GregTR

Thanks everyone for the great and thorough answers! As much as I hate to accept it there is no shortcut to fast riding. You just have to put the miles in. I guess it's not any different than running. Specificity is the name of the game. The only thing I have to figure out is what I really want to do: Chase PRs in running, try to be KOM for my area or just become a more well rounded athlete and do triathlons. I'm not exactly young any more, out of the open class for Boston for the first time this year and only 4 years away from being a masters runner. I enjoy riding to work and I feel like you can do a lot more riding than running without getting too beat up. Hopefully I can find a nice balance. I was fully aware that my running would have to suffer if I decided to ride more but I was more curious about how long it would take to get "good" at riding. It seems like 2-3 years is a sound number.

My diet is fine, I used to be a sedentary couch potato weighing 240+ lbs back in 2009. I'm a long way away from that so I'm on top of my diet now.

Thanks! With your 5K time you should be looking at closer to sub-1:15 on the half. Halfs are all about LT runs so you have to do a ton of 12-14 milers with 6-7 miles at LT. For marathoning it's just the sheer amount of training volume that you need, some of it at a pretty good clip. A lot of runners concentrate on the 20 mile long runs but it's the 14-15 mile mid-week runs that make it or break it. I usually run 3 14+ mile runs every week and I try to incorporate marathon pace or LT in at least one of them. My hardest workout before my last marathon was 20 miles with 12 at marathon pace. Marathons are weird in a sense that nobody can prepare you for them, you have to experience it for yourself. Best of luck if you ever decide to run one.