How far do you ride

pingu66

I am riding for fitness at the moment to get a little beef off. Now I can comfortably ride 10-15miles at about 13mph on canal paths type surfaces.

Just wondering typically how far you guys ride how often and what speeds you are getting so I can gauge my fitness levels.

Dave_P1

Ignore average speeds unless your comparing your own times to see how you've improved. Too many factors come into play when trying to compare average speed, e.g. terrain.

Neal_

I've been doing the same thing for the same reason and am now very close to where I want to be. I've been getting out 3 times a week and am now doing about 25km at 25km/h with 250m climbing although that's on road, I'm doing similar distances on the trails but with half the speed and much more climbing. Being able to ride the trails faster without dying of exhaustion has been my motivation but tracking all your rides on Strava is great to keep you going.

pingu66

Geez Meal what bike you on 25km/h! Or what tyres Im on a 29er and cant sustain that kind of speed.

ilovedirt

Depends what mood I'm in, sometimes 10 miles or so, sometimes 30 (albeit rarely).

brindlescoops

pingu66 wrote:

I am riding for fitness at the moment to get a little beef off. Now I can comfortably ride 10-15miles at about 13mph on canal paths type surfaces.

Just wondering typically how far you guys ride how often and what speeds you are getting so I can gauge my fitness levels.

In the same position. Beef coming off nicely. Gone from doing 4-5 miles and being knackered, to doing 20 at somewhere like Swinley Forest or 14 at somewhere like Cannock Chase. On a road I havent done more than about 20, out of boredom more than anything else but can do it without really breaking a sweat. Gawd knows at what speed though! i truly believe Mountain Biking has saved my life!

mcnultycop

I started doing a 10k route near me (at 24 stone, 2 years ago) which took ages at first (it is hilly). I then took that out to a 16k route and it get's progressively quicker each time. I did Red then Blue at Llandegla last week which is about 30k, and felt OK at the end of it. I tried that in November and could hardly even drive home. Just ride what you want to ride, pushing yourself a bit more each time.

sloppycowpat

10 miles a day, depends on work etc, and then maybe 3 rides of 15 to 20 miles for fun and if i am bored or feel that i have been inside to long a 5 mile sprint to blast out the cobwebs

tend to do a 50 mile road ride every couple of weeks if i feel like it :oops: but would rather ride offroad so do that more

matt@theforce

Anywhere from 4 - 35miles. Any ride over 10miles usually includes approx 1000ft of climbing over the duration of the ride

Neal_

pingu66 wrote:

Geez Neal what bike you on 25km/h! Or what tyres Im on a 29er and cant sustain that kind of speed.

Carrera Vulcan with a Maxxis Advantage on the front and Maxxis Crossmark on the back which is a superb rear tyre, last nights ride was 28km at 26.2km/h wich is my furthest and fastest average speed road ride yet I have been riding all through winter so have put the work in, I was doing about 20km/h 6 months ago. The key for me increasing my strength and speed has been repeatedly riding up hills as hard as I can, your legs and lungs need to be screaming!

I'll be doing my biggest off road ride so far on Sunday with people who are way fitter than me so hopefully I'll be able to hold my own.

delcol

i try to get out daily if i can mon-fri on the road bike i do anything from 7-20 mile depending on time and mood mainly i stick to a 20 mile loop. i got it down to around 1hr10 mins average 18mph...

i am going to up this though to try and get fitter i want to be fitter for summer i gonna extend my loop to around 30 mile.
i have noticed the impact on my off road riding since i started putting in the miles in the week. i now clear climbs i struggled with before and have more power in my legs and my lungs are better..

1mancity2

Depends on the type of riding, xc around 20miles off road but if were doing DH/Jumps around 7-8 and your knackered after this, takes so much out of you compared to xc, so all down to what terrain etc.

njee20

It's a pretty meaningless comparison to be honest.

Apart from riding into our regional office, which is 10 miles, I rarely do less than 20 miles on a ride. 2 rides a week of 45 miles (one ride to/from London), a mountain bike ride of anything up to 60 miles, depending on time available and what not, the odd 60+ mile road ride if I use the road bike at the weekend.

Typical road average is 17-19mph, MTB is usually 10-12mph.

styxd

Its going to be hard to compare really, as it all depends on the hills!

My usual quick blast after work on the road bike is about 29 miles which I can do in about 1 hour 20 mins if I cane it. Its not particularly hilly though. I think thats a 21.75mph average.

I did 60miles at the weekend up some big hills, my average speed was nowhere near that!

jehosophat

I go by time not distance. I try and do two hours (all my rides tend to be mostly or all off road except in the depths of winter). I often end up only doing 1hour 20-30 minutes but I don't mind that if I was pushing and I am managing 3 rides a week not two, as long as one is 2 hours.

In the summer months I do the odd longer ride, 3 hours plus, such as from here in Winchester along to Old Winchester Hill and back along the South Downs, or to Black Wood then a full lap of it (which is 90 mins or so of proper off road - a motocross enduro track) then back home. That sort of thing is a bit of a killer and my wife and daughter are usually on my case the next day for being grumpy!

angry_bird

Depends. I don't do much riding what with uni so I'm rarely in great condition when it comes to endurance. When I'm home a typical ride will be between 15-25 miles, on the road bike closer to the 40-50 mile mark and I very rarely ever tend to do more than 50 as I get bored on the road bike.

Having said that occasionally I'll just go for a longer ride for the sake of it on the mountain bike. I mean if I ride to Cannock for the day I'm looking at riding 60-70 miles in a day depending on what routes I do when i get there, and it'll be a whole day I'm out for. While it's not particularly hilly it turns out canal towpaths can get very tiring after a while... just riding for miles and miles over sort of bumpy grass followed by the trails up there, and then the same old bumpy grass on the way back. That kills me a bit.

felix.london

At the moment still snowboarding and/or biking everyday but from next week (when the lifts close for the winter season) I'll be doing about 20km per day, 5 days a week on natural trails with 300-400m of vertical (1200m up to 1600m and down again) and then one 30km ride per week going up to about 2000-2100m

...until the lifts open for the summer season then it'll be DH every day for the summer and back to the XC in the autumn..then back on the board in the winter...happy days

peat

Evenings - 10-15 miles
Weekends - 20-30 miles

In one direction i have The Ridgeway and the hills that go wth that, the other is a huge flat(ish) Vale. Which way i go is dependant on how im feeling/weather.

felix.london

Funny how a thread like this can make you wanna get out there and ride. Just thinking about the routes I do gets me in the mood...and I found a tasty bit of singletrack yesterday which needs to be explored further

njee20

Depends. I don't do much riding what with uni so I'm rarely in great condition when it comes to endurance.

Change course, I did by far the most riding when I was at Uni :-)

diy

Yep I was also fittest at Uni - used to spend about 15 hours a week in the gym.

My typical sunday mtb ride 30-40miles off road and about 1500ft climb.

I'm training to try to do the randonee 100 miles 10,000ft climb in under 12 hours. I have managed under 13, but last year was 14hrs due to mud and rain.

typical week.
24 miles on the road bike under 1.5 hours
1-2 sessions of 45 mins sprinting on the turbo
30-40 miles at the weekend on the mtb - 4-4.5hrs
then anything else I can manage.

Some weeks it can be just 1 session on the turbo and the weekend ride. This weekend was tough tho' as I did 42 miles in the mud and haven't recovered yet.

njee20

Aren't you a Surrey Hills/Swinley local? It's never that muddy there!

angry_bird

njee20 wrote:

Depends. I don't do much riding what with uni so I'm rarely in great condition when it comes to endurance.

Change course, I did by far the most riding when I was at Uni :-)

Git Should get better next year when I move out of the city. Just don't get the time/space to ride down here, I'm not saying that I'm massively unfit, I'm still very active, just not on the bike and I can feel it, sadly running isn't a great substitute for riding :roll:

njee20

Which city? I didn't do much mountain biking at all when I lived in the city centre, mainly due to lack of space to clean bikes etc, but did tonnes of road riding - find a nice way out onto the quiet roads.

I found I did longer rides, because it took c45 minutes to get to the quiet roads, so every ride was at least 2 hours or it wasn't worth going out!

angry_bird

London. Right smack in the centre. I would probably ride a bit but can't fit a bike down there, not even room for a BMX in the flat

felix.london

Angry Bird wrote:

London. Right smack in the centre. I would probably ride a bit but can't fit a bike down there, not even room for a BMX in the flat

what about this?

angry_bird

felix.london wrote:

Angry Bird wrote:

London. Right smack in the centre. I would probably ride a bit but can't fit a bike down there, not even room for a BMX in the flat

what about this?

I'm tempted by the Evel Knievel model...

felix.london

poppin wheelies on campus...yeeehaaa!

diy

njee20 wrote:

I found I did longer rides, because it took c45 minutes to get to the quiet roads, so every ride was at least 2 hours or it wasn't worth going out!

That's how it is for me - its roughly 14 miles off-road to get to BKB from where I live, so I have min 2 hours before I start. Its quicker by road, but I'm still running my winter set-up (blue groove rear, Nevagal front) and its just no fun riding them on tarmac. Particularly now that I have experienced road bike speeds. The MTB just feels like I'm towing a car behind me, by comparison.

welshkev

i started off in january doing 10km rides and tbh struggling as i hadn't ridden regulary for months and months.

i now ride at least twice a week (sometimes as much as 4 times) and can easily do a 25km mountain ride, i did a 35km ride 2 weeks ago and even though i was really tired at the end i did it

riding with other people has helped me no end and also mixing up the people i ride with so there's different levels and i have to push myself to try and keep up

njee20

That's how it is for me - its roughly 14 miles off-road to get to BKB from where I live, so I have min 2 hours before I start.

Only if you start your rides at BKB surely?! That sounds like a great situation, assuming you come from the north you've got some excellent trails to ride over on. I'd hardly say that's a chore! When I lived in Cranleigh I never drove up to the hills! I'm now 16 miles on the road, with no viable off road alternative, from Peaslake, and that's more rubbish, still do it if I've got the time.

14 miles from Peaslake in any direction still puts you in some very nice countryside, hardly the urban jungle!

Then again I know plenty of people who drive up to Peaslake from Ewhurst, must take longer than riding, ridiculous! Epitome of the Surrey Hills mountain biker stereotype I guess!