Isaiahc72

Just out of curiosity. I'm interested in hearing people's different opinions. How many miles a ride needs to be for you to consider it an endurance ride in your opinion? What about ultra endurance?

unterhausen

According to randonneurs, 200km is a short ride. And really, that's my cutoff to just drop everything and go for a ride.

I have trouble making this sort of classification because I know that as long as I eat I can just keep riding.

Machka 

In this forum, 100K is sort of a practice ride, and 100 miles is the gateway to endurance.

IMO the 400K or 24-hour point is probably the gateway to ultra endurance.

mwarddoc

I suppose it depends upon who you are riding with, I've been on a couple of 15-20 mile rides that required a lot of endurance because of the person I was with....some people you just shouldn't ride with.

In reality, it depends upon where you are riding, the terrain, etc. I've ridden across the Cascade Mountains in Washington, and it was easy. It did not require much endurance, just persistence. On the other hand, some rides in Appalachia, WV and Pennsylvania, much shorter rides were much, much harder, with just one steep hill after another with 7-8-9-10-11-12-13% grades, and the front wheel wanting to lift off the ground if you dared to stand up and push on the pedals harder and the rear wanting to spin out if you, so you had to sit down and crank judiciously while leaning over the front bars (52-39 front crank and a six speed freewheel though, it was a few years ago).

On one of those rides, my brother finally gave in and I had to go for the truck and come back and get him. I don't think we went 40 miles but it was a road that we never rode on again, in fact I think he never rode with me after that.

On the other hand, I've ridden in Michigan, and people were like "you ride all those hills" and I'm like "What are you talking about, what hills?" Where I lived there, I just rode till I got bored and then went home. Where I grew up, and where I was like the only bike rider I ever saw, we didn't even call those "rises" hills, until someone asked me that question in 1985, I had seriously thought and referred to the area as all "flat ground".

MilesDealer

For me personally it was my first 300km that made me feel like a distance cyclist. The day after I went down to Piedmont Park in Atlanta to watch a pro race. The park was full of recreational cyclists, many of them accomplished riders themselves, watching the race and it occurred to me that very, very few of them had ever ridden as far as I had on the 300km.

Machka 

For me, my second century broke through the first long distance barrier. When I completed my first century, I vowed never to ride another one again. When I finished my second century, I was hooked ...

My first 300K randonnee broke through the second long distance barrier. The 300Ks in Manitoba were 318 km, if I recall, which is so close to a double century that when I rode my first 300K, I rode the extra bit and completed a double century.

After that ... the possibilities just opened up.

pdlamb

An endurance ride is a distance you've never ridden before, and can just barely imagine riding.

An ultra endurance ride is one that other people have to be crazy to try.

Steamer

+1 to this. Really, time and intensity is all your body knows, so those are better metrics of what constitutes long distance or ultra distance. Miles themselves are less meaningful / somewhat arbitrary.

ThermionicScott 

+1. To further muddy the waters, riding from one end of the block to another may be so dubious as to be considered "endurance." We all start from a different place.

10 Wheels

100 miles for me...

StephenH

I don't normally use those terms, so I never thought to define them.
How short does a ride have to be before it's considered a "short" ride? I've never heard anyone say that 3 miles was "short" but 3.1 miles was not.

Rick@OCRR

This really is a case of YMMV (You mileage may vary). Unless there is an important (to you) reason to define such terms . . . it really doesn't matter. So everyone's answer is liable to be different.

For me, 100 miles in one day defines "Endurance" and 200 miles or more in one day defines "Ultra Endruance."

However, your mileage may (and probably will) vary.

Rick / OCRR

lhbernhardt

Depends on the context. On the road, I think that if you need to carry food (or a bottle, or two bottles), it's an endurance ride. Otherwise, it's more of a sprint, like riding to work. Unless you need to carry food or a bottle to get to work.

On the track, they divide the events into "sprint" and "endurance." So sprint events are: match sprint, kilo, 500 meters, team sprint. 1,000 meters is probably the longest distance, and all the events are very explosive. The endurance events are: all the mass start races, pursuits, madison. So basically anything more than 2,000 meters. But then these are ridden very, very fast indeed. You really do need endurance for them!

But then, I've been on early season century rides where I didn't even carry a bottle. i just stopped at all the food stops, the temps were too cool to need anything to drink while riding, and I could get all the food I needed at the stops.

If you start in the morning and you need to carry lights on the bike, it's gotta be ultra!

Luis

c.miller64

Since I consider anything over 2-3 hours an "endurance ride", I guess miles wise that would be anywhere from 20-60 miles and up (dependent on ability). The term "Ultra" is usually reserved for long distance races which start at 12hr's for timed races, and 200 miles for distance races.

delcrossv

Here in Flatland 200k is an "endurance ride", (or a nice day out depending on weather)

shelbyfv

I think for the purposes of this forum and generally for most cyclists, over 100 miles is the minimum distance that would be considered "long distance" cycling. Certainly a shorter ride can require "endurance" but that isn't what we discuss here. Most cycling enthusiasts do century rides, it's not uncommon or especially noteworthy. When one gets into multiple hundreds of kilometers it becomes a different sort of cycling, worthy of a sub-forum. JMO.

kingston 

+1
This sounds about right to me.

Carbonfiberboy 

It varies with the rider. You start building endurance when you start to endure. Ultra endurance is when all you want to do is quit.