Ogsarg

So when you first started riding, did you set out to ride the kind of distances that you ride now or did your ideas about riding evolve?

For me, I was working on getting in shape using an old Nordic track machine in the early morning. That was about 2 years ago. It was noisy and was waking people up in the house and eventually I got nagged enough that I started running. Then I pulled a calf muscle running and I really didn't like running so when that was better (about a year ago) I tuned up my old rigid MTB that had been sitting in the garage for 20 years or so and started riding that. At the time, it was just a tool for getting exercise before work but after a while I started to really enjoy it and going for longer rides on the weekends. This spring, I decided to get a road bike to go longer distances and it just escalated.

I'm still riding the MTB 2-3 mornings a week at 4:30AM for about 45 minutes before getting ready for work. On the weekends I take the road bike and go as far as I have time for and feel like. Lately it's been about 40 miles with my longest being 65 a few days after my 61st birthday. I've never been on a group ride, I don't have a power meter or bike computer, and don't track my rides on Strava.

At the moment I have no goal or thoughts about a century or riding any farther than I am now but who knows what I might be doing in another year or two. I see a lot of you folks doing a heck of a lot more miles than me so perhaps as I get stronger, I'll want to do that or perhaps I'll just find some routine that I'm happy with and stick with that. I really don't know but I'm enjoying the ride and that is what is important.

elocs

Nope. I don't ride for distance or speed. My bike is my workhorse that gets me where I need to go and back again and pulls my cargo trailer to haul what I need to be hauled. I don't ride 7 miles to the mall at the other end of town and then say, "gee, I think I'll ride 15 miles down the road to the next town before I turn around and go home". I enjoy my bike while I am riding it but I seldom ride it just to ride it and I don't ride to stay in shape but I am in pretty good shape because I ride.
When I was 30 I hopped on my clunky old 5 speed Schwinn one morning to see if I could ride a 100 miles in a day and took off for a little city that was 50 some miles down the Mississippi. When I got there I stopped at McDonald's to eat and turned around and rode back and that was a much longer ride home than it was getting there (maybe the river really does run down hill). The point being is that I did it and never felt the need to do it again.

tramptrade 

I have always ridden long distance, so I would have to say yes. As far back as 1980 my friends and I were riding 60-80 km regularly on heavy steel bikes just for kicks. Every year there were camping trips by bike too, which were typically 200-300 km. We were definitely the bike nerds back in the day.

These days my rides are shorter on average, but I plan on doing a 1200 km tour next summer. I am currently building my endurance back up for that.

I will say this though, it's tougher at 54 than it was at 24

woodcraft

Once you get going, riding a century very doable- you're pretty much in range now.

I didn't think too far ahead when I started riding,

but did a double century last weekend - 44 years after doing the first one.

jskash

When I first got back on a bike four years ago, I didn't think I would ever ride more than ten miles. That pretty quickly changed. I regularly ride 20 miles per day on a bit more on the weekend.

jon c. 

Not at the very start. My wife wanted to try riding and borrowed a bike from a friend. So I got a hybrid off CL to ride with her. Figured we'd be riding 5 miles or so. But as soon as I got a road bike, which was only a few weeks later, I knew the miles would increase.

elocs

Now if there were some place I needed to go that was 10 miles from my house I would ride 20 miles a day and I just might have if I totaled up the trips in a single day, but there's no way I'm going to ride 20 miles a day for the halibut.

DougRNS

To answer the question posed by the OP, no I didn't think I would be doing the mileage I am now when I first started. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I also had no idea that I would still be riding regularly after 29 years. I remember wondering to myself shortly after riding regularly if I would still be doing it in 10 years at, gasp, 36 years old. Most of us ride because it is a fun hobby and for the mental and physical health benefits derived from riding. That is the utility we get.

If using your bike as a mode of transportation to get groceries or whatever is the way you get utility then good for you. Both ways of obtaining utility from a bike are acceptable.

I am looking forward to hearing more replies answering the question posed by the OP.

elocs

The question posed by the OP was:
I believe that my reply answered that question for me whether you were looking forward to hearing it or not.
No, my ideas about riding did not evolve.

canklecat

30 years ago I rode 20 miles a day commuting, often taking a longer route home, and longer rides up to 100 miles a day or more on weekends. Mentally, I knew what I was capable of.

But in 2015, now in my late 50s when I resumed cycling, there were many physical challenges to overcome -- neck and back injuries, asthma, thyroid disease, years of physical neglect. So it's been a two-year challenge getting back into reasonably good shape.

The first day back in the saddle in August two years ago I could barely ride a mile. It took a month before I could ride three miles without stopping to catch my breath. Another two or three months to ride 20 miles in a single day with several rest stops.

Over a year I worked up to rides of 40-60 miles a day, usually combining those with casual group rides with friends, plenty of rest breaks. I transitioned from an upright comfort hybrid to a more sporty hybrid.

After nearly two years, this summer, I got a drop bar road bike. Took a lot of physical conditioning to handle that again. No very long rides so far, mostly harder, faster rides of 20-30 miles to challenge my conditioning a bit more.

Eventually I'm working my way toward riding solo and group centuries again. It's coming along. But I also enjoy lots of very casual rides at a modest pace. Pushing myself harder once or twice a week boosts my conditioning so that I can enjoy longer casual rides without feeling exhausted or overheated in summer.

Machka 

I started cycling when I was 6 years old, and grew up in a cycling family surrounded by bicycles, bicycle equipment, and Bicycling Magazine back when it was good. I can't imagine life without bicycles. I've never experienced life without bicycles.

I don't know when the idea of doing long distances entered my head ... my parents (father especially) cycled some decent distances and I recall stories about long distance cycling in Bicycling Magazine. But I can't remember exactly when I would have read about cycling a century or cycling a double century ... long, long ago.

Meanwhile, I continued to cycle with my family ... often up to about 50 km.

When I was 17, my father did a 3-day trip from Jasper to Banff and I joined him on the third day. Caught the bug and decided that one day I'd do the whole trip.

And then my cycling kind of took a back seat to running for a bit.

On April 29, 1990 I started cycling "seriously" again, gradually building up. By the end of that year I did a 80 km ride.

And, of course, I had a few goals in mind. I wanted to do that Jasper to Banff ride. I wanted to cycle a Century. And I wanted to race.

In 1993, I cycled from Jasper to Banff in three days.
In 1994, I cycled my first Century ... and vowed I would never do a ride of that distance again. In 1997, I cycled two Centuries. In total now I've cycled 182 Centuries or longer rides.
In 1998, I started racing and raced for 3 years.

At some point during the late 1990s I recalled a story I had read in a Bicycling Magazine years before about riding a double century and so, having accomplished my first three goals, I began to toy with the idea of cycling even longer.

In 2000, I recalled an article which I had cut out of the newspaper years before about something called "Randonneuring". I dug it out, and called the phone number in the article. Amazingly, the person on the other end of the line was still the main contact for the Manitoba Randonneurs ... and all of a sudden, in 2001, I was randonneuring!

I had no problem imagining myself doing the 200 km, 300 km, 400 km and 600 km distances ... but when I was presented with the idea of doing the 1000 km and 1200 km, those were a little mind-boggling. However, I soon learned that it's no good thinking about doing a 1200 km or you'd never do it. You've got to think about about it in sections. It's all about "how to eat an elephant" (a concept I got from another article I read). How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! And that's how you approach the ultra-distances ... one manageable segment at a time.

My stats:
Centuries ... 102
200K .......... 35
300K .......... 20
400K .......... 13
600K ........... 7
1000K ......... 1
1200K ......... 4
TOTAL ..... 182

Tony P.

Back in the 70s and 80s I did centuries and half-centuries routinely, leaving early and often getting home for lunch. Those days are gone, primarily because my speed is down. Nearing 70, I ride a hybrid and my speed is down to 15 mph (less on my trail bike) and my rides are only 2-4 hours so I can no longer approach the distances I handled before.

indyfabz

I first started riding around age 5, so no. Up and down the alley was my universe.

BadBurrito

when I first started I had a huffy bike. It didn't have a bike computer. I can't say for sure how far I went, I suspect it was around 4-5 miles. Once I got the bike computer everything changed. I had a way to measure and record in a log distance, time, speed and with my semi-OCD that was a big game changer. a legit road bike was next and it wasn't long before I was seriously upping the mileage.

I ride a lot of 15-20 mile rides, but my jam is a century - love those.

Rick@OCRR

No, honestly, I had no clue.

I started riding in '67 on an English 3-Spd and 30 mi. was about all I could do. In '68 I bought a Peugeot PX-10 and only increased mileage up to 60 or 70.

Didn't ride my first century until '78 (Mojave by Moonlight), still riding the same Peugeot.

Rode my first double-century in '82 (Central Double Century, Litchfield, IL); riding my MASI as my day bike and the same (now very old) Peugeot for my night bike.

Rode my first (and so far only) triple century in '85 (Litchfield, IL again) in a little over 20 hours. Also in '85 I rode BAM (Bicycle Across Missouri), St. Louis to Kansas City and back, in 54.5 hours for 566 miles.

In '91 I rode Paris-Brest-Paris but finished a bit over the "official" time limit of 90 hours (750 miles).

Since then I've concentrated on double-centuries. So far, 77 doubles since I moved to CA (in '95) added to the 14 I'd ridden in my previous life (MO, IL).

This year though, at age 67, I've only ridden two doubles (Camino Real and Solvang Spring) though I have Hemet Double scheduled for Sept. 16th of 2017. Could be rather toasty . . . so will have to see how that goes!

Rick / OCRR

wphamilton

If the question means "as an adult" did I imagine I'd ride these distances, absolutely not! I have one recollection from early on that brings that home for me. I was about 47 or 48 at the time and newly car-free.

As I recall we were at a Publix supermarket, my wife and I, loading up our bikes with the groceries and this grizzled looking cyclist rolls up and strikes up a conversation. He was a character, adamant that you could only trust "bike people" - we thought his bubble was a little off plumb to be honest, but with hindsight he'd have fit right in with the car-free forum I guess. Anyway I asked where he'd been to that morning and he named off a neighboring suburb, and we were mightily impressed. "What?" he said, "that's only about 20 miles!" and rode off. It seemed like an impossible distance - our little trip to the grocery store was a journey, but 20 miles was out of the question!

OldTryGuy

NO, but the more I rode the more I realized that a bike could provide a means by which I was able to keep pace with others more athletic than I. Having never run or participate in sports while growing up, I found the bike enhanced the limited strengths I did have that were never utilized.

Went out for a planned 60 mile ride yesterday and wound up crashing as I returning home for a pit stop. I hit the big green garbage container at the end of my driveway that was just minding its own business waiting for emptying. This happened while riding at 15.5mph, 12.92 miles into a planned 60 mile ride. Gathered up myself and bike, completed my task at hand and headed back out. As I continued to ride I could feel the pains increasing but decided to NOT LET THE CRASH GET THE BEST OF ME and rode another 102.23 miles for a 115.15 mile total.

Biker395 

I've heard great things about that ride. Wish they were still doing it.

Biker395 

For me, it was definitely an evolution. If someone told me 30 years ago that I'd be riding as much and the distances I do at my age, I'd have told them they were nuts.

Like most of us in the 50+ group, I cycled pretty much everywhere as a kid. Parents carting their kids to school and activities was pretty much unknown.

I started riding as an adult to avoid the ridiculous 80s traffic congestion in SoCal. That was only a 10 mile commute round trip.

I liked that so much, I started riding the same beach bike path on weekends. That was maybe 40 miles. My wife liked it because I took the kids with me on a trailer.

Then I got into touring. Now we're at 60 miles.

One day on a tour, we were required to ride 95 miles on a rather long day. I chose the option of riding another 5 miles. That was my first century.

At some point, a friend had registered for a 200 mile ride and couldn't go. Asked if I would like to go in his place, I thought ... why not? That was the first of many double centuries. Officially, I've done 40-something of them now. Unofficially, the number is probably twice that.

I had heard of people crazy enough to do the 500 mile endurance races. I really thought them to be rather touched. Within a couple of years, I talked a friend into doing one on 2 person team. From there, it's a small step to doing the whole sheebang yourself. Now you're doing 500 mile endurance races.

Doing the Race Across the West (800 miles) is on my distant radar (I did it with a 4 person team back in 2014), and one of these days, I'm going to do the 24 hour challenge.

But RAAM? Maybe on a team someday, but not solo. I do have my limits.

MinnMan

Definitely not.

In my late 30s and early 40s, I rode occasionally, doing either a 4 mile or 10 mile loop up and down the river. Then that bike was stolen and I didn't ride for about 8 years. I bought a new bike at age 48 and returned to similar rides. But two things happened. First, I resolved to ride every day (or nearly so) that summer. Second, I discovered that the trail system in my area had become much more extensive and I began to explore.

I remember being so happy that I managed 12 miles one day, and then, by the end of the summer I rode in the Minneapolis Bike Tour, which was 38 miles. I was so proud of this that I posted it on Facebook.

I didn't keep track of miles that first year, but I think the total was about 1500.

By the next year, i had ridden my first century and was riding 20-35 miles on many weekday nights, and 30-70 miles on Saturdays. I rode 4000 miles in year 2. 7000 in year 3.

Now I ride 250 miles/week, and think nothing of riding a century - I've done half a dozen so far this year and will likely do another half dozen between now and October.

I had no idea this was going to happen.

WNCGoater

Nope. Back in my 30's I kind of got an itch to ride for exercise. My wife got me a Huffy for C'mas. I rode it that winter in the early, pre-dawn mornings. Only about 20-30 minutes. After a few months of that, that pre-dawn frigid temperatures got old. I'd occasionally get an itch and ride a 5 miler on Sunday afternoons but never really had much fun. Eventually dropped off completely.

Long story short, ended up with an old Trek hybrid I just puttered around on occasionally but I really liked jogging. I had a knee surgery brought about by jogging. My ortho doctor said, "Quit jogging, your knees won't take it at your age. After the 2nd knee surgery he asked, "What did you not understand about not jogging?" Ride a bike if you want exercise (he let me test ride his mountain bike) So I dragged out the Trek, and I got to the point I did a few rides at the unbelievable distance of about 15 miles, including climbing back up the mountain to our home! So I bought a mountain bike,
...and then a road bike...

My world changed with the road bike. I rode it 20, then 30 then over 40 miles! Eventually went over 60 miles, and Saturday mornings became a ritual to do 40+ mile rides. I've never been athletic and felt I was a different person. I mentioned to a co-worker, "Someday I'd like to try and ride 100 miles" having never heard of a "century" nor did I know if it was even possible. And so a few weeks later, on one Saturday, I was at 70+ miles and feeling pretty good so I decided to go for 100. I finished my first (unplanned) 103 mile ride that day and it was the next day when telling someone they used the term "Century". Couple months after I rode my second Century but planned it that time.

Anyway in answer to the OP's question, no, I never dreamed I'd ride these distances nor dreamed I would consider a 20 mile ride a "short" ride, 25-40 miles a "normal" ride and 45 miles+ a "long" ride.

John_V 

No matter what you said, you couldn't get me on a bicycle just to go for a ride if your life depended on it. That was my attitude before my wife got me a bicycle for my 63rd birthday. Since she paid more for it than I would ever dream of paying for a bike, I didn't want it to rust away in the shed and have her upset at me. I hadn't ridden in over 20 years and the first time I rode it, I didn't quite get to one mile. Couldn't walk for the next three days. After I was able to walk without my leg muscles screaming at me, I started doing a little more each ride around the neighborhood. Before I knew it, I was doing 4 to 5 mile rides in the neighborhood.

I live about three miles from Flatwoods Park, where the world annual distance record (86,586 miles) and the fastest 100,000 mile world record (423 days) was broken by Amanda Coker. That's her and myself in my avatar after I rode with her the day she broke the woman's annual distance record (29,606 miles) in just 4 months. Flatwoods has a wide, seven mile, one way, paved loop with no speed restrictions. Using the service roads and the loop, you can get 15 miles out of one lap. The first time I rode in that park, I really struggled to complete the seven mile loop and the one mile of service road to get to and from the trail. I didn't think that I could ever do another seven mile ride again.

Fast forward to today. I'll turn 71 in October, I've given away the bike my wife gave me, went through a hybrid and three road bikes. I still ride at Flatwoods, on a daily basis, putting in 40 to 60 miles per ride, and have been doing 10K+ miles for the past two years. Two years ago, after completing my second cross state ride, I got a wild hair up my butt to do 1K mile months. I did 3 consecutive, 1K months that year, 6 last year and 5 this year with this month making my 6th. Last month was my shortest month of the year with 758 miles. I'll be completing my 5th cross state ride in October where I get to do two birthday rides back to back.

So to answer the OP's question, No! I had no idea that my wife buying me that bicycle for my birthday would have turned me into a full blown cycling addict. And please don't try to get me any intervention!

DougRNS

Awesome responses! If anyone needed a nudge to get into biking all they would have to do is read these stories.

Wheever

Heck No!

Five years ago, I was barely able to walk a quarter mile, so physically debilitated was I from a long-term chronic illness.

Four years ago, the woman I was dating bought a house in Sag Harbor, NY, and started talking about the possibilities of biking from her house to the beach. She was a bit of an athlete, so the 7 miles didn't seem like much to her, but I was scared of how my body would respond to that amount of exercise, even though the area is very flat.

I used to ride like crazy when I was a teen, but the last time I was on bike was in 1995. I had an old mountain bike, (the one I had last ridden in '95,) so I brought it down to her place. As it turns out, we never really rode much together, but I took that bike out a little bit and remembered how much I loved biking. So, of course, I decided I needed something better. (...and it begins...) So I started bike shopping. After looking at hybrids, I decided I would only be happy with a road bike!

The first bike I bought was a Giant Defy. When I rode it back the mile from the LBS, I was exhausted and sore for days. But I started riding more. And I felt like a hero when I did all of 5 miles. Eventually, I was riding down to the beach to meet my girlfriend after she had driven down because it was "too far!" And then...I became utterly and completely addicted, riding 15-20 miles whenever I could. Tracking my improvement the usual ways.

In April 2015, I decided I didn't really like the Defy all that much, and went bike shopping...again... and ended up with my Domane. The first time I took it out was an epiphany! I double my usual miles with ease, and by later in the summer was doing half-centuries whenever I could find the time, and as many mile as I could per week. And. I. felt. Great! I felt better than I had in almost a decade, almost like I did before I got sick!

So last week, I was down on Martha's Vineyard with my new girlfriend, and did a ride I would NEVER have imagined I could: I rode out to Aquinnah and back. Only 38 miles round trip, but a distance that used to be daunting BY CAR 20 years ago when I used to summer there. And the ride was too short, but I had to be back for shopping and whatnot.

So in direct answer to your question, OP, I could never, in a million years, have imagined myself riding out to Aquinnah and back like it was nothing! If I'd had more time, and the weather had been better, I could EASILY have done the length of the whole island, and done so joyfully.

noglider 

No, I have goals, and they change. I have been commuting to work by bike once again for the past two and a half years. Until this spring or summer, I rode about two days a week and took the subway the other few days. Last year, I clocked 2,000 miles in total, including fun rides, fitness rides, miscellaneous rides such as going to the movies, and commuting. Most of the miles were commuting. This year, I decided to go for 2,500 miles. I've averaged the right number of miles per month, but since it will get harder as the weather gets colder, I realized I have to ride more this summer to reach my goal, so I'm commuting by bike more than two days a week. (It's about 27 miles round trip.) I also wanted to improve my endurance and average speed, and while I'm not adding distance to my commuting rides, I know that riding faster on my commutes will be preparation for long weekend rides. My cruising speed was 13 mph last year, and this year, I'm not sure, but I think it's about 15 or 16, maybe higher.

I'm 56 years old, 69 inches tall, and weigh 155 pounds.

My weekend rides seek out the biggest hills I can find, and I climb them without walking or stopping.

My fuel costs, so to speak, have risen quite a lot. I'm almost afraid to describe the amount I eat, because it seems kind of disgusting.