Century ride training plan
Prepare for 100 miles with a steady endurance build.
Overview
A century is an endurance test more than an intensity test. The one thing that matters most is a progressively longer weekend ride that teaches your body, and your fuelling, to keep going for five to eight hours.
Around that long ride you add moderate tempo and sweet spot work to raise your steady pace. A 12-week build that grows the long ride from three hours toward five or six, with recovery weeks, is a common way to prepare.
How to use this guide
The phases, sample week and workouts below illustrate an approach to this goal. This guide is not a ready-made plan in the TrainCraft library. Compare it with your current training and use the app to browse available plans or build a custom one.
Example training structure
A sample training week
How many hours a week?
The sample week above is one way to lay out this goal. If you plan around a fixed number of hours, these example weeks show how 6, 8 or 10 hours can be split between a long ride, quality sessions and easy riding, using workouts from the public library.
Key workouts
Tips to get it right
- Practise fuelling on your long rides. Riders commonly aim for 60 to 90 g of carbs per hour and drink steadily to avoid running out of energy late in the ride.
- Train at the pace and in the position you plan to ride the century.
- Grow the long ride gradually. Extending the weekend ride too quickly makes it harder to recover between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to train for a century ride?
If you can already ride 2 to 3 hours, about 12 weeks is comfortable. Complete beginners may want 16 weeks to build the long ride safely.
What is the most important workout?
The weekly long ride. Extending it steadily, with recovery weeks, is what prepares your body and fuelling for 100 miles.
Do I need a power meter?
No, but training to power or heart-rate zones makes pacing easier to judge. TrainCraft workouts set targets as a percentage of FTP, so they convert to watts from the FTP in your profile.
Events this guide can help you prepare for
Related training guides
Use this century (100 mi) guide as a starting point
See this guide laid out as a week-by-week plan preview in TrainCraft, then decide whether it fits your schedule.