How do I get there from here?

Another bike entry. Sorry. I will get round to writing about swimming at some point. I might even get round to swimming...

But for now I am still thinking about cycling. And that may be the problem. I think a lot about cycling; in fact I think about cycling a great deal more than I actually cycle.

So where is it that I want to get to? Well, I want to get to the point where I can cycle 200km in a single day. Surely that should be possible? But I think that I might be a bit scared of the very idea of cycling so far, because I never get anywhere near to addressing this goal.

So I am trying to formulate a plan. If I were aiming for a goal weekly mileage for running I could find endless plans and suggestions, most of which boil down to  "increase your mileage by no more than 10% each week, and periodically back off a bit before building up again at no more than 10% a week...". But cycling isn't like running; there doesn't seem to be such a rule of thumb.

I am hoping that this is because if I increase my running mileage too quickly I will break, but I can increase my cycling mileage at any rate that I like, because cycling doesn't break you. At least, provided that you don't fall off.

I think this means I have to invent my own plan and see how it goes, hope that it doesn't break me, and back off if it gets too hard.

So here it is, a 3 month plan to get me up to 200km. It is very simple; I assume one big ride at the weekend, and some background rides of about 30 miles in the week.

Week	Total miles	Long ride – distance	Long ride – time
1	60	30	2 hours 30
2	66	36	3 hrs
3	73	43	3 hours 30
4	80	50	4 hours
5	90	60	5 hours
6	100	70	6 hours
7	110	80	6 hours 30
8	120	90	7 hours 30
9	132	102	8 hours 30
10	145	115	10 hours
11	160	125 (200km)	11 hours

By increasing the total mileage at a rate of about 10% a week, but keeping the background volume the same, I get to increase the long rides a bit more than 10% a week. Now whether I should drop down a distance or two every 6 weeks or so, then start increasing again, I'm not sure, so I will see how much this hurts. I may also miss a few rides because of other commitments, so some pauses may be added that are out of my control. I also need to bear in mind that I am entirely incapable of following any training plan...

The other point is that I'm not interested in speed, so I'm not doing any speed specific training. Which flies in the face of convention; but I'm not planning to race.


And the answer to the question posed in the title of the post is obvious. How do I get there from here? By getting on my bike and riding instead of thinking about it...