[umarth]

Growing up I played a lot of team sports, two (soccer and basketball) I still regularly play now. I picked up mountain biking as an accident, but some of my team sports habits carried over- namely training.

There are a lot of ways to make you better in athletics, like practicing skillsets, but an overlooked skill is fitness. I get to ride singletrack once a week- some weeks more, some less, but I try to get out to the trails whenever feasible, but I try to make the most of my saddle time by being in good enough shape to really ride it.

I commute and do errands by bike. I average about 4k miles a year and I recently started tracking miles again. I've been over 100 for three straight weeks and I'm sitting on 79 thus far for this week. All of those miles have either been on my fixed gear, SS bike or my SS mtb.

Made me curious- let's hear how people train, the mileage they try to aim for and how much of it is road vs. pavement.

 

[jackspade]

I do cadence training 120-140 rpm with my folding bike since I am a spinner, but when it come to SS MTB there's no way I could sit on climb - it's all stand and hammer.

I train about 5 days a week go climb around 25-30km since I am unemployee so I got plenty of time. Mostly I ride on road climbing but I always do off-road on way home.

Also another 5km on the afternoon for removing lactic acid and recovery.

Recently I enjoy climbing a lot since I've just found out that there's external factor that I can use to get faster and more efficient pedaling that is to use my own weight, gravity and catch the momentum so I can pedal lighter and faster without working my muscle too hard.

There's always fog on my glasses before, but now it's gone since I ride faster to wipe that fog.

 

[Sparticus]

You unemployed guys are so lucky.

I don't shoot for miles, I shoot for hours. Right now I'm only averaging about 6 hrs / week, but this will change soon enough. By the end of April it'll be double that and by the end of June I'll be shooting for (but rarely achieve) closer to 20.

Training ends July 1 for me. The summer is for reaping the benefits of training -- all fun, no matter how brutal the ride.

--sParty

 

[paco664]

how bout you add your age into this equation.... because i have found that at 42 the amount i ride *(50-75 miles a week) is different now than when i was 20something....

 

[umarth]

You unemployed guys are so lucky.

I was getting similar miles working and going to school. Unemployed means I can't afford to drive to the trailhead more than once a week, and I can't get them fancy headlights you all use on Wednesday night rides....

 

[1SPD]

Turn 40 on 3/21.

For the most part I guess I have been looking at training hours this winter. My goal has been the following:

4-6 Dec-Jan
5-7 Jan-Feb
7-9 Feb-Mar

After that, I am simply hoping to get out about 4-6 times a week depending on how I feel or my kids schedules. Right now I would say that my ride distances are only between 5-10 miles due to my schedule and weather. The trails have been nothing but mush lately so outdoor riding has plummited a bit. Unfortunately, that means riding on the spin bike in the basement which now sucks! But I shoot for 45 min+ whenever riding the spin bike. No coasting on that bad boy so it is pretty much like riding a fixie and doing intervals for the most part.

 

[Sparticus]

I was getting similar miles working and going to school. Unemployed means I can't afford to drive to the trailhead more than once a week, and I can't get them fancy headlights you all use on Wednesday night rides....

If you want to borrow a light and carpool to the Wednighter, I have a light you can borrow. You're not allowed in my car, tho.

--sParty

 

[ISuckAtRiding]

i'm lucky if i get in 30miles a week lately. However i used to ride about 100-200 a week when i was racing on a regular basis.

 

[sasquatch rides a SS]

...Wednesday night rides...

Why is Wendnesday the day for night rides? Never understood why, but everyone in my area chooses that day for the night riding. And don't feel bad, I can't afford them fancy lights either.

 

[CHUM]

when i raced i logged 25+ hours weekly....intervals, zone, base, etc.....

now i'm not racing....not much riding (toddler + kid on the way)....so maybe 5 hours weekly...

the 'not racing' mileage is much more fun BTW...and it helps i live ridiculously close to killer ST....

 

[CHUM]

...I can't afford them fancy lights either.

for under $70 shipped you can grab some pretty decent LED flashlights and mounts (for both bar and helmet) plus charger and extra Lith Ion batts....around 1200 lumens combined.

i went from L&M Arc Ultra Li-Ion $$$$ to magicshine $$ (and their battery problems) to these flashlights $ (which should arrive shortly).

let me know if you interested and I'll give my opinion and links.

my friend rides with them and loves em....extra batteries are the size of AA's and cheap...run time per charge is around 90 minutes....and it is definitely bright enough.

here's the bar mounted one i'm gonna try:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultraf...5-mode-800-lumen-led-flashlight-1-18650-39359

best part i like....no cords.

 

[keene1]

I have no GPS/computer so I'm not sure of the mileage but I aim to ride 5/6 days a week (weather/trail condition dependant) for 2 hours solid pedalling each time.

usually the day before heavy rain is forecast i try to get a longer 3-4 hour ride in.

thinking of putting together a road SS to use when the trails are wet.

I work 10-12 hour days most days and 7 days a week so lucky to fit that much in.

 

[voodoochild]

During Dec. through late February I prefer riding road (gasp) as much as possible during the week, then dirt on the weekends. Like others, I think more in terms of hours -- so an ideal week is 8-10 hours road, then 2-5 hours off road on the weekend. I haven't had a computer on a mountain bike in many years...

 

[sxr-racer]

I shoot for 10 miles everytime I ride.

 

[rydbyk]

when i raced i logged 25+ hours weekly....intervals, zone, base, etc.....

now i'm not racing....not much riding (toddler + kid on the way)....so maybe 5 hours weekly...

the 'not racing' mileage is much more fun BTW...and it helps i live ridiculously close to killer ST....

25+ week? Holy cow...hope you were winning a ton! Road rides are always at least 40 to 80.. Mtb rides are always at least 15 - 25 depending on time. It is a lot easier for the time crunched to pedal from house (road ride) as opposed to packing up gear, driving to trail, unloading gear, riding, packing up gear, driving home, unloading gear...yaddayaddayadda..for mtb rides..

To OP, I suggest you get a road bike to keep your fitness up if possible. Also, to the OP...get a magicshine light for cheap!

Oh..and OP...what do you mean "road vs pavement"??

 

[CHUM]

25+ week? Holy cow...hope you were winning a ton!

endurance racing takes a lot of base miles....and no....i was not winning a ton....meh :madman:

i sure as hell could ride for a long time :thumbsup: ....before kids

now i'm not only slow....i'm weak....old....and fat....booo

but i moved close to hella awesome trails...yay

 

[Jeff Van Deven]

When the weather is nice, 50-70 miles per week. When the weather is bad, a lot less.

 

[csteven71]

With classes only 3 or so hours a week, with the time change coming up I'll prob be able to sneak in another hour or so. I ride to class every day tho and log at least 3 or 4 miles a day commuting.

 

[Sparticus]

endurance racing takes a lot of base miles....
...

I'll drink to that.

Really. I will.

I've been on 10 hour training rides, 12 hour rides... Back in '01 & '02 I did a 262 mile (road) ride with over 16,000' gain that took 15.75 hours each time (amazingly only 1 minute difference from one year to the next.)

Not easy to do two 10 hour rides a week, tho... I think my longest training week was 22 hours. I know from experince that I can prepare for a 100 mile mountain bike race on as little as 12 hours / week training.

--sParty

 

[umarth]

endurance racing takes a lot of base miles....

I still think the best biking training is running. I threw out my back really bad (and it isn't fully recovered...) about three years ago. At the time I was running 40 miles a week and biking about 80 and I never felt stronger on the bike.

I went on a pretty decent ride on the way into the coffee shop where I do my job application ****. I brought in my 440 a-c white bros fork for a friend to pick up and borrow. If you swing by before 4:30 PST I'll let you give a run first.