Training & Familiarization Rides
To view the Marin Cyclist's Ride Schedule, click HERE.
To see specific training tips, visit: Training for 100 miles
The
Marin Cyclists put on the event year after year because our riders
(you) love the course, the support and the challenge. It is our goal to
encourage individuals to participate in these rides. Riding any of
these courses requires training and mental determination so we have set
up a series of rides to help. The courses are all fun but the level of
fun is usually in a relationship to your level of conditioning and
training.
The Marin Cyclists can now help you train for
your next run at the Marin Century Courses and even the Mt Tam Double
Century to make them absolutely the most fun for you.
100K (60 MILES)
The Marin 100K is a 60 miles course with 3830 feet of hill climbing. If
you are a regular bicyclist, you can most likely ride this without
turning your life upside down. There is no scheduled training regimen
for the 100K distance. However, if you are not a regular bicyclist, you
can work your way up to the 100 K distance by joining our weekend rides
as listed on our Website Ride Schedule Page.
The Marin Cyclists hosts these rides for members and any other
interested party. If you join us for a ride and like it, go ahead and
join the club!
These are weekly rides of varying distance, difficulty and speed to
train and test your strength and resolve. If you have done the 100K
distance before and find yourself curious about the 100-mile distance,
consider the training program below. You will never know until you try
it.
MARIN CENTURY (100 MILES)
The Marin Century is our flagship 100-mile course for more than 30
years. The course has 6250 feet of challenging hill climbs, rollers and
fast technical descents.
The Marin Cyclists is now offering a training program to help riders
familiarize themselves with the terrain and test themselves on the
climbs and distance. These are weekend rides and they will take place
once per month for the 4 months preceding the event. The monthly rides
will gradually build in distance and difficulty and you will ride many
if not all of the same roads you will ride in the actual century. This
way, you will ride with others, like yourself that are building up for
the ride as well as ride with others that have done the rides before
and can give you their insight.
The monthly rides will follow the approximate schedule below:
April 40 miles with some hills
May 50 - 60 miles including the Marshall Wall
June 60 – 70 miles including Marshall Wall and Franklin School Rd.
July 70 – 80 miles including Bay Hill and Coleman Valley Rd.
MT TAM DOUBLE CENTURY (200 MILES)
The Mt Tam Double Century is not for beginners and your training should
include many other centuries, double metric centuries and double
centuries before you challenge yourself on the Mt Tam Double. This ride
has 15,000 feet of climbs and involves lots of fun but technical riding.
As a Bike Club, the Marin Cyclists can help you 2 ways:
MT TAM DOUBLE TRAINERS
The Marin Cyclists is now offering 2 “trainers” to help riders
familiarize themselves with the terrain and train for the climbs and
distance. These are weekend rides and they will take place once per
month for the 2 months preceding the event.
These rides assume you already have the riding skills necessary to
tackle hills and distance. They are designed to familiarize you with
the course. There is nothing like knowing what that next climb is like
so you can speed up, slow down or whatever you need to do to ride
within or at your limits.
The 2 trainers are :
June The Mt Tam Single Century. (approx. 100 miles & 8000 Ft. Climbing)
This ride starts at the Vallecito Elementary School and runs the MT Tam
Double Course from the start to near Rest Stop #3 (Lincoln School) and
then turns back to the Vallecito School on the Double Century Course.
The trainer includes all the climbing up over Mt Tam (Lucas Valley,
Pine Mountain, Ridgecrest, East Peak to Muir Beach ) and then the long
roller sections of Hwy 1 going north to Pt Reyes Station.
July The Marin Double Metric Century (93 Miles & 7000 ft of Climbing)
This is virtually the exact same course as our Marin Double Metric but
instead of starting at the Vallecito School, we will start and finish
at the Lincoln School Rest Stop on Hicks Valley Rd.
The trainer will include climbing the Marshall Wall, Franklin School
Red, Bay Hill, Coleman Valley, Middle Rd and Red Hill (and all the
rollers in between!).
MARIN CYCLIST BIKE CLUB TRAINERS
Join the Club! The Marin Cyclists is not a racing team but many of the
members are highly motivated distance riders. The Marin Cyclists
website will list all the California Triple Crown Double Centuries (15
total) plus several other popular endurance fests and century rides.
MARIN CYCLIST CLUB MEMBERS will be able to post their names under the
climbs they consider their dream list for the year. This works to bring
members together for training and to keep everyone at a high level of
motivation and commitment.
Depending on the numbers of riders signing up, the weekend ride
schedule begins to take the form of the double century training
schedule. The club has usually had a good turn out at the early season
doubles such as Death Valley and Solvang (we broke our 11 hour mark
last year, maybe we will take time off that in 2007!). Riders can pool
resources for travel and lodging as well.
These get us ready for the Devil Mtn., the Terrible Two and other
suffer fests! If all the riding does not break you down, you should be
in pretty good shape to tackle the Mt. Tam Double Century in August.
Registering for any of the Marin Century Courses or the Mt Tam Double
entitles you to the discount membership into the club. A mere $20 buys
your membership for the balance of 2008!. Join the club and join the
fun.
The training ride schedule will be posted here on the website once it
is finalized and it will also be posted on the monthly ride schedule on
the website.