since I routinely do lots of miles at a time, I will hereby give my little speech about TITS (time in the saddle) training. You don't achieve comfort over time without a good bike fit, properly fitting shoes, padded gloves, a thicker gel, a better seat, portable extra supply of chamois butter, gels, gus, energy drinks and or whatever you physically and mentally need for creature comfort But above and beyond that is TITS time which is not only physical, but mental discipline as well.

Start low and slow, then build from there. You need to toughen up the muscles in your nether regions as well as building arm, shoulder and core strength in addition to legsstrength, general endurance and how to pace yourself over time and distance, when and how to eat, drink how much, how much the weather affects you, how to handle to tendancy to get bored or zone out, what mental games and images amuse you and how to get rid of mind worms.

Start with riding without stopping until you start to feel a bit uncomfortable physically. Stop, step away from the bike for a minute or so, and continue on riding until you start to feel really restless and uncomfortable and then stop, eat, drink, pee, re lube the nether regions, stretch, rest, whatever for at least 10 minutes, or more if you feel you need it. Turn around and head home after noting the distance and the time ridden before the first break and since the first stop to your current break.

On the ride home try to improve your riding endurance time on the first section by 10% ie if you rode 30 minutes before the first stop on the outbound try and ride 33 minutes on the way back before you step down. Ditto on the second return section, although you may run out of distance before you run out of time, if so circle the block a few times noodling your legs to get in the time, distance and to burn off the lactic acid.

When you get home, pat yourself on the back for a good ride, treat yourself to a recovery chocolate milk or mocha espresso or whatever beverage floats your boat, and some good protein and carbohydrate to speed recovery, and get out of your wet, slimy (from chamois butter and sweat) shorts and clean thoroughly to prevent infection. Record your accomplishments and take a day off of the bike to rest or cross train.- hint core exercises never hurt.

Repeat ad naseum adding 5 to 10% on the time ridden between breaks going out and coming back and on the hoped for mileage.

Once you are achieving what you feel is pretty close to your aimed for distance, metric century, 75 miles, century at what you feel is a reasonable, sustainable speed, switch up you training by riding the distance two days in a row. When you can do two days in a row, without reliving the "night of the living dead" the thrid day, try three days in a row, up your speed by 10% for two consecutive days or start alternating in some good interval speed rides to up your speed. Don't forget cross training and stretchingon your days off.

My ultimate goal is usually is to be able to stay in the saddle without doing anything more than stepping off of the pedals for a minute to check a map or switch bottles, 5-6 hours at a stretch and to finish the same ride several days in a row with a little something left over each days. Sometimes I even achieve that but it's usually on a cross country ride where necesity and geography result in have to do 7-9 60-80 mile days without a break. It depends on the ride, but if I can do several 6 hour days without a break I can usually do more if I hit the support stops, take a lunch break, and mentally accept that it is going to be a 8-10 hours in the saddle day.

The only way to learn how to ride fast or long, once you get your equipment in order is to ride, ride, ride. Remember that if you hurt you won't repeat the exercise that hurt so learn to balance the thin line between good training and training which hurts more than momentarily. The line between cannot and do not want to is another thin line that you have to work on.

Good luck, there is nothing more satisfying than going out for a long long ride and having miles and miles to contemplate how far you've come and how far you can go now.