Doing more miles
Tim F
Posts: 67
How do you guys motivate yourselves to do serious miles on a road bike? Joining clubs or just self motivated? Looking to increase my millage!
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Nobody else can motivate you really. Ride more/further if you want to. If you don't - don't. But unless you have a specific reason or goal for wanting to increase your mileage/endurance, then it probably won't happen.0
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commute0
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Tim F wrote:How do you guys motivate yourselves to do serious miles on a road bike? Joining clubs or just self motivated? Looking to increase my millage!
Line up a few events. For me it’s Audaxes and Time trials. I enjoy these more the fitter I am which works as motivation for me.0 -
Pick a cake stop that's further away.0
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You'll need to figure out first, why do you want to increase your mileage. What is it for?
What do you mean by serious mileage, and what does it meant to you?
Is it about hitting a one-off 100miler?
Is it about maintaining a certain mileage per week?
Is it about clocking up how many miles you can do in a year?
Just a few questions for you and us so you realise what you want and we can share our thoughts accordingly.
Bottom line is: enjoy cycling, whatever the mileage is!0 -
I ride because I love riding. I go out - ride - then when I'm tired I head home. Simples.
:-)0 -
The more you ride the fitter you get and the better you feel, and so you will look forward to the next and every ride.0
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As someone who loves climbing, finding a new cat3/4 to tackle helps motivate me to go a bit further.================
2020 Voodoo Marasa
2017 Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016
2016 Voodoo Wazoo0 -
Attitude, fuelled by multiple espressos...0
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As others have stated, ask yourself why you want to up the miles and have a clear goal in mind. I think drifting along with the aim of hoping to increase leads to pretty lacklustre results (for me at least
). Once you know why you want to do it, one of the key things is to plan your time and structure your rides within this. IME having a clear plan of when to ride and what you are going to do (route, duration etc) provides the motivation and once you get into a routine it becomes far easier to stick to.
Perhaps more importantly, make sure you continue to enjoy it. If you up the miles but it becomes a slog, physically and mentally, then it might be time to readjust your riding habits. I reckon for most people who do really serious amounts of cycling (which I would say is anyone riding 10,000km+ a year), most will say the key thing that gets them through is a love of riding their bike.0 -
I'm out of training for the while because of health issues, but when I'm in normal health, it's about keeping it interesting by mixing it up: short (20 miles) medium (50/60) and long (80/100), and having enough routes in my head so that I don't have to plan each time. My goals are really self-imposed by wanting to make the best use of my extended stays in France (my target there is to average 400 miles a week), but previously I've used the blunt tools of average speeds, time trials and hill climbs to make me push myself. A mixture of club rides, small groups of friends, and solo.
My other motivator is photography - just for the sake of getting nice images, but also I do quite a lot of "where am I?" online things, and a photographic blog or two, which prompt me to go out, when sometimes I might have been tempted to stay indoors.0 -
I rode an imperial century this weekend gone - my baseline mileage is 20-30 miles commuting every day so it's quite a leap. I'd signed up for an audax and no way was I going to let my £6 entry fee go to waste.
Got chatting to plenty of other riders on the day for whom the 150 km ride was a breather between 300s and more coming up in spring.
So, yeah, sign up for something that you can't back out of. The more expensive the better.0 -
Several things "make" me ride ...
1) Member of a club with convenient club rides - they publish the route beforehand so I know where we're going and if I can fit it in the schedule - I try and do at least a couple each month.
2) Member of a club that meets up socially in the evening - and I ride to/from the meeting place (pub) - I ride so I can have a drink ...
3) Commuting - "bragging rights" for the commute in "horrendous" weather - or really good weather - and extend the ride to take in a few more hills/miles where possible.
4) Target distance per bike - previous years I just had a rough target - a round number that I needed to hit, didn't matter how - it lead to a lot of miles on a couple of bikes and the others left standing - this year I've changed it so I've got a yearly target for each bike
5) Strava Segments - not so good for me now, but there are segments I like to target - of course, to get quicker you need to train ...
6) TTs - yup - TT events, I don't take these very seriously, but I like to keep a level of pace that is (in my mind) respectable - usually a minute or two faster than some of the mates I meet up with in point 2
Actually on the subject of TTs - it was quite fun when a club ride (or a couple of the riders) jumped on my wheel in the middle of a TT - and they couldn't stick with it.... ok, I was on TT bike etc and they were on road bikes ... but still - it's a nice confidence boost 0 -
I guess the important question to ask is why you want to increase your miles?
is it fitness? to improve performance? justify a new bike? etc etc
then that might help you to get your motivation.
failing that get someone to drive you somewhere far away and leave you there with your bike and no money!www.conjunctivitis.com - a site for sore eyes0
