No breaks. I empty myself before going on a 12-14 mile ride, and sip water if I catch a traffic light.

Totally depends on the ride.

Solo- I dont stop until I need water. 20-30mi- varies with weather/
Group of adults- I stop when others want to. I am almost always the most comfortable riding the farthest in the groups I ride with, so I roll with the schedule of others. Its usually 8-10mi between bar stops.
Group of teens- When I ride with the mentor group of teens, we stop at preselected locations. They are 12-19mi apart, depending on route.
My 8 and 12yo kids- when they want. We ride to find things(creeks, ice cream, playgrounds, etc) so we typically ride until we find what we planned to find.

In temperate weather during daylight hours I stop long enough to urinate and refill my water bottles every 4-5 hours.

With changing temperature, sunrise, or sunset I add or remove warmer and more reflective clothing.

Riding all day, I get a few hundred calories of regular food around dinner time and sit to eat it.

When it's inferno like, I go as far as 50oz / 1.5 liters of water take me. That got down to an hour returning home over the Santa Cruz mountains on a sunny 105 degree day.

You are exactly right and you said it better than I did. I hope that she will also carry these experiences with her long after I am gone.

was thinking about this thread the other day. a cpl 2 cents fwiw: it's helpful to learn how to "rest" while riding. take advantage of the easy sections by coasting & standing while rolling. sounds like common sense, but if you don't actually do it, you're not getting the benefit. also while standing/rolling I sometimes adjust my shorts. just a little tug on each leg of my trishorts is enough to reposition the shorts over any hair follicles & releases any tension on any creases & points of binding contact & helps keep chaffing to a minimum

Your 2 cents were worth a lot, thank you. I like the idea of standing up while rolling give my legs a bit of a break. I tend to stay in the saddle and stretch one thigh at a time when they get a bit sore but coasting and standing sounds like a good trick to add to my rides. I haven't had trouble with my shorts since I have moved to bibs. I love bibs, maybe I just got a good pair but they are working fine.

I love getting good ideas from others. At my level I am focusing first on building distance and watching my speed. Given my age (55), weight (a little too much) and hills (rolling) I tend to ride in the low 15 mph range. I would like to add 1 or 2 MPH but I would rather keep adding distance. That is that created my interest in breaks. I haven't taken them until recently and they keep the ride from becoming a "death march" as someone else said. More enjoyability will mean more rides and more miles for me.

Thanks every one for participating. Looking forward to more responses.

yup & someday you'll pass them on yourself. I forget how long ago I read about resting & adjusting cycling shorts while rolling on this forum

Typically no breaks, but my rides cap out at 40-45 miles. That said, I've been known to need to stop and sit on a bench for a few at the 30-35 mile mark.

Depends on how many cups of coffee I've had before the ride. And who I am riding with. I don't have any set rules, or any "usual" break times. If the ride has some good scenery, might stop to take a look, if not, just keep on going (unless coffee "rent" kicks in!) If it's extra hot/humid, there are more breaks than on cooler, less humid days. Too many factors to nail it down.

What qualifies as a break? Or how long do you need to be stopped to be considered taking a break?

For me, if I have dismounted the bike then that is definitely a break. If I stopped with feet on the ground so that I catch my breath and get my heart rate down, or stop for a recreational purpose (enjoy the scenery, pet a horse, rest in the shade etc.) then that is a break. If I stop for a traffic light or to make a quick adjustment, figure out directions etc and quickly get back to riding then I do t consider that to be a break.

i wear a heart rate monitor, i also ride converted rails to trails that cross a lot of roads, so i usually get a 1-3 min break waiting for traffic every 3 or 4 miles. i have a nice trail system near my house. i can ride 150 miles on paved trails and only have to ride the road maybe 15 of those miles
i stretch before riding then ride hard until my Heart-rate, HR, gets to 145 or so then let up and try to keep it between 130-150 ish. if i go over low to mid 160's i get nasty head aches about 2-3 hours after the ride. it also depends on how long i stay over and how often i get over 160 with the HR. also my toes and fingers get numb if i go over 160 with the HR.
when the HR gets close to 150 i go down a gear and drop my cadence a bit and usually the HR does the same. when the HR doesn't go down at a the usual pace i then stop for 5-10 min or so until the HR gets to about 110ish. then i go again. i usually take 1 to 2 breaks a ride depending on the wind and how hard i worked during the day.
my rides are usually between 20-60 miles depending if after work or weekends. after work, 2 X a week, it's 20-30 miles. weekends, 1 day, it's 30-60 depending on the weather, mood and time available to ride. i try to ride at least 100 miles every week.

Flat SW FL roads permit longer non-stop almost no coasting rides. Yesterday was 65 non-stop miles. If my Mo-Jo is going good on long home area rides then typically 100 miles before stopping. During April's 167 mile Cross Florida (https://spacecoastfreewheelers.com/xfl/) I always ride the first 100 miles non-stop. Six Gap is non-stop to Unicoi Gap at 46.6 miles and around 5,000'+ of climbing.


Aggressive Prostate Cancer and Cryoablation took care of my prostate so no pressure from that area and IMO, before TURP, a diet improvement and possible meds could reduce/eliminate the issue.

My two cents - I'll do about every thirty miles. That comes down to every hour and a half to two hours regardless of ride length. That's how often I should probably be drinking water so I plot out known water spots I can hit. Takes maybe five minutes off the bike.

^^^^^ This. Time enough for the other type of ride!
Also, she's young. The last thing I think you would want to do is turn her off. My daughter is a soccer player. I offer her opportunities to play together, and we do frequently, but I don't push, except when I tease her and tell her to take a lap, (but she asked me to do that). She has now taken to practicing on her own when I'm busy or not around. One of her besties was really pushed into practicing tennis by her dad. But once she started winning matches, she really put the hammer down, by herself. I think you have to go by feel, and understand your kid.
Boy doesn't that sound brilliant...

That could lead to some interesting saddle problems.... :twitchy:

Last night's ride ended up having nothing to do with speed (none of them have but this was a pretty slow and enjoyable ride.) She started taking the down hills by standing up on the pedals and coasting. Her long hair was blowing in the wind and she had a big smile on her face. I first thought "let's go pedal" but that quickly changed to "this is her ride and she is having a ball, let her go." So I also stood up on my pedals and coasted along next to her. It was a blast!!! For a few short moments she helped me to be a kid again. Nothing in the world can replace that experience. My cup runneth over.

For a metric or over I like to get off the bike and stroll around a bit (maybe 3-5 minutes) every 20 miles or so. The other thing I might do is just grab a pop and cruise slowly around these little western Indiana towns for a bit in low gear before hitting the open road for the next town. I keep my old suicide lever brakes just for this purpose. This kills my Strava though...

When the traffic signals force me to. At least that was on today’s ride.

I take breaks where the facilities are even if I don't need one. Water and pee breaks.