot of people would take a year or two to get up to that level.

4. Are you training for a particular event? And if so, will you be riding in a group or solo? Riding in bunch will make that time much more achievable.

blorg

In metric that is 160km in 5.5 hours or just over 29km/h.

Big step up from your current speed as Tonto says. Aerodynamics are critical in cycling, it requires an exponential amount of extra power to increase speed as most of your effort is going into overcoming air resistance. Looking at a random calculator on the web, going from 20km/h to 30km/h will require around 2.5 times your current power output; this is a big increase.

In a bunch or not is key, I can sustain 40km/h in a bunch about as easily as 30km/h on my own.

Have you done 160km-type distances before? Step 1 might be to get the distance, and then look at the speed once that is done.

Need more context, what event, what route, why, etc.

ba

yeah, this will be hard. eg. last sunday i went out for a hard club spin in strong headwinds and crosswinds. distance covered was 100km and our average speed was 31km, and we buried it on the tailwind sections with speed close to 50km/h.

to do 160km solo with an average of 29km/h.... well, good luck OP.

Lumen

Focusing on your goal...

Your functional threshold power (FTP) is the maximum power you can sustain for an hour. If you're currently doing 16km in 45 minutes (on the hoods) your FTP is maybe 75W.

You can aim to do the 100 miles at maybe 75% FTP (Cycling Weekly suggests a wide range of 56-90% FTP, depends very much on your fitness and Chuck-factor).

So, focusing purely on the speed/power aspect, if you want to do the century at 29kph (say 130W in the drops), you'll need to be able to do an hour at 170W, or maybe 32kph.

So your goal is go from 75W FTP to 170W FTP (x2.3), and ride for almost six hours. This is a big jump.

However, another way to look at it is to compare with the performance of a decent cyclist who can pump out a sustained 300-350W. You only have to get half as good as that.

FWIW, I started cycling (again) six months ago at about your level, and can now do about 30km in an hour. My goal for the year is 80km in 3 hours, and I'm not too far off that, but I'm not intending to push past 80-100km rides for a while yet.

Focusing on the training aspect, the Cycling Weekly Spring Riding Guide (out now) has a 12 week training plan for 100 miles. This requires at least 10 hours over four rides a week. But I'm not sure you'd be fit enough to start that if you're thinking about your ride time in minutes.

Suggest you initially focus on comfort and time in the saddle until you can cycle comfortably for two to three hours mostly in the drops, then switch to proper effort/time training.

The most important thing is to have fun and don't get injured or crash (much).

Ryaner

Lumen wrote: »

Suggest you initially focus on comfort and time in the saddle until you can cycle comfortably for two to three hours mostly in the drops, then switch to proper effort/time training.

Is there any (easy) way to be able to cycle in the drops for long periods of time? I've a feeling it is down to the bike setup but after about 2 hours on the bike, I can't stay in the drops for more than 5-10 minutes.

zzzzzzzz

Ryaner wrote: »

Is there any (easy) way to be able to cycle in the drops for long periods of time? I've a feeling it is down to the bike setup but after about 2 hours on the bike, I can't stay in the drops for more than 5-10 minutes.

It takes time for your muscles in your back/neck to strengthen for you to be able to sit on the drops for long periods. Basically, the more often you do it, the easier it will get.

Lumen

Ryaner wrote: »

Is there any (easy) way to be able to cycle in the drops for long periods of time? I've a feeling it is down to the bike setup but after about 2 hours on the bike, I can't stay in the drops for more than 5-10 minutes.

If you work it out, let us know.

I am comfortable in the drops for an hour or two (although I have quite an upright position), but then I try and move my arms and I find that my shoulders and triceps are on fire. Moving position every few minutes helps a bit, but doesn't solve the problem.

I'm hoping it's just (lack of) upper body conditioning, but I'm going to IrishFit on thurs for a gait analysis session and will ask them (they also do bike fit).

FrankGrimes

I'm somewhere beyond beginner level, not quite intermediate at this stage I'd say.

I can hold 25km/h over 100km on a route with mild climbing overall and 28km/h over 60km of a quite flat route with rolling terrain (could probably hold that pace or close to it over 100km/h on that same easy route).

I'm intrigued to hear about the output quotes and how 30km/h is far more difficult than 20km/h (does 2.5 power output required mean it's basically 2.5 times harder you have to work?).

I never, ever cycle in the drops - I have my bars tilted up a bit and ride on the hoods almost the whole time. That's totally wrong I know, but it was based on a lower back flexibility problem I had, though I feel I'm more flexible now so should be probably trying to get into the drops more.

Lumen - can you let us know how you get on at IrishFit with the bike fitting? I might bring my bike there and get a fitting when I have a follow-up physio appointment in a month or two if it sounds wortwhile. Though I know they'll tell me I'm probably a textbook case of 'how not to setup your bike' with my tilted saddle and heightened bars!

Add in that I carry a rucksack and often wear an Endura high-viz medium thickness jacket, and I wonder just how much of my power output is being wasted by my poor aerodynamics.


Think an intersting question for the OP is why - is it for a specific event? What is your timeframe for doing this?

And have you managed to commit to something that requires hard work and dedication like this in the past and managed to deliver on it? Also, what bike do you have and/or what funds do you have to upgrade?

blorg

Ryaner wrote: »

Is there any (easy) way to be able to cycle in the drops for long periods of time? I've a feeling it is down to the bike setup but after about 2 hours on the bike, I can't stay in the drops for more than 5-10 minutes.

Your bars might be too low to start with, try raising them if you can (flip the stem if it is pointing down.) I used to find myself using the drops more on my tourer than my racer- as the bars were that bit higher to begin with. Cycling into a strong headwind will also help you develop technique

sy

FrankGrimes wrote: »

I'm intrigued to hear about the output quotes and how 30km/h is far more difficult than 20km/h (does 2.5 power output required mean it's basically 2.5 times harder you have to work?).

Graph ( see below) should give you an idea on the figures but doesn't include the rucksack drag coefficient More info here
As blorg has already mentioned there is an exponential increase with wind resistance and this is why most people hate the wind as indicated in a different thread.
Regarding the 160 kms in 5 hours solo, I reckon this is about the same effort as would be required to sit in the bunch of a good Cat 1/2 race of this distance :eek: ( except when you hit the drags;))