increasing distances...

[Diddii]

I'm fairly new to cycling, cycled alot when i was younger and competed severaltimes. I've been doing alot of reading and figured out i should start by buting in the miles before i start doing some advanced training. I'm really enjoying riding longer rides, longest so far was 5days ago when i did 50km. Total distances on my new bike is 300km. Also did a ride yesterday which was 46km in 1hour 51min. I'm thinking how much should i generally increase the distance by week? 10% or 5% or any rule of thumb?

My goals are:
- hitting 1000km before september 3rd (when school starts)
- compete in this seasons cyclocross (my new bike is Specialized Crux)
- Single ride up to a summerhouse my gf's family owns (116km ride) this will probably not happen until next summer since i live in iceland and i'm not looking forward riding long rides in the cold

[chasm54]

Increasing by 10% per week is a sensible strategy. You could probably manage slightly larger increases, but 10% is fine.

[gregf83]

When you're starting out you can go higher than 10%, particularly when you're young. I started up riding again when I was 48 with the following progression:

Week Time
1 - 8:11
2 - 7:12
3 - 12:04 (longest 98km ride)
4 - 9:11
5 - 11:19 (longest 90km)
6 - 9:29 (longest 108km)

I rode 6-7 days as week with most rides being about 40k. As long as you have no pain there isn't any problem ramping up the time on the bike quickly. Cycling is much easier on the body than running.