TXsailor

Last year when you were riding your old Walmart bike and were doing good to ride any distance at all. Now you have a good bike and are riding a lot faster and further. If you didn't care you would still be grinding away on that old clunker of be back on the couch. You may not think you care but you do. You care because you want to improve your health, stamina & like the feeling of riding distances that were something other people were enjoying last year. Like you I don't care...scratch that... I do care what other people are doing. It inspires me to see people improve! I love going to events and seeing people in their 70's and older keeping up or passing people half their age At a ride a while back a lady that was at least in her 70's passed me going into about a 20 mph wind. Either she slowed or I sped up but I passed her back. This went on for a long time each time we would grin a little bigger. Finally she left me and I never saw her again. Did I care? Heck yeah I did! I wanted to find her after we were done & give her a hug. She has inspired me ever since. So Yeah I care and I think you do too. You will ride further and faster even if that't not your main goals, heck you already are!

Gnosis

Your reading comprehension skills have you at a disadvantage and I wouldn’t say this unless it was most definitely true, as you’ve completely slaughtered what I actually stated. My post failed to insult anyone.

My final conditional “If” statement was:

“If you’re one of the individuals who simply needs to complain about the personal achievements of others, then I feel sorry for you, for you offer that which people need least of all; your valueless misery.”

For instance, if you perceive someone’s long distance numbers as bragging and are compelled to complain about it or compelled to demean them for it, then you’re one of those negative individuals I feel sorry for, as you only offer valueless misery rather than a well-earned compliment.

I also stated:

“If people refrained from conveying the distances associated with their personal long distance triumphs, then new riders would have no idea what is commonly possible as concerns distance.”

This speaks for itself. It conveys that others benefit from knowing the long distance accomplishments of others. Since I also stated:

“If you like riding long distances, then feel free to share the details of your experience.”

This further supports the conveying of one’s long distance numbers, which especially benefit new riders or those who don’t realize the long distance potential that people joined to a bicycle can potentially achieve.

None of my statements had anything to do with condemning those who don’t have any personal interest in their own long distance numbers! Where you drew that flawed conclusion from is an utter mystery.

If I were you, I’d apologize for falsely accusing me of insulting others that I most definitely did not insult via my well intended post.

Little Darwin

I didn't read much of the thread, but for me mileage does matter... It is the thing I use to stay motivated. I am with the OP, and 25 miles for me is still a long ride, although I have done a few rides longer than that this year.

I post in this forum as a way to keep myself accountable, and seeing what others can do is motivating... And I suspect my motivation is similar to many riders here. I don't want to be among the higher mileage riders, my goals are set to push myself beyond where I would be without them... regardless of what others do. Some of the mileage riders here can do would be a joke if I tried to achieve them. Like 700 miles a month, at the pace I ride, with the periodic breaks I need to take, would mean I would have to ride 3-4 hours a day... and that just ain't gonna happen. I am as please when someone meets their 50 mile goal for the month as those who reach a much loftier number.

For me to be motivated, I need to improve in some way... I don't care about being super fast, I don't voluntarily climb hills yet, but I can increase my monthly distance, and in doing so, increase my weekly long rides. In May, I did 14 rides, and averaged about 12 miles per ride... This month to reach my goal, I will be increasing the number of rides, and increasing the average distance as well. My average speed seems to be increasing too, which might make it easier, but that to me is just a side effect, not the objective.

For my long rides, I tend to ride the rail trail along the Lehigh River, taking several stops at the benches and picnic tables to just relax in the wilderness... It is not uncommon for a ride to be like the one I did this weekend (although many times I don't ride as far). 30 miles, in just under 3 hours of rolling time (per my bicycle computer) but 4 hours or more of clock time, because of the breaks... the breaks are somewhat needed, but most importantly, they are completely enjoyed.

LabRat2k3

I guess it all comes down to why are you riding. If you are riding towards a goal how do you measure your progress. Personally I started riding to lose weight, improve my overall health, and stamina. Weight is easy I can check that with the scale, my overall health with my yearly physical, and stamina is gauged by increased distance and speed.

ill.clyde

Miles are just one of the measurements of personal progress. Average MPH, climbing feet, intervals ... they all have their place depending on the individual's fitness desires.

If you don't care about them, so be it ... but there are plenty of us who do.

I post my miles here for accountability, like Little Darwin says, and to encourage others for them to see what is possible.

If you don't care about long rides ... make the most of your short rides. If you want to ride more but your schedule is difficult, get up earlier and ride before the family gets going. Ask your wife to do a time exchange ... you get two hours of "ride time" on a Saturday and in exchange she gets two hours to do something she wants.

As was pointed out previously ... last year you were all about riding, increasing your rides, bemoaning not being able to ride further because of your bike, etc ... so it seems your current post is a bit at odds with yourself. Maybe you're just frustrated you can't ride as much as you'd like. It's really no reason to denigrate those of us who can ride more.

At the end of the day ... it's a bike ... you ride it as far or not, as fast or as slow, as you want to. There's no need to complicate it

WrightVanCleve

I live in Dayton OH and we have a wonderful set of bike paths.

I'd like to do a ride out to London and back which should be about 90 total. Ceaderville was a little shorter than 25 miles and London is about 21.something from there according to the signs.

I like doing long rides. The ride to Yellow Springs and back is a reall nice ride, 50 miles. The ride between Dayton and Xenia kind of sucks with hearing all the traffic on 35 so if I want to get to a nice peacful section of bike path I have to go some extra distance.

The ride up to Piqua should be close to 100. Tipp and back was less than 50, Troy and back should be around 60ish.

I care about the long rides because I just want to see what is there but to also get to nice sections of bike paths.

After doing 50s on my days off now, ripping up to Xenia and back, 30 miles, doesn't satisify me anymore and I just don't get the adrenaline fix that I'm craving.

cafzali

One of the things you'll notice about cycling is the most avid cyclists are either young guys who are either not married, don't have kids or have a ton of time for a variety of reasons. Or people who are either retired or whose kids are out of the house and they're at a point in life when their obligations have started to decrease.

I'm more in your boat, as I live in the NYC metro area, am gone daily from 7:30 to 6:30, have 2 young children including one who's not yet 2, and my wife has a demanding job that occasionally places lots of demands on her time, and by extension ours collectively. Conversely, people I know who ride in other areas of the country have kids that are self sufficient, work shorter hours and don't have an hour commute each way. But, no matter what, these circumstances are my situation and I work to make the best of them.

The best counsel I can give you is to set goals that are realistic with your situation and work to achieve them. Right now, the only thing I know for fact is that I can squeeze one long ride a weekend in with one of the bike clubs to which I belong and 1-2 other solo, shorter ones. Given that, I try to go out with guys who are, frankly, better than me and will push me a bit. I know everyone I regularly ride with and they know that they shouldn't hold back on my account and should feel free to drop me if they want to pick up the pace beyond what I can do currently. One of the best purchases I ever made, aside from my bikes, is my Garmin Edge GPS. No matter where we ride, I always know that as long as I've got the energy and water/fuel I need, I can always find my way back to my starting point.

Not saying my Rx would work for everybody, but it's just an example of how you can make the best you can of a less than ideal situation.

Good luck!

LabRat2k3

BS not all of us that ride are retired or single. You make time for what you want to make time for. I have a job, family, child, and just completed my first metric this weekend. We made a vacation of it, and all have a good time. If distance doesn't matter to you then NO ONES distance should make a difference to you, just don't open the threads and go on your happy way.

ill.clyde

I'm going to agree with this ... Far from retired, and not single, and I have kids. That said, I'm a divorced dad, so yeah, my weeks are a little freer than most. But my kids are in sports, and that's an hour drive, one-way, to get to a game, so that's two hours driving, plus at least an hour and a half or even two hours for the games. Weeknights, weekends, etc. See the next point.

I'll echo LabRat on this too ... you make time for what you want to make time for. For me that means getting up at 6 to commute by bike instead of sleeping another hour. That means compromise on the weekends (Saturday I committed to yardwork and spending time with my GF so on Sunday I could get out for a 30-mile ride). And after that 30-mile ride I cleaned up and went to my son's lacross game.

Lab's right ... if distance doesn't matter, you shouldn't make a big deal out of someone else's distance, much less start a thread about how much you disdain other people's distances.

dexter9326

I think the original poster - mrodgers - and I are very much in the same place. The intent here is not to denigrate the accomplishments of others or drop the proverbial turd in someone's punchbowl. I say again - congratulations to those who have done what they have.

I'll speak only for myself now and say that I think this thread offers encouragement for the regular guy - who may be just starting out or is struggling to do more than 10-12 miles, who can't do hills or speeds over 10-12 mph. It's for folks to recognize that there are a lot of riders like you, like us - who have modest goals, physical limitations, time constraints, family and various responsibilities that preclude us from riding 4-5 hours on weekends or 2-3 hours on weekdays.

It's also to recognize that while your efforts may pale in comparison to centuries, metric centuries, or "quick 25 mile rides" or whatever distance - your efforts are helping you to get more fit and lose weight. Someone else said it - it's all good.

Having been a guy who was discouraged by the stats some post here, I can tell you that while I congratulate you, I had to adopt an attitude that I am doing the best I can at this weight, under these circumstances and at this point in my life - and pretty much ignore what I see around me. I have seen my own personal progress and post that progress in various threads - so I can see how I - with my modest gains - could perhaps do the same to others - when I only mean to offer encouragement. I came to the realization that you guys who do great speeds or distances or monthly mileage are doing the same. I just choose to focus on my own stats, knowing that through your posts, anything is possible.

No disrespect intended, just focused on me right now.

nkfrench 

I like the intensity of shorter faster rides. 1-2 hours.
Slogging around for 5 hours in sweaty salt-crusted bike shorts lacks appeal.

eja_ bottecchia

I agree with this.

i would also like to add that distance, like size, does matter. Now make whatever you want to make out of this statement.

brawlo

I don't like long rides either, BUT that's just my opinion and the result of a natural progression of my bike riding over the years.

When I started out riding, I had a Giant comfort cross mountain bike. I worked up to riding a 15km loop in the mornings before work. There were some good downhill sections and the uphills weren't too bad, and so I could do the loop in 45min if I was going well. I was carrying a lot of extra weight, but I was realively active, so not too unfit. I used to cut some laps around our local circular velodrome, and I was pretty happy with being able to maintain 30km/h in doing so. One morning I hit the velo after my loop and a girl was doing motorpacing behind a moto with her track bike. She was riding around the outside while I was riding low and I was keeping up with her. I was pretty happy with myself. After a while she asked if I could ride high while she paced down the bottom. My first thought was WOW. She just flew past me and I just continued for a few more laps lamenting at the utterly slow bucket of bolts and tubes underneath my backside. I needed a faster bike, and I wanted to go faster and so I got myself a road bike.

After I got the road bike, that old loop I did that took me 45min, now took me just half an hour. I was riding 20km on my own and the LBS guy said I should go on the Sat morning bunch ride. So I very hesitantly poked along and found myself in a relatively flat 50km ride! And I finished it, and I wasn't last home. Going from 20 to 50km had me freaking out in my head, but as part of a bunch it really wasn't that much harder than the 20 I was doing on my own, although the 20 was in hillier terrain. The guys in the bunch were extremely supportive and extremely helpful in teaching the bunch riding rules and techniques. So I kept on bunch riding and thought I would be a cruisy distance bike rider. My oldest daughter had that idea thrown out of my head by getting involved in track cycling. After sitting on the sidelines watching my daughter's first season of track riding as an U9 I definitely needed a track bike, and my desire to ride long distances went out the window.

That was around 5 years ago now, and I'm happy to say I LOVE track cycling. I have no desire to ride centuries for various reasons. Firstly is because it affects my track sprint ability, secondly because I just don't have the time with a full time job, wife and 2 kids, and third, because I've ridden a few metric centuries and they just leave me smashed and broken for the rest of the day.

But for those that have the time and dedication to ride long distances more power to you. Cycling is an individual sport with a huge number of variables in bike type and rider ability. A mountain biker's 20km ride could very well be harder than a metric century for me. Just do what you want to do and don't worry about having to be part of some crowd. Me personally, I love bunch riding and I love chilling and chatting with others on rides, and it's a great training tool for me, and it's a crowd that I like being with, not a crowd I feel I have to be a part of.

Disposable

Huh. You know, I guess it never occurred to me to be okay with shorter and/or slower rides. I keep pushing to go farther, and I do get more distance in, but I keep on being just as slow as I ever was. I worry that I'll never do centuries since I average only a bit over 10mph, but I keep on going out for these shorter, slower rides, year after year. I must be liking them even if I'm telling myself I'm "in training" for something better. I guess I'm completely in agreement with the OP: short rides are good rides, and I don't have to get worried over only ever getting passed on the bike path. I guess I'm glad to see the sport riders out there; they appear to be having fun. And I guess I'm glad I don't have to work that hard if I don't want to.

Black wallnut 

No one has to work that hard if they don't want to. If you have small goals you will achieve small milestones, no more. it wasn't that long ago that I was only doing 3 mile rides at a time. I ride long and lots because it is how I choose to spend my time. I have a wife and kids and full time job with a 10 minute commute (by car) 30 minute by bike. If I'm going to have a long and happy life I will be making time for exercise, currently that is cycling.

I'm happy for you all that are comfortable with the shorter or slower rides. Get out there and have fun. Please realize you can do more if you choose to and put out the effort. Speed and distance both come with a cost of miles, time and effort. Enjoy what you do and take part in the monthly goal thread if that is fun for you. Do not compare your miles or speed to mine because your circumstances and choices are different than mine, your speed may even be faster but I'll not care. Have fun and keep the cycling conversation going. If one of you came to my town and wanted to go for a 30 minute ride at whatever speed I'd enjoy your company.

LabRat2k3

Some of your experiences here must be different than mine. When I first started posting I could only ride a mile or so, then I posted about doing my first 10 mile ride, then 20, 40, and so on. Not once did I ever receive a negative comment on any of those posts. Not once did anyone put me down, or try to belittle me for riding shorter distances than they could. I always got, “good job”, “keep up the good work”, “way to go”. If other people being proud of themselves, and posting about their accomplishments makes you somehow feel inadequate maybe the problem isn’t with them.

Wooden Tiger

Here, here! The furthest I've ever ridden is 32 miles. Yeah, it was a great achievement, but I couldn't care less about logging tons of miles, and I have no interest in being on a bicycle for 2+ hours straight. Most of my rides average being between 10-15 miles when I'm on a path like the C&O canal, and about three miles when seriously mountain biking.

For me, I'm out there for the ride, not the exercise. For me, the exercise aspect is just an added benefit.

krobinson103

I love the challenge of 200km+ with no stops through the night. Not so I can brag. simply because its the most relaxing thing I know of. A short ride is ok, but in all honesty for me it feels like a warmup and not nearly enough. I want to see the sunset, then rise, and go up some steep hills inbetween.

mrodgers

Well, my idea of a discussion went in a complete polar opposite of what was intended. The continued negative comments about worrying about what others post and such shows that I did not convey my thoughts very well in my original post and want of discussion. I threw and edit into the first post because I tried to clarify later in a post why I started this and it continues to go in the negative direction about folks who ride long distances and that is the furthest from what was intended.

A handful of people seemed to interpret what I was conveying correctly, but I can see how most don't interpret it that way. Sorry about all that.

Beachgrad05

I just may take you up on this some day! You are a hop skip and a jump from where my dad lives (Selah).

Beachgrad05

No need to be sorry. It is sometimes hard to convey intent, tone, context and meaning via internet forums. It started a discussion that may have gone in a direction that you had not intended but I don't think that it was a useless discussion. It is worth noting that some may feel intimidated rather than inspired by fellow Clydes/Athena's posting about long rides and fast avg speeds. Honestly, I don't think anyone intends their posts to be bragging or intimidating...rather I bet they post to hopefully show others what is possible IF THAT IS WHAT YOU DESIRE. If that is not the type of riding that the reader wants to do? That is fine too.

I think you have come quite a ways and I enjoy reading of your progress regardless of how far you ride.

rumrunn6

for the past couple of years, I'm less concerned with the miles and speed and more focused on WHERE I ride and for HOW LONG. yes, I keep stats cuz I think it's interesting to look at many months in the future. but when I saddle up, I look at the clock and think about where I will enjoy being and if I will be safe riding there and what time I expect to be back.

dual650c

Do I "care about the 'milestones'"? Hm. Yes, no and maybe.

Yes - sometimes I just get out and ride - no distance goal in mind - short or long term.

No - Sometimes I DO have a longer than 25 mile distance in mind (and most of the time I accomplish that including once deciding that I was going out for a 60-miler and actually doing 150+ because I 'just kept pedaling').

Maybe - I have started rides in both Yes and No categories and wound up doing the exact opposite as my "goal"/non-goal mindset changed as I rode.

Overall, I think distance itself is not a particular goal of mine. Having a good time, staying in(getting in) shape fitness-wise and just getting out of the house are AND are conveniently not mutually exclusive.

Not meaning to come off flippant here. Just sayin'...

mrodgers

I hope others in our same journey of getting out of Clyde status aren't intimidated by the other folks (not me, the poor old hour+ rider, LOL) with the distances posted. And I absolutely do not take any of it as bragging or purposefully intimidating. I love seeing especially the newer folks posting those milestones whether it was a recent over 10 mile milestone or a 50 mile or century.

My goal isn't that I want to ride a 50 mile ride or a century ride, or even ride past my current 26 mile longest ride though I am proud if and when I do hit one. What my goal really is, is I have a lot of local bike trails out in the woods, along the rivers, around lakes, through state parks, and through the Allegheny National Forest and I want to ride them all or most of them this summer. When I do ride them, I want to ride them in their entirety (well, maybe not the one 6 miles from home, the 30 mile Allegheny River Trail since I'm far from being ready to ride 60 miles) and most of them are around 10 to 12 miles one way I believe. A handful are up to 18 miles from end to end and that would put me at hitting a longest to date distance, but the distance isn't my goal.

One other distance unrelated goal I have is when I visit these trails, I am into photography a bit (though with a cheap camera) and I am starting to carry the camera with me when I ride the trails. At home, it is always the same route, though I do need some better pictures of those routes, but I will probably only visit the further away trails once so I need to have the camera with me and stopping for photography certainly ups the amount of time it takes to ride. I think this past weekend, it took me 3 hours to ride the 15 mile trail out at the lake because of all the tangents going off down the boat launches with the camera. Put 19 miles on the odometer riding a 15 mile trail, lol.

Vacation time in 2 weeks, I'm hoping to have plenty of early mornings to head out with the camera on the bike to get to the further away trails and be home probably before my lazy family gets up at 11 am or noon, lol.

StephenH

I try to keep my miles up. There were recently two threads about that, the latest being "May 2014 Goals and Log". One reason I went ahead and posted my miles there was that there is a lot of variation in the Clydesdale forum, but we're not all struggling to ride around the block for the first time, either. So if somebody is riding 100 miles a month, that's great, but it is possible to be a Clydesdale and do a lot more, too, and I don't want other people to feel like they're automatically limited because they fall into a particular weight category.

I first started riding (as an adult) for exercise, and I normally rode about 10 miles a day. I gradually picked that up as I got faster and also as I discovered new routes. When I had the opportunities to ride with other people, I increased my mileage again. So just tonight, I rode 39 miles because I was doing a Greater Dallas Bicyclists group ride.

One reason I ride a bicycle is that it is exercise that is fun. If I hated it, I'd do as little as possible. But, I rather like it, so the more, the better.

One reason I track my miles is that it is a motivational tool to help keep me moving. Normally, I do that at www.bikejournal.com. I have a mileage goal per month that I try to maintain. Then also, they rank all the riders by mileage, so it's cool to see that you're #21 or something like that. Even if you're way down the list, if you ride regularly, you'll be moving UP the list, which is also cool! It's all too easy for me to sit here and veg in front of the computer instead of riding, so any motivation is good.

I got started riding longer distances partly because it sounded like a challenge, then, when I got into it more, I really enjoyed riding with the other people that I get to ride with. So now, that's basically what I do every Saturday. And I just really enjoy that. Looking forward to this Saturday, for that matter.

Something else about riding longer distances is that it is open to just about anyone. I can tell I'll never be the next Lance Armstrong and I'll never win any kind of race based on pure speed. But by golly, I CAN ride 500 miles! So it's an accomplishment that I CAN do. If I was really fast, then I could brag about that. But, as is, it'll have to be miles and not mph.

Somebody up there mentioned about having time to ride, relative to doing yardwork, etc. That's all a matter of priorities. My yard looks like heck and I'm behind on house maintenance. On the other hand, there's a lot of tasks like that that'll just suck up all the time you throw at them, and it'd be real easy to have zero time left for riding or anything else. If I really enjoyed yardwork, it'd be a little different, but I'd much rather ride, and so I adjust my priorities accordingly. The kids are gone, the wife and I don't do much together, and riding is how I kill my spare time. When I'm not riding, I'm usually sitting here at the computer or something equally unproductive, so I might as well be doing unproductive but pleasant exercising.