Originally Posted by
WonderMonkey
IPretend the 25 mile ride is at your cruising speed. The total burn (exercise, recovery, etc) is XX.
Now let's go to 10 mile ride but after your warmup you do high intensity intervals. Just pound it for a few minutes or a small stretch. Then do a recovery period then pound it again. The total burn (exercise, recovery, etc) is YY.
In your opinion which is better?
If you want to lose weight, you should be going as hard as you can, for as long as you can, as often as you can. If you don't feel like you're working hard, you're probably wasting your time on the bike.
I lost 50lbs back in 2007 or 2008. My workout strategy was basically: a 15-mile lunch ride 3-4 times a week going as fast as I could, combined with 1-2 longer (2+-hour) rides on the weekend. The weekend rides were still at a brisk pace, but I was usually trying to extend my distance, ride time, or elevation gain so I had to reduce my pace somewhat in order to be able to complete the ride. Still, whenever I did a route more than once I was always trying to beat my previous ride time.