training advice

[Starfish]

As your body gets used to the time on the bike... your speed will lift as you get "fitter" in terms of aerobic efficiency for that distance.

I'm sure this must be true, to a point.

But, I have to say, this was not my experience last year. I for sure got fitter for endurance and climbing. But, what with all the focus I put into going longer and doing a LOT of climbing as I trained for my climbing century...well...I did NOT get faster. They say your body learns to get good at the way you ride. So, lots of steady climbing endurance rides...you get good at steady endurance.

This year, I really want to get faster so I can do longer rides and get them done before dark. So, I am going to be doing intervals and working on speed a couple rides per week. Arnie Baker talks about this in his online book about Altitude Climbing Endurance. He says most riders will benefit from hard intervals so that they can make the cutoff times for those long climbing centuries.

(That said, all the advice here sounds great...your century does not look like a climbing century.)