Successfully training for and completing a century cycle ride may be far easier than you have imagined. Many people are wrongly concerned that their age, weight or current level of fitness means that they will likely not even be able to finish a century ride let alone complete one in a respectable time. In fact as long as they have a correctly structured century training program virtually anyone can quickly get to the stage where they can achieve their century goals.

Some Quick Ways To Boost Your Century Fitness

At the hear of every successful training schedule is variety. By mixing up the types of rides you do (quick, slow, shot, long, uphill, sprints, downhill, into the wind, solo, in a group etc) you will instantly gain a twofold benefit. Firstly the variety will keep your training far more interesting than say doing the same old 15 mile loop four time a week, helping to keep your motivation high. Secondly riding under such different terrain and intensities will ensure your riding improves in all of these areas. This will be a huge benefit on century day as very rarely will you end up riding a pancake flat course with no wind.

Increasing your fitness requires two things in just the right quantities: physical workouts on the bike and rest/recovery. If you have too much rest and you will not improve as much as is possible, too little and you will increase your chances of injury and may even reduce your long term fitness. Finding the right balance between work and recovery is hard to achieve however the addition of two things can make this very easy: a training program and a heart rate monitor.

A heart rate monitor will allow you to see at any time on the bike exactly how hard your body is working. In addition it can also be used to tell you if your body is sufficiently rested. Once you are able to measure these two variables you can use a p[re structured training plan to ensure you get the maximum possible from your training.