Kevkev

Hello all! I'm very new to the world of serious cycling. I got my first real bike last week, which I'm pretty excited about, and I'm interested in getting into long-distance cycling. I set a goal for myself to ride a century by the end of the summer.

I live in Houston, TX, and as I imagine is the case in most big cities, it's difficult to find stretches of road where you can ride for any length of time without having to stop. Yesterday I rode to a park with a 2-mile paved track and did a few laps, which worked pretty well for the 10 miles I did on it (I discovered that I could have physically gone much longer than that, but I ran out of daylight and wanted to get home as I don't have a headlight yet), but even then I was starting to get bored. Houston has a system of paved trails that run alongside some of the bayous, which are much longer and more interesting in terms of scenery and elevation, so I'm headed down there right now to check them out and I imagine that'll be where I do most of my riding other than commuting.

I'm curious, though, as to where everyone else does their LD riding. Do y'all use tracks/trails? Suburban streets? Head out of town and use rural roads?

GadgetGirlIL

All of the above! I have easy access to a network of bike trails where I can get in a 100K ride minimizing my interaction with cars. Heading the other direction, I can put together a ride of up to 100 miles that is a mix of suburban streets and some country roads. I live in the western suburbs of Chicago so with the suburban sprawl, I have to ride a lot longer than decades ago when I first starting riding longer distances to find quiet country roads.

I'm a RUSA member and have been doing several of the populaires in the Rochelle area, about an hour drive via expressway. That gets me some wonderful country roads. Bonus is my dear friend lives in that area so it is an excuse to visit her.

Another thing that I have done in past years is to ride my heavy bike (a Trek 700 Multi-track that I inherited my father) on the bike trails. It gives me more of a workout in a shorter time period than my Litespeed Vortex.

No doubt you will find what works for you! Welcome!

Bandera

Find/join a local cycling club that has a schedule of weekly "new rider" rides of modest distance to learn the basics of bike handling, lane positioning, group dynamics and etiquette to get started and build the Base necessary for any cycling activity .

Ask about local routes from club members and proceed to ride them solo on other non-group days.
Commute to/from work by bike, all seat-time counts in building fitness.

Plan for the longer rides that mark the club calendar, often a Century ride, and build the Endurance, Power and Speed necessary to accomplish that goal safely and in good time.

Have at it.

-Bandera

ThermionicScott 

Commuting is the big thing keeping me in shape most of the year, @Kevkev. My commute isn't a very long one, but the mileage adds up.

Centuries are largely mental. If you've never done one before, they seem like a crazy undertaking. Once you've done a few, they're just an occasion where you get to spend all day on the bike. What could be better?

microcord

Along the various rivers that connect the unexciting suburbia where I live with the hilly areas that are interesting to ride around; along the undulating route to and from work; over the hills that are just a train or bike ride away.

Carbonfiberboy 

I can ride on rural roads riding right out of my house because I live on the edge of a small city. However once a week I drive about 1/2 hour to an area where I can access a larger road selection. In summer, I'll drive as much as 2 hours once a week for rides in the mountains.

CliffordK

I'm pretty much car free. So, I don't do a lot of "training", but the commuting miles add up.

Look for good low traffic routes, or routes with bike lanes/paths.

Add in a few extra loops at times.

And don't avoid a ride because it will be 40 or 50 miles or so RT.

My longer commutes take me to the neighboring cities... and depending on the ride, can frequently end up being 100 to 200 miles.

KraneXL

When you live in the middle of a big city there's nothing but stop and go riding with traffic everywhere. Still, LA has one cycling path along the drainage (LA river). Its the longest uninterpreted cycling route I know, but sits below the city so is a quit uninspiring route for the most part.

antimonysarah

Commuting for me, too. Those aren't "quality" miles unless I take the long way home (which is max 30 miles; the shortest route is 17 but my usual one is 20), but they keep my baseline fitness up. I take the train to work and ride home, because while I can physically ride both ways no problem, I can't convince myself to commute by bike at 5am, while I can at 5pm.

For non-event long weekend rides I start from home, so the first/last parts are stop-and-go suburban traffic, but I can get to less busy suburbs pretty quickly.

If you aren't a fan of group rides, you can still look around and see if they publish their routes, to find new roads, or use the search on ridewithgps.

skiffrun

Rural roads.

You could do a search on RWGPS to find my favorite non-rando and rando rides. "skiffrun" handle there, too.

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You might consider randonneuring as a goal; this appears to be the website of the Houston Randonneurs ( Houston Randonneurs ); they probably also have a Facebook page or group.

StephenH

FYI, the randonneuring routes in "Houston" actually mostly start in Brookshire and go north.
But, somebody suggested riding with the local clubs/shop rides, and that's my advice, too. Yes, you may have occasional stops- but you have that on randonneuring rides, too.
Many bicyclists drive to the rides, so if the riding opportunities are especially sucky right in your neighborhood, check around some.

clasher

The strava global heatmap can show you were popular cycling routes are in an area, the roads will sometimes end up being the local cycling clubs most popular routes so it can be worth checking those areas out. I use my time riding out of the city as a warm-up and cool-down but that doesn't always work out in bigger cities.

pdlamb

Getting out of the suburbs and exurbs takes 10 miles, and it's more rural roads after that. I don't normally drive the car out to start a training ride, although I'll do that for a brevet or very occasional other ride. I've found pretty good routes through town, mostly by riding all the streets I can find.

Flounce

Whatever keeps you interested in riding, which is different for different people. Me? I like going to places I've never been before, so I'll route something - even through dense city - to a place I want to see.

The above suggestion is also good: look for local rando club, see if their published RWGPS routes are near you, and ride a part or all of the brevet routes.

rhm

Just commuting, for me. Commuting, a randonnee every month, plus extras such as a fleche here and there... that's about all my riding. In theory I meet a friend for a 50 mile fixie ride every saturday, but that hasn't happened in months now.

Spoonrobot 

I just ride a lot. Sometimes it's just my mountain bike at the trails for a few hours, other times it's a five hour ride on the Silver Comet rail trail. Or on the weekends I'll wake up really early to both train for sleepiness and distance and ride on the roads that would normally be too high traffic during the daylight hours. I also like to do relatively short gravel races and mountain bike races. The efforts put out in a 2-4 hour offroad race seem to translate well for long distance rides, at least for me. It also helps tune the non-cycling muscles like arms, neck, shoulders and core better than road riding IME.

The Atlanta area has a reasonably well connected cycling network so I do not usually want for somewhere to ride that is safe, interesting and fun. Generally I don't drive to ride unless it's for an event or for my summer adventure rides out in the country.

Happy Feet

Besides cycle commuting to work on a regular basis I feel pretty blessed (and a little spoiled) to live in one of the best riding areas I can think of because of access to variety.

I live on the side of a squat mountain that has several long grinding roads running up and down it. By linking them together I can do a great up and over and up and over hill workout.

Either to the west or east are two rural prairies popular with the roadie set that have long flat roads for logging cadence mileage. For longer scenic rides I can travel east or west from my house along the Fraser (a World Heritage River) on uninterrupted Hwy's with good shoulders or up two isolated valleys in the Cascade Mt's.

For even longer and more scenic rides I can drive one hour west and catch ferries to either Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast (Sunshine Coast 200 this April 14th) or ride the Sea to Sky Hwy to Squamish or Whistler. One hour drive east and I'm in Hope which is the gateway to three big mountain passes: the Fraser Canyon, the Coquihalla Hwy (from the reality show Highway through Hell) and Manning Park.

To the south I can do a perfect century up and down Mt. Baker or another double century through Deception Pass to access the San Juan Islands or Olympic Peninsula and back.

It's pretty good.