How long do you remember a routine ride? I'm not talking about unusual combinations of scenery, animals, or even people in cars. Rather, consider a routine you might have; it might be your regular training ride, or my normal commute, the weekly ride with buddies, or the around the lake or neighborhood you ride three times a week.

I started write a Commuting post, and I was getting ready to comment on how the 40F weather was colder than anything I'd ridden in for a while. I think week before last was when it was gusty high winds -- or was that the week earlier? Was the low temperature 60? or was it 50F? And I found I couldn't remember the weather more than about a week and a half back. I can remember coming down from Togwotee Pass 15 years ago and seeing the Tetons for the first time in my life, or the deer standing in the middle of the road 10 years back until her fawn came out of the grass, crossed the road, and disappeared into the grass on the other side, etc., etc. I remember the traffic incidents from a week ago, a month ago, heck 5 years back. I remember the redbuds and later the dogwoods blooming this spring; but I couldn't tell you when they bloomed (or leafed) out.

For most of us, the things we experience on a bike ride are a big part of why we do it. But how long do you remember the commonplace of ordinary rides?

Not very long.
I can remember lots of specific details to various rides, but it had to be an unusual occurrence. I couldn’t say when the ride happened, or any of the typical details of the ride.
if I went into my Ride With GPS library, and picked out a random ride, all I could probably say is that I recognize the route, and apparently I rode it that day.

with all the construction going on, changing of the roads, local events, i dont try to remember routes as of recent. Even landmarks are changing.

I'll share one. I THINK I will remember last night's Monday Night Ride with my club.

They have a fast group (18-23 mph avg) and a moderate group (14-18 mph avg) for the Monday night ride. Last year was my first year riding with them. I joined the moderate group and was not quite fast enough to keep up. The leader of the slower group (Curt) pulled me along all last summer; taught me about drafting, courtesy, etc. He's also the one who brings beer, nuts and popcorn to share with everyone after the ride. Helluva guy. Turns out he's been having AFib heart problems off and on and now it's official and he's on meds for it. It keeps his heart beat regular, but prevents it from going as high as he'd like it to go. Between that him being 15 years older and my riding hard since July '23 (including lesser riding all winter) I'm now just a bit faster than him. I waited up for him from time to time to stay together. One thing he told me last year was: "We come out here to ride together. If we're not going to ride together, there's no point in coming out here; we can stay closer to home and ride alone. (the ride area is about 15 miles from our club's home cities) Guys can drop back from the A Group and join us or newer riders who aren't fast enough can ride with us." Sure enough, one guy started with the A group and got dropped and joined us. The three of us took a 3 mile shortcut and four of the faster A group riders passed us again. That guy joined them again and got dropped again and my buddy and I wound up beating him back to the church parking lot; he didn't save any legs for the last few hills because he burned them up trying to keep up with the A group earlier. No hard feelings, but I'm glad I stayed with Curt.

At one point, another guy in the club (Jerry) passed us. He is one who now has a pacemaker and rides a Domane+ eBike. He chose to go the eBike route instead of riding with a slower group. His wife is quite a strong rider; a super-fit 68 year old who still averages 18 mph, so he probably doesn't want to get dropped by her. As he passed us without comment, Curt remarked to me: "Gee, you'd think now is when he'd pull us along. I pulled him quite a lot when he was having heart problems." That made me kind of sad.

This year, I'm the ride leader for our club's Wednesday night ride and I expect some newer or slower riders to show up. I'll happily sacrifice my average speed on Strava to pull them along and teach them as needed, as Curt made all the difference to me last year. When we had our annual banquet, I bought all his beer.

Anyway, last night was a typical windy spring ride: 20 mph sustained winds gusting to 35 mph. We were happy to maintain 12-13 mph into that wind and although this was a routine ride, I will remember this is when it was time to do the classy thing and ride with the guy who pulled me every Monday night from July through September 2023.

I can remember as far back as the second cup of coffee each morning, everything else is like a conversation with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones....

If something in particular didn't make a ride stand out they run together pretty quickly. Every ride will have details that I will remember for a while, but I will very quickly forget what day they occurred.

Unless something unusual happens, I couldn't tell one day on a routine route from another, but I do those routes for two reasons: to maintain fitness and skills, and to clear my mind. The maintenance allows me to do the longer rides which I hopefully find more memorable.

Should this thread be in the 50+ age group sub-forum? Just kidding. I only remember my regular route for more than a couple of days if something happened that stuck in my mind. Of course, I'm 76 and few things stick in my mind anymore.

I've kept a daily journal since the year after I graduated from the university (35+ years). And if there was one message I would give to Earlier Me, it would be to have started a journal earlier. But then I look at the bicycle mileage journal I started while race training in 1983, and realize I probably wouldn't have had the discipline. It started as a paper "time manager" calendar/notebook at the strong suggestion of my employer, and transitioned to a Word document around 2010. I've scanned in all the old paper journals for reference and archiving.

As part of this journal, I log all my rides, whether to the corner or a full centrury. Having a record makes a big difference between able to recall "um, some time in the spring in the mid-90s" and 'Saturday, May 25, 1996, at sunset, on the tandem, along the beachfront path."

I've led a weekly ride for the local bike club for 33+ years so far. We meet at the same location at the same park at the same times, so it's easy for all the rides to blend together. But I try to keep the routes to our restaurants interesting and varied, and log any noteworthy or unusual occurrence. Same with my weekly commute to the co-op - there are completely humdrum rides, and others that are memorable for certain... reasons.

I've also kept a spreadsheet of bicycle mileage for this time span. Keeps track of incoming and departing bikes, notable rides, and reminders for maintenance.

I remember my very first ride, the one that got it all started back in June of 2017. A whopping 6 miles that I felt for a couple days after. I took for granted that, even though I was transitioning from a running addiction, the leg muscles used are entirely different!😅
I also remember my first tour in October of the same year, and my first-ever century ride in 2018. All the milestones since have been memorable, but not much in the way of the work-up stuff or the fiddling shake-downs of the bikes I've had.

My last ride was 62 miles with about 40 of that being on a SoCal MUP.
(This was a routine ride for me for a few years every Friday.}
I recall how depressing the graffiti, garbage, homeless camps, dog feces and flooded sewage water under a bridge was.
This ride completely sucked!
I hope I recall this ride the rest of my life so I do not give this MUP another chance.

I have a regular route I cover on most of my rides, so one ride tends to blend in with the next. What I tend to remember for a few days are various hazards (debris in the road, construction hazards, etc.) that I want to avoid on my next ride.

This goes back a long time. I remember the four mile rides each day to elementary school,5th and 6th grade in 1949-50. English three speed. Middle school was only a block from home so i walked.
EddyR

In my 30s, 3 to 4 days a week after work, I would do a 30 mile loop. It would involve 5 significant climbs and one long rolling ‘flat’. It was my personal TT course, and I would endeavor to go flat out the whole way. By the time I finished, I didn’t have much left. I must have done that route 60 times each summer improving my time incrementally. Feeling my heart beating out of my chest and gasping for every breath as I pushed the climbs was a total rush.

One day each weekend I would do a club ride with people of like fitness. It was a gas pace-lining at even a greater pace. The other day I would go hike in the mountains. Rinse and repeat.

I have a database I wrote many years ago and I have put a comment field in just for this type of thing. I will usually give a basic description of the ride and always make sure to put down anything that way outside the norm happing. Like when I had a 2 inch bolt go through my 5 month old rim, that seemed notable. I have every ride since 2006 in this database with various metrics and such. I am a data geek by profession, so why not have a database for my ride, bike, and maintenance data.

I've also kept short notes for years, with a dozen or more engagement calendars on my bookshelf. What brought this on, for me, was realizing that so many rides aren't worth posting in the "How was your commute?" thread. I think I did post about the self-tapping fender washer + bolt combination flatting my tire pre-pandemic, but I can remember that one fine. It strikes me as a bit strange that I tell people I ride for my health, my finances, but mostly because I enjoy it; but without notes I'd have a hard time telling you about last week's rides.

Of course (and off topic), this is precisely why I tell people going on tours to take notes, whether in a paper notebook, or a blog, or a series of emails. It's too easy to forget otherwise, but pegging those memories lets you review and remember many years later!

Don't remember routine rides for very long. Typically, they are the same routes over and over again. But I vividly remember big event rides such as an annual MS benefit ride.

an end of the ride log book book might help but if it's routes take the pressure off your memory function and leave a trail of bread crumbs

One of my commute rides that I still remember was when the temps dropped into the twentys. Bone dry, no wind, dead quiet. Full moon on the bay. It was kind of magical.
(Retired 10 years now so it's been a while)

I remember particular events. Like my last ride seeing 40+ pre-school/elementary aged kids riding on the bike trail. Or the goats eating weeds.
heh, I won't forget when me and my friend were at northstar on dh trails and both of us had an intimate meeting with the top tubes of our bikes after riding through a soft berm of sand/moondust and off of it.
Or that time I heard +saw baby bears on a mountain in utah and rode damn fast down that trail and out of there.
My brain seems to be good at "cleaning" unnecessary information, which I guess mundane rides are included in that.

Daily riding/training is like a daily commute or daily routine. Set it and forget it... no need to clog up my limited hard drive with mundane information.

Hot descents, jogging godesses, and close encounters of the vehicle kind get memories. Everything else goes out the window along with the verbal honey-do's.

I started running a helmet cam in 2014 and saving highlights of some of the more interesting commutes/rides.

The most remarkable thing about it is how poorly I perceive events while I'm riding. I believe the combination of adrenaline and vulnerability (vs cars) distorts one's perception significantly. Upon review, close passes by cars seem less close. The timing of near misses seem much longer. The order of events may be remembered wrong by the end of the ride. Vehicle makes, models and colors are often perceived and remembered incorrectly. General threats to my well-being seem less threatening.

What is remembered correctly are the emotions, especially in the case of accomplishment and reactions to beauty.

I used to bike commute to work, 15 miles each way (not in the snow). In the winter the temps would dip below freezing and the MUP would glisten like 1000 diamonds in my headlamp. One morning, the ice crystals were glistening, so as usual, I took it easy and didn’t make any quick actions, when a guy on a road bike passed going my direction, got about 50 feet ahead of me and suddenly slipped on the pavement and went down. Stopped to see if he was alright and then proceeded to work for the last time in sub-freezing temps.