Plausible?

[Sam Kennedy]

I was bored so decided to design a training plan to go from 1 mile to 100 miles in 1 year. Does it sound like it could work, or is it too steep of increase?
Here it is summarised:

1 mile a week for 5 weeks
2 miles a week for 6 weeks
3 miles a week for 3 weeks
4 miles a week for 3 weeks
5 miles a week for 2 weeks
6 miles a week for 2 weeks
7 miles a week for 2 weeks
8 miles a week for 1 week
9 miles a week for 1 week
10 miles a week for 1 week
11 miles a week for 1 week
12 miles a week for 1 week
13 miles a week for 1 week
14 miles a week for 1 week
15 miles a week for 2 weeks
20 miles a week for 3 weeks
25 miles a week for 2 weeks
30 miles a week for 2 weeks
35 miles a week for 2 weeks
40 miles a week for 1 week
45 miles a week for 1 week
50 miles a week for 1 week
55 miles a week for 1 week
60 miles a week for 1 week
65 miles a week for 1 week
70 miles a week for 1 week
75 miles a week for 1 week
80 miles a week for 1 week
90 miles a week for 1 week
100 miles a week for 1 week

Anyone wanna give it a go?

 

[on the road]

That's definitely doable, but I would suggest bigger jumps then just 1 mile and you don't have to ride everyday.

 

[MacB]

agreed doable but 1 mile a week for 5 weeks, even going really slowly that's only 10 mins of cycling per week. I'd be tempted to set a time per week rather than a distance.

 

[marinyork]

It's too weighted towards the low distances. You should start off at at least 20 miles per week. Bang those out and concentrate on what areas you want to improve.

 

[HLaB]

As others say I think its perfectly doable but its a bit small the 1 mile increments. I would suggest quickly acceleratin through the lower end and in bigger steps say 5, 10 15, 20 (or if you feel you're able do 20 + in your first week, its not hard circa 4 miles per day with every second day a rest day) and devote the the time to the longer distances.

 

[punkypossum]

From personal experience, I would say once you can do 50-70 comfortable (which only took me a couple of months and I certainly wasn't superfit), you can do a 100. Probably not for a few days in a row, that would require more training I suspect, but definitely as a one-off.

 

[ColinJ]

My first cycle ride as an adult was when I had to work late in Burnley and missed my lift home. Somebody lent me his bike so I could get back. The bike was heavy, about 2 sizes too small for me, I was 4 stone overweight, and I hadn't done any exercise for several years. It is a 15 mile ride and not a flat one, but I coped okay.

I'd have thought that anybody who doesn't have health problems ought to be able to ride a bike 10-15 miles first time out and build up steadily from there.

I'd suggest riding every 2 or 3 days, doing mainly 10 mile rides with the odd 15 mile one thrown in. When that regime starts to feel comfortable, increase the regular and longer ride distances by 20% and keep doing that until you get to about 80 miles or so. Once you are okay doing 80 miles, you can push yourself to get a century ride in. You should already have worked out what you need to eat and drink on longer rides by then, and your bum will be used to long days in the saddle.

I'd take a guess and say that in well under 6 months you could go from not riding at all to riding a century fairly comfortably if you build up steadily as described above.

I got to 60 miles pretty quickly but didn't push myself to do my first century for a number of years after that. I then just decided to do it and stepped up 40 miles in one go. It wasn't hard to do because my 60 milers were very hilly and the century ride was the relatively flat Manchester 100.

Good luck!

 

[Sam Kennedy]

Oh, this isn't a plan for me specifically, I was just wondering if it would be possible to take someone who struggled to cycle 1 mile to cycling 100 miles in 1 year, but I thought it could be helpful for people already going longer distances and wanting to push themselves.

There's some excellent input though, thanks guys!
I'll probably create something similar to get me from 45 up to 100 in 3 months

I was thinking that the start is too slow, I reckon I should make it steeper.

 

[Norm]

To reiterate what has been said, 1 mile a week for 5 weeks! That's only (duh) 5 miles total distance covered in 5 weeks.

I know that a lot depends on machinery, time and speed but even my kids (younger one aged 9) can ride 10 miles in one go without thinking about it.

Unless you start off being dangerously unfit, I'd suggest starting with 30 minutes slow to moderate riding three times a week. A little less than Colin suggests above, probably only going to cover 5 miles in that time but that is to allow for anyone seriously unfit.

 

[gbb]

What i found Sam was that early on you reach a point, say 10 miles, that's hard. (bearing in mind i was 40ish at the time and had'nt cycled any distance for years).
You feel the same when you do the same ride maybe 3 or 5 days later......and maybe the same again the next week.
Then...all of a sudden you're doing 15 / 20 / 25 miles within a couple of weeks, without the pain. It's still hard, but you're enjoying it.
Its surprising once you get the legs how quickly you can extend the mileage. As always tho....remember to take time to recover.

 

[gbb]

Another important issue is how hard or fast you want to do the 100 miles.
I usually dont do more than 45 miles (albeit fast) The most i'd done was 52 miles.
A few weeks ago i had a day off and just rode where my nose took me, nice and steady. Not slow, but a reasonable pace. I did 78 miles without even breaking into a sweat. Probably averaged 14mph over the whole ride.
If you reduce the effort, and accordingly the speed by just a mile or two per hour, your body can just keep going and going.

 

[TVC]

Sam, that plan is far too slack You should be able to work up to 100 miles in six months.

My view has always been (since I did it anyway) that once you get so far (40-50 miles) the whole thing becomes more about fuel and pace than about fitness. You should be able to easily get to doing 40-50 mile runs by increasing your distance by 5 miles a week. By then you should have accidently worked out what happens to your body when you run low on fuel or water, and discovered what foods work best to keep your energy up.

 

[jig-sore]

50 miles a week for 1 week
55 miles a week for 1 week
60 miles a week for 1 week
65 miles a week for 1 week
70 miles a week for 1 week
75 miles a week for 1 week
80 miles a week for 1 week
90 miles a week for 1 week

do you seriously think that after 8 weeks of doing that sort of mileage your going to be in a state to do....

100 miles a week for 1 week

 

[andyfromotley]

assuming flatsh terrian and no health problems that waaaaaaaaaaaay too easy. particularly the beginning bits.

 

[Spinney]

Sam - it's not quite clear whether you are aiming to ride 100 miles in a week (say, by 5 20 mile rides), or if you are aiming to be able to ride 100 miles in one day's ride.

If you are going to work on it, it might be clearer if you set out your program something like:

Week 1: 2 x 30 min rides
Week 2: 3 x 30 min rides
.
.
Week 6: 2 x 10 mile rides, 1 x 15 mile ride

etc

and you would also have to factor in (for your hypothetical unfit person), when they will have the time to cycle. If they can only do evenings and one ride on a weekend, the evening rides might never get above 20 miles or so, just because of the time available. This isn't necessarily a problem, as the aim for the evening rides could be to develop speed, or to use some local hills...