Originally Posted by sneakin
So, it sounds like I should ignore suggestions for traning
such as this and just do "ride more" approach. That article had me thinking I needed to have a fairly regimented training schedule.
Many regimented training approaches that focus on working all the muscular and cardio systems will certainly improve your ability to do things on the bike. But what it really comes down to is asking yourself what your goal is. It also depends on how quickly you want to reach that goal.
Many folks use the approach that you shouldn't increase the distance you ride by more than about 10% per week. So if you can handle a long ride of 10 miles, the next week it can be 11, then 12, etc... I personally think that would kinda take forever and most people could handle an increase of about 5 miles per week. (10, 15, 20, 25, etc... ) Then toss in 3-4 days at 5-6 miles, increasing by 1 mile per week. So it might look something like:
4 days x 5 miles, 1 day x 10 miles
4 days x 6 miles, 1 day x 15 miles
4 days x 7 miles, 1 day x 20 miles, etc....
I would say that 4 days mileage would never have to exceed 1 hr of training during the week, so if you can do 15 miles per hour for an hour, your top end of the 4 day/wk mileage shouldn't need to exceed 15 miles.
At any point in this workout you feel like the long ride is just too much, take a week off without increasing the distance and repeat a week.
Remember that REST is where you build strength.
After 10 weeks it would be 4 days x 15 miles, 1 day x 60 miles. I think most here would agree that riding 60 miles is not much different than one hundred, it really becomes mostly mental and a$$ pain tolerance the first couple times you go longer than that.
If you wanted to go those distances faster, then during those 4 days of the week, you could incorporate intervals that focused on a particular cardio workout or muscle system to break up the monotony. I would only do this 2 of the days of the week and not on the long day. Recovery is crucial. It's the most important part.
Anyway, I'm not a coach or anything but this is probably what I would recommend to folks that wanted to get to century distance. Once you can get miles done, then it's time to start working on improving how well you can do the miles. That's when the pain... I mean fun... begins.