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Too much of a good thing

Old 05-12-03, 12:58 AM
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Too much of a good thing

At what point does the commute keep you off the bike? I am looking at commuting 50 miles a day 5 days a week and while I love biking this seems excessive, and may take the fun out of my extracirricular riding.

Is there too much of a good thing?
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Old 05-12-03, 01:03 AM
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Just make sure that your commuting is fun. If you view it only as a way to get to and from work it can be boring. If you view it as a great excuse to get in lots of extra miles, it's great.
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Old 05-12-03, 02:44 AM
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What Media Creations said. The key to maintaining motivation for riding (or any exercise for that matter) is enjoyment. If you find that you can ride that sort of distance and still have the motivation to ride, I don't think it will be a problem. On the other hand, you might get tired of it, which means you might need to back it off a little.
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Old 05-12-03, 12:27 PM
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I do roughly 40 miles a day. I mix my routes up to keep things from getting tedious. I am also starting do intervals on my way home and that makes for a more interesting ride (especially when I start passing cars on residential streets!). I am still working up to doing that 5 days a week. Right now I do that maybe 3 times and catch the bus home the other days. Occasionally I drive.
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Old 05-12-03, 03:37 PM
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Originally posted by naisme
At what point does the commute keep you off the bike? I am looking at commuting 50 miles a day 5 days a week and while I love biking this seems excessive, and may take the fun out of my extracirricular riding.

Is there too much of a good thing?
Everyone is different, of course. I have friends who can ride that everyday with no problems, I have other friends who top out at less than 1/3 that amount.

Just try it out and see what works for you. I find that I really don't like to spend more than about 80-90 minutes a day commuting by bike. More than that and it cuts into time that I use doing other things I like to do. But that's just me.
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Old 05-12-03, 09:42 PM
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Only you can answer that one, Naisme.

It would definitely be too much for me.

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Old 05-16-03, 07:47 PM
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Well, the big day is coming up Tuesday, and I'll keep track of the miles and if I mind or don't mind 90 min on the bike. It looks like a great ride, and a chance to put some miles in. I already try for that at my current job, adding miles to the commute when and where I can. I also like the option of a really short route if I want/need it. The shortest I can make this would be an hour.
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Old 05-22-03, 04:46 PM
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How did this turn out?
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Old 05-22-03, 05:16 PM
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Oft times I'll switch up my route to make it interesting. There's plenty to see. I also make it a habit of talking to people I see on the way. This makes it more of a interesting ride, and they also ask what happen when I'm not there ~ semi motivational.

It depends on how rough the ride is for you too. I, uh, named the hills on my various routes, and sometimes mid day I'll pick one to "killl". Just don't talk about it out loud. I have a hill I call "The church" because it has 3 churches on it. One day I said out loud "I think I'll kill the church today". That got some WIDE eyes.
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Old 05-24-03, 11:38 PM
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Today was day five, and my legs are begging for some time off. I think the weekend will be spent in the tub soaking and then a good rub down, they deserve it. I've been pushing them and myself at a 75% HR. I need to rest up for next week.
I've also been mixing up the ride, with 24 miles to cover there are a lot of different routes to take. I am thinking of having a 40 miler before work, as it is really dark when I get off at midnight.
I have also mixed up the bikes I ride, two days on my fixed gear, two on the road bike, and one on my cross. I've really enjoyed the days on the road bike, man does that bike fly!
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