Originally Posted by
WonderMonkey
For evening rides I can take the time to do a moderate 25 miler. That is 2 hours door to door. No mountain biking in darker hours of course. With that in mind I'm looking to make my evening rides as effective as possible. I know that if I did a 10 miler and did intervals in time I could do a 12 miler with intervals, etc. Can't to that everyday but with the times I can get out I want to do as much good as possible.
On my weekend long rides I'm going to work on pure distance. I've got a 100 miler and a 200 miler at the end of 2014 and want to work towards that as well. I know that if I do shorter distance intervals that will help the longer rides, etc.
There is a lot of Mountain biking after dark. Including all night races. I did some yesterday, on ice and snow. 29 F. The cold increases calorie burn too. Super bumpy ice with frozen ruts, 3" deep footprints in it, and high wind is a good workout. So is plowing through a few inches of snow while it's snowing. Very high calorie burn. !00% effort in some places.
Lots of calories burned in a very short distance, but, it takes longer to get ready and to undress, clean the bike, etc, after the ride. You may have to purchase new gear for riding below freezing and in the dark.