The same ride every week

fatsmoker

Was reading this on another thread:
"i do a 32 mile ride twice a week my average speed is 18.5 mph . its not very flat at least a 3rd up hill my best time is 1 hour 40 minutes"

And I wondered why he or anyone would do the same ride every week. Is that common? I like to find new routes, either through planning on mapmyride or through making a detour on a route I'm familiar with.

thegreatdivide

I have one 27 mile route that I'll do at least once a week. I've probably riden it several hundred times and because I know it really well it's used as the regular night route in the winter.

chris_bass

seeing as my office doesn't move much and i have about 4 or 5 routes which i generally take each day i probably do about 4 or 5 of the same route each week.

Also, i have a 35 miles route that if i don't have a lot of time and just want to get out at the weekends then its my default ride that i don't have to think about where i'm going.

gethinceri

I mainly work from home, I have a 20 mile route that I do fairly regularly when my working day finishes, it's a loop that I describe as my "commute". It serves to punctuate the end of a tough day and I either attack it as a TT or bimble around enjoying the ride dependant on how the day's been.

markhewitt1978

As a commute then of course, you don't know if that was a commute he was talking about?

But yeah for Sunday morning rides it's always somewhere different. But I can understand if you live in a particularly built up area with busy roads, once you've narrowed it down you might end up with just one viable stress free route.

cougie

I know theres a couple of London clubs who ride the same clubrun route every week. Bizarre.

In the winter I sometimes drift into doing a similar route most weeks - the fact that it ended in the best cafe in the area was probably something to do with it.

Elijah2010

believe it or not..I ride in Leicester,32 mile run,twice a week,average time18.5 mph,best time1 hour 40,what route do you do ? O h yes,about a third of mine is uphill as well !!!! lol.....regards ...Paul

JoostG

In my case it went the other way. I'm always looking for new goals to achieve. Using Strava premium with the addition of your personal heath map, I want to take as many new roads as possible, to create a labyrinth of blue lines. Fun and a little be freaky

whoof

I know a couple of clubs in Bristol who either do the same ride almost every week or alternate between two rides.

iPete

cougie wrote:

I know theres a couple of London clubs who ride the same clubrun route every week. Bizarre.

Whats bizarre, some of the clubs are huge and you'll have different people each week, then you are limited by the safest routes out into the country. Most clubs around here have 4-5 commonly used routes then lots of variation on those.

I'm sure its happens at plenty of clubs, there are only so many roads from a single starting point.

dinyull

Not the same exact route every week, but same area that has a few different roads to and from. Simply because I'm limited for good roads/terrain being stuck in the middle of city, river and the sea. 10 miles NW before a hint of the sticks, and 20-25 miles away from any decent climbing.

whoof

[/quote]

Whats bizarre, some of the clubs are huge and you'll have different people each week, then you are limited by the safest routes out into the country. Most clubs around here have 4-5 commonly used routes then lots of variation on those.

I'm sure its happens at plenty of clubs, there are only so many roads from a single starting point.[/quote]

It's bizarre in Bristol there are loads of routes in all directions and it's relatively easy to get out of.

davep1

My commute has 3 basic routes, but I am restricted by being near the coast, and having the South Downs between me and the sea. I have 2 north routes, one 10 miles, one 16. Both take in lovely quiet countryside; the longer one doesn't really have any hills, the shorter one has a couple of nasty short climbs.
The southerly route means going over the Downs (without a warm up, or going away from the Downs for 5-10 mins before going back towards them!) and then through a large town, followed by a blat up a busy dual carriageway. I don't go this way very often, but need the occasional fix of it. I wish I could vary them more, but only having an hour to play with in the mornings restricts further what geography hasn't already limited.
Weekend rides are nearly always different, but when you've been riding for 5 years in one area everywhere becomes familiar eventually.

fatsmoker

Elijah2010 wrote:

believe it or not..I ride in Leicester,32 mile run,twice a week,average time18.5 mph,best time1 hour 40,what route do you do ? O h yes,about a third of mine is uphill as well !!!! lol.....regards ...Paul

From Leicester you have great roads in all directions. Rutland to the east, Bradgate to the north, Market Bosworth to the west and Husbands Bosworth to the south, hence my original question. It seems strange to go on the same route unless as others have said it's a commute, riding at night when it's nice to know the roads or where geography limits the options.

mrbrightside

Literally depends on which way the winds blowing to which number of many routes i could take but i generally always make them differ slightly and latterly i have been doing the below!

JoostG wrote:

In my case it went the other way. I'm always looking for new goals to achieve. Using Strava premium with the addition of your personal heath map, I want to take as many new roads as possible, to create a labyrinth of blue lines. Fun and a little be freaky

iron-clover

When I was back in Guildford I did have a route that had a mix of rolling and flat terrain that had enough bends etc to keep things interesting that I used to do if I was either going for a quick night ride after uni or was short of time, but the basic route could be extended in a variety of ways if I felt like it.

Normally I like to go to a variety of places- I tend to get bored going to the same places over and over again.

Now I'm back in Portsmouth I miss being able to point in a direction and go- there are only 3 cycling routes off of the island, of which only 2 make any sense for me to use- one for going West or North, the other East and I'm now starting to get a bit bored as I spend a lot of time on the routes into and out of these bridges.

On the bright side because of Portsdown Hill acting as a natural barrier you will be in proper countryside within 6 miles of the city center if you head North- but to the East and West you have the South Coast conurbation to deal with...

petergettins

My commute is from East to West London & back every day and so there are probably 30 different routes I could take, but for about 10 years, I've gone the exact same way. I could do it blindfold now. I go right through the middle of central London, as it's the fastest route. Probably one of the busiest in terms of traffic, HGVs etc, and only 1 v short cycle path. As for my recreational & training rides, there's 1 general route of of East London towards Essex & I do pretty much the same general area, but change the route dependent on how far I want to go. Also going in the opposite direction of the circuit makes it a completely different route in many ways.

macleod113

my commute is generally 22ish miles (sometimes more if i wake up early or less if i lie in) on the way in an between 16-20 miles home. its only about 14 if i took the direct route but thats full of traffic. i do vary it a bit but not much.

when i get out at the weekends i have a 40-50 mile loop i like round derby/notts and sometimes i head to bakewell or lincoln for variety.
it all depends on how much time i can negotiate with the other half.
mostly i am fine with repeating routes. its getting out thats important to me.

rafletcher

fatsmoker wrote:

Was reading this on another thread:
And I wondered why he or anyone would do the same ride every week. Is that common? I like to find new routes, either through planning on mapmyride or through making a detour on a route I'm familiar with.

All sorts of reasons. Time limitations - planning routes takes time on the computer (and on maps for that matter), and sometimes family commitments limit that. Unfamiliar routes will be slower (I don't plan routes on a GPS although I do have one) and so I tend to use familiar ones where I don't have to think too much. Avoiding certain areas - from the end of the road I nearly always turn left into the open countryside, not right into the town. As noted above, if it's a commute. I do have a range of route "elements" that I can string together for anything from a 10 mile to 70 mile ride however.

southdownswolf

I have a route around Beachy Head that takes about 55mins to from door to door. I use it when I know that I am short for time but still want to get a ride in. It also has some of the best views in the South, so I always enjoy it.

Smithster

I often ride the same route during the summer at least once a week...Quick and convenient 30 miler when needed, and one I know well and can get into a nice rhythm on . I do add variation. But there is only so much variation one can add within 30 miles of your front door whilst trying to avoid main roads and traffic hotspots!

DavidJB

I have lots of routes that I stick together or split up based on time i need to do that day...works well but generally always ride the same kind of roads.

desweller

In the thread that the OP was referring, the poster riding that loop certainly seemed to be more interested in the fitness benefits of cycling than riding for riding's sake. If I want to measure my fitness then I will tend to ride a route for which I have a large body of prior data. But on a nice sunny day I'll just set off for a few hours.

Manc33

No flies?

I like those cycle paths where they turned an old railway into one. You always know if you just keep riding you'll end up somewhere because they bothered to build a railway to it.

Middlewood Way from Marple (Rose Hill) to Macclesfield. Whats at the end you might ask? A field, a billion school kids dressed like Harry Potter and a little Tesco.

I quit with paths like that though, I'm not swapping my drivetrain in half the time so I just stick to roads.

keef66

For my weekday night rides I find I'm doing the same loops over and over again. There's only so many permutations of 15-25 mile loops from / to the door. Often the choice of route is determined by the wind direction. That and how well I seem to be going in the first 5 miles.

Weekends is a different matter; I try my best to find destinations and roads I've not used before. My Garmin Edge Touring is good at suggesting novel routes, some of them are even suitable for cyclists!

cougie

iPete wrote:

cougie wrote:

I know theres a couple of London clubs who ride the same clubrun route every week. Bizarre.

Whats bizarre, some of the clubs are huge and you'll have different people each week, then you are limited by the safest routes out into the country. Most clubs around here have 4-5 commonly used routes then lots of variation on those.

I'm sure its happens at plenty of clubs, there are only so many roads from a single starting point.

Must be a London thing. Doesn't happen up North.