Just keep gradually increasing your distance ... the recommendation is 10% per weekly long ride. So if your longest ride is 50 miles and you felt all right with that, go do 55 miles next weekend. Then the next weekend do a little over 60 miles. Then the next weekend, do 66 or 67 miles. The fourth week, take it easy, maybe back to 50 or 55 miles. Then go back up to 66-67 miles. Then maybe 75 miles, and so on. Every fourth week, take it a bit easier.

Before you know it, you'll be riding a century. That might be all you want to do this year, but keep up your fitness, and maybe next year you might want to try a couple centuries, or maybe a 200K randonnee.


It's not like we rolled off the sofa and hopped on a bicycle and rode a century ... many of us have built up over a period of years.

And as for speed ... I've done centuries in 6 hours and centuries in 15 hours and everything between. It depends a lot on fitness, experience, weather, terrain ....