Century training plans
Three century races in the library, a 12-week build behind each one. Every one is written two weeks at a time, phased for how far out you are, and rebuilt the moment you travel, get sick or something starts hurting.
On Pro, the hours, the experience level and the date you give shape every block, and the plan is rewritten when your week changes.
On Pro, a beginner's cycling week holds 6 to 8 hours and an advanced rider's 12 to 16, so the same ride gives two different plans.
The races on this page are examples. In the app you choose a distance and set your own date, so a race we have not listed works the same way.
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CENTURY AT A GLANCE
- Races covered3
- Typical build12 weeks
- Race monthsJul · Aug · Sep
- True of all 3Road
- SportCycling
WHO A CENTURY PLAN IS FOR
A hundred miles, built around your week
A century is a hundred miles in one day. The sample week on each ride page is built around one long ride and the sessions that support it, with strength work to carry you through the last hours.
On Pro, a beginner cycling week holds 6 to 8 hours and an advanced rider's holds 12 to 16, and the plan follows the hours you have inside the band for your experience level.
If your event has a heat, wind or climbing problem, the ride pages say how a build adjusts for it.
THE CENTURY FIELD
What a century build has to cope with
Counted off the three century races on this page. It is not a general claim about the distance.
HOW LONG THE BUILD RUNS
Every plan at this distance runs to twelve weeks.
That is the shortest of the three cycling distances on this site. gran fondo (14-16 weeks) and multi-day (18 weeks) run longer.
Whatever the length, the plan is written two weeks at a time and phased for how far out you are, so century races that start in a hole and century races that start fit do not get the same first block.
WHAT YOU BUILD THROUGH
All three put the build in summer.
A build that runs through summer is heat, early alarms and long light evenings.
Race dates land in three different months of the year.
WHAT THE COURSES DO
Two of the three are flat; the other is mountainous.
All three are on road.
We hold a total-climb figure for one of the three. It is 3,000 m. For the rest the table leaves the cell empty, because we hold no figure for them.
WHAT THE WEATHER DOES
Hot and humid, unpredictable and warm, one each.
HOW YOU GET IN
Entry: two by open entry and one by first come.
Field size, in starters: two at 10,000 to 40,000 and one at 1,000 to 10,000.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE DATES
None of these has a confirmed date in our library yet, so the table carries the season each one is usually run in rather than inventing a day.
Dates are checked against each race’s own announcement before they go in, and a date we cannot stand behind is left out.
ALL THREE CENTURY RACES
Every century race we have a plan for
Four of the seven things we track vary between these races, so those are the columns. The ones that do not vary are in the card above. Every name links to its own plan.
| Race | When | Course | Conditions | Field | Entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evergreen CenturyEvergreen, CO | Summer 2027 | Mountainous | Unpredictable | 1,000-10,000 | First come |
| Salisbury CenturySalisbury, MD | Fall 2027 | Flat | Warm | 10,000-40,000 | Open |
| Wichita Falls CenturyWichita Falls, TX | Summer 2027 | Flat | Hot, humid | 10,000-40,000 | Open |