Nstoltzner

I know this question opens up all kinds of answers but I have been riding the same trail for the past 6 months in various sections which I now do it all, sometimes 2-3 times. Am I odd for being perfectly content riding the local MUP over and over again by myself? I really have no interest in group rides, I just want to rider faster and do more "laps" than I have previously which keeps me going. I can't be the only one that loves training this way can I?

Arizona Nights

Not odd at all. It's exactly what I do. I have my favorite path, my favorite section, favorite destination. I don't invite others to my ride because I want to enjoy it just for myself. All that matters is that you're riding

PepeM

You do whatever you want.

idiotekniQues

i used to ride all different routes for a few years but now doing the same thing well that's pretty normal to me. i've started to go into the city 3 days a week and I do the same ride every time on the bicycle greenway. 15 miles total. flying solo and as fast as i can.

here and then i'll make a little adventure venturing into the city streets to go try a new restaurant or food stand/establishment.

lastly when I manage to convince a friend or acquaintance or two to ride then we partially ride the same greenway but then go off it and do some exploring. unfortunately while i love riding with a couple of other people and exploring with them, it doesn't happen enough. maybe i'll find a nyc meetup biking group. that's a thought. though any group over 5 or so just feels like it will get unwieldy in city traffic.

but pretty much it's that same route almost all the time and its very rewarding.

do you live near a major urban area or more suburban/rural?

texaspandj

Yes very odd. I know, cause I do the same thing. However on an out and back course, not the mup. Ride on.

Nstoltzner

It's a city surrounded by tons of rural area. I traverse the local Greenway which is about 40 miles round trip.

jefnvk

Nope. If you go through my Strava, you'll find there are about three places I like to ride. I mix a few others in, but I'm fine in my favorites.

bulldog1935

I stretch out combinations on the greenways out to 50 mi. One day I was putting my bike away and a guy I see frequently (ok, I've passed him a few times) - my out and back was 32 mi, and he rode 36 doing one segment twice (out and back twice). If you're riding for exercise and enjoyment, enjoy the same scenery and don't run into traffic problems, knock your lights out. One reason I like the longer ride is I spend shorter distance and time in the more populated parts of the greenway. Over that 50 mi, I have two different start points that will give me two different but overlapping 32mi rides. One of them I would never take on the weekends for the pedestrian traffic.

GravelMN

It's your life and it's your bike. Ride wherever it makes you happy.

FBinNY 

You'd only be odd if you were exactly like someone else.

We all have our own preferences in riding and everything else. If you're happy doing what you're doing, that's all that counts.

Jim from Boston

Am I odd?

A local Bostonian subscriber,@rholland1951,writes lyrically with beautiful photos about twice a week to a Regional Discussion Forum Metro Boston thread about his travels on the 11-mile long Minuteman Bikepath, and considers it a “community center” in the town of Arlington. I have referred to him as the “town crier,”or perhaps “wandering minstrel.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

...the Minuteman Bikepath through pleasant suburbs of Arlington to Lexington, and on to Bedford passing by the Lexington Town Green, site of the first skirmish of the Revolutionay War. Many nice photos are found on the local regional thread, MetroBoston: Good ride today?

Personally, I seek novelty on my rides, even on well-trod routes.

Phil_gretz

Fairly Normal: Gets on bike and rides a favorite path for exercise and relaxation. Writes about it on BF.


Not so Normal: Rides bike with stuffed wombat in basket...hands out candy to children on MUP. Journals in pencil...

SkunkWerX

Riding the same course, for fitness, was how I could track my improvements.
Not only with stats, but even how it felt going up a specific hill or riding a specific section.

Some of my shorter rides are now incorporated into present longer ones, just kept expanding the "loop."

If you are content with it, enjoy it, then it is a true win.

BlazingPedals

If I rode the same route all the time, it'd be so I could track my improvement. It'd be like when I rode the Wolverine 200 -- 5 miles per lap around the park, 40 laps. After the first couple of laps, I'd be bored to tears.

But that's me and you're you.

wphamilton

I have ridden on the same Greenway 2,696 times commuting to or from work since I started my current job, and hundreds of times otherwise, so I don't think it's odd. However, at some point you want something more challenging and my longer rides tend to branch out or avoid it altogether.

obed7

your grown, you ride a bicycle, you discuss it with other grown-ups (who also ride bicycles).
of course you are odd.

BobbyG

What about those who ride stationary bikes, or rollers? Their rides have even less geographical variety than yours.
To quote Sheryl Crow,
"If it makes you happy,
It cant be that bad.
If it makes you happy,
Then why the hell are you so sad?"

bulldog1935

difference is, nobody enjoys that, because there is no convective cooling

Dave Cutter

Whether laps... or out-and-backs... I think most of us cyclists develop "routes" that we ride. So is this behavior odd? Who knows or cares, but it does seem to be typical for many cyclists.

My earliest routes were very short by my standards today. As I gained experience most of my routes became longer. I can remember how proud and excited I was when I first rode my "original 20 mile route". Which by the way... is just a little short of 20 miles.

My favorite route is 44 miles. But I don't ride that route very often. Most of my rides are between the 20 to 25 mile range now a days. But in bad (mostly winter) weather my rides can become really short.

bulldog1935

example of an exception - my buddy and I have been working on a route from downtown to his house for 5 years.
There are only a couple of places to cross under a major N/S highway, only a few places to cross a major drainage creek (think LA River), and the choices crossing the last E/W highway are kind of critical, because the 6 blocks south of there is generally the most dangerous riding in town (shopping district).

Think we finally worked it out this year, the bug was crossing the creek and getting us west to safe neighborhoods to cross the last highway.
It's a really nice route, with a significant climb out of the Olmos basin, and we ride by some houses with 3 addresses - but that street gets us west across the 3 main and dangerous n/s thoroughfares, and far enough west to our safe underpass at the highway and right into his neighbornood.

Jim from Boston

Hey @BP,

I also did that ride early in my adult cycling lifestyle, about 1973, on a 5-speed Schwinn Suburban. During the ride a cyclist got off his antique penny-farthing cycle, tripped and taco'ed my rear wheel. I called my mother and she bought and brought me a new wheel to finish within the alloted 24 hours.

Just the milieu of all those riders on a closed course riding all night on Belle Isle in the middle of the Detroit River was memorable.

Zukoda

I tend to ride the same route until I feel I have become comfortable with it and then I start looking to expand it further. Started out with a 10 mile route, worked my way up to 15, and am now working on a 20 mile route. This is for my two or three weekday rides that I do before going to work. For the weekend rides, I have a current route of 25 miles but it requires a drive of 30 minutes to get to the trailhead. I am looking for one in the 35 mile range with a much closer starting point. Anyone have any suggestions for a north-Dallas / Frisco route?

T Stew

Ride your own ride, and don't worry about it. If I worried about being odd (considering I am usually barefoot, riding old steel, often without the usual cycling shorts/shirt) I'd probably worry myself to death.

I typically ride the same rail trail most of the time. It's rural though so perhaps a bit different than your typical MUP. But I can do ~56 miles on the paved rail trail that runs near my house, all free of vehicle traffic accept for the few road crossings. And a short .7 mile ride through a small town onto the next section of trail pushes that distance even more, but rare I do more than 50 miles. I don't like competing with traffic if I don't have too. I do also have MUP near both my work locations though, I do ride those sometimes for a change of scenery (and to use time to get me around rush hour traffic).

rmfnla

My wife has been doing the same 25 mile route for roughly 20 years.

I once suggested we try a different way and she looked at me like I was from another planet.

Of course, she also did the Aids Ride (SF > LA) so she is capable of change, just not on Sunday mornings...

mrodgers

I try to ride every day after work in the evenings. By myself, it gets boring after about 20 miles so I have just a select few routes from home that I ride. It's basically 2 rides, one towards town where I may loop to climb a particular hill or down and back up (town is in a valley, so riding back up the hill is always there.) The other has a few variations to where I could ride 15, 18, or 20 miles, but it's essentially the same ride. I can take 3 different roads but they all come back out on the main state road I take to get back.

I'm just getting use to not living in the middle of nowhere where it would be a 45 minute drive just because I'm out of milk. It's getting to the point that if I drive anywhere, it is to be with the small group I ride with and we ride for usually 60 or more miles. We are slow, we aren't elite road bike riders who have to be 110% the whole time. It will be an entire day with usually a stop for lunch at a restaurant. We average around 12 mph, may be doing 10 mph at one point and cruising along at 18-20 mph because of it being a half % downhill or something. We mostly ride the various trails around western PA. I like these rides a lot better because I'm with good friends and we all ride about the same. Even if we get together after work for a quick ride, it ends up being several hours.

I can't do that alone as I get bored after about 2 hours. Also when I'm alone, I ride on the road and it's a lot of hills to climb. After 2 hours of the hills, I'm ready to be done. I do like my almost daily 15-20 miles though.