Originally Posted by
memebag
<snip>Maybe this new science doesn't apply to me? I can do a bunch of 30 mile rides, but I'm not ready for a 100 mile ride until I work up to some 60 and 70 mile rides. And I can't skip rest stops on the 100 mile ride if I stop frequently on the 70 mile ride.
I doesn't apply unless you do it. How about this? Instead of doing "a bunch of 30 mile rides," you go out Tuesday and do 30 miles, including four 10 minute hill repeats on a long hill, going as hard as you can and not blow up in 10 minutes. Rest time is coasting back down for the next one. If you don't have any hills, do the same thing in the drops. 100 cadence, hard effort, 10 minutes, 5 minutes easy pedaling, repeat 4 times.
Then Thursday go out for 25 miles and do speed work: Somewhere convenient on the ride, pedal absolutely as hard as you can on the flat for 30 seconds, in the saddle, starting in a pretty big gear and shifting up as necessary. Then 5 minutes of moderate pedaling. Repeat 6 times.
Then next weekend, do 50 miles at a good pace, preferably in the hills at about 50'/mile climbing. With the group is fine.
Repeat for 3 weeks. You'll notice a difference. Then try something similar on your group rides. The idea is to return to the parking lot unable to dismount the bike. That's how hard you want to go on those 50 mile rides. You don't need instrumentation to do that. Just turn yourself inside out, bits of lung on your shoes, that sort of thing.