KC8QVO

My reference to "touring" in the thread is multi-day extended tours. To that point - I have not done any so there is no answer to your question. That is where my questions come in from others. All of my riding has been across a single day (not necessarily a calendar day, but no sleeping/camping between start and finish even though the start/finish may have been on a different day - except for my last ride).

As a related answer, but not direct to your question (because a direct answer doesn't exist) - I try to build up my miles over time. I have had some time this fall to do that, but in the past couple years I have had very little riding in (2018 I rode 1 time for about 10 miles). The years I did ride - time was hard to come by so I was forcing in rides sacrificing cooking dinner and sleeping after work during the week at times. My weekly averages were in the ~100 mile range at the peak of my mileage times - a 40-70 mile ride on saturday or sunday with 2-3 shorter runs 15-25 miles on a week night. If I rode hard/long on a weekend day I would give more rest days.

So my questions weren't so much "what I do" it is "what you [the reader] do" - specifically those that proclaim, in other threads, to have "not trained" for tours. The reason I ask the questions is I am curious how people hold up, physically, during extended periods of riding.

To use my own example - this Fall I have built up to that ~100 mile/week range again. I think that just came to a close with the way the season has turned, weather-wise. Not only that but my schedule is soon going to not allow riding time except for nights and weekends, weather-dependent. I had the opportunity to do a trip the past few days and I would put it in the category of over-do'ing it for my current fitness state, after having done one round of it. I know, from other threads, that there are people that don't train for tours - so comparing my mileage build-up this fall to how others build up (or not) for a tour was interesting to me. So I posted the questions. In my own case, I think the only thing I can do to "train" better is to gear up while hitting the same mileage goal. The mileage goal is going to be the hard part as that is time dependent, and if I only have so much time then I need to supplement that better. That isn't to say my regular riding is light and fast - it isn't, I just don't have a full touring load.