Originally Posted by
SanFranCyclist
Thanks for the advice everyone.
I basically concluded that:
Do I want a leisurely ride, or do I want to pump it up a few notches to stay fit and increase my riding?
Riding more consistently, such as three times a week of 10 miles or so. Perhaps it's time to invest in a bicycle trainer?
3 times a week probably isn't enough to build much endurance. 4 or 5 times a week would do the trick.
it doesn't matter how much you ride on each of the rides at first, just choose a comfortable distance and do approximately that distance,
regularly. Vary your distance a little and your route from day to day to keep it from getting boring. And then, as others have said, aim to increase your weekly mileage by 10%/week. That is the magic ticket: +10%/week*. Don't worry about performance or speed. Just keep at it. In a few months you'll be amazed at how far you can ride.
*If you start at 30 miles/week - 5 rides averaging 6 miles each - and increase 10%/week, in 6 months time you'd be riding 300 miles/week. I'm guessing you have no desire to ride that much (though you might surprise yourself), but the point is that you don't have to make any heroic leaps to real cycling endurance, you just need to be persistent.