As I approach my 70th birthday, I have been feeling kind of bad about getting older fatter and slower. Still riding about 5000 miles a year, and good lord willing and the creek don't rise I think 6000 is well in sight for this year. But I am for sure a lot slower and fatter than in my bike prime. And this feels bad on occasion. So today, at the mid-point of a 50-mile ride, I stopped at a coffee kiosk to have a Mocha and a break. The 20ish barista asked where i was from and told her I was halfway through a 50-miles ride. She gave me one of those looks and said "that's kind of far" Told her that's mid-range for me, and I have been riding like this since I was 15/16 years old. and I thought about this some, and realized that even slower than i was its still Kind of far. My now mantra!

That's awesome! 5k miles a year is about 100 miles per week, on average. Having time for that is always a challenge, with all other life tasks. But you found a way to do so for decades! I know many have done the same. I was happy to get in 2000 miles for the first time last year, at 58. my rides are MTB and road, so not only looking at distance.

This scenario happens to us a lot, at cafes or gas station convenience stores - friendly person behind the counter - where did you start? Minneapolis? That's kind of far..." - or equivalent.
I never know whether to be glad that they are impressed or see it as unfortunate that so many people can't really imagine traveling a modest distance - 20 miles, 40 miles, whatever - by bicycle.

Seems like they equate it to running or walking. It has always surprised me.
Edit: If I told them 100 miles, and they were surprised, I’d take that.

It probably depends on the individual and their personal activities, and I suspect there is a threshold for each person, where they switch from comparing it to walking/running (if they are familiar at all with walking or running) to comparing it to driving distance. The whole point is that, like everything else, it's relative, so when you throw out a distance, an individual will compare it to whatever is close to that distance and is familiar to them, maybe what they experienced most recently.

For instance, I have regular 40-mile routes I ride out in the National Forest by myself. Sometimes I think I should extend that route a little longer, but I reel myself in when I remember that it puts me 15ish miles from home, and how that would be a long way to have to walk.

But on the other hand, you mentioned 100 miles above, and my first thought went to the day-trip I took on Saturday to go ride some trails. I drove 90 miles on the interstate at 70+ mph...I know I was a long way from home by bike (or if I had car trouble...there weren't any cities nearby). Maybe another day I'd think, my dad's house was 120 miles...that's a not insignificant drive in my truck, I can't imagine doing it by bike. Or if you said 50 miles, my first thought was...well that would put me well into the next state over if I went North.

I notice that when I hit that certain distance threshold, that I stop thinking about walk or riding my bike that distance, I always relate it as a 1-way trip distance, rather than a round trip. That's interesting.

Yep, depends on the individual. A friend has a second house that his wife inherited- a small farm house out in Wisconsin - it's 135 miles from here. They go down for the weekend. He rides there, she meets him there with their truck. Sometimes, he rides back at the end of the weekend. Sometimes, he puts the bike in the truck.

We are the exact same age and started cycling at the same time. I also hear the "where ya goin'? and Where ya'd start?" Half of the time they look incredulous and half I don't thing they believe it.

And I doubt you are much slower. For frame of reference, I briefly flirted with racing in the Senior Olympics. But those guys in their 70's are faster than I was in my 20's! As Greg Lemond said, "It doesn't get easier, you just go faster."

"...still riding..."

THAT is the main thing! go, Go, GO!

Having ridden competitively off and on for the last fifty years until I retired from racing on my seventieth birthday four years ago, I can assure you that, for those of us lucky enough to still be riding in our seventies, the new mantra is "It doesn't get any harder, you just go slower." (and not as far)

For me, like many of you, cycling has been a fine lifelong passion. Others our age may think we're nuts. The packs of young cyclists who pass us on our rides may think we're slow. Cycling friends our same age who have gone electric may think we're stubborn, but the roads don't care. The miles don't care. The wind in our face doesn't care. How much longer will we be riding? We can't know, but we can enjoy the miles we have left even if it's "kind of far."
Brent

That's an unhappy truth to which I have not yet mentally adjusted. I'm 65. I guess I'll make my peace with it eventually, because riding slower and shorter is still a joy and way better than the alternatives on offer.

I had a checkup visit with my cardiologist a few weeks ago. Conversation went like this:

Doc: Are you still biking a lot?
Me: I’d not know, how much is a lot?
Doc: How many miles per week?
Me: I don’t track miles, but I do track time, and I average about 15 hours per week.
Doc: That’s a lot.