| Biking a hundred miles in a single day, sometimes | | | | my longest ride. I still kept it to 100 miles a week |
| called a bicycle century, is quite a feat. Many put it up | | | | roughly so as not to overtrain. I had a date chosen in |
| there with running a marathon. However there is one | | | | late September, but for various reasons it didn't work |
| big difference; almost anyone can do it. It's lower | | | | it. My longest rides were around 70 miles, which took |
| impact than running long distances, and although it | | | | me about 5 hours. |
| takes a long time, even an overweight middle aged | | | | I set my site on the next year. Once the snow was |
| man like me can do it. A person of average or below | | | | gone I did the same as the previous year, and by |
| average fitness can train and do it, and in the | | | | early June was biking 60-70 mile days and feeling |
| process get fit, lose weight, and feel great. | | | | great. In late June, on an unplanned day, I biked 20 |
| First you need a bike. A road bike is ideal as a | | | | miles and decided to just go for it. The first 70 miles |
| mountain bike with its fatter tires makes it much | | | | were not tough as I'd done it before many times. |
| tougher. I'll admit my wife thought I was crazy and | | | | The last 30 were not hard either as I had adrenaline |
| I'd never finish, perhaps dropping dead in the process, | | | | on my side and quite honestly if you can bike 70 |
| but my doctor gave me the go ahead and I went | | | | miles happily, you can probably bike 100. |
| for it. | | | | I and many others feel that a person of average |
| I trained over approximately a year as I hadn't ridden | | | | fitness, or even less as when I started out, can bike |
| a bike much since I was a kid. The first few months | | | | 100 miles in a day. Check with your doctor first, do |
| I just concentrated on having fun, and biking is fun. I | | | | some research and set up a training plan, and have |
| started in April after the snow was gone and I built | | | | fun. I did have fun and got into much better shape, |
| up to biking 4-5 times a week, often during lunch of | | | | loosing weight as well in the process. Last year I did |
| before work, and started averaging 100 miles a | | | | a 150 mile ride, and have set my sites on 175 miles |
| week. This is a far cry from doing 100 miles in a day. | | | | this year. If I can do it, a fat old dude who never |
| After building my base fitness, I started biking longer | | | | was an athlete, and have fun, than you probably can |
| distances, added approximately 5 miles a week to | | | | too. |