Originally Posted by
blacknbluebikes
This logic doesn't really work. .... if you can ride 2 miles, you can ride 4, and so you can ride 8, and so you can ride ....(twelve raises gives me 2^12=4096) ... and so, sure, you can ride from NY to Los Angeles. Well, yeah, I guess you can, but...
Most people do have to train for a century, not everyone. But jumping from 50 to 100 is not easy to most, and putting another 40 on top of a century is not an "intermediate" effort, pain or no pain. People bonk. Muscles fail. Brains say "enough, jackass" and stop the system. a 140 mile ride requires most riders to do many weeks of conditioning. And it's not a smart thing to solo without proving it out with some support. do-able? absolutely. but plan for it.
That's because it's neither logic nor a linear equation.
I mean, if you want to get right down to it, anyone that has a bike and has ridden it a bit (or even hasn't) is "capable" of riding 100 miles. Just like they're "capable" of completing a marathon or any other arbitrary athletic achievement you want to throw out there (perhaps not swimming...yikes).
There's a girl that rode her bike across India to get her dad during the Covid 19 lockdown. ACROSS India. 700 miles. On a $20 dollar bike. With her DAD on the back of it!
People bonk because they don't eat enough, so eat enough. Muscles fail because you're going too hard. Go easier.
It's honestly not that difficult. I'm not saying it'd necessarily be comfortable to do 100 miles if you've never done more than 50, or that you'd do it any sort of decent speed or whatever, but you're 100% capable of doing it if you're considerate of your effort and nutrition needs. The human body is capable of quite a bit.
Link to aforementioned story:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...-sparks-debate