Bike Forums - A Century Ride Strategy

Briefly, I'm 66 years old and been cycling regularly since early 2014 (long, but on/off, history of endurance stuff - mostly running). Last fall I rode a solo century on (roughly) my 65th birthday and that is it for century rides (18.5 mph through 90 miles when cramping mucked things up). I had wondered about a 5 hour solo century someday, but figured that this goal had passed me by.

Then last August I rode a solo 50 mile TT at 21.4 mph (surely a very hard effort, but not 'everything in the tank'). So I wondered - maybe that 5 hour century?? In going over my training log I see that I have averaged a bit over 200 miles/week (which is around 25% higher than my training for my century last year) since July 4 (longest week was 265 miles). This training volume would seem to be 'pretty good'. HOWEVER, while I have 22 rides of 45 miles or more since mid July, I have only 3 rides over 55 miles (max 63). So I am clearly deficient WRT long rides.

So here is 'the plan'. I'll get at least one more long ride in before Thanksgiving (as long as fits my schedule - I rode 59 miles today), then Thanksgiving will naturally bring on reduced training, 'carbohydrate loading', and I'll give this thing a shot the week after Thanksgiving. If at any point I feel that my 20 mph average is totally out of reach, I'll back off (speed, distance, or both) and treat it as a long training ride. Trying to get one or two (as long as I can fit in) rides over the next week or two, and give it one more try. If not, then here come the holidays, winter, etc. so that's that (for now, anyway).

I'm not sure what my question is, but there must be one in there somewhere :-)

dave