LSD Ride; "Long Slow Distance" ride. That's what I hear people in my cycling club calling it. It's usually used to describe an endurance building ride or a ride where someone is trying to build up their base mileage in preperation for a century or a tour. However, the use of the acronym does sound a bit odd.

Just out of curiosity one day I asked my cycling club friends why they call it that. Not a single person knew. All they knew is that is what it has always been called. I asked if the term had it's origins with drug use but nobody knew that either.

I was curious why it wasn't just called a long distance ride or something else so I did a search on google. I ended up finding several references to "Dr. Hoffman's magical bicycle ride". Apparently the guy who did the first acid trip did so while on a bicycle. I only found one website where a cycling club jokingly made a connection between bikes and the drug.

I know my friends in the cycling club aren't druggies so I'm not worried about that. It just strikes me funny when a group of people frequently use a word or phrase but can't give an explanation for it. When we've had club meetings in restaurants it has sure turned some heads of non cycling people when they hear that the club is having an LSD ride!

Does anybody here know why that particular term was chosen and if it is related in any way with drug use?

It is used mainly by runners. I'm sure a lot of people think the term is amusing, thats one reason I use It. But it is the kind of riding I do.

The only way I can connect bicycles and the acronym LSD would be Left Side Drive. Some BMX bikes have it so they don't mess everything up when if they grind on their right side.

It's used in running all the time. It's the Longest and Slowest Distance run of the week.

Runners giggle about it too.

The term LSD definately originated with runners. It may sound funny, but I always thought "fartlek", which is a term for another kind of training (speed play), sounded funnier.

Prior to dollars and cents, Australia had (like the UK) pounds, shillings and pence, abbreviated to... you guessed, LSD. Heaven knows where the "d" came from. The changeover occurred in 1966 when the the powdered form was probably just taking a hold.

"Fartlek" is actually taken from a German term- it's German for "speed play" when you do explosive power training drills.

I do LSD rides, Snork.

Yep... running. I first saw it in Jim Fixx's book.

And, continuing further off topic, "d" is still used as an abbreviation for "pence" in nail sizes (in the US, anyway), e.g. 16 penny nails are labeled 16d.

You know, after some of the season's first centuries the endorphines, and dopamine kicking around in the brain feels pretty "lysergic."(I wish) It is a nice high, and well worth the effort. I had a tough one though on one ride where I miscalculated my water, and started getting dehydrated, and bonking, and that's a real trip.

It would seem a more logical to say Long Distance Slow run, or Slow, Long Dustance run.... I'm sure the letters got rearranged to provide a more provacative sounding term. As to "fartlek" it is the same in Swedish. Also a speed bump becomes "fart hinder" which still gives me a chuckle now and then.