Originally Posted by
livedarklions
That's actually my point-- "training for a ride" seems to confuse an approach to one kind of goal (competitive racing) with a different kind (non-competitive distance riding).
You don't train to take a long walk or jog 10 miles.
It just seems obvious to me that the way you get ready to do a 100 mile ride isn't by "training" per se, but rather by increasing the distance you ride. So doing a bunch of 50 mile rides to "train" for a100 seems dubious on its face. On the other hand, incrementally working up to 100 miles over a series of rides would make sense to me, but each one of those shorter than 100 mile rides is also a ride, so I think it's kind of silly to call them training sessions.
Well, the more 50 mile rides you do, the easier they become, the faster you go, etc. And the routes you ride can be chosen to build up, for example, your climbing ability. When I was building up for the one Century I've ridden, yeah, I rode longer and longer distances, but I also threw in more climbs on Sunday long rides and hill intervals on weekday rides. It seems to me one can train for any athletic event, not just competitive events.