Building up my miles

[Little Lyon]

Did you say trails? as in riding an MTB? How about sticking to roads for a while?

Don't go into a ride unfuelled.

Paved trails in the area, actually. I ride my road bike. It is not very safe to ride on the roads here.

[GulfCoastAmy]

I would also suggest riding on the roads. You say it's not safe - is that because of heavy traffic? I ride super early in the morning (before work) to avoid traffic on our local roads. It works out really great. Good luck!

[indigoiis]

I'm all about the granny gears. Spin out those hills!
Don't worry about the quantity (miles.) Think about the quality. Why are you riding? What do you get from it? What are your goals (small and big?)

[KSH]

I'm all about the granny gears. Spin out those hills!
Don't worry about the quantity (miles.) Think about the quality. Why are you riding? What do you get from it? What are your goals (small and big?)

Use lower gearing and if your gearing doesn't go low enough, go to the LBS and look at getting a triple, etc. to get lower gearing.

You can make it up those hills if you can spin out those pedals vs. mashing them up a hill.

Once you get lower gearing and spinning going, you can go more than 10 miles- easy.

[HillSlugger]

How about doing your 10 miles and then take a rest and then go out and do it again?

[owlice]

I ride trails and have a few rides mapped out. One in particular I sometimes do multiple times; actually, it's two connecting trails, one 4 miles (so 8 out and back) and the other just over one mile (so 2 out and back). In the evening, I rarely have time to do this ten-mile run twice -- I'm slow -- but sometimes, I do have time to do the one-mile trail twice, so will add that for a total of 12 miles for that ride. Other times, I'll nearly finish the ten-mile run, but turn around at mile 9, go back to 8, and then turn around again just to add two miles to that day's ride.

I'll sometimes do this ten-mile run 3 or 4 times on a Saturday or Sunday, and even then, will sometimes double back (on the part of the trail I like the best!) to get in another couple miles.

So... you might want to pick a favorite ride, and see where you can double up or double back to add, say, 1 mile to the 10 mile run (doubling back a half-mile). Do that a couple of times, and then double back for a mile to make it to 12 miles, and so on.

If I'm going for miles (and I have been lately, to prepare for a ride I'm doing next month), I find it helps to ride a trail that is really really familiar to me, one I really like. The miles seem to go much faster when I know the trail very well.

And yes, using a lower gear should help on the hills. My tendency is to push harder rather than pushing more (fewer revolutions rather than more), but I'm old and my knees are *not* happy with that! I am now trying to ease up and spin more to save my poor old joints!

Good luck!

[Little Lyon]

Thanks for all the tips ladies. I have actually never tried doing a lower gear...I just try to get up the hill as hard and fast as possible to get it over with...