What's a good time to complete 22 miles?

[RolliePollie]

22 miles is a long ride for your first ride!!! Congrats and don't get bummed out if your soreness lasts a few days.

I got some excellent advice when I first got my bike 2 years ago. Start slow! I was advised to not ride more that 8-10 miles at a time for the first couple of weeks. Your body needs to get used to the feel of the bike, new body positions, and using new muscles. The goal is to have fun and want to get back on the bike, not to immediately push yourself too hard and end up in so much pain that you don't want to ride and you feel like giving up. I remember after my very first ride, which was only about 8 miles, my hands and wrists and shoulders were killing me, and I thought I broke something "down there" because I could barely sit down for a couple of days. But all of these initial aches and pains dissipated as I got used to riding.

I know everyone is different, but I took this advice and started slow. Within two weeks of short rides, I was able to do 20-30 flat miles without too much soreness afterwards. And within a month, I was riding 15-20 miles of hills pretty comfortably. And I'm talking about pretty good hills...2,500 feet of climbing in 20 miles types of hills.

By the way, average speed and ride time does vary a ton. My slowest ride averaged 8 mph (24 miles in 3 hours)...but it was like a 5,000 foot climb. I guess that was also my fastest ride because the ride back down only took an hour! My fastest ride on flat terrain would probably be around 18 mph.

Enjoy your new bike, take it easy, and pop a couple of ibuprofen for your aches and pains!