My fitness is at rock bottom and I’m now in a much better position to concentrate on it a lot more.

At the moment I am riding (road) twice in the week Tuesday/Thursday, usually around 15 to 20 miles or so, often commuting to work. Then a weekend ride of around 30 to 40 miles.

Is this a good starting point?

My goal is to be able to undertake a weekend ride of 60 to 100 miles. I have done some reading online, but to be honest I am getting bogged down with it all and just need something a lot simpler.

So any advice would be appreciated…. 😉

^ is not rock bottom.

I would bet that you could already do a 60 mile road ride, just allow time and reduce the pace from your current 40 mile jaunt.

same for 100miles – you would get round. if you want to be doing it at pace, build up in stages, plus do one of your commute rides ‘flat out’

Is this a good starting point?

For many of us, this would be a barely acheivable finishing point.

For the basic goal of completing a 100 miler ride you are already right on track. Just keep on building up the long weekend ride by 10% and you’ll be there in no time.
So if you can do 40 miles already, you can build up something like:
44, 48, 53, 26, 53, 58, 64, 32, 64, 70, 77, 38, 77, 85, 100

No need to worry too much about HR zones etc to begin with – they are more for getting faster once you’ve already got some solid riding under your belt.

Make sure to plan to take on ~250kcal/hr of food and 500ml/hr of liquid on the longer rides, and adjust to suit as you gain experience.

You’re doing about as much as I’m doing, and I was feeling quite good about myself 🙁 Indeed, you’re doing basically what I did in the build up to the two times I’ve done RideLondon100

If you can do the 40 miles comfortabley, you’ll do 60 miles pretty easily. The 100 just needs some building up to, using the weekend rides. I’d bet you could go 40/60/60/80/100 over consecutive weekends. Just take your time and eat as you go (actual food, sandwiches and the like, not gels’n’shite)

I think because my weekday rides have been a bit hit and miss over the last 10 months or so I have struggled with the weekend rides….

The last 2 Sunday rides have only been around 30 miles as I seem to be struggling/suffering a lot more than in the past.

This also buggered up my sleeping pattern over the weekends (which was a separate post on STW), overdosing on weekend exercise, leading back to poor fitness….

actual food, sandwiches and the like, not gels’n’shite

There is a middle ground there somewhere.
Both have their places.
Eating nothing but gels for 6hrs would be stupid.
Likewise trying to eat a sandwich whilst red-lining up a climb would be equally stupid.

I think because my weekday rides have been a bit hit and miss over the last 10 months or so I have struggled with the weekend rides….

Regularity is important – a little and often is better than binge and burst.
Until you are sort out the regularity, you’ll find it hard to make the improvements to up the distance at the weekends.

OP, your idea of “rock bottom” was like a mountain to me back in January, when I started my quest to try and get fit again! 😆

I started with short rides, going up a few local hills, such as https://www.strava.com/activities/837233205 on my second recreational ride.

I then got a HRM in early Feb and did rides such as https://www.strava.com/activities/859506378

Towards end of March, I continued with the very local theme, with a few more hills https://www.strava.com/activities/913985271

Only in April did I start to venture further afield, getting away from traffic and traffic lights made such a positive difference! https://www.strava.com/activities/954780195

Then I bought the bargain disc brake road bike in early May, making me far more aero and further improving my average speed on the flat around the B2177 https://www.strava.com/activities/975281206

It was only in June I discovered the cat4 hills up on the South Downs, surpassing 50 miles a few times completely by accident after losing my way, but my current favourite route is https://www.strava.com/activities/1068540608

These days, I try to extend my commute home to tackle a few of those local hills (including an almost cat4 up Bassett Green Rd and a real cat4 up Mansbridge Rd), do at least one 40+ mile ride per week and 1/2 10+ mile flat blasts up Allington Lane (unless I do my South Downs ride midweek and Sunday) for ~115 miles total per week… Except I’ve been rather slack the last two weeks and only done ~70 miles total!

But your opening posts suggests that you are still in better bike shape than me, I come back off my South Downs ~47 mile ride absolutely wrecked! 😉

But your opening posts suggests that you are still in better bike shape than me, I come back off my South Downs ~47 mile ride absolutely wrecked!

I was probably holding back on the words a little….I was also ‘wrecked’ last weekend after 32 miles!! 😉

Hopefully I will have a lot more regularity from this point forward, I was just getting frustrated and disheartened, hence the ‘rock bottom’ opening post … 🙄