Originally Posted by
LoriRose
I know it's all relative but what I'm wondering is if I keep at it and increase my distance per week will the longer rides start to feel short?
Definitely.
I let myself get fat and was only riding 25 miles/40km a week commuting until I developed a sweaty crease between man-boobs and beer belly.
I worked up to 25-30 miles/40-50km before work every weekday, my 6 mile/10km commute, and a longer 50-60 mile/80-100km ride on Saturdays.
With a 3-4 hour ride on Saturday my weekday rides feel very short - a solid 25 mile/40 km effort is 1:15-1:20; 30 mile/50km ride at an endurance pace or with intervals about 1:45-1:50.
Am I that out of shape?
It's all relative. You're probably fine for a non-athlete but fall short of a bicycle racer which is expected when you're not training 10-20 hours a week.
I work on my feet and walk everywhere.
Cycling uses different muscles.
The longer rides aren't excruciating but I do need to take a few breathers after really exerting myself and when I near the end I am happy to be almost done.
There's a sustainable effort which decreases with duration. If you try to go harder you'll have to stop. At higher intensities it drops fast - work 10% too hard and your endurance drops from one hour to ten minutes. You need to pace yourself to avoid that.
There's also an easy pace that you could probably maintain all-day as long as you didn't have fit issues, kept hydrated, and ate 200 Calories of mostly carbs per hour to sustain yourself, although it might be with children passing you on tricycles.
My goal is to be able to do longer and longer rides but I fear that my body just won't get used to it or that I will become discouraged. I guess I am just trying to gauge where my fitness level is at. If a 25 mile ride doesn't seem short to me does that mean I have a long way to go?
At the same intensity you can increase duration about 10% a week. If you skip a day before your long ride you can comfortably at least double your weekday average.