Too Little Too Late?
Am I doing too little, too late if I want to ride a century in April? It’s late February, after all; and (need I say it again?) time flies.
Look here for advice for riding a 100-miler if you haven’t done much training. It says that you can do your usual average weekly mileage total in a single day; and if that’s true, maybe I’ll be OK.
The catch, for me, is my pace. I want to do better than 12 mph; but I’ve got plenty of hard work to do in the four or five weeks ahead if I want to manage it.
So, what to do?
Well, a good dose of interval work to improve my force might do the trick. In fact, I began working at force several years ago; and I’m still a plodder! Apparently I didn’t do enough of it, often enough; and I’ve made only marginal gain in my pace.
Of course a part of century prep is longer and longer Sunday rides; and I’ll continue to try out different ride food. I know not to wait until the week before the big ride to start learning to eat on the bike; that’s too little, too late!
In April, the weather might still be chancy. A cold front isn’t impossible; but it might be sweltering hot! My favorite cycling temperature is cool enough for long sleeves; but not too cool for shorts.
Of course bare legs mean I need more sunblock; and now that I’m on hydroxychloroquine (for rheumatoid arthritis), I need to be more careful about that.
We’ll see how it goes; but I know that riding 100 miles in a day is not impossible.