daveton

I’ve been riding now since May 11th getting three rides a week averaging 45/55 Km per ride longest ride 62 Km I’m wanting to do a 50 mile (80 Km) ride before the end of August. My question is what mileage increase should I be looking at on my regular rides to reach my goal. Is the jump from 62 to 80 not such a big deal? I’m feel good on all my rides and finishing okay.

friday1970

Not much at all.
Just give yourself and extra day of rest before attempting it, eat a big breakfast, drink plenty of water, and then start out slow. Around halfway, adjust pace to being comfortable, and then enjoy the ride.
Oh, find a good gearing ratio that allows your cadence to be around 90rpm. You'll be fine.

Trobinson986

I'm on the younger side, 33 and injured my knee at the end of may. I did this by going on a 50 mile ride for my first ride, new to the sport. I bought a nice bike - TCR Advanced 2 Disc- and went out with a group of guys from work who ride several times a week and sure enough my knee was hurting when i finished the ride. It was difficult to sit or stand from a sitting position. Somewhere in that movement from standing to sitting or climbing stairs my knee still sort of hurts. Its nothing major, but the pain is still there its taking forever to go away. I can ride 10-15 miles now and i'm ok but i havent attempted more than that yet. I'd say to creep up and be careful. dealing with an overuse injury sucks

DrIsotope

The rule of thumb is that you can manage to ride in one day what you typically ride in one week.

alcjphil

If you can do a 60 km ride and not feel bad at the end you can easily do an 80 km ride right now

Road bikie

Im struggling to get more than 20km in one go.

Road bikie

What's the best tip for endurance?

Drew Eckhardt 

You'll be fine. As a rule of thumb you can ride your usual weekly average in one ride provided you pace yourself appropriately, eat enough, and hydrate.

It's also prudent to not exceed your longest ride this season by more than 50%, although that's about discovering problems when you're not too far from the end with fit, fueling, etc.

y2zipper

Agree. Increasing mileage and riding really long distances is about bike fit, nutrition and your fitness.

​​​​​​Dialing in the fit is important because anything that's uncomfortable during a ride is really going to hurt when you're going for a century. If you're having trouble increasing mileage because something hurts, chances are it's a fit issue.

When I'm gearing up for centuries, I'll creep up 10 miles or so a week on my longest ride. I typically ride 50 on my longest ride each week and I'll do 50, 60, 70, 80, and creep up to somewhere between 80-90 miles 2 or three times. On these long rides I go slower than I would the day of the century with a specific eye on practicing nutrition strategies and deciding where and when to take my stop. At this point I know my body pretty well, but I still want to be used to the distance before I do it faster so I know what I need to carry and when I need to refill. If I had the time or kept it more consistent I could just do a century every week.

Ideally the last one of those is 2 weeks before the event and I continue to ride but taper off a little because I'm fit at that point but I still want to be on the bike to be used to riding.
​​​​

ririder

I've seen this theory in several places. I typically will ride on average, 100 miles/week now. I'm currently at 2,000 miles for the year. When I do a longer ride, at about the 45 mile mark I really start to feel it which makes me wonder how much further I could push myself. My longest ride this year has been 65 miles and I was pretty tired at the end of that. One of my goals this year was to ride a solo century but I have some reservations about that right now. The question I keep asking myself is, how much is really left in the tank?

Pop N Wood

If you slow your pace and take breaks for proper meals you should be able to ride all day.

Anything over 25 miles requires food for me.

As you get older you will discover Vitamin I as well, Ibuprofen.

Thomas15

There are lots of methods for this but for me I would first set a distance goal. That goal will be your major goal. Lets say it's 50 miles in one ride, a half century.

Next set a few minor goals. The first is 25 miles in one ride. Do this ride several times in one week, if you did this 3 times that will give you 75 miles total for the week.

The next goal is 30 miles in one ride. Again do this for a week, say (3) 30 miles rides in one week, total 90 miles for the week.

Remember to: eat properly, hydrate, snack along the way, stretch muscles before and after. Also short easy rides in between with a day of rest somewhere. Push yourself. Having a cadence and speed sensors and record keeping is useful to help you push yourself.

3rd week add 5 miles for (3) 35 mile rides.

...and so forth. Adjust as necessary.

What is hard now will become easy with reps. 50 miles on a bicycle on flat land is easy but takes time to build up to. I'm riding between 100-150 miles per week and on a longish ride I get sore. The difference now compared to this time last year is my soreness doesn't last long.

burnthesheep

You can adjust intensity down also. It sounds absurd to say to ride even easier if already riding easy for a long ride....but it works within reasonable bounds.

Also, I know this is solo, but if you rode with a group you could probably start at the goal distance already. But, ask to sit in the group more and not pull. Then, over time, take a couple more pulls.

I'm not a good example, but my background is that most weeks I don't routinely average rides longer than an hour. Maybe two hours on the weekend one weekend and three hours one weekend per month.

I've hit 20mph for 70mi alone with about 50 to 60 feet per mile elevation............just that all those 1 hour rides I'm putting in the more painful work. Then.......for my long rides......I dial it way way back. If "zones" are your thing......I ride my 3+ hour rides at the very bottom of Z2. Not the middle or top.

But, you can also edge up the distance per week also doing what others said. You can also try to do 1/2 to 2/3 the distance or something on back to back days. Or, commute to and from work by riding 1/2 the distance each way with that big gap in the middle.

You'll make it!

pdlamb

If this is a Big Ride (end of the season, or one you've been building up to for a month and you'll take 3-4 days off to recover), this rule of thumb is workable.

If, on the other hand, the question can be re-stated as, "I want to build up from 62 to 80 km and be able to continue riding, or ride that distance repeatedly," I think the better rule of thumb is to extend your long ride by 10% per week. So push your long ride this weekend to 68 km, next weekend do 75 km, and you'll be ready for 80 km the week after that.

DrIsotope

A person who has never ridden a bicycle past the end of the block could ride a century cold, with no preparation or training. It would probably take 15 hours, but they could do it. Riding a bike isn't that hard. Riding a bike a long distance isn't that hard either. Problems arise when you start trying to do it quickly. How well the bike fits you really starts to show itself out past 70-80 miles. Unless you have physical issues, you have enough calories stored inside your body to easily do 100km. So doing 80km? Take water, take some snacks, take your time.

I got into cycling with no plan, no preparation, and no sense of what is deemed by cyclists to be "right and wrong." I would ride to exhaustion multiple times a week. I did my first 75 mile ride in my third month, first imperial century within 6 months, and 7,000 total miles in my first year. For whatever reason, people get it into their heads that riding a bike for 4 hours is something that requires significant preparation and world-class physical fitness. It doesn't. It just takes the time and the will to do it.

u235

A lot of valid points in this thread. If you want to increase mileage, add a few miles a week. If you have anything left in the tank on the back half of your ride, use it!!! Point being, push yourself at the end if you think you can. Most of my rides my highest 20 minute avg HR is at the end.

Another. someone said it in this thread, just ride and go slower? I rode most of the GAP last year with a friend that rides a lot but rarely more than 20 miles a day. He has an older K2 Rosario comfort bike that was too small. I say too small but he has been riding it for about 2 years and comfortable so he adapted. He put a rack on it, packed some bags and did two back to back 65+ mile days and he was only a little wobbly when we got to the divide (40 mile point of day 2). I think we averaged about 11 mph. When we got to Cumberland, he was fine. He said he felt good enough to possibly make it to Hancock the next day but logistically we couldn't because of where we parked. Slow and steady... He is 50..

BoraxKid

+1 for this advice. If OP has been doing ~150 km per week, an 80 km ride should be no problem. That assumes of course, that OP has a bike that fits well and isn't having joint pain after riding 50 km.

OP, if you feel good on your bike, don't make any adjustments before your ride. Afterwards, try to take stock of whether or not you have any pain around your knees, hips, or lower back. If your bike fit is not dialed in (since you are new to the sport), it will be more likely to create issues as you increase your distance per ride. When I first started randonneuring, I didn't realize my saddle was about 4 cm too low until I finished my second 100 km ride. After I adjusted my fit, I could do 200 km with no pain, and the fun really started after that. Good Luck!

The 2nd G

As a runner, fairly new to road bikes (< 1 year), I was abiding by the runner's general rule--don't increase your max weekly mileage or your longest ride by more than 10%. Yup--I threw it out the window pretty quickly because I was having so much fun. The longest I've ridden is 60 miles, but I know I can do more--maybe even 100.

What I love about the bike experience is that I can go so much further away and enjoy it. A 20 mile run puts me at most 10 miles from home and by mile 15, it's not fun anymore (the good part comes when you take the last step). I've been to so many places in the past few months that I've never been to before and loved every minute of it. I think my ride distances went up organically as I just wanted to see something a little further away.

Oh, and you can always coast on a bike. There's no coasting in running.

daveton

Wow, I could have written this message. I come from a marathon, ultra marathon background. New hip last Nov forced me into a new passion. As you do love I my new found freedom. Particularly like the fact that if I see a off shoot road I can take it for a couple of miles no big issue. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread great input and a wealth of knowledge and experience. Cheers

Troul 

figure out your average mph & reduce it 20% & allow for the additional time that it will take for the ride time to be completed. That does not factor in repairs, rest stops, or social moments. Start the ride prepared & end the ride gratified.