Originally Posted by Random11

Every morning I ride 15-20 miles over rolling hills. I rarely miss a day. I enjoy riding, but one motivator is that I think it's good for my health. I get occasional advice (and see it here) on what I can do to get faster and stronger, but I don't feel I need to be faster or stronger to maximize the health benefit of riding. I'm no expert on fitness, but here's my logic. I've heard that people should get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, and I'm comfortably over that. And I've heard that if you exercise in the morning, it boosts your metabolism for the rest of the day, so I do my rides in the morning. I ride at a pretty good pace, but no power meter, no heart meter, no Strava, just me and the bike. My thought is that while I could do more to train, there would be no real health benefit to doing more. I'm not a fitness expert, but maybe just based on internet rumors, that's the logic behind my riding. Does this make sense? Is there any reason to "train?" I don't want my cycling to turn from a pleasure into a chore.