[Closed] how many miles per week/month do you ride or train?

I commute 3-4days a week and try and get out once or twice at the weekend. With the crap winter virtually all rides have been on the road and to be fare I don't really miss riding off road unless the weather is hot and sunny.

All up I am currently averaging c200miles a week. Last year was a bit over 9000 miles for the year.

[url] http://www.strava.com/clubs/singletrackworld-com-forumites [/url]

might give an idea

edit, in light of njee's comment, I ride because I enjoy riding, fitness is a side effect. If I cared about getting fit I would ride less.

Quality not quantity. You can do thousands of junk miles, or you can get fit on a relatively small amount of targeted training.

Don't get bogged down in comparisons. Physiology plays a part too, some people need to do more riding to maintain a fitness level.

I have a small mental target of 100 miles a week. But I'm not particularly fast anymore!

I haven't ridden a huge amount this winter, but I'm fitter than I've been in years!
You don't have to ride to get & stay fit.
I've been using a combination of turbo sessions, circuit training, gym sessions & a few rides.

Ok, yes I will start riding more soon, but being employed as well as self employed & looking after my two year old son doesn't leave much spare time for big miles.
to answer your question, I train for around 6 hours a week at the moment, but that'll ramp up now to as much as I can cram in-probably about 12 hours per week.

Pretty sure it differs from person to person. My riding buddy commutes into London most days and averages anything from 100-150K a week and I manage about 50K a week if Im lucky, usually only at the weekends but in races and rides we couldnt be closer in terms of fitness/endurance.

My week normally goes like this

Monday - Cardio gym Class
Tuesday- Spin
Wednesday - Weights/strength work
Thursday - Spin
Friday - rest
Saturday - 75km Mountain bike
Sunday rest

As gets lighter some of those spin sessions will become evening rides

Quality not quantity. You can do thousands of junk miles, or you can get fit on a relatively small amount of targeted training.

This ^^. And hours is probably a more meaningful measure than miles as that can vary a lot based on what sort of training you're doing.

Not much for me at the moment with a toddler and new baby, so really try and make the most out of what little time I have. And that usually means turbo (with a little outdoors mixed in to keep me sane.)

Is that good? average?

This depends on what your goals are I guess.

Fitness is a by-product of riding for me. I tend to ride road mid-week of around three 35-50s, plus three commutes of 15 per day, and then mtb on the weekend. I guess they're around 20-30 per ride. Around 200 per week I suppose. Having no kids helps!

How many days are there in your week? 😕

3 days commuting
3 days road riding
2 MTB rides

Errr...?

Quality as well as quantity.

@njee, can't say in that case, but, I have done 10commutes, ie 5 days, then 2 proper road rides and 2 mtb rides in a week before, felt like crap at the end though!

I still ride my MTB on days where I commute 🙂

@njee - I work from home a lot so it tends to vary across the month. Sometimes more commuting sometimes less.

Averaging about 400 miles a month at the moment. Made up of a 50 miler each week and the remainder is commuting.

commuting is my training.
8-10 miles in, 12-15 miles home each day.
I just ride as hard as I can on the straight bits and up the hills and vary the route - and no excuses for taking the short way home.

I'm about to join a club too which should focus my riding a bit more.

Strava profile gives me an average of 93 miles a week over last four weeks, but that's atypical, I'll surprise myself if I keep that up. Lots of junk commute miles, but that's as much to save money on fuel and get a bit of fresh air as anything - I'm long since over my dreams of being competitive... 🙂

How do people fit commuting miles into their training plans? Suspect if I commuted it's just be a bunch of junk miles and mean less time and energy for training (and less decent recovery.)

Minimum of 2 rides a week, each ride is usually a minimum of 25 miles, sometimes up to 35 if we get enough time. It's not really comparable though as we have several tough routes which have lots of hills and other routes which are a bit flatter.
As long as you're getting out there on 2 wheels, why worry?
It's all good.

Try and ride 10 miles each way to/from work (i live 3 miles from work) this is mainly all cycle track out of Bristol so I can nail it somewhat if I want.

Last year i was averaging 400 miles a month. THis year has been a bit crap but i'm back on it now

Did 16 miles into work this morning

How do people fit commuting miles into their training plans? Suspect if I commuted it's just be a bunch of junk miles and mean less time and energy for training (and less decent recovery.)

Couple of elite riders in Bristol told me to extend my commute (i was complaning i had no time to train/get miles in). One of them does 60 miles a day commuting and then intervals a lunch (he is a machine on the bike!)

Commute 80-100 miles a week, some of which could be classed as training.
Med/Fast club ride of 20-30 miles, which is definitely training.
1hr Turbo session (when I can be bothered/not late home).
Social club ride of 100km, or a race at weekends.

I'm fit enough for the mtb riding I do, but need to train more to be competitive in road racing at the next level.

I struggle with six hours of "training", but need to ride to commute anyway. Being on a bike is not a hardship, however.

How do people fit commuting miles into their training plans? Suspect if I commuted it's just be a bunch of junk miles and mean less time and energy for training (and less decent recovery.)

I don't, it's just a bunch of junk miles 🙂

Really notice it too, a couple of commutes into London really kills my legs, rural commutes not so bad, as there aren't as much forking traffic lights.

I think you can overthink training - unless your a honed athlete, all miles are good miles aren't they?
For me they all contribute to keeping the weight off which is part of training.

Not sure, as above, I really feel it if I do a week of commuting and then expect to have a good race at the weekend.

100 - 200 miles a week for me, about half to two thirds of that is commuting though.

I live about 3 miles from the office so I tend to just roll in in the morning and then take a 10 - 30 mile route home depending on mood.

Also try to get an MTB ride in on a week night as well but this often only happens regularly in summer.

MTB ride on Saturday and then a Sunday club run is the norm but gets mixed about based on schedules and when races are on.

My aim is always fun with fitness as a side effect, I don't do any structured 'training' as it were...

Interesting thread. I don't commute on my bike and I'm not training to race so I have an allotted number of hours I can get off family stuff to ride each week. Riding to stay fit and because riding bikes is great.

Pre-strava I used to go and ride but I started to get fixated this time last year on miles in the bank. Basically stopped mtbing and just rode the CX on road to get the stats up.

All that changed when I my road bike was trashed and I was waiting for new wheels for 2 weeks recently. I went out on the mtb and really enjoyed it! So I'd say quantity and quality are both important. And I suppose I think miles isn't a benchmark against other people, only for you week to week, month to month. My miles a week may be nothing to some people and loads to someone else, but it's just right for me! (My goal this year is a weekly target of 60 to include one MTB outing!)

I started to get fixated this time last year on miles in the bank.

On getting into road riding I got into miles/timing and enjoyed it less, so pretty quickly gave it up. I don't race or anything like that, but use road cycling as a means of switching-off and getting away from computer/email. Also, as an academic, I tend to have some of my best ideas while out and about.

100 mile/week commute, offroad and canal path - in summer often extended on way home
1 50 mile "hard" road ride midweek
As much riding as I can fit in at weekends, road in bad weather mtb when finer
Gym twice a week
the injury gods have been kind to me so far (Doh! Why did I say that) so I feel pretty much "bike fit" all year round, but by no means "race fit"

I tend to think in terms of hours instead of miles when it comes to training. Or rather did, the question always was during pre-seaspn was how many hours could I dedicate towards training. After that my coach took charge of everything & I just did what I was told (FYI I was riding in a peak load week nearly 30hrs)

Well according to the dreaded strava the last 28 days I've been averaging 196miles/12:30hrs per week, a mixture of mtbing, commuting and road work. Mainly road because I'm working up for the Fred Whitton in May. (Although I'm going to have to increase the mtbing, I've got the first round of the PMBA gravity enduro at Gisburn at the end of April ) Tend to use my commuting as recovery rides atm, as in generally flat work for anywhere between 3-10 miles with a high cadence

Miles are a red herring. Worry about time and your chosen method of measuring intensity (be that power/rpe/HR).

I typically do 9-12 hours at about 80% of FTP per week.

I tend to think in terms of hours instead of miles when it comes to training. Or rather did, the question always was during pre-seaspn was how many hours could I dedicate towards training. After that my coach took charge of everything & I just did what I was told (FYI I was riding in a peak load week nearly 30hrs)

out of interest, who is your coach, I don't know of any who would have an amateur do 30 hours?

100 miles per week at this time of year is pretty good in my book.

Between 12 and 18 hours a week (so 15 then).

Currently 350-420 miles a week. All for my yearly Flanders ride. Its my main thing for the year
and I want to enjoy it and not suffer. After that it'll be racing twice a week with a couple of cafe stop rides in between.

out of interest, who is your coach, I don't know of any who would have an amateur do 30 hours?

Andy Patterson used to prescribe that sort of mileage for most of his cliets. Made them good 24 hour soloists, less so XC racers I'd say...

2-3 hundred miles a week. Quality before quantity. Some rides hard. Some slow for technique.

It's simpler to use time in the saddle over distance.

When training properly:

- 2 long zone 3 rides a week. At least a couple of hours each ride, as much as 5-6 hours each ride sometimes.
- 1 Zone 4 ride. Minimum one hour, never more than 2.
- 1 or 2 interval sessions. MTB rides are perfect for this.
- Commutes I treat as Zone 1-2 mini recovery sessions. I know they're supposed to be longer if possible, but it never really works out that way with life and all.

I try and back off in the week, or two before a race, or an important event. These can be races, to a ride with a mate where I don't want to get shown up.

13 hours a week road and 2 hours on the track.
Purpose = to start racing on the road and track again and loose weight - lost nearly 3 stone since last July.

varies between nothing and a few.

If you want a pissing contest quote miles/km
If you want some answers give people an idea of what your trying to achieve.

On the Quality vs Quantity scale my last race just happened to match the sparse training I was managing with most of the stages being 1hr -1hr30 which was very similar to the training rides I fitted in, exceeded most peoples expectations in that one. Came unstuck on the longest 2 stages though.

out of interest, who is your coach, I don't know of any who would have an amateur do 30 hours?

Torq.

edit: past tense, was my coach. I don't race anymore.

About 140 miles road. two 40 mile training sessions and a 60 mile fast club ride Sunday.
A 20 - 35 mile off road session with some Xc guys.
And just one 45 minute max power????!!! turbo session .
A week. Very little to and froming on a bike.

The reason I do is to stay pretty okay in the LVRC and Central Cross, as well as being comfortable during enduros, or if I want a pop at XC racing. And finally to keep fit as I age.

I do about 150km max a week on the road and one two hour weight session. Next month I'll start two long stage hill interval days per week then a mid length week and then the old 30 sec on 30 sec off on the rollers for 30mins twice a week.

I'll get to about 70-80% with that then do few short XC races and I'll be good.

I don't know how you guys make the time for the amount of miles you do.

I cant commute for a number of reasons so if I can get 100 miles a week, it is a very good week for me.

What exactly are junk miles? I commute about 120km per week but never really thought about junk miles. Sometimes I try spinning, sometimes attacking hills, have logged a few Strava segments (But that is mostly useless as it depends mostly on which way the wind blows or it it is off road how much it has rained)

only folk who use the term 'junk miles' are the wanna b racers.
all cycling miles are good, be it pootling with your kids, touring, commuting or offroad riding.

a true cyclist loves all forms of cycling, unfortunately this forum is not full of true cyclists.

only folk who use the term 'junk miles' are the wanna b racers.
all cycling miles are good, be it pootling with your kids, touring, commuting or offroad riding.

Junk miles are miles which are not actively achieving any training benefit aside from time on the bike. For most, it's really not an issue (and all miles are good), but for folk who race (you can call them wannabes if you want) there's a potential risk you think "wow, I'm doing 300 miles a week, I'm going to be flying", but actually you're doing them all at a sufficient intensity to tire yourself out, but not hard enough to actually have any real training benefit. Those are junk miles.

Particularly easy on a commute, as few will either want to do a very gentle 'recovery' pace, or turn each ride into a massive interval session.

IMO it's not really an issue unless you're actively training or chasing performance.

But it's a principle reason in why more miles does not necessarily equal more fitness.

How do you know if you are trying too much then? I know sometimes I can spin and sometimes I have no power at all. I try to get out on the pumptrack for twenty minutes in the morning and that makes my body feel really old!

Ideally through HR or power or similar, something that actually quantifies exertion. I know the power I need to sustain for it to really be a recovery ride is bloody low!

Strava doesn't help, who can help having a little dig on a segment if you feel good!?

Njee - do you still commute into London from just outside the M25? Just wondering how long it takes you with traffic/lights etc as i'm dithering about something similar a day or two a week.

Ha! I was just about to ask the same, trying to find your email address nick, and failed.

Eyeing up a move to Dorking at the moment and wondering what the ride to the City is like.

Indeed I do, although rarely more than once a week these days for a variety of reasons.

[url= http://www.strava.com/activities/123313029 ]Here's my route[/url], it's fine. Problems are:
- stupid number of lights, it's about 130 sets, I lose count
- because it's a dead straight line it's grim on a windy day, no respite whatsoever!
- a couple of the bits are pretty dicey, I hate the bit from Ewell to Merton, and not a fan of Tooting on CS7 either
- very high nodder quotient on CS7, folk switching, not paying attention etc, getting worse too IMO.

Generally takes c1:10-1:20 riding time, plus 5-10 minutes stopped at lights. I park in Fetcham - at Bockett's Farm if you know it.

Ned - it's definitely doable, Geetee1972 of this parish does that ride periodically, a couple of miles further than my normal ride. If I ride from home (like [url= http://www.strava.com/activities/65781929 ]this[/url] I go through Dorking, over the back of Boxhill (Headley Lane), then past Epsom Race Course and into the back of Epsom to pick up my shortened route.

Email address should be in profile, but it's njee20@hotmail.com if either of you want to talk about it!

Eyeing up a move to Dorking

you'll miss the North London Alps

Grand, cheers, I'll check those out.

I was looking in my inbox for your address, but could have checked your profile!

Would've been too easy 😉

Great thanks, will get set up and give it a go. Overall it shouldn't be too bad for me as I intend to dump the car just outside of Cobham and I work in Chiswick so it's Esher, Richmond Park etc, it was more curiosity on how traffic affects the overall time.

I will brakes! And plenty of other things besides... Hmmm... Plenty of that < going on at the moment!

To get back on topic, I will also miss 60 miles a week of absolutely top kwality commutraining. A few dozen traffic light/ped crossing sprint starts, three [i]hundred[/i] feet of climbing every single day. 5.2 kilo wheels, bag, and the old alveoli get an extra workout from the traffic fumes.

Also doing 40-75 miles on the weekends at them moment. Mostly on road, sometimes not, usually down to a garmin route planning curveball! Not much MTB Action at the moment. Need to rectify that.

a true cyclist loves all forms of cycling, unfortunately this forum is not full of true cyclists.

give over you wind up merchant. i love my commute - it's still junk miles from a trianing perspective though.

I try and use my commute to be zone 2 base stuff, recovery after a ride, or intervals when i've missed other rides.

Few options or routes can help. I have the climbers commute which for no extra time adds in another 50% elevation.

😆

Great thanks, will get set up and give it a go. Overall it shouldn't be too bad for me as I intend to dump the car just outside of Cobham and I work in Chiswick so it's Esher, Richmond Park etc, it was more curiosity on how traffic affects the overall time.

It depends massively on your exact route (and the provision for cyclists on it). I tried a route similar to that, it was a much nicer ride, it felt slower, although actually doesn't look to have been any slower, fewer lights I guess: [url= http://www.strava.com/activities/2969147 ]here[/url]. In fact I may try that again sometime!

Anyway, sorry, getting well OT. I'll let the "true cyclists" get back to it.

I thought most reponses to this thread would be people who ride a lot, as people like myself won't respond.

I do generally one ride at the weekend (about 20 miles).
Occasionally do an evening ride if I get home early enough (only an hour blast).

Sometimes if I'm lucky I'll get two rides in at the weekend but that is rare.

Tend to get 3-4 rides in every time there is a school holiday, and ride a lot in the 6 week summer holidays.

Yes I'm a teacher, no I'm not striking today... but there's no kids in to teach and I've spent the morning marking and looking at spreadsheets.... I'm now very bored.

Try to get in about 40 miles a week at night time off road.
This month hoping to get a final 2 rides in up until Monday, which will give me about 170 miles, of which I'm happy with.

I tried a route similar to that

@thomthumb, TBH, if you commute by bike, to me that is a "true cyclist",

Bikes are far more than toys, and to be honest there are plenty on here whose idea of a ride is drive the car to a carpark do a lap round a trail centre then drive home. They would never dream of riding a bike on the road, or exploring the tracks where they live.

Using a bike as transport, for commuting, even if only once in a while makes you more a cyclist than the weekend warrior. Even if your bike cost a fraction of the amount.

How do people fit commuting miles into their training plans?

Using a bike as transport, for commuting, even if only once in a while makes you more a cyclist than the weekend warrior. Even if your bike cost a fraction of the amount.

and that is why I am a cycling god................ 😆

Managed an average 150KM a week so far this year, all planned sessions, and nothing longer than 2.5 hours so far.

Seems to be working as I'm flying at the moment, have a block of longer distnace sessions planned then let the racing begin!

out of interest, who is your coach, I don't know of any who would have an amateur do 30 hours?
Torq.

edit: past tense, was my coach. I don't race anymore.

Endurance guy then? I know of world tour pros who don't even do 30 hours a week frequently! I managed 25 hours in 6 days once on a training camp and I remember that putting me into a 'rut' for a while...

200-250km a week.

6-8 hours, 1 hour will be racing and I sometimes make a 90 minute hard bunch one morning a week too.

Ok, OP here :o) thanks for all your imput and discussions, I am wondering how much and what type of training or simply just riding the bike I would need to be doing to hold my own in an xc race in sport or vet class?

I supose the only way to know is to enter a race, see where I place and then train accordingly to the results. I know I used to struggle on uphills not from technique as I have good technical ability but on fitness and stamina, I have not avoided hills or even started to pop it in easiest gear and pootle up either, I have started to attack the hills and make them a challenge.

So I know where my weaknesses lie, these will become even more apparent in a race situation and I can then do something about them.

I need to get a computer I think to monitor my average speed at least as looking at race times and terrain/altitude and distance I need to be averaging about 12-15 mph on off road to be competitive.

I am more than happy to be corrected though ;o)

Time on the bike is a more important gauge than distance IMO. It's far easier to rack up loads of miles on a road bike in a flat area than a single speed mountain bike in a hilly area. But who gets the better workout?

I need to get a computer I think to monitor my average speed at least as looking at race times and terrain/altitude and distance I need to be averaging about 12-15 mph on off road to be competitive.

Completely irrelevant, I really wouldn't get hung up on the average speed.

As you've said, do a race, see how you get on. At the end of the day you can always get faster, so really it comes down to how much time you've got, you're not likely to find another 20 hours spare once you've done a race! The "how you compare to others" is a bit of a red herring really. If you destroy everyone in your first race, just move up a category.

Time on the bike is a more important gauge than distance IMO. It's far easier to rack up loads of miles on a road bike in a flat area than a single speed mountain bike in a hilly area. But who gets the better workout?

Nothing is that simple, miles on a road bikes at bimble pace or protour pace.

To be honest the road will, if motivated, get you far fitter.

Endurance guy then? I know of world tour pros who don't even do 30 hours a week frequently! I managed 25 hours in 6 days once on a training camp and I remember that putting me into a 'rut' for a while...

Yep, I used to race stage races. Trans Rockies, BC Bike Race - that kind of thing. Ironically stopped racing due to an overuse injury (which was put down to being quad dominant, poor glute engagement & a weak VMO. Still hey ho, it was fun while it lasted!)

Yep, I used to race stage races. Trans Rockies, BC Bike Race - that kind of thing. Ironically stopped racing due to an overuse injury (which was put down to being quad dominant, poor glute engagement & a weak VMO. Still hey ho, it was fun while it lasted!)

A lot of people told me I was stupid when I spent most of the winter doing exercises to improve glute activation during the pedal stroke! You must be the 3rd or 4th person I've heard of who are broken due to quad dominance. Quad dominance is a big issue amongst cyclist IMO.