Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
A person's CTL or what they can handle for TSS in a day is not a direct correlation with how strong they are on the bike.
While you seem to understand the concept of ramping volume over time, you also need to at some point introduce intensity. And that time is not once you "can do a century". That's a measuring stick of a starting point that is unitless, useless.
A more realistic starting point for "getting faster" is simply being able to ride a time duration of a meaningful workout with enough intensity to cause adaptation. So, warmup plus cooldown a few beginner sets of work and rest..........that's only 45min or so.
So if someone can ride for an hour without stopping. You're probably good to go.
IME simply riding one's bike introduces intensity. OTOH, I don't live in Florida. So maybe in Florida you have a very good point. However most places have hills, and my advice "See hill, ride up it" is the natural, organic way to introduce intensity without burdening the rider with researching the many different systems for increasing intensity. Many riders find that latter approach foolish and unnecessary. I actually know few riders who practice structured training as it is understood on BF. None of the fastest riders in my group do so, they simply "ride lots," as someone once said. My point with riding that century is to create an adequate base on which to build intensity, if that's desired. One can't do anything interesting without developing endurance. Being able to ride for an hour is not endurance. Maybe talented young riders like yourself don't get that, but you're a small minority.