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What would you say your normal average ride distance is? I usually ride around 25-30 miles around our local flattish trails or local roads and usually find that is enough to make me feel like I’ve had a good ride at the end if I do it at reasonable pace (for me). If in more hilly terrain I can still do a good ride but perhaps keep the off-road distance to nearer 20 miles for a good workout. I have always found this to be my sort of distance and find to ride further I have to throttle back quite a lot. I have never done any particular training so assume this is my natural ability. These are on my solo rides, if I ride with a group then distances usually increase due to cadging a tow here and there! How do you all fare on your rides?
Indoors 150km
Outdoors 15-50km
25 to 30 miles is probably typical for an off-road ride, a little bit shorter anywhere particularly hilly. You could probably double that for a road ride, but those are vanishingly rare these days.
Local routes range from 10 to 40kms, depends how much time I have and what the weather is like.
Big days out with mates. Could be anything...
normally based on time, anywhere from 1hr to 3hrs. its rare I ride more than 3 hrs.
It depends, on the flatish XC riding from my doorstep, anything from 30-80km depending on how bored I am/great the need to avoid doing the chores is. On a proper MTB ride* then I aim for 30km and 1000m of climbing. Whether I met or exceed that entirely depends on "things"
*Peaks, Calderdale, North wales, Lakes. that sort of riding. For Chilterns/North Downs sort of stuff then we're back to distance
mid week is normally a 2 hour dash, so 15 miles off-road, 30+ onroad.
weekend might be double that?
Probably 1.5 to 2hrs. Distance? Probably not much. No idea really. Somewhere between 6-12 miles I think.
I tend to ride to somewhere, then session trails. So there's a bit of pushing back up or repeating bits. No real continuous pedalling.
My average is 41.56km.
That's from VeloViewer. 1,516 rides / 62,927km
It drops to 38.86km if I include turbo trainer use.
12-15 miles 2200-2500 feet ish
no issue knocking out a 28-30 mile flat gravelly type ride although i dont feel tired after one of those, or particularly stimulated
My riding is pretty much all commuting on the road bike or local canal towpath stuff on the gravel bike. Both are around 20 miles. I bet my total miles on the mountain bike for the year aren't much more than that.
Normally N-10, where N is the number of miles I mentally pictured myself doing when I set out.
Quick local off road ride from the door would be 20-25km with 200-250m climbing.
Longer local would be 35-40km with 350-450m climbing.
Local road ride (rare) would be 50-75km with around 300-400m climbing I guess
(it's quite flat round these parts)
If I drive to ride then I like to make it a bit more worthwhile. Ideally at least as long riding as driving so tends to be 35km+ and 800m+
Mainly road, 100 km and around 900m climbing...
Ebike, Oxfordshire alps, map based xc, summer 15-45 miles, winter 15-30 miles
This time of year weekend road rides are 60-70 miles with 1000-1500m climbing (live on the edge of the Peak)
Midweek night rides are 20-25 miles
Currently averaging about 40 miles per year on the MTB...
Awaiting the willy waivers on this thread 😛
As said above most limited by time. My most common one is 18km with 400m climbing (just over an hour to 90mins) at the nearby trail Centre. This is the route I do with my lads too and I can fit in easiest between school runs etc. I will do up to 40km/800m climbing if I have more time but as it takes me around 3hrs (plus the time to get there/load and unload car etc) I need a full day pass from my wife.
This is all very interesting, I thought my efforts would be a bit below average but it seems a lot of you do a similar sort of distance so not so far off the mark. I have done longer rides but usually in a group and all-dayers which can be a bit more relaxed perhaps.
MTB: 30km local loop is about all I do, that has about 500m climbing.
Road: Anywhere from 30km upwards. Most frequent (once a week) is 70-100km, rarely go above 120km. Metric century once a year!
I'd love to do more climbing but on a 100km road ride from here you struggle to get over 1000-1500m of elevation. I have a friend in Herefordshire who can do 5000m over a 100km ride, and a friend in Amsterdam who averages about 25m climbing over a 100km ride - those canal bridges go pretty high!
I have retreated to the garage these last couple of days with the terrible weather. Through the winter I'd probably average an hour a day indoors.
weeksy
Full Member
Indoors 150km
Outdoors 15-50km
Is that a single ride or over a week? I couldn't think of anything worse than a 150km ride indoors.
Average between 15-30 miles for me, weeknights tend to be shorter with a decent ride on a Sunday. Some big 'ol hills locally though.. Hebden miles count for double as you can hit 4k's worth of climbing within 15 miles on a techy ride!
Typically 30-80km on the MTB. According to Garmin connect: average this year is 38.5km & 845m climbing.
Cambridge miles must count lower then as you would struggle to hit 1000ft of climbing if you took in all the hills in the county!
Hebden miles count for double as you can hit 4k’s worth of climbing within 15 miles on a techy ride!
I had a loop that was 9.5kms and 900m of climbing from my door when I lived in Heptonstall
Living on an island means I’m somewhat limited in terms of route choices, but weather and my fitness have as much a bearing. I usually ride for 2-3 hours off-road, with distances up to about 50km - last weekend I had to contend with 40mph headwinds which meant pedalling downhill at times. On road, it’s usually a choice of a 50, 80 or 160km loop although in summer I do venture over to Ardnamurchan where I can do a 60-80 km out and back or a 150km loop involving 2 ferry crossings.
I don't really pay much attention to distance as I'm not a roady but I do make sure there's at least 1000 meters of climbing.
That can be clocked up in a pretty short ride round these parts.
For big rides it'll be 1500 meteres +.
MTB averages about 45km.
Gravel about 75km.
Road 100-120km.
Indoors 150km
Wow!
Solo MTB 20-60km terrain/time dependant
Group MTB 10-20km faff/chat/weather/pub dependant.
Indoors 20-25km
Road I've done barely any since lockdown.
between 10 and 50 miles depending how i feel. total about 120 miles most weeks.
I thought my efforts would be a bit below average but it seems a lot of you do a similar sort of distance so not so far off the mark
It'll also depend whether or not folk are counting "utility" cycling in their averages - commuting, shops, pubs etc. Mine certainly do. Without those, my targeted bike ride average would be a bit higher, but not massively so.
Very roughly, 20km ish in the winter, 40km ish in the summer, with generally 325m elevation per 10km.
Varies with venue of course.
The above are for my natural local riding. For trail centres it varies more by venue. Ashton Court is circa. 27km with 400m ascent at a faster pace, Cwmcarn is almost the same distance with nigh on double the ascent.
Don’t really care about miles, it’s all about the elevation, try and do at least an 30,000ft per month. Currently on 2,900 miles and 339,000ft for the year, all mtb, a fair amount of tarmac climbing but all off road descending. (10,000ft of uplifts)
I’ve got three main rides:
- Commuting 70% off road 28km each way 1-2 x week
- pre-work MTB 100% off road 18km 1-2 x week
- weekend kids MTB 100% off road 10-20km Sunday.
Maybe 4-6 times a year I get a big ride in, either a local loop of 100km or so, or a trip with mates where we do a 60km mtb ride.
Cambridge miles must count lower then as you would struggle to hit 1000ft of climbing if you took in all the hills in the county!
Live in the town centre and we normally manage 900m per 100km, when heading South...
Obvs if you head North into the fens, then 100m is good going, but you get battered to death by endless crosswinds...
Yep, no respite in the fens, can’t even freewheel downhill! The other problem is when I do actually get to go downhill there is nearly always a walker on the same section to slow things down
All depends on the time of year. I don't ride inside so do a lot of shorter training rides in the winter as I find it keeps the motivation to ride high and leaves me in good shape to enjoy the warmer months where I do more longer unstructured fun rides.
So far this year I've done 151 rides for a distance of 5018 km or an average of 33.23 km per ride.
I like to do 40K from home on the gravel bike with a mix of roads & bridleawys. If I go much further on the road I die…………..of boredom.
I don’t actually pay much attention to distance, but it’s not a ride unless its 1000m of elevation on the leg bike, or 1500m on the ebike.
Using my totals for the year, it looks like about 28km on average. I only ride an MTB off-road.
My rides are usually between 1.5 and 3 hours once a week and between 18 and 27 miles.
I've dug into this a bit more now my interest has been perked.
This year my average is 21km per ride, but that's somewhat skewed by a long recovery from covid in June.
Turns out I average 400.2 m elevation per 10km over the year.
Much shorter than I used to. In the past I reckoned 30km+ and/or 1000m was a medium ride, 60km+ or 1600m was a long ride and 100km and/or 2400m + was a proper long ride.
These days I'm a mess and at the weekend we finished at 2:30 pm and 3:30pm which is unprecedented. ( having done only 1100m and 1300m of ascent)
My rides this year so far average out at 43.7km with 865m of climbing per ride.
20 - 30 miles with around 100' per mile, so 25 miles & 2500' is usual on the MTB.
Managed an exceptional 5300' in 23 miles on the road on Saturday without hill repeats, record for me is 7500' in 30 miles, all starting and finishing from the doorstep.
Managed an exceptional 5300′ in 23 miles on the road on Saturday without hill repeats, record for me is 7500′ in 30 miles, all starting and finishing from the doorstep.
You lucky thing 🙂
I've done a few big mtb rides from home, like Jacobs Ladder, Buxton or Roaches, but given that I live in Altrincham they are of necessity over a hundred km 🙁
I wish I lived somewhere less shit.
26 miles, if I divide my annual mileage to date by my number of rides so far this year 😀
Managed an exceptional 5300′ in 23 miles on the road on Saturday
That's impressive!
Best I can do is a 1000m climb in 20km on and off-road from the door. It's another 500m climb on the way back down too.
MTB - 10-15 miles, but rarely
Gravel - 10-40 miles
Road - 12-60 miles, at least one century ride a year
Two young children at home so fewer all day rides these days.
Road, weekend, 2 hrs - 50km, 500-600 metres climbing
Gravel, weekend, 2 hrs - 35-40km, 300-400 metres climbing
Gravel, midweek, 1 dark muddy hour - 15km, 160 metres climbing
Time is my governor more than distance.
Most rides are local and only an hour or two. Depending on what bike I'm riding my distance can be from 15km to 40km.
If I'm allowed out for a full day then it's either 100km XC/gravel or 1000m+ ascent/descent enduro type trails riding.
If I put my mind to it and plan a little, then I have managed the odd 100 miler off road. These are hard going but the most rewarding.
According to Strava I've done 150 rides this year so far at an average of 26km in length and 330m of ascent per ride. Just over 12.5m of ascent per km.
Total distance cycled this is is 3,908km.
Not bad I reckon, especially considering that 750km of that is indoors on the rollers.
As above time rathe than distance is usually the limiting factor.
Distance varies a lot by terrain and type of bike I'm on.
Tend not to bother riding (other than commuting) if it's less than 1 HR 20 mins / 25ish km because the faffing isn't worth it.
Usually on local MTB rides it's somewhere around 35km-50km / 700m-1100m climbing, in 2.5-4.5 hrs ish.
Hardest off road ride for me this year was all day about 80km 1500m climbing.
I do a lot of shorter hilly rides too. Did 30km/1500m this last weekend for example. 20km/1700m not that unusual.
10 miles on average. Prefer to do laps close to home than stray too far. Nowt worse than realising you are miles from home when bonked!
at the moment i live on a 900 meter high hill. a 1 hour ride is about 10km with 500 meters of descending (and climbing, as i like a loop).
my 2 hour ride is 750 meters of descending and about 15k.
i don’t rush up the hills
Managed an exceptional 5300′ in 23 miles on the road on Saturday without hill repeats, record for me is 7500′ in 30 miles, all starting and finishing from the doorstep.
👍
Like a lot of others posting it’s time rather than miles for me. From spring to Autumn I normally get in 3 or 4 2hr rides midweek and on a weekend I get one big ride in, minimum of 5hrs, sometimes up to 8. In winter I’ll still do the hours but some of the midweek rides will be on zwift. Depending on the amount of climbing the distance can vary between 250-320miles per week. (All on the road or TT bike)
I'm electric assisted
Weekend: 40 - 60 k and 1200 - 1700hm 15% support
Wednesday group ride for 2 hrs or so 30ish k and 600 - 1000hm 45% support
One day max 85k and 1700m with 10% battery remaining.
Most of my rides (gravel bike) are based on time, so my rides are usually at least 2 hours and upto 30 miles, anything less isn't worth it for me.
Weekends, sometimes with extra time I can ride 3 or 4 hours, 40+ miles. This year I have just set up a turbo trainer in the spare room to try and squeeze in some extra miles, not sure how that will pan out...
15-20 miles off road.
Most rides are local lunchtime loops on the road tandem, 17.6km with 386m climbing at 15kph average.
Weekends, if we're on the road tandem we will be out for 30km - 60km depending on how good we're feeling, with climbing at a similar ratio to lunchtime loops. On MTBs, it'll be 25km - 40km or there abouts
I’m also time limited. Nearly 100% mtb.
strava says 53 rides this year, so a bit more than once a week
average ride according to strava stats is10.5 miles/17km distance. 1500 feet/450m elevation nearly always local loops from the door in sunny Sheff
Quite slow… average 1h40 per ride, 6.25 mph
Depends what I'm riding but 20-50km is about my range. Full suss shorter, gravel longer.
Young family and other commitments prevent having more time available.
I couldn't actually tell you but if I could it would be meaningless.
Given your username though I would share my take and why its meaningless.
What I found is over 50 my fitness drops much quicker and is much harder to get back and for me at least regular riding is more important than distances or amount climbed. I'd try and do 10km rather than nothing even if its just to/from the pub.
If I cycle to the trails its 50km+ round trip though with only 1 proper hill and mainly flat.... closest pub without having to go on a road is only 4-5km round trip vs my "local" which is 50km (round trip) by bike avoiding roads (shorter by road) next to the trails so I'll then do a few extra km on the trails even if I'm just going for a "quick drink".
Sometimes I set off to the closer pub and take a left instead of right and end up at the other.
So its that variable, I try and ride 4-5 times a week even if a couple are just to the nearest pub (plus or minus a detour) ... sometimes I'll do 2 rides in a day especially if there is a group ride I'll try and get a few km in first as I often end up driving to/from group rides.
I guess the point is at my age I feel a 5-6km ride and a couple of beers is better than nothing...
Depends on the weather. Group rides in winter seem to be limited to 15-20 miles. In summer we'll double that. Or occasionally hit a 100 miler (although they are few and far between and have been injured this year)
on Zwift, an hour, tasting blood, before I get bored/am sick.
mtb 10-50 miles - usually around 20
road 30-100 miles - usually around 50
longer mtb rides often include some roads
0 commuting (wfh) or 'utilty' miles
solo 95% of the time
Two young kids under 5 so depends what time I have spare. Distance and speed is based on where I fancy going (95% from the door) and on what bike mtb/gravel. Climbing is whatever it ends up being based on the above. I honestly don't care about much else other than getting out, enjoying the ride and scenery. I'll still get a good workout and go fast when I feel like it, but it's purely when I fancy. All-in it keeps me fit-ish for the limited time I have to look after my own needs!
Typically I ride maybe 2-3hrs which can be anything from 20 miles up to 50ish depending on what the mix of Road/Offroad is, if I know I'm going to be out for more than 2.5hrs I have to take more food/find some food otherwise bonk WILL kick in and I'd be useless after 3hrs. If I'm going for longer it's more of an expedition. Most of my preferred local loops take me over 2hrs by default, It's actually quite tricky to do just a 1hr ride for me other than maybe commuting...
I have to admit during winter it now tends to be more (mudguards)Road and Gravel bike just because I don't want to destroy my MTB unnecessarily, Summer I'll do more MTB riding, but winter night rides do work better on an MTB (IMO).
@stevextc, I understand what you are saying, these days if I have a break of longer than a week or 10 days it is harder to get fitness back and need a couple of rides to get back up to speed. It’s not changed dramatically as I have got older but it’s definitely a thing. I’m 66 so to be expected really I suppose.
reluctantwrinkly
I understand what you are saying, these days if I have a break of longer than a week or 10 days it is harder to get fitness back and need a couple of rides to get back up to speed. It’s not changed dramatically as I have got older but it’s definitely a thing. I’m 66 so to be expected really I suppose.
I felt 50 was more of a step change than say 40.... but yep a week/10 days and I almost feel like I never rode before.
(OK obviously not REALLY never but certainly 2 weeks and I'm feeling really bad really quickly)
What I do FEEL I noticed though is even a couple of 5-10km rides stop the slip being so dramatic so I'll tend to do something even if I can't fit in a more proper ride.
Obviously huge YMMV etc. and it may just be psychological but I'm not sure I care if it is or not.
What I do FEEL I noticed though is even a couple of 5-10km rides stop the slip being so dramatic
I had a football coach at uni that drummed into us that in holidays we should be maintaining at least 3 x 30 minute runs a week in order to maintain fitness. Because maintaining is easier that trying to regain. It's stuck with me. I don't think i've done less exercise than that in decades as a result.
My local mtb loop is 20km/500m, maybe once every 2 weeks (I can just about get it done and showered in a 2 hour lunch break). Occasionally I throw in extensions of that if I'm riding on the weekend, and even less I head into the peak proper. Otherwise I just ride my bike in lieu of using a car as much as possible. As a benchmark, that adds up to churning out Ard rock loop with no problem, but not having much in the tank to attack the stages. I'd probably go further if I knew riders locally
I usually ride 3-5 times per week, usually 1-2.5 hours. A couple of times a month I might get in a 3-4 hour ride.
So, locally, 2 hours equates to 25-35km MTB (depending on balance of XC/tech), or 40-45km gravel. Rarely do a road ride.
reeksy
I had a football coach at uni that drummed into us that in holidays we should be maintaining at least 3 x 30 minute runs a week in order to maintain fitness. Because maintaining is easier that trying to regain. It’s stuck with me. I don’t think i’ve done less exercise than that in decades as a result.
I can't fault the logic.... it's just my experience has been the slip happens much faster and the regaining takes much longer above 50.
(It's worth saying I have other health issues that get worse when I don't ride though)
I'm pretty strict though in that nowadays (last 5 yrs) I do zero "exercise"... that is I ride my bike and I do my physio/rehab when needed but I avoid thinking of it as "exercise" and make sure I combine it with things that are proof to me it isn't.
It's purely psychological but I find/feel I go further and faster and more often if I view it a nice ride and nice views and chuck in a few challenges than if I set off with the idea it's "exercise" but most importantly I guess is I enjoy it far more.
I'm big on subjective now vs measurements ... rather than time a climb I'm happy to feel it was faster or easier than last time.
@qwerty where was the lumpy road ride? I love an AAA route and like to find out where others ride.
My local XC loop is 21km 550m elevation 1hr20 1hr40 depending, If I have more time/daylight I'll ride it twice (same hill different climb and descent) or do a road loop of 60-70km
@shedbrewed straight out the door for me in the Golden Valley, Brimscombe, Stroud, Glos. mainly back lanes covered in leaves, grime, rocks and off camber. Tricky traction wise up and techy down on 32c slicks.
Thanks. I do bits out that way but normally the flatter parts. I’ll peruse rwgps and the os maps.