Originally Posted by
jefnvk
In what way is your assertion not being influenced by personal feelings or opinions?
I agree with your premises that 30 miles is probably not a long day, but it is a subjective determination, based on my and your abilities and experiences. The fact is there is no standard definition of a "long" day, and therefore no objective method of determining what is and is not.
Objective criteria are not subjective by definition. That's why they are called objective criteria.
Here's a set of objective criteria:
Anything below the median of all touring days is short and anything above the median of all touring days is long. I just made that up, but it's what I would consider to be at the very low end of objective criteria for short vs. long days.
Those criteria are not influenced by personal feelings or opinions. They are objective. They are objective criteria.
While I don't have the data from all touring days, I'm quite confident that the median is above 30 miles. Not to mention that set of criteria doesn't really even identify long days, just above average days. A better objective criterion for a long day would be any ride that is at least two standard deviations above the mean of all touring days, which would certainly be a lot more than 30 miles. My guess is it would be closer to 100 as the standard deviation would be sensitive to very long touring days, especially if you were liberal in your definition of touring and included randonneuring.
Now, what's your set of objective criteria that makes 30 miles a long day?