Quote Originally Posted by maillotpois View Post
I liked what Indy noted - that you might work to get yourself up to a certain mileage level and spend some time getting used to that mileage before ramping up again.

I coach for the Death Ride (130 miles and 15,000 feet of elevation gain) for TNT, and the program I have designed builds up to about a 70 mile ride within 3 months and then spends some time at the 70 mile level before ramping up again to a series of 110 mile 10,000+ foot rides.

We build fairly gradually but only have from February to July to get this in. It works well. I note most of our riders have done a century before doing our program, but many have not and they do well also.

So you might want to build up to the 60 - 70 mile level and spend 3 weeks to a month riding at that distance just to get used to it before you increase again.

I just looked up the Death Ride - WOW!!! That looks like a lot of fun...torture...errrr I meant fun

I am working out a schedule, as much as I can, of how I would like to increase my miles between now and October 1 and while I don't think I can spend an entire month at the 70 mile level, I am trying to schedule as long as I can and still give me time to ramp up the remaining 50 miles. I do not want to do heavy miles that last week or so in order to have fresh legs - but of course it all depends on how my body takes to the increasing mileage and the heat. So far so good, but I am just at the beginning.

Now I just need to get my saddle issues worked out...