Fifty Plus (50+) - How long to you ride?

It's cool and moist today in NC (we got rain!!!) so am trying to catch up on my "inside stuff". I was looking at the past few years of my riding info and the most interesting stat for me was the time in the saddle each year. I summed up the total duration of my rides and it's interesting how all the short rides and times add up.

I'll be between 300-350 hours of riding again this year-with most of that on weekends. I know a lot of folks do more, especially commuters and folks touring but I'm really happy to think I'm exercisng my heart around 140 bpm for over 300 hours each year.

For the engineers:
At an average rate 500 calories per hour for 300 hours that is a very nice 150,000 calories......or an awful lot of chocolate pies and cookies!!!!

On the other hand that is only a little less than 1200 btu's-or less than 1/2 a kwh........so much for my personal contribution to renewables!!

How about you?

I'm averaging about 200 - 225 hours per year in the saddle. That didn't sound like much, until I converted it into 8 hour days. Over twenty-eight days on a bike! I'm more impressed now. My boss better not find out.

EDIT: Just visited www.caloriesburnedperhour.com (yes, it exists!) and entered my weight, average (or typical) speed, and learned I burn about 835 calories per hour. That's 187,875 calories per year. OMG! And that's 53 pounds at 3,500 calories per pound.

I'm verkkept again.

I'll do about 250 hours in the saddle.

However, as an oil and gas producer I promise to offset the carbon credits and renewable efforts of everyone in the forum, in total. So pedal away.

I'll do about 250 hours in the saddle.

However, as an oil and gas producer I promise to offset the carbon credits and renewable efforts of everyone in the forum, in total. So pedal away.

I'm a gas producer as well. Gotta stay away from those burritos!

Miles ridden: a bunch
Hours in the saddle: a bunch
calories burned: fewer than taken in :(

Max I can get in a year is about 300 and I have to have a good run of Midweek rides to get that in. Bad weather recently and weight has gone up. That is the way I can tell if I am getting enough saddle time in And by the end of the week I have to decide whether it is one or two rides at the weekend. -Only put on a couple of LBS this week so I could get away with one ride- but with the new bike- It will have to be two.

Miles ridden: a bunch
Hours in the saddle: a bunch
calories burned: fewer than taken in :(
Me too. :(

According to Garmin courtesy of the Ascent Mac Program...321 hours (not including trainer), ~160,000 calories and 727,418 feet of climbing. The climbing looks overstated but that is the calculation. It may be more like 500,000 feet.

I just checked Bike Journal and I'm up to 532 hours this year.

Does time on a Coach Troy harrassed trainer count?

Looks like I'll wrap up the year next weekend at 240 hours. (that's 12.5 mph for 3000 miles). I expect this to be my high year. Hopefully I'll be riding faster next year. And speaking of gas, I have a big pot of chili cooking now. I go heavy on the beans. Should get me thru the weekend.

Does time on a Coach Troy harrassed trainer count?

You may multiply your Coach Troy trainer hours by 2 and use them.;)

The problem with going faster is that you have less hours on the bike. At an average speed of 19 mph, it works out to something like 213 hours. Trouble is, I do a lot of club rides, so the mileage is set. I finish early and wait for the others to catch up. Maybe I'll have to start riding the route backwards until I find them; that'll get me more miles AND more time.

This year I have 202 rides for 4,888 miles to date at an avg speed of 18.7 mph so 261.39 hours and 24.2mi/ride.
Last year 201 rides for 5,335 miles at an avg speed of 18.5 mph so 288.38 hours and 26.54mi/ride.

I am amazed how consistent my rides have been for the last couple of years. The rise in avg speed by 0.2 mph, however, is primarily driven by my daily ride having 6 stop lights dragging me down. The main thing I notice is my speed at 80% MHR has risen from 19-20mph to 21-22mph which I feel pretty good about.

The best news is that after two years of heavy riding I still enjoy it as much as when I started and my weight is down 30lbs.

How long to I ride? Probably about 3 months.

The problem with going faster is that you have less hours on the bike. At an average speed of 19 mph, it works out to something like 213 hours.

This is true. I lead a beginner's ride and also ride our local touring club's rides almost every day in the Summer. Almost all of these rides are slower than my solo rides, so my hours go up and my average speed goes down. No big deal, though. I've found that if my average speeds are way up, my mileage goes down because I ride less frequently. It all averages out.

I used to keep meticulous records. Now I just get my rides in and don't worry about it at all. I collect data sometimes, other times not. After hurting my leg this Spring, I took all the computer stuff off the bike and rode to feel while I recovered. I really enjoyed just riding without the tether to a power meter or cyclometer. Now I do have a training plan which I follow as well as I can but so far as adding up hours and miles I just don't anymore.

280 hrs., 156,000 ft. of climbing, 224,000 calories, 5100 mi. (per Polar S725x)...trainer time not included:D

I sat in my recliner about 1,000 hours. Maybe 100 calories per hour just sitting there breathing. 100,000 calories?? That would be a loss of 28 pounds. But, I don't know what part of my body that weight came off of!

Anyone know?

I figure that going up and down in the recliner 2 feet each time, and stepping in and out would be another 2 feet, for a total elevation gain of about 8 feet per day or 2,928 feet of elevation gain/loss for the year.

Next year I will log my reclining hours into BikeJournal.com so my figures are totally accurate.

During the season , a conservative estimate would be eight hours a week. The three off months. 5 hours a week. I'd say with vacations, its easy to miss out totally for the equivilant of one month. Unless that month should include a bike vacation. So easily, my annual bike hours would come to at least 310 hours per year. Wow. that means I spend almost a total of 13 days on the bikes per year. bravo.

I'll be at about 420 hours.

About 180 rides, 365 hours, a touch over 30 miles per ride.

I've done 3,550 miles since June. At an average of 16 mph, that comes to around 222 hours. Most of my rides are around 35 miles.

I'm just under 5000 for the year with an overall average around 13 mph so that puts me right at 370 hours. Looking for more of the same in '08.... hopefully I can pickup the average some.

Bill J.

About 10 hours per week, but since daylight savings ended it's dark when I get home, so I'm only riding on the weekends. Got a new boss, so I can't escape early like before, and I haven't forced myself onto the trainer yet. I have to tell you, when I cut back on riding, I feel bad, both physically and mentally.

The weather is cold and clear. I am heading out right now, to ride for two hours or so with the Encinitas YMCA road cycling club, or solo if they are taking a break for Christmas weekend. I try to do between 1 and 3 hours most Saturday and Sunday mornings, but not much weekday commuting when daylight hours are short and our rainy season (such as it is) is upon us.