The point is if you are just looking at finishing you don’t meed long rides. If you want to achieve something specific yes you should train for that
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LOL sounds brutal. And perfect for YouTube memorialization!
285W FTP. As they say, FTP is the single biggest determinant of cycling performance.
he should also mention how he felt over the 4 weeks after Leadville (its somewhere on the forum)
@hubcyclist nicely paced z2 ride, and I always think the real benefit of HV SSB is measured in being able to push the pedals hard for 2-4 hours. After 12 weeks of working on strength endurance, I’d bet you could go out and do 3-4 hours (or more) around .85 IF. My best century from an IF point-of-view was 3 years ago at 0.87 IF and 5200 feet of climbing, it was done as part of the lead up to a double century.
I wholeheartedly agree!
I’ve did a 4 day fondo in Vermont with 100 miles/7500 ft rides on day 3, for 3 years in a row not doing any indoor sessions above 90 minutes.
As you said it yourself, you need to pace it and you still feel like carp at the end of it, but is quite doable.
Congrats on your achievement!!!
You don’t need them for sure. Like I said, you don’t even need to train to successfully complete a 100 mile ride.
The cohort of riders that do long rides will have more success than the cohort that does not do long rides.
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The human body frequently surprises. Back in '05 (2005, thank you very much…) I did a 355km/220 miles ride in a single day with very, very little training.
The ride was in the early start of the season so I had done just 3 or maybe 4 sub-100km training rides and absolutely none over 100km.
Athlinks has my total time at a bit over 15 hours, but I did it…
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Just updating with my experience.
I went through with my century ride yesterday. All the conditions had been against me, following Raymond +7 the day before, horrible night’s sleep, brutal heat peaking around 99ºF, and riding into demoralizing headwind for the last half.
Despite all that I’d say it was my best century ride to date. I lost my snap well before the end, but was still able to crank out respectable steady state power. I didn’t feel completely drained at the end as I have in the past. Even my saddle comfort was the best it’s ever been for a ride of that duration.
For background I hadn’t touched a bike from early October 2018 until March 2020. I putzed around for a few weeks then went though SSBMV1 & 2 and now in my 3rd week of Sustained Power Build MV. So 2 hours max indoors, with a single longer outdoor ride thrown in a few weeks ago. TrainerRoad really does wonders for these longer rides even if you never come close to those extended times in the saddle. 
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Awesome! I didn’t say it in my first post but I wholeheartedly agree that it’s all in the pacing and nutrition. I wasn’t ever in any doubt that I could just go out and ride 100 miles after being limited to indoor stuff, it’s just the first time I had tried it, since I usually had some other long rides in the past leading up to a century ride. I think a lot of people are under the impression you need a big build up to ride 100 miles, but as long as one isn’t trying to smash it, it’s pretty doable with more limited volume. I’ve been back to doing all my training inside but maybe this weekend I’ll try and get out for another long ride
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Another +1 here. I started TR in April after years of not training and only cycling a couple of miles a day to work. Following mid-volume SSB1,2, Sustained power. A couple of weeks ago, at the end of the rest week of the sustained power build I did an 8 hour offroad ride or 88miles and 9,500 elevation, at around 70 IF.
I’m really impressed at how well TR prepared me for this. I’d ridden this route 13 years ago but after building up the mileage gradually over 3 months. This time no build-up apart from a 5-hour offroad ride a few weeks earlier (itself a big jump in volume from my TR workouts and felt great).
I didn’t just feel capable of making the distance easily on the ride itself but also afterwards there was no payback - no DOMS or lethargy like I use to get before TR. Before TR, a long ride could wipe me out for days in terms of energy levels for general life. I’d put that down to age (I’m 48) and resigned myself to not be able to recover quickly any more. After this 8 hour ride I’d expected to be totally wiped out and needing another rest week before starting the next phase (Century) but later the same day, and the next day, I was feeling great so went straight back to normal training and didn’t feel any after-effect of the long ride.
So yes, in my experience you can definitely do 100 miles on 2hr max sessions.
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