First 5,000 Mile Year
12-11-18, 07:00 AM
#1
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First 5,000 Mile Year
Just as the title says, I just finished my first 5,000 mile year! I guess this post is part bragging and partly to encourage others (I do realize that lots of folks on this forum do that kind of mileage each year). I am 57 and I started biking about 4 years ago. At that time, I had lost 150lbs and wanted to begin a more active and healthy lifestyle to keep the weight off. My wife suggested I try cycling. I took her hybrid out and thought it was fun and bought one of my own. Four months later I bought a road bike and I loved it.
I am a pastor so I spend a lot of time with people. One of the things I totally dig about cycling is the solitude. During the seven good months (weather wise), I go out on my day off and will ride between 80-110 miles. That time is bliss for me.
Anyway, I am often encouraged on this forum and thought I would share this.
I am a pastor so I spend a lot of time with people. One of the things I totally dig about cycling is the solitude. During the seven good months (weather wise), I go out on my day off and will ride between 80-110 miles. That time is bliss for me.
Anyway, I am often encouraged on this forum and thought I would share this.
Last edited by Chipbyrd; 12-11-18 at 08:12 AM. Reason: Typo
12-11-18, 07:36 AM
#2
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Congratulations. I dream of that kind of mileage, but weather and the vagaries of life never cooperate to allow me enough time.
12-11-18, 07:46 AM
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12-11-18, 07:50 AM
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Awesome!
12-11-18, 07:52 AM
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Congratulations! There's nothing wrong with being proud of your accomplishments. I'm set to hit my goal of 2500 miles this year. Next year I'm bumping it up to 3000.
12-11-18, 08:08 AM
#6
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Just as the title says, I just finished my first 5,000 mile year! I guess this post is part bragging and partly to encouragement others (I do realize that lots of folks on this forum do that kind of mileage each year). I am 57 and I started biking about 4 years ago. At that time, I had lost 150lbs and wanted to begin a more active and healthy lifestyle to keep the weight off. My wife suggested I try cycling. I took her hybrid out and thought it was fun and bought one of my own. Four months later I bought a road bike and I loved it.
I am a pastor so I spend a lot of time with people. One of the things I totally dig about cycling is the solitude. During the seven good months (weather wise), I go out on my day off and will ride between 80-110 miles. That time is bliss for me.
Anyway, I am often encouraged on this forum and thought I would share this.
I am a pastor so I spend a lot of time with people. One of the things I totally dig about cycling is the solitude. During the seven good months (weather wise), I go out on my day off and will ride between 80-110 miles. That time is bliss for me.
Anyway, I am often encouraged on this forum and thought I would share this.
Congratulations! Fitness-wise, our age is identical and our stories are very similar, although I spent a few years in the gym taking off the 150 pounds before I started cycling seriously again last year. I got in 6433 miles this year before the weather got bad, and I can't tell you how annoying I find it that I haven't been able to get in a 67 mile ride to hit a nice round number.
The solitude is great. It's almost meditative until some pesky fool honks at you for being on the road. I also love stopping for a good meal about halfway into a 100 mile ride and often meet up with my adult sons for that lunch. The wonderful part about biking the way I do it is that I can combine the solitude with social interludes because the distances actually take me places worth going to.
12-11-18, 09:40 AM
#7
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12-11-18, 09:52 AM
#8
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Thread Starter
Congratulations! Fitness-wise, our age is identical and our stories are very similar, although I spent a few years in the gym taking off the 150 pounds before I started cycling seriously again last year. I got in 6433 miles this year before the weather got bad, and I can't tell you how annoying I find it that I haven't been able to get in a 67 mile ride to hit a nice round number.
The solitude is great. It's almost meditative until some pesky fool honks at you for being on the road. I also love stopping for a good meal about halfway into a 100 mile ride and often meet up with my adult sons for that lunch. The wonderful part about biking the way I do it is that I can combine the solitude with social interludes because the distances actually take me places worth going to.
The solitude is great. It's almost meditative until some pesky fool honks at you for being on the road. I also love stopping for a good meal about halfway into a 100 mile ride and often meet up with my adult sons for that lunch. The wonderful part about biking the way I do it is that I can combine the solitude with social interludes because the distances actually take me places worth going to.
12-11-18, 10:42 AM
#9
Senior Member
Well done. I thought I was doing well reaching 3,000 miles for the first time - at least I think it was the first time. There was one year when I might have done more but I didn't have a handy Garmin to record it back then.
12-11-18, 11:01 AM
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Good job. I've had a 5K mileage goal for 5 years now. Two years ago, best ever was 4,800. Should be around 4,000 by year end this year. Keep on pedalin' 👍👍👍
12-11-18, 11:28 AM
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The way I look at it is that the numbers are tools we use to motivate ourselves, so if counting trainer miles as cycling miles motivates you to do more pedaling then, by golly, miles are miles! You're really keeping track of the amount of effort you're putting into cycling, so it is fairly irrelevant whether the vehicle is actually going anywhere.
For me, riding a bike is so associated with going places that I can't stand the idea of doing it stationary (my own mental quirk). Instead, I put in many hours on the elliptical during the winter as I only associate that with watching movies and TV, and don't feel the same frustration I would pedaling in a gym. I even do some elliptical regularly during the summer because it exercises upper body muscles that don't get worked by biking.
I find that I can only tolerate about 3 hours in a day doing the elliptical before I'm mentally too done to go farther, but I've ridden as much as 168 miles in a day on a bike which definitely took me a lot longer than that. Do you find you can ride a trainer as long as you can ride "for real"?
12-11-18, 11:34 AM
#12
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12-11-18, 02:27 PM
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12-11-18, 02:30 PM
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I'm lucky, I can pretty well ride in any direction from my house and get a decent road.
12-11-18, 02:38 PM
#15
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Congratulations! 
5,000 miles is very impressive ... even if you did cheat and count trainer miles. 
5,000 miles is very impressive ... even if you did cheat and count trainer miles.
12-11-18, 02:59 PM
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I find that I can only tolerate about 3 hours in a day doing the elliptical before I'm mentally too done to go farther, but I've ridden as much as 168 miles in a day on a bike which definitely took me a lot longer than that. Do you find you can ride a trainer as long as you can ride "for real"?
12-11-18, 03:05 PM
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Awesome!
12-11-18, 03:46 PM
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Congrats! I'd love to do it someday, but I've personally plateaued well below that number 
Join the fat bike revolution! Snow cycling is fun!
Join the fat bike revolution! Snow cycling is fun!
12-11-18, 04:39 PM
#19
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Congratulations!!
I started biking in 2017 and this year I was able to add some commuting to the mix and got past 3000 miles
Looking forward for next year!
I started biking in 2017 and this year I was able to add some commuting to the mix and got past 3000 miles
Looking forward for next year!
12-11-18, 07:29 PM
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Great! On the miles.. That is a healthy amount to ride. I did it last year and am shooting for 6000 this year. Only 57 miles to go. Been too cold for me lately to get on the bike. Supposed to be mid 60's tomorrow, so might get 30-40 in. Then only 1 more day of riding.
You can do more. The riding becomes addictive.
You can do more. The riding becomes addictive.
12-11-18, 08:48 PM
#21
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Congrats on the 5000 miles! That's almost 100 miles/week. At my slightly older 60 years, 100mi/wk is my goal during my work commuting riding season which is only 3-1/2 months or maybe 15 weeks.
Before May 1st and after mid-August, any saddle time is more limited due to dark mornings for commuting and around here I simply don't trust drowsy morning drivers... So from April 1st to May 1st, and from about September 1st through mid-October, I'm lucky to even get 50 miles/week (or weekend)... Anything before of after those dates are bonuses!!! This year, with our soggy/rainy Fall, I don't think I got even 100 miles in during October and November combined!
This 'off-season' I have again set up my old-school rollers with a belt-driven wind-resistance unit so I can pretend to ride through yet another Cleveland Winter. And NO! - I will not take my bikes back on the roads until the Spring rains have washed the road salt away... I've never logged my roller/trainer miles, but each session is around an hour or so at my usual cadence/road speed of 18mph.
Before May 1st and after mid-August, any saddle time is more limited due to dark mornings for commuting and around here I simply don't trust drowsy morning drivers... So from April 1st to May 1st, and from about September 1st through mid-October, I'm lucky to even get 50 miles/week (or weekend)... Anything before of after those dates are bonuses!!! This year, with our soggy/rainy Fall, I don't think I got even 100 miles in during October and November combined!
This 'off-season' I have again set up my old-school rollers with a belt-driven wind-resistance unit so I can pretend to ride through yet another Cleveland Winter. And NO! - I will not take my bikes back on the roads until the Spring rains have washed the road salt away... I've never logged my roller/trainer miles, but each session is around an hour or so at my usual cadence/road speed of 18mph.
12-12-18, 07:58 AM
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OP, Congrats! Keep up the good work!
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12-12-18, 09:02 PM
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Congrats on 5,000 miles, great achievement.
Where do you generally ride in the Holland area? We vacation in that area pretty much every summer. Last year in Castle Park, so my riding was in that area. Sometimes it's South Haven either the Kal-Haven Trail or just up and down Blue Star.
Where do you generally ride in the Holland area? We vacation in that area pretty much every summer. Last year in Castle Park, so my riding was in that area. Sometimes it's South Haven either the Kal-Haven Trail or just up and down Blue Star.
12-12-18, 09:12 PM
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Good job on the 5K miles! I've come within a couple of hundred miles of that more than once in recent years but haven't quite hit it.
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12-13-18, 06:19 AM
#25
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Congrats on 5,000 miles, great achievement.
Where do you generally ride in the Holland area? We vacation in that area pretty much every summer. Last year in Castle Park, so my riding was in that area. Sometimes it's South Haven either the Kal-Haven Trail or just up and down Blue Star.
Where do you generally ride in the Holland area? We vacation in that area pretty much every summer. Last year in Castle Park, so my riding was in that area. Sometimes it's South Haven either the Kal-Haven Trail or just up and down Blue Star.