# How often do you ride?



## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

I've met many of you on groups rides and I've notice there are some really fast people on this board. I'm just curious how often most of you ride and what kind of rides/loops you do throughout the week. Are you training for anything special? Do you race? Do you follow a rigid training program? or do you just pack on the miles? 

I will start, I ride three times a week and I have no particular goal in mind except to get faster and stronger. My ride schedule consists of the following:

*Tuesdays* I either ride up Moody Rd. or do some mixed terrain (my new fancy pants word for Cyclocross which I just stole from the recent Bicycling magazine) around Los Altos/Arastradero. This usually ends up being about 37-40 miles and takes me about 2 - 2.5 hours.

*Thursdays* I ride up to skyline via Old La Honda and then descend down Hwy 84. This is a 48 mile ride and takes about 3 hours.

*Saturday or Sunday* I either do a RBR group ride or head out on my own for a 35-50 mile ride depending on how much time my family gives me and how I'm feeling.


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## bikerbert (Jan 28, 2005)

I usually get out six times a week to prepare myself to make sure the driver of the broom wagon doesn't get lonely in my MTB and road races!

There's a cycling coach fella (http://www.sportvelo.com) I'm in business cahoots with who gives me:
Tue: short painful work with people who race as fast as I drive
Wed: get crushed uphill by people I out weigh by 50lbs
Thu: playday on the MTB, my favorite!
Fri: no pain at high cadence
Sat/Sun: long MTB or Road (RBR rides are my favorite!) group rides

Every once in a while, I get to race!:thumbsup:


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## Leopold Porkstacker (Jul 15, 2005)

(You and I had this discussion already while riding, but) I ride mainly (95%) commuting miles, 17 - 18 miles each way, an average of three times per week which equates to around 102 miles per week. However, when I ride, I pretty much sprint as fast as I can for as long as I can. I just like hauling ass, I suppose.


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

I don't race and am not training for anything special, aside from just trying to stay ahead of what I call the 'brisk walk to the corner" crowd, which seems to be the norm for my age group. I describe my reasoning/motivation a bit more in my "who, what, where:"http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showpost.php?p=1685259&postcount=91

My cycling log is here at bikejournal: http://www.bikejournal.com/journal_public.asp?rname=Dr_John . My original goal for the entire year was 7000 miles, which I should hit by the end of this month, so my new goal is 10,000 miles for the year.

I ride 6 days/week with a goal of at least 250 miles/week. Usually it's over 300 miles/week. When I was working I was coming close to this, with a goal of 200 miles/week. A lot of the miles are on my Bay Trail loop out-and-back, where I can do intervals, speed, or just ride along. It's 39 miles. I head through Portola Valley twice/week (when I was working, I did this on weekends). One day focuses more on climb-oriented rides on classic routes, the other is just miles (typical 80+ miles).


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

What kind of intervals are you doing?


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

Typically short intervals, usually one minute full out-of-the-seat, maximum intensity, with a one minute recovery. I usually repeat until I cannot stand anymore.


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## kwc (Mar 10, 2008)

I need to get more miles on the legs. Most of my riding is my relatively short commute to work.

6 mile commute x 2, 5 days a week = 60 miles
Lunch ride (~Wed): 20 miles
Weekend ride: ~30-40 miles


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## AMike (Nov 26, 2005)

I typically ride 9-12 hours a week. I don't track miles because most of my riding is in the hills so my avg speed is lowish (15-17 mph on most days.) I've been transitioning to more tempo work in preparation for the Everest Challenge but am trying to keep the high end accelerations strong. Monday = rest day always. Some of the outdoor intervals I do (all of 'em hurt: _

6x 20 s sprint, 3 min rest in between.
2-3x15-20 min 
5x3-4 min (Moody usually)
Unstructured (like Egan ride)
Been trying Tabata (20s on, 10s off for 4 min)

To mix it up I'll just do hard climbs nearly all out like Sierra rd or Montebello - something around 25-30 min and spin around before and after. 

On weekends, I'll do something like Page Mill + W Alpine for a quick ride, or head out to Pescadero. I generally try to mix in one or two group rides a week to hone the skills, but prefer riding alone when I'm not racing and have been mixing in a fair amount of MTB at Coe or Skeggs to keep those skills up. I've been good about the hard stuff, but bad about rest recently. That's as important as the work you do... So is keeping it interesting and varied so you don't burn up.


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## Rojo Neck (Jun 23, 2008)

My training has been horribly inconsistent this season. I'd *like* to be getting about 2 hrs/day, 4 days a week plus one longer ride (4-6 hrs) on one of the weekend days. Sometimes I do that and more, but sometimes I do less. When I have the luxury of knowing I'm not going to get very much, I go harder for shorter duration.


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## Pedo (Jul 31, 2008)

I'd been slackin all summer till a few weeks ago. Before the group ride on 08/03 I had just been climbing up Mt. Hamilton. My goal is to get to the top. Been going further & further each time. Those rides have consisted of 33-39 miles & are 2:30 to 2:45 hours long. This week I jus started riding every other day instead of every three days.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

I do two rides during the week and an occasional weekend ride. My typical weekday ride is 30-40 miles long and invariably has an all-out "individual time trial" effort up a hill. On Tuesday it is usually Montebello and on Thursday Old La Honda. Occasionally I switch to King's Mountain, Page Mill, Highway 9, etc. for a bit of variety. I keep a detailed log of my hill climbs, but don't keep track of anything else.

The irregular weekend ride is often similar but with Sierra Road as the hill du jour. I also do some very hilly century rides - probably 4 or 5 this year. I do a little commuting by bike, just 1 day a week on average, some pottering around with the family, and maybe a couple of 30 minute sessions a week on rollers. If I had more time, I would do longer local rides and hit some farther away hills. The variety and amount of riding in the greater Bay Area is pretty amazing.


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## Cruzer2424 (Feb 8, 2005)

Too often.

And not often enough at the same time. 

(Does that even make sense? :idea


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## jenarelJAM (May 13, 2008)

I'm a new rec rider and I'm doing somewhat irregular training. I probably get between 50-150 miles per week. On lower weeks I supplement it with jumproping. On good weeks, I do a couple 50-70 mile rides, just going for distance.


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## n26ryan (Dec 14, 2005)

Tues/Thursday are bike to work days ~14 each way =56
Saturdays I Usually do the Palomares loop ~42

And every so ofter I ride from Fremont to San Mateo to meet my wife. ~35


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

@CrankyMonkey 

Another thing to consider- are you using at least a heart-rate monitor? I used to use mine about once a week to make sure I wasn't slacking off, but have started using it nearly every ride. For me, it's a great way to make sure I'm keeping the intensity up during rides. Unless it's a recovery ride or a ride where I'm specifically working on something, I usually keep my heart-rate in the 80-89% of max. HR zone, with a goal of an average for the whole ride in that zone too.


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

Yeah... I ride with a HR monitor every ride. My goal lately has been to vary my intensity through out the week because I was getting burned out by going all out every ride. I've also just recently changed from doing 2 challenging weekday rides to 3 rides with one of them being challenging and the others being focused on fun. Now don't get me wrong my fun rides are still at a pretty high level. I'm just not as focused on breaking any personal records or sprinting every hill.

To keep things interesting I've also started doing my Cyclocross oriented rides where I ride out to a trail and do a bit of single/double track and then ride some road and then hit some more trail. That seems to be just what I needed to get past the summer blues I've been experiencing. Here is a write up from last Friday's ride.

http://www.chriscowan.us/2008/08/mixed-terrain-reconnaissance/

Update: For my lower intensity rides I've also been taking a friend out who is just getting in to riding and just spinning next to him while he suffers. On those rides my goal is to keep my HR around 150 bpm or lower. Which is pretty damn hard to do when your use to hammering by yourself all the time.


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## wipeout (Jun 6, 2005)

I ride 11 times a week. Commuting twice a day and then once on the weekend which means I'm usually pulling a 8 year old 25 miles on a Trail-a-Bike torture device. Once a month I try to do a longish (200 mile) ride. I don't care about 'faster or stronger' just do it for fitness and as a lifestyle thing.


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

Longish = 200 miles? What constitute as a long ride for you? 500 miles?


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## Cruzer2424 (Feb 8, 2005)

CrankyMonkey said:


> Longish = 200 miles? What constitute as a long ride for you? 500 miles?


Pfyahhhh... My recovery rides are 126 miles long at 25mph average... solo! 

Uphill!

... BOTH ways.  

You should see a long ride for me. I go to Alaska and back.

... via Neptune!!


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## normalnorm (Jan 16, 2006)

I probably average 1-3 rides per week. 

My kids are 7,6, and 2. Between them, work(shifts), and coaching its tough. Life is good though.....


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## wipeout (Jun 6, 2005)

CrankyMonkey said:


> Longish = 200 miles? What constitute as a long ride for you? 500 miles?


Well, yeah... Something like www.the508.com is long. 
I do the california triple crown things...


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