whats your age & how many hours a week do you ride

miss notax

I feel a bit old after reading the first page, but i'm 36 and ride at least 6 hours a week (a couple of evenings or one evening plus a day longer ride, or weekend in Wales etc).

I would love to spend more time on the bike, but sadly working full time and general life *stuff* gets in the way :?

free

Man, you guys make me feel bad.

I'm 29 and I'm lucky if I get a couple of hours in a week. Usually only get out once a week on the Downhill Course.

I need another bike to do something else - XC/Trail etc.

Anonymous

To old, and judging by my belly, not enough.

Well, 38 and I guess I'm out for an average of just 5 hours per week. It varies a lot though. Winter it's mostly just the weekend warrior stuff so typically a session on a Saturday or Sunday when people are up for a ride, which would be about 5 hours. Come summer and days are long, can get out during the evenings, people are more tempted at weekends, make trips to places further away with longer sessions. Don't know, anything from 5 to 15 per week.

At least assuming I don't get obsessed about getting out as much as possible, over do it and land in hospital wiping out a couple of months riding (as did).

Oh, and that's the number of hours out there. I may be on the bike, but doesn't mean I'm always moving

RevellRider

I'm 31 and it's anything between 10 and 20 hours a week. It's a right mixture of road riding, commuting, trail riding, bmx and 4x track,

angry_bird

I'm 20 and it depends where I am, when I'm down at uni I'm lucky to get 2-3 tops IF I have the bike down here, or the occasional jaunt on a boris bike, really need to get a turbo so I can watch lectures and pedal at the same time

In the holidays, as much or as little as I like dependant on EMS. First couple of weeks of easter break I put in about 25 hours each week, but then I had nothing else to do and could just get up, ride to cannock, do a few laps and ride home or bung the bike in the car and head to the peaks.

While I was lambing I was lucky to manage 5 or 6 hours a week. Over summer I'll be comuting to my equine placement, and probably putting in a fair few evening rides so I guess easily in the low 20s possibly getting near the 30s if I'm lucky/have any energy left/approve of the weather conditions. Or that's the plan anyway.

njee20

There's a lot of people doing big hours here, I assume they're either phenomenal riders or slightly optimistic!

I'm 24 and do around 8-10 hours generally.

RevellRider

Not really big hours, probably 6-7 hours a week commuting, a couple of post work rides add another 2-3 hours a week. Trip to the girlfriends and back 1.5 hours each time. Then add some XC riding, a session at the BMX track and you're pushing close to the teens.

I also don't drive so the bike gets used for everything including shopping runs

MattJWL

34 (yep, 77 was a great year).

10-20 hours a week normally. On & off-road in the Alps (or in-between them, more like). Interspersed with weight training, & a bit of running (but I'm even worse at that than I am on a bike).

angry_bird

njee20 wrote:

There's a lot of people doing big hours here, I assume they're either phenomenal riders or slightly optimistic!.

Or they have lots of time on their hands and nothing else to do?

Personally I generally don't get to ride much during term time, so in the holidays I like be saddle as much as possible. Once I get to 3rd/4th/5th year I get about 6 weeks holiday each year, including time for revision. The rest of the time I'll be on clinical rotations or EMS working stupid hours, then I have to get a proper job... Need to enjoy myself while I can

njee20

The 40 hours is an average when I'm really into it as has often been the case in the last 2 years, right now I'm not as I'm injured and also getting into running, the running can take away from the bike hours as you can achieve good fitness levels much quicker in running time than cycling.

Why dont you learn how to fix your bike in your spare time?

I must say I don't really get how anyone can do 40 hours riding a week and not be stunningly fit!

evo3ben

I'm 35 and spend around 6-14 hours riding a week. Varies alot to be honest as depends on work and family commitments. It is hard working full time and having a family, kids, pets lol and to keep everyone happy plus get time to do your own thing.

doug@basqueMTB.com

njee, it's easy... just riding at a fairly low intensity most of the time. To get fast I think I would have to drop my hours a lot and ride at higher intensity.

Mental Mickey

njee20 wrote:

Why dont you learn how to fix your bike in your spare time?

Because some of it is quite technical to deal with, needs the right tools (specialist) buying etc....then there's the lack of room in my shed as already discussed, I suspect you are ankle biting on purpose though.


I may not be very good at mechanics, but I'm certainly good at paying those who are, If I had a pound for every thread I've seen on forums where some guy took on the job himself, messed it up, then realised he was in too deep, then I'd have enough coins to pay for the next couple of years worth of services I reckon, so those of you that keep banging on about 'learn to do it yourself' can shove it quite frankly.

njee20 wrote:

I must say I don't really get how anyone can do 40 hours riding a week and not be stunningly fit!

This would be because you perhaps don't see the bigger picture?

If I'm out for say 6 - 8 hours in a day, that does not mean I'm spending the whole time riding up hills and slogging away, I could stop and rest, I could be just pootling about, I also do not believe (based on my own experience) that cycling alone just sheds all that weight and get you 'stunningly fit' as you put it, otherwise there would not be the enormous amount of fat mountain bikers in existence than you can find while out on the trails, plenty of them put plenty of time in with the cycling, but are still rather rotund.

It was when I started running, that I realised I wan't that fit after all, but I suspect you know this, I suspect, once again, you are deliberately ankle biting.

Anonymous

Ankle biting, does not mean what I think you think it means.

Rich Hcp

I'm 45 and 11/12ths...

I get out twice during the week, work permitting for an hour-ish and then do a longer 2-3 hours at the weekends.

Depending on how I feel it could be on my roadie or MTB.

Concentrating on the MTB more because we're off to the Peak District in a couple of weeks

njee20

If you're out for 6-8 hours, but stopping for 3 of those it's a 5 hour ride at best, no...?

I kinda assumed people meant time spent riding your bike, not out of the house away from your bike!

The number of fat mountain bikers is because they don't burn off more calories than they consume. They get out a couple of times a week, may be out for 5 hours, with 3 hours riding. They eat stuff on the ride to keep them going, then have a few pints and a burger when they finish.

That's rather different to riding 6 hours a day 7 days a week, when even at a low intensity you'll be burning 3000 calories a day.

Anyway, why not join the CC Endomondo distance thread, you'd destroy everyone.

Anonymous

Not all of us get on a bike, ride hard and don't stop until the end. Many do it for leisure, social reasons and bit of exercise but not some big fitness regime. That means, meet up, ride a load of trails, have fun, stop, chat for a bit, take in the view, ride some more, stop, have lunch, chat, ride a bit more, etc. And even then the riding in some places are ride a short trail fast, stop at the end, wait for everyone to catch up, then move on to the next bit which may involve a slow paced fireroad or road journey, then ride the next trail.

In other words, the actual riding time is fairly low. I can tell this on my rides from my GPS. It only tracks when moving, and on a 5 hour ride day it will often log 1.5 to 2 hours actual riding, even though it seems more.

Duki

49 and I'm one of those fat blokes you see mountain biking 'round the trails!!

I ride to work most days but it's only a short 2.5mile commute but I work shifts which make finding time for other rides difficult. Sometimes during the summer and I'm on an early turn I will ride in on my road bike and then after work me and a colleague will go for a road ride for a couple of hours.

Since I bought the new Mountain bike some months back I have put a few more off road hours in and hit some of the trails, Dalbeattie, Mabie and LLandegla and yesterday I spent a pleasant 4.5 hrs with the so called "Unfit" chaps pushing my bike up the Peak Districts and eating grass on the way down.

I also have to fit my biking in around my other obsession that is fishing and being dads taxi for my daughter who swims and plays cricket.

robertpb

Dinosaurus Mountainbikus of 60, I ride about 9 hours a week.

Weekend ride of about 4-5 hours at a fast pace, with a few stops if it's a group ride to regroup, otherwise on my own a 10 minute break.

Couple of 2 hour plus rides in the week.

MattJWL

Angry Bird wrote:

Or they have lots of time on their hands and nothing else to do?

Bingo!
Language school takes up around 3-4 hours / day. So I'm making the most of the extra time before I get back into work & have no life again. That said, when I was working, I also rode a lot, but quite a lot of commuting (worked out various off-road routes & in summer would detour / make big variations) so total time in the saddle was also pretty high but lesser quality (and usually less fun if you know you're riding into work).

Sad Boy

42 and doing 5-6 hours a week in the summer less in the winter when i get my fishing head on.

Not sure id ever get time to do more unless i win the lottary

pastey_boy

im 500 years old and ride a bike for 2,000,000 hours a week.

SUPERSUTT

reyrol wrote:

66 & 4-6hrs hard riding but will substitute a run if its raining

well most of us should be ashamed of doin 6 or 6 hours a week we all need to take leaf out of reyol,s book if hes 66 and doin 4-6 hours we should be doin more i know its hard as like me we all have jobs and family. take this weekend i could only manage 4 hours cos the wife striped the hall stairs and landing so i have to decorate it now

MattJWL

pastey_boy wrote:

im 500 years old and ride a bike for 2,000,000 hours a week.

Attaboy. Actually, I start riding again before I'm finished...

Obviously, as a lot of people here have said, they're "out on the bike", which means, roughly translated, "riding". Including chitchats, view stops, etc etc.

All of which is very different to spending 3 hours in HR Zone 4. That's one of the reasons that the concept of training load was invented, otherwise it's not possible to understand how hard people are working. Even measuring miles/km/altitude doesn't necessarily help much without measuring a vast number of variables, by which time we're all bored & forgot why we asked....

Excluding cycling into town every day (cos I don't wear a HRM when going to the shops. Not even I'm that sad), my average TL per week (according to Polar) is around 800-1000

cooldad

Except some of just ride for pleasure as DK said. No interest in HR zones or whatever TL's are.
Just give me a great bit of singletrack.

doug@basqueMTB.com

Amen to that Cooldad, add in some nice people to ride with and somewhere scenic to sit and eat my lunch.

MattJWL

cooldad wrote:

Except some of just ride for pleasure as DK said. No interest in HR zones or whatever TL's are.
Just give me a great bit of singletrack.

That's my point. Different types of riding.

Anonymous

njee20 wrote:

If you're out for 6-8 hours, but stopping for 3 of those it's a 5 hour ride at best, no...?

I kinda assumed people meant time spent riding your bike, not out of the house away from your bike!

The number of fat mountain bikers is because they don't burn off more calories than they consume. They get out a couple of times a week, may be out for 5 hours, with 3 hours riding. They eat stuff on the ride to keep them going, then have a few pints and a burger when they finish.

That's rather different to riding 6 hours a day 7 days a week, when even at a low intensity you'll be burning 3000 calories a day.

Anyway, why not join the CC Endomondo distance thread, you'd destroy everyone.

Got to agree with Njee here.
I ride to work. Do 8-14 hours at work, then ride home. And the ride to/from takes almost an hour ata casual pace. Does that mean that in a regular day, I'd be doing 10 hours riding? Of course not. I do nearly two hours.

The number of fat mountain bikers reflects the fact that most mountain bikers do it for kicks, and fun, rather than any fitness reason.

Anonymous

Fun first always. If it was just a chore for fitness I'd struggle to get out at all. That's why I don't understand lycra clad road racing with head down staring at your front wheel or the rear of the guy in front. No fun, not enjoying the scenery, may as well just go to the gym (which is no fun either, hence I don't go to the gym).

Give me something fun to chuck myself down, that's all that matters. Just have the ambulance on stand by.

cooldad

I'm not fat, just have big bones. Especially in my stomach.