I'm an "other".
I don't care about long distance, so I wouldn't call myself a tourer. I am an explorer though.
I live out in the middle of nowhere and happen to have an absolutely beautiful trail 8 miles from home, the Allegheny River Trail. When I started, I was on it every day.
I like to ride the different trails. Here in PA we have some awesome rails to trails. I am trying to roam around western PA and hit them all. Not much time though so it will take a while. I mainly use the ART and a local trail near work. I have the Sandy Creek Trail which crosses the ART not too far (further than a bike ride so I've traveled by car often to ride it.) Furthest ride I've taken was the Toby Creek Trail, 36 miles round trip. It is located up in the Allegheny National Forest. The middle 6 miles I felt like I was the only one left in the world.
I've made 1 trip down to Pittsburgh, PA to ride along the shores of Three Rivers for a change of scenery. What a change of scenery it was too. Really neat riding past PNC Park, Heinz Field, Rivers Casino, across the Fort Duquene and Fort Pitt bridge, even got some riding the streets of Pittsburgh. So different than my rail trail riding in the middle of the woods.
I would like to see a definition of what you all mean when you say "fitness". I started riding for exercise. It is sustainable exercise because it is fun. I guess I ride for fitness, but I'm not extreme where I have to ride at X zone heart rate, do intervals, specifically ride for athleticism. I just ride because it's good for you and fun exercise. My normal day to day riding is I try to ride an hour a day, which is about 12 mile or so. It's not as extreme as some of you folks but the 149/95 reduction to 122/78 blood pressure and 450 to 189 triglycerides is definite proof to me that my hour a day riding is working.
All that said, I have to confess, I've only got 10 miles on the bike so far this year. Long hours at work is keeping me from riding after work as I usually do. That and buying a kayak is keeping me off the bike on the weekends. I do have about 25 miles in the kayak so far since I bought as a birthday present to myself the end of April. Kayaking is quite a workout for the upper body, but there isn't a whole lot of cardio that comes from it, at least not anything close to like on the bike.
My fitness is doing very well with blood pressure, triglyceride count, cholesterol, all reduced pretty much just to the edge of acceptable levels. Weight and eating on the other hand, I was doing very well but just completely fell 247 off the ladder with it. I was down from 247 to a low of 208 I think, but last year the diet started returning to what it was previously and I didn't lose anything while riding all summer. Winter hit and the weight has climbed back up. I think I'm back to about 238.
I worked all weekend this weekend. Went out on the kayak tonight for about 3 hours but for tomorrow, I've got the bike loaded up in the car for after work. I need to get that exhilarating feeling back that I use to have after my after-work ride and get the motivation back up again. I think I'll make a nice salad for lunch tomorrow instead of eating from the vending machine to kick start the better diet again.