Quote Originally Posted by Geonz View Post
So... is there that much connection with speed and distance? I mean to the tune of 100 miles.

I'm suspecting that interval training would be more important than piling on the miles, tho' I got fast with both. I also think that once you're pushing past 18, equipment starts to matter a lot more.
yes and no - you still want to train to the distances you expect to be riding, even if you are looking to increase your speed. Plus, you still want to have at least some period in the year that you put in base miles, which are longer and slower. So some days may be interval based and shorter rides, but some days will be longer rides too.
For someone like me that trains for a specific season I have a whole period of time (several months) that I'm doing base mileage and hardly do any harder riding. Those rides will work up to a bit beyond what I expect typical race milage to be. If you just wanted to go faster in general I would guess you could spread out the base mileage rather than periodize it?
So really it depends on what you are working towards. If you are looking to be a beginning racer (for women that usually means between 24 and 40 miles) you probably won't see any 100 mile days in your shedule, but if you are looking to do higher level racing or training for a fast century you would see longer days.