Originally Posted by
oib111
I've been biking since around October of last year, and then I can't remember specifically when, but sometime this year I hurt my knee due to a bad bike fit and so I had to take some time off and then sort of start over. My schedule basically looks like Monday through Thursday medium rides, Saturday big ride, rest on Friday and Sunday. So at this point I've been putting in around at least a 100 miles a week for a while now.
Just to clarify, since I increase by 10% each time my weekly big ride mileages are going to become 44, 48, 53, 58, 64, 71, 78, 86, 94, etc etc and it grows quite quickly (as do my medium rides since they're just half of what my big rides are). It just seemed odd to continue on in that fashion because of how large the miles are going to get and of how frequently I'd be riding them. So really what I'm asking is is there a point at which I stop increasing those weekly mileages, and if so what do I do (or maybe it's something like change what I'm doing during the week but keep increasing the big ride weekend mileages)?
I do one century every year in September and train for that. I work up to a 62 mile ride. My long rides start at 30 miles early in the season and increase by 5 miles per week with repeats and rest weeks incorporated. 62 miles is long enough to be able to complete a century. I also do interval training to increase my speed so that I can finish the century in a reasonable time. So my goal this year is to complete a century in September faster than I did last year. Since I know my goal, I can plan my training schedule accordingly.
Increasingly long rides throughout the year. 30-62 miles
Train 5-6 days a week.
Weight training in the winter.
Tempo rides
Lactate Threshold Rides
The point at which you stop the escalation of your long ride is wherever you want based on your goals. What are your goals? Do you have a charity ride planned? Did you want to complete a century? Just general fitness? Multi-day touring? Do you want to race? What kind of race? etc.... Unless we know your goals, it is impossible to come up with any king of training plan.