silves1171 said:
Prior to cycling I was a couch potato. I've been riding 70-100 miles per week for the past couple months, and am in the process of building my base. Unfortunately the weather in Northern Virginia hasn't been cooperating lately, and it's been hard to get out and ride. I don't have a trainer, but in occasions I use an elliptical machine.
As for short term goals, other than short races throughout the year I want to try a road century prior to the SM100 (maybe in April or May).
There is often a bit of hesitancy on the forum to squash people's ambitions, especially if they're new to mtb riding. But, in this case truthfulness may save you a lot of pain/anguish. A mid-30's couch potato in his second full year of mtb riding, with especially no more riding than you did in your first year, would be looking at a very high probability of failure at least, or injury at worst, by trying to bite off something like the SM100 in your second year.
If you were asking if it was possible to train for/complete a road century in one year, I'd tell you that you could do it w/ about 3 months of training. An mtb century is different. Much more difficult and many more things that can go wrong. In some sense the advice that you see for running applies, in that there is a limit to how much you should increase your mileage without hurting yourself. If you asked us if you could go from couch potato to running a marathon in one year, after having run no more than 10-15 miles a week in your first year of running, no one would say it's a good idea. The top endurance racers in the country can barely break 7 hours at the SM 100 (and that's assuming optimal conditions) and most experienced racers are taking between 8 to 11 hours. A first-timer would likely take over 12 to 14 hours to finish the ride.
I'm not saying you can't do it, or that others in similar situations haven't done it, but the odds are very much against you. Have you considered shooting for something a bit easier/shorter for a more realistic goal for this year? As a suggestion, perhaps you could find a 12 hour, or even 6 hour mtb event in your area that runs multiple laps. Go give it a try and see just how difficult it is to spend that much time riding your bike offroad. At least if it's a multi-lap event, you can stop whenever appropriate w/out having to be rescued from some distant point.
