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How Many Miles?


Nate

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so this time of year a lot of folks are getting out for the first time this season, or even the first time ever, and you can hear a lot of talk about miles other people ride

 

so how many miles should you ride?

 

Like a lot of things, there's no simple answer. you see, your body doesn't really register miles, but it does register how much time is spent at what level of exertion. When you are starting out, it really is WAY better to ride more often than it is to ride really far.

 

The truth is that pretty much any human in decent physical shape could pedal a bike 100 miles. The question is how much are you going to enjoy it and what are you going to feel like tomorrow and the day after that!

 

There is also always the chance of an injury. If I am 20 miles from home and on the wrong side of the ridge when my knee starts hurting, I'll have to tear it up to get back home. So on a long ride where you are far away from any form of salvation, you can actually hurt yourself

 

There is a rule of thumb that you can always ride 3 times your daily ride distance without worrying about hurting yourself. so before you go on a 50 mile group ride, you would want to be riding 15-20 miles a day

 

Another thing about miles goes back to what I said earlier, your body doesn't know how many miles you rode, just how long and how hard you were riding them! That means 20 miles through the mountains is more like 40 miles in the open farm fields for your recovery

 

You also don't have to ride the same distance every day. In fact, breaking it up is better for you. For example, I might ride 5 days one week. One ride was 45 miles, two rides were 25 miles and hilly and two rides were 15 miles of easy riding. That's a 125 miles for the week, 500 miles for the month. That's a lot of miles, but I took 2 days completely off and had 2 rides of just an hour. that's what I'm talking about. In a week I like to have a hard day on one of the weekend days and another in the middle of the week, Wednesday preferred. the rest of the week I'm just out easy spinning.

 

while you might ask "how many miles do you ride a day" the better way to look at it is miles in a week and miles for the month. Its those longer periods that really tell you what you are doing.

 

So go and ride, ride more often, and ride miles that suit you

 

remember, just 50 miles a week is over 2500 miles for the year ;)

 

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I tell people who are starting to just put in as many miles as they can.  I tell them not to worry about speed, that will come along with endurance but you have to put on the miles.

 

How many miles?  I'm on year 3.  First year was a hybrid.  Moved up to a big boy road bike last year.  Didn't get any faster.  This year I feel a lot stronger, but I'm only a little faster.

 

2012

210 lbs

1100 miles

13.1 average

 

2013

205 lbs

2800 miles

13.5 average

 

2014

190 lbs

1500 miles (so far)

14.7 average

 

Those are my average speeds, not my average moving speeds which is obviously a higher.

 

I'm currently 50 years old.  How long until my average speed is 20?  ;)

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You ride the miles you simply want to ride.  I don't ride for others.  I happen to really get off knowing that I just rode 80 miles on my Saturday to some remote town but I didn't always feel that way.  I rode solo and still do quite a bit for a long time for many reasons.  One of those is not worry about how many miles or what my speed is. I don't complete against anyone except sometimes with myself.   Today I own a GPS -- not for navigation -- but for tracking the places I do go on my bike.  I like having a map of the places I've ridden to -- mainly because I'm a nerd -- but computers and odometers in general can be a pain in the ass because you are riding against a measurement.  Looking back, it may be a good idea to shelve your odometer for awhile and just get out there and ride.

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My first ride of the year is usually between 12 and 40 miles. I stay somewhat in shape all winter so I don’t worry about that first ride. Temperature determines how far I ride more than anything else. I hate riding cold. I used to do a polar bear ride every New Year’s Day but gave it up for a swim that I can get in, take a short swim and get out.

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18 hours ago, Longjohn said:

My first ride of the year is usually between 12 and 40 miles. I stay somewhat in shape all winter so I don’t worry about that first ride. Temperature determines how far I ride more than anything else. I hate riding cold. I used to do a polar bear ride every New Year’s Day but gave it up for a swim that I can get in, take a short swim and get out.

My last ride of the year is usually the week between Xmas and New Years.  My first ride of the year is usually New Year's day.  I don't lose much fitness between the two rides :D

But, for sure, the miles drop off.  I go from 30+ mile rides, down to 18-30 miles rides.  Daylight becomes a factor, so weekends and days working from home are about the only safe times to ride once the temps get at or below freezing during the dark hours, since I need to ride during the light to see sketchy sections.

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I don't have the time to really put in long rides anymore. With work commitments, picking up the kid from daycare (which I do for the most part because my wife has a long commute and I don't), I might be able to get out to ride maybe twice during the weekdays and once on the weekends. But it's usually twice. Usually my 'long' ride on a weekend is maybe 40 miles, with my regular rides usually 20 or 25 at most. I'm tired a lot because things keep me up late and early to rise, so I sometimes just don't have the energy to ride very hard either. I have to keep it up to regain some energy, but it's hard when I might have to go 5 days without riding at all. I go to the gym sometimes, but I absolutely HATE using machines and the cycling ones are honestly the worst.  That being said, I've been slowly losing some of the Dad weight I gained after my son was born and I was able to get in a decently fast Metric century in early September, although I (due to not eating enough) bonked towards the end. 

I'm hoping with the coming of Spring I can have some fitness to hit a few group rides where I can be pushed a little bit more and get a bit faster. 

 

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