Originally Posted by
alloo
What about if you're not training for an athletic event? What is the distance for diminishing returns for us mortals and not olympians? What about for commuters? Is they're a time or distance that it doesn't make sense to bicycle?
I am a bike commuter. Or, at least I was.
That includes Double-Century commutes. Not a lot of them, but a few.
The way to expand one's comfort zone is to push oneself outside of the comfort zone. So a 10 mile or 20 mile (each way) commute becomes mighty average after a 200 mile commute.
Originally Posted by
livedarklions
I think I was that "somebody", but I was misinterpreted. The question was whether someone should prepare for a 100 mile ride by riding several 50 mile rides, and my response was actually that I thought it was better to increase the distance in steps from 50 up to 100 because the "best way to prepare to ride 100 miles is to ride 100 miles". All I meant by that was the building up of mileage was going to get to the point where one could do 100 mile ride comfortably faster than doing a bunch of shorter ones that never got longer.
I was doing weekly 150 mile rides two summers ago, but didn't last year because I want a long indoor break in the middle of a ride that long, and there was nowhere to stop for one during COVID protocols. I did weekly 100 mile rides last year because that was about as long as I could enjoy without a break. I've been doing weekly 100 mile rides this year, but last Saturday, I actually rode over 125 miles for the first time in almost 2 years. There's no question in my mind that for me, nothing burns fat on me faster than a very long ride.
I absolutely agree with you that if you do 100+ mile rides, 100 mile rides get easier. I also like riding my bike to places I like to visit, so the longer the ride, the more places I can go.
A 150 mile ride every week is mighty ambitious.
I'm not a real fast rider, so it can be a struggle mixing speed and distance.
Again, some of this will be goal driven.
Why 100 miles?
Race?
Century Ride?
Go visit the inlaws?
Mad Craigslist Purchase?
It may be that one needs to mix things up a bit. So, do those 100+ mile rides for distance.
Add some hills for some high power endurance.
Add some cargo for using muscles differently.
Some "shorter" rides... say 20 miles and 40 miles which one can concentrate on speed more.