Travel Health and Fitness - 500 mile month.....

So with a short bike ride this AM I'll pass 500 miles ridden in the month of august. A personal best!!!

I'm normally a 275-330 mile/month kind of rider.


I have to say this was a bit of the perfect storm....few longer rides for me early and just no real days off the bike. I read a lot on bikejournal.com and a lot of those guys do 1,000 mile months back to back.....I just can't imagine. 500 will have taken me 33 hours...add in that almost 12 hours of lifting and its almost a part time job ;)

So with a short bike ride this AM I'll pass 500 miles ridden in the month of august. A personal best!!!

I'm normally a 275-330 mile/month kind of rider.


I have to say this was a bit of the perfect storm....few longer rides for me early and just no real days off the bike. I read a lot on bikejournal.com and a lot of those guys do 1,000 mile months back to back.....I just can't imagine. 500 will have taken me 33 hours...add in that almost 12 hours of lifting and its almost a part time job ;)

Congratulations, that is outstanding! If you don't mind my asking: how do you travel with your bike? I have been a little worried to check my Trek and have not been cycling as much as I like with all the travel.

Congrats, some months I get in 200 or so, but usually have to push just to get in 100.

If you don't mind my asking: how do you travel with your bike? I have been a little worried to check my Trek and have not been cycling as much as I like with all the travel.

It varries. If i'm only going to be onsite for a week I will rent a bike. The other end of the spectrum if I'm going to be in a place for many months I've been known to pick up a used cheapy and ride.

Shipping my actual bike is so expensive and such a pain in the butt that I've only done it a handful of times...fedex here will pack it up and deliver it for me.

I just noticed this thread.

For the past 3 months, I got in over 600 miles of cycling, and in Sep I hit a PB, 685 miles. That despite a couple of crazy biz trips without my bike.

I only ride 3x a week. I usually do 2 shorter (40-50 mile) rides during the week with one longer (70+ miles) over the weekend.

. I usually do 2 shorter (40-50 mile)

You are now offically baned from this thread :D


My "normal" ride is 15-16 miles (1 hour). My long ride is basically anything above that.

I can get away to ride/lift 7-10 times week but hard to for more than an hour. So I ride 5-7 days/week during bike season but normally only average 300-350 miles/month.

500 miles was a HUGE time suck...added in my lifts and we come up on 45-50 hours pretty quickly.

I'm seriously impressed with how many long (40-50 is long to me) rides you get in.

Speaking of biking season I think mine is about over for all intense purposes. Temps have dropped, snowed a little, windy as heck, etc.

It was a GREAT season. Got a crazy early start for me, rode more constiatntly that I ever have. Also lifted a min of 2xweek and snuck in a few row classes or bleacher intervals (not as many bleachers as I'd have liked). Ended up with 2054 miles in. Probably sneak out on nice days and maybe end ~2100 for the year....my previous personal best was 1757 living in colorado (probably 4-6 weeks longer bike season there vs wyoming)

I started a full round of p90x up...look for updates in that thread ;)

500 miles was a HUGE time suck...added in my lifts and we come up on 45-50 hours pretty quickly.

I'm seriously impressed with how many long (40-50 is long to me) rides you get in.

When I'm riding solo, any breaks on the rides are usually pretty short. I can do 40 miles in maybe 2-1/4 hours, depending on stoplights, and usually don't need to take a break. If I'm doing 50, I'll usually stop at least once. In summer, I prefer to stop a little more often just so I don't have to think about running out of water.

When I'm riding with others though...nearly anything takes longer. I rode just over 80 with a couple of others yesterday, and we had to stop, discuss where to next, if we should wait for a straggler, etc. Then I got a flat, and the 2 guys with me, who were right near me, evidently didn't hear me say, "I got a flat," or see me pull off to take care of it. But they did wait at the next stop we had agreed to, until I got there :)
The 80 mile ride took about 5 hours, not including driving to/from the meet point. It was nice to ride with others, and I was certainly faster than when I'm solo. But not sure it is worth all of the effort, and that's one reason I don't do it all the time.

I try to keep to a similar training schedule for riding as I did when I was training to run marathons. Except instead of a 15-20 mile run, I do a 75-80 mile ride ;)

Speaking of biking season I think mine is about over for all intense purposes. Temps have dropped, snowed a little, windy as heck, etc.

It was a GREAT season. Got a crazy early start for me, rode more constiatntly that I ever have. Also lifted a min of 2xweek and snuck in a few row classes or bleacher intervals (not as many bleachers as I'd have liked). Ended up with 2054 miles in. Probably sneak out on nice days and maybe end ~2100 for the year....my previous personal best was 1757 living in colorado (probably 4-6 weeks longer bike season there vs wyoming)



Do you think following others on Strava or other tools helps, hurts, or does nothing for your training?

I've met quite a few locals, both through Strava itself (they were ranked near me on some segments), or we met in-person and discovered we were Strava rivals ("so you're Steve...") and added each other.
Even when I'm not riding with them, looking at their routes has given me ideas for varying some of mine. And certainly looking at their speed (both overall and specific segments) has given me an extra dose of motivation.

Do you think following others on Strava or other tools helps, hurts, or does nothing for your training?

It has definitely been a motivator for me. It's also been a good way to add a few routes and get a little variety in my runs.

Do you think following others on Strava or other tools helps, hurts, or does nothing for your training?


I like it for the data but it doesn't do much for my training. I think mostly because there are not many users here and I don't personally know anyone using it.

That said my BIL entered us into a national bike challenge over on endomondo.com (sp?). It awarded 20 points for any day you rode and 1 point per mile. I found myself getting out a TON more than I normally did just to stay in first place for our group. I think its basically the ONLY reason I hammered 500 miles one month this year.

We are currently doing a "total time spent" working out challenge and I'm killing 'em ;)

I usually do 2 shorter (40-50 mile) rides during

Hah - my shorter ones are 2 miles to the post office or farmers market & back.

The fancy schmancy bike shop in town has rides on Tues eves I think. They break everyone up into groups of I think mileage or speed. Their smallest in either was much bigger than my longest :(

Cheers.

I just noticed this thread.

For the past 3 months, I got in over 600 miles of cycling, and in Sep I hit a PB, 685 miles. That despite a couple of crazy biz trips without my bike.

I only ride 3x a week. I usually do 2 shorter (40-50 mile) rides during the week with one longer (70+ miles) over the weekend.

You are amazing. 600 miles with cycle. WOW! From where you get the inspiration for this task?

You are amazing. 600 miles with cycle. WOW! From where you get the inspiration for this task?

I registered for the 111 mile el Tour de Tucson, and tried to train for that similar to the way I trained for marathons. For marathon training, I typically did 2 shorter runs (6-8 miles) and 1 longer run (13-18 miles) every week.

Registering for an event makes me keep to my training :)
Otherwise, it is way too easy to skip.

I'm lucky to have an almost perfect century ride outside of my door. After 2 miles of surface streets, I can take the Custis and then W&OD rail-trails (paved) 51 miles to Purcellville, VA, which has a great bar and a distillery. I then return, slightly buzzed, with 105ish miles under my belt. I also have the benefit of living on the C&O path, which is hardpack, but is easily bikable all of the way to Pittsburgh. Harpers Ferry and back is an awesome daytrip of roughly 150 miles with a nice lunch in the middle.

My wife is an everyday bike commuter, regardless of weather. To make things more interesting, she does it on a psychotically geared fixie. Needless to say, she can whomp my sorry posterior any day of the week on a ride.