do you ride by time or miles?

[Batbike]

I was looking at bikejournal and our local cycling club member mile #'s ... like TE club, there are some BIG mile #'s! I was encouraged and discouraged all at the same time -- if that makes any sense!

Anyway, started thinking about my miles and how to increase per week. Realized I ride by time, not necessarily miles. On a daily basis, I decide how much time I can ride that day and I ride that amount of time. Noticed I average about 2 hours per day, with exceptions of higher and lower. So, how do you decide your daily ride -- time or miles?

For you high mileage women, how do you get the miles in ... is there some "scheduling trick" to increase miles?

[missymaya]

Hey there batbike,
I ride by miles and I can get in 30 miles per day easily. The trick for me: commuting! I live about 10-15 miles one way from work (depending on route), so right there I have 20-30 miles in a day. Other tricks: riding during lunch (if you have a long enough lunch to put in a couple of miles) and riding in the morning or evening, especially since the sun is setting later. Hope this helps

[Fredwina]

split decsion here
weekday - hours - I'm really pressed for time and it makes it easier -usually about an hour
weekend- miles- but It usually does come to hours -60 or so on Saturday, and around 30 on Sundays
I can rememebr back when I started reading a Gref le Mond book , an he recommend traing by time instead of miles, reason being that as you got better, if went by miles, your training time would decrease.

[TrekJeni]

by heart rate!

Depending on the day, I might ride miles, hours, or by heart rate! I know, I didn't help did I?

Jeni

[teigyr]

though I just got a HRM and am figuring out how to integrate it

During my work week (four days/week) I pretty much can't ride until summer kicks in and it is lighter later in the day/evening. For the three days I'm off, I try to cram in miles. It's not a good way to do it, granted. My long day now is 50 to increase to 60 -- the other day(s) I try to do 20-40/ea. There are times I get up early to go to spin class before work but I am not a morning person!

I guess, I don't know. I like seeing the miles go up on my odometer so that's why I do it the way I do it. Oh and I've been known to ride by time if I have appointments or something; I just ride for an hour or two or whatever amount of time I have.

(then again I'm not high miles and when I was way back when, I worked part time and had more of a life)

[Jenn]

I dont' know where we read it but DH said he read about this person that said he would go out and do no less then 90 minutes that is all he focused on initially. Speed and mileage come with time.....I wish I could go out and "tootle" around trust me Sunday when we had to take it easy with the little one in the trailer it was tough, because when I go out it's balls to the wall until I'm wasted and just crawl home because I only get to ride outside every so often but spin my hinder off the rest of the time.
I focus on my heart rate and time and I know it's embarassing but I average about 17 miles for every hour I ride, (without WIND).

[Batbike]

I know it's embarassing but I average about 17 miles for every hour I ride, (without WIND).

HOW can that be embarassing?? I think that is REALLY REALLY good!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I know it's embarassing but I average about 17 miles for every hour I ride, (without WIND).

[7rider]

Generally, we ride for miles, but sometimes it's cut short due to time -- as in "We don't have time to do that long ride, we'll have to do the shorter ride."

[DarcyInOregon]

I focus on my heart rate and time and I know it's embarassing but I average about 17 miles for every hour I ride, (without WIND).

Seriously, can someone explain to me what is embarrassing about 17 mph?

Sure, if you are a Category A rider who races in the circuits or triathlons, or you are a gifted cyclist who has been training for years, you will have speeds over 20 mph. But are fitness/fun cyclists supposed to ride that fast too? I don't think so. Suzie, Ellen and myself, when we ride together, our speeds fall between 14 and 19, depending upon the wind and such. We are proud of our speeds, not embarrassed. I don't even know if I will ever achieve a consistent speed over 18 because I have a lame left foot, two ruptured disks and arthritis in my spine, and given my physical limitations, the speed I pedal now is rather remarkable. Therefore, I am proud of my speed, and never embarrassed by it.

To answer the question asked, I ride by miles, and I increase my miles gradually so as to train to ride longer distances. My goal is to be like some other wonderful TE members who can ride double centuries, and I hope to reach that goal within a few years by staying on my bike, increasing the miles, and continuing to ride during the winter weather as much as possible.

I don't even look at the time until my ride is over.

Darcy

[SouthernBelle]

Ditto what Darcy said about speed.

On weekdays I ride by time, cause I have to. Some days I get out of the office too late to ride at all. Saturdays, I am more likely to plan a route with specific mileage in mind.

However, I think you have to keep in mind what your goal is. Mine is to be able to ride where ever I want for what distance I want in a reasonable amount of time.

[im4smiley]

I usually go by miles, I ride knowing about how many miles I want to go, but if I usually try to round out my miles...like if I have done 38 miles I will ride the extra 2 miles to make 40. That's how I add on some miles.

[Batbike]

I can rememebr back when I started reading a Gref le Mond book , an he recommend traing by time instead of miles, reason being that as you got better, if went by miles, your training time would decrease.

If I understand correctly, if you go by time you will increase your miles in the same amount of time as your fitness improves?

Makes me wonder if that is really true -- I guess you would have to do the same route on multiple days to determine that. Would you also monitor your HR to check fitness?

... questions, questions, questions -- I ALWAYS seem to have questions!

[Fredwina]

If I understand correctly, if you go by time you will increase your miles in the same amount of time as your fitness improves?

Exactly!

IMakes me wonder if that is really true -- I guess you would have to do the same route on multiple days to determine that. Would you also monitor your HR to check fitness?

I monitor my HR when I remember to turn it on
To check the level I have several set courses. I then use my Bike journal account to comapare (did same route with high avg speed. lower avg hr, etc

[Starfish]

These days I'm tracking (and shooting for) a certain number of minutes/week for aerobic exercise...be it on the bike or on a machine in the gym. I loosely keep track of aerobic vs. higher HR time. I find cross training helps keep my joints more comfortable, so it makes sense for me to track total exercise time and HR intensity.

But, I also have an increasing target schedule for both mileage and climbing on the bike for weekend rides, to keep me on track for a biking goal.