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Riding Longer

11.03.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

When I saw Don Blount’s post about his riding stats, it spurred me to look at my own. I knew I wasn’t putting in the miles this year to bring me to last year’s total of 4,000 plus — but I’m at about 3,100 for the year at this point, and I’m pleased with that.

The Bike Noob riding a century on the first day of the MS150, 2010.

What surprised me about my numbers, though, was the lack of long rides. The longest ride I have done this year was a metric century — 62 miles — and that was way back in March. My traditional long ride days with the club haven’t turned out to be that, because I ride with the B group, and we don’t go as far.

In fact, when I pored through the overly obsessive riding stats I keep, I found that I’ve done a whopping FIVE rides of over 40 miles this year. Just five. Disgraceful.

Why would I consider that disgraceful? Purely for personal reasons. I don’t really care if anyone else notices I’m not going long. But two things apply here: I like long rides, and I know they help me get better (better = improved endurance, which also means somewhat faster speeds on shorter rides).

I probably should have done something about it earlier. I even posted in mid-summer that I’m the King of the 25-Milers, and mused about the need to stretch out my rides back then. Never did.

And I’ll bet I know why I haven’t done the longer rides this year: a lack of goals. Another post from early in the year dissed the organized (or t-shirt) ride as something I didn’t need to do, because I could ride those routes on my own most any time I wanted. The trouble is, I wasn’t riding those routes on my own.

So, I’m setting a goal for 2012: More long rides. Wait — that’s not specific enough. How about: Two century rides, and four metric centuries. It’s likely I would have to target organized rides to force me to train for them. I can also see that another advantage of the organized rides is that they occur on a set date. That kind of targeted training has worked for me in the past. I could also target different group rides that I haven’t done yet. I’m a member of the Austin Cycling Association, for example, but rarely go on their rides — and they do between two and four every weekend. All of them have at least one distance of over 50 miles.

Again, I’m pretty happy with the total mileage I’ve done this year. But I just feel that my cycling has been missing something. Adding more long rides in the coming 12 months will fill the void. I hope.

 

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Categories // Rides Tags // distance, mileage

Four Grand

12.19.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 17 Comments

My wife said, “Hey, let’s go out for a bike ride.  I don’t want to go long – I have to get back and do some cleaning.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’m not up for a long ride today, anyway.”

We set off on one of her favorite neighborhood routes.  It’s got some easy hills, and I can get in a quick workout, then wait for her at the tops and bottoms.  On a mid-December 54-degree day (12ºC), we had a good ride.  And when we got home, I was able to confirm what I had expected:

I had 4,002 miles for the year.

Three years ago, when I was just getting into riding, a new riding friend told me he had ridden 2,200 miles the year before.  Based on the riding I was doing at the time, I projected I’d end the year with 1200-1500 miles.  The mileage he was talking about seemed out of reach.

But that year, I wound up with over 2,500 miles.  Last year, I topped 3,000.  Now this.

It wasn’t hard.

I have never set out expecting to ride a certain number of miles in a year.  Based on my experience, I could project what I might end with, but each time I’ve done that, I’ve been off.  The miles accumulate at a faster rate than I can imagine.

I’m a record-keeping type of person, and I have records of my rides going back to my first year on the bike: 2007.  That year, I averaged just over 17 miles per ride.  The next year, it jumped to 21, then 21.5.  This year, I’m averaging 23.6 miles per ride.

My usual weekly riding goes something like this: I’ll get in a quick 15-18 miles on a weekday.  During the summer, it might be more, but most often, not.  On Saturday, I have a 26-mile route in my neighborhood, and on Sunday, I’ll either do a club ride or another longer ride in the area, anything from 30-60 miles.

Keep doing that week after week, and take advantage of nice weather during those temperate months, and the miles pile up in no time.  You don’t need to constantly strive for 100-plus mile weeks to hit 4,000.

I have a feeling that in the coming year, I’ll be concentrating a lot more on improving my cycling skills than building my mileage.  But it’s nice to know that I’ve hit a number that most non-cyclers – and even some who do bike – have trouble imagining.

 

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Categories // Records & stats Tags // distance, mileage

The Ideal Distance

11.11.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 13 Comments

I like riding long enough to feel as though I’ve done some riding.  That means being in the saddle for at least two hours.  I enjoy easy rides with my wife, but 15 miles is about as much as she cares to ride.  When we finish, I often head out and tack on another 10 miles or so.

Twenty-five miles is a good distance, and it’s what I normally do for my Saturday morning ride.  That doesn’t meet my two-hour requirement, however.  I just like it because the route I usually ride provides a nice mix of some moderate hills, good fast downhills, bikes lanes or shoulders, and the Veloway.

Sunday morning is when I go for my long ride of the week.  It’s at least 30 miles, and often quite a bit more.  I recently enjoyed a 58-mile ride, even though I had to sit out a cloudburst for 30 minutes in a convenience store.  A couple of weeks later, I rode 67 miles, and was pretty knackered when I finished.

That got me thinking: Just how long is a good distance?  The 58-miler was relatively flat.  The 67-miler had some challenging hills built in.  In both cases, I was on the road for quite a while — maybe longer than I wanted to be.

Perhaps what I’m looking for is something just a little shorter.  My on-bike time for the 58 miler was about three hours, 45 minutes.  That’s plenty.  I’m thinking my ideal ride would cover about 50 miles.  That’s long enough for a decent workout, and to cover a substantial amount of ground.

I’ve been compiling a list of rides from my house that fall into the 50-miles (plus or minus) category.  It’ll be fun to ride them all in the coming weeks, and see if my guess at an “ideal” distance is borne out by the results.

What about you? Is there a distance that feels “just right” for you?  What is it, and what do you like about it?

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Categories // Rides Tags // distance

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