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Century Ride Training Plans
The century ride, either metric or miles, has grown to be one of the most popular charity ride distances. Some take it casual while others prefer to push the pace. No matter how you choose to ride it, you have to put the training in.
Select one of the century training plans below from some of the best coaches in the world. All plans can be imported directly into your TrainingPeaks workout calendar and track your progress as race day approaches.
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View all century ride training plans
by Hunter Allen 12 weeks $99.95
by Ben Greenfield 12 weeks $99.00
This 12 week plan will completely prepare you to ride 100 miles, whether you're doing your first century, or just want to get faster and prepare for your next century in a smarter way. Over four 3 week phases, with three rides per week, you'll build a base endurance and strength foundation, then gradually progress to speedwork, hillwork and the type of training that will help you confidently ride your century!
The Century programs include fewer maximum-intensity intervals and focus more on building power at lactate threshold. The primary goal of these programs is to increase the pace you can comfortably sustain for your long rides, meaning you’ll be doing more SteadyState and OverUnder workouts and fewer PowerIntervals. The OverUnder workouts are especially important because they will help you handle the changes in pace and power demands that come with riding in pacelines and over undulating terrain.
The categories are further broken down into “New” and “Experienced” programs. The differences between the “New” and “Experienced” programs are subtle, but reflect the fact that more experienced riders are generally able to handle a higher workload because they have more years and miles in their legs. If you’re an experienced cyclist who has been riding for 5, 10, 15 or more years, you’ll be happy to know that even if you’re currently not riding very much, the training adaptations from all those years of riding haven’t completely disappeared. Your current fitness may be quite low compared to what it once was, but riders who have several years of training behind them are able to handle greater workloads when they initially return to more structured training, and they adapt quickly and regain a greater percentage of their former fitness more quickly.
Experienced Century Program
There are a lot of new and experienced racers out there, but there are lot more of you who have been cyclists for many years and either have no interest in racing or are quite happy being former bike racers. This is the program that will give you the ability to complete your favorite long rides at higher average power outputs, or bump up your average speed for your next century. If you are preparing for a multi-day tour, like a Tour de France camp, this is also the program we’d recommend. The workouts in this program are designed to increase your sustainable power output, and even though it includes a healthy dose of PowerIntervals, compared to this program, the structure of the Competitor programs will develop a greater ability to handle repeated maximal efforts.
This program features 4 workouts per week (2 weekday workouts and 2 weekend workouts) and no more than 6 hours on the bike each week.
The Century programs include fewer maximum-intensity intervals and focus more on building power at lactate threshold. The primary goal of these programs is to increase the pace you can comfortably sustain for your long rides, meaning you’ll be doing more SteadyState and OverUnder workouts and fewer PowerIntervals. The OverUnder workouts are especially important because they will help you handle the changes in pace and power demands that come with riding in pacelines and over undulating terrain.
The categories are further broken down into “New” and “Experienced” programs. The differences between the “New” and “Experienced” programs are subtle, but reflect the fact that more experienced riders are generally able to handle a higher workload because they have more years and miles in their legs. If you’re an experienced cyclist who has been riding for 5, 10, 15 or more years, you’ll be happy to know that even if you’re currently not riding very much, the training adaptations from all those years of riding haven’t completely disappeared. Your current fitness may be quite low compared to what it once was, but riders who have several years of training behind them are able to handle greater workloads when they initially return to more structured training, and they adapt quickly and regain a greater percentage of their former fitness more quickly.
This is the easiest of the four programs featured in "The Time-Crunched Cyclist" book, and is therefore the best choice for a novice cyclist or a rider who is returning to the sport after several years off the bike. Even though it’s the easiest of the programs in this book, it is still quite challenging. For instance, the workload is considerably higher than in the easier training program options in Chris Carmichael's previous training books (The Lance Armstrong Performance Program, The Ultimate Ride). This program may even be too difficult for some truly novice cyclists (brand new bike, just started riding within the past six months). The ideal candidate for the New Century program is a cyclist who has been riding recreationally for a few years, perhaps completed a century or two, and who is looking for improved fitness and higher average speeds on their long rides.
This program features 4 workouts per week (2 weekday workouts and 2 weekend workouts) and no more than 6 hours on the bike each week.
