Originally Posted by
ridingfool
I live in northern jersey so lots of good riding have you ever done east saddle river road goes up through upper saddle river to the Rockland county border very good route.also u mention 27 I never did the phili route but have done the philliburg route eastern Pennsylvania very nice route but a little hilly
I haven't been as far north as the towns of Saddle River or Upper Saddle River; but I have been just just south of there in Ridgewood. I took the bike path that runs adjacent to the actual Saddle River, going up to Ridgewood from Rochelle Park.
I have also gone out to Paterson, which I find fascinating. (As I mentioned, I love riding in cities most.) I saw the mural honouring Larry Doby; and I got to go inside Hinchliffe Stadium, which is the only Negro League stadium still standing. Also, I saw the statue of Lou Costello.
Originally Posted by
bobwysiwyg
Congratulations! You make me feel like lazy sloth. How much time do you estimate you've spent in the saddle so far?
I have to admit that I don't track my hours, only the distance. But my commute to work takes about an hour and fifteen minutes; it's about 10 1/2 miles. (I go pretty slow, I guess. I stop at all red lights, as we all should do.)
On a good day off, such as a weekend or a summer vacation day, I am usually out all day, leaving home at around 8:00am and coming back at around 3:00 or 4:00pm. There will inevitably be some stops, both for buying drinks and for just looking around in the place that I have gone to. That will be like a 50- or 60-mile day.
The trips to and from Philadelphia this year took about eleven hours, if we include all the stops; the previous trips of nearly 120 miles took about fifteen hours. Though in those instances, the stoppage time really added up; the actual riding time was probably about nine and twelve hours, respectively.
Originally Posted by
Steve B.
Congrats for sure, it’s a lot of riding.
I wish I had the time for that, I used to be able to get in 6000 to 7000, not anymore though. Maybe after I retire.
The only way I can get so many miles is by riding both for commuting (except when it is raining) and for recreation. My commute each day gets me about 23 miles on the route that I currently use. During the summer months I sometimes take a longer route to and from work. On the weekends I try to do at least 40 or 50 miles per day; on a good day it can get up to 60 or 70.
On top of that, I use almost all my vacation days during the summer, devoting those days completely to riding. I like it hot; I have ridden comfortably in temperatures up to 104 degrees. So I take off whenever the temperature gets to the high 80s; I believe have taken off on every one of the few 90-degree days that we've had for the past several years.
I also use vacation days when we get mild weather in the other seasons. I have taken off just to ride on 70-degree days in October and on 60-degree days in November. And I will probably take off tomorrow, because we might get a rare 60-degree December day, before the rain comes at night.
I ride all through the winter, skipping days only for snow and ice, but not usually for cold alone. The coldest weather that I have ridden in is 9 degrees. It was awful; and if my commute had been any longer than 10 1/2 miles, I couldn't have done it.
In the crap months of December, January, and February, I am happy with about 300 miles per month. This assumes missing several days for snow/ice, and even allows for my weakening on occasion and blowing off some cold days. That makes 900 miles total.
In each of the semi-crap months of March, April, October, and November, I hope to accumulate 400 miles; this I can achieve if I just do my commutes every day. This makes 1600 miles.
In the months adjacent to summer, May and September, I shoot for about 600 to 700 miles per month; this makes about 1400 if I am lucky. So all of that accounts for about 3900 non-summer miles.
Then in the true riding season, the summer months of June, July, and August, I really come alive. For the past five years, I have surpassed 1000 miles in July; I noted above that during this past July I hit my highest total ever for any month, totalling 1158 miles. I have surpassed 900 miles in August twice; and on three occasions I have done more than 800 miles in June. My per-month average for those summer months since I started keeping records is more than 850 miles (and that includes the truncated August of last year, in which I developed an injury on August 21 and shut it down with fewer than 650 miles). This means that I can hope to accumulate about 2500 miles during those magical months. Added to the 3900 non-summer miles, this gives me more than 6000.
So far that plan has worked three times, with my high being 6800 miles in 2015. I don't know if I will be able to reach this total again, given advancing age. But, at age 52 I feel very good. So I hope to continue at the same level for a while longer.