Rdmonster69

So I'm not supposed to stop and have a pizza on my century ? What fun is that ? I'm coming up with my own definition and it will consist of a stop for a couple of hotdogs ....maybe a burger. Lon Haldeman (SP?) won a few ROM events by slamming Big Macs.

Iride01 

I was only replying to one comment of the OP. I quoted the exact comment that I was addressing. Don't try to imagine them as a statement of how the OP should ride or train.

If we were to get together and discuss it, you'd probably find we agree more than disagree. However, while you seem to be looking at this thread as the OP looking for in depth training advice, I'm only looking at it as the OP trying to make small talk.

PeteHski

We all have different reasons to ride. For me it's a combination of fun, fitness, challenge and general sense of well-being. But the question was about diminishing returns on fitness. I would say a mid-ride pizza is an effective way of diminishing your return on fitness, but not a bad way to spend your day!

Iride01 

Are you the norm?

I just put out there my anecdotal experiences, views and opinions. So of course YMMV.

Even when people point to factual scientific study, many times what they are writing is their opinion of what the study says and means for the situation they are applying it too.

This is BF, a place to share views and opinions. If I wanted facts and scientific study, well, there are better sites for that.

PeteHski

When people casually talk about fitness I tend to think weight loss (or maintaining a healthy weight) is part and parcel of being fit. Obviously weight is only one aspect of fitness, but usually a pretty major one in the western world!

Kapusta

57

burnthesheep

1. https://www.bikeforums.net/training-nutrition/

2. Each person has different goals for riding a bicycle

3. Based on those goals, it's the aggregate of TIME and INTENSITY. Miles are like asking "how long is a piece of string".

Lastly, there's a lot of questions like this that boil down to people wanting some kind of answer to something not knowable without knowing their goals. I know a LOT of recreational riders that pour in 200+ "miles" a week just sucking wheel for hours at a time. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But they always ask "why am I still slow" or some other variant of that complaint. Well, you ride for enjoyment. Do you want a different goal? Why not have enjoyment be the goal instead of something else if you don't need to?

If your goal isn't a specific racing discipline, we're making the topic more complicated than it needs to be.

terrymorse 

That sounds like a great climbing century, what was it?

I enjoy (well, enjoyed--it's been many years) the centuries with 10,000+ feet.

Rdmonster69

Pizza is a great fitness food. Carbs and protein !! I will just eat a small one with lots of veggies.

PeteHski

Good point. I was envisaging a typical huge NA pizza loaded full of meat and cheese. I do love a proper Italian pizza though.

prj71

What you really want to know is what biking volume you should be doing to achieve your performance goals? It is a moving target depending on your goals.

And there is no such thing as junk mileage.

livedarklions

I've said many times, I'm a genetic freak. I'm definitely not the norm. My point is Norm is a character on Cheers, but there is no such person as :"the norm."

I was commenting on the chain of your comments, and I don't understand what "too much effort" means when you're talking about other people.

I try not to express opinions on other people's hunger, etc., based on my own experiences as I think these factors are too variable to have any idea whether my experience is even remotely related to theirs.

I do know your experience in this regard doesn't match mine, but my eating during ride habits are too weird for me to think they generalize to much of anyone.

Phil_gretz

The question posed by the OP doesn't concern calories in. He asks about the benefits of fairly high intensity aerobic exercise. This is a throw-away question, because there have been numerous scientific peer-reviewed studies, and countless publications on the topic. The more interesting question concerns how the OP uses bicycle riding as part of an overall fitness regimen tailored to his individual health needs. The rest is simply talk.

DreamRider85 has a particular style of starting discussion threads. If this is a conscious effort to come across a certain way and to stir up chatter, then there's a certain brilliance to it, I think. The staying in character thing especially. If it's not conscious, but simply a reflection of his mental state, then it's a sad thing. Either way, write whatever you will in response.

He simply get's my for each attempt.

BikingViking793 

great question. I don’t have an answer, but am enjoying reading the responses. I would think from a training perspective there should be diminished returns at some point. But from a happiness perspective the more riding the better.

unterhausen

My previous answer was true for me, and since I ride longer distances I have to worry about how it affects me. I'm not going to go out and do a 300 or 400km ride for training, doesn't make sense to me. 20-35 miles is plenty for most of us. If a ride is much longer than that, quality is going to suffer. Before my first 1200km ride, I mostly did 20 mile training rides during the last 2 months and concentrated on getting faster. That was after a base of plenty of longer rides. There is something to be said for keeping fresh, and after you get a base, you aren't going to stay fresh by slogging through long rides.

I like to say anyone can ride 400km. However, on a less than stellar ride, I have taken almost the full randonneuring time limit, which is 27 hours. One such ride, I one-legged it for the final 20 miles because my knee hurt. Not recommended, but I'm not going to quit with that small of a distance remaining.

livedarklions

This is one of those things I find fascinating--lately things seem to work in reverse of that from me. My 25 mile rides didn't actually get faster until I started doing some fair amount of rides of about 100 miles. I have no idea why it works that way. I'm recovering from a lung injury from last fall, and maybe the compensation for the injury moves faster when I really push the distance.



Did your knee recover quickly?

terrymorse 

Great rides, thanks for the profiles.

Maybe next year they'll be up and running again.

Another of my favorite 10,000+ foot rides is the Grizzly Century, out of North Fork, CA.

And according to the Fresno Cycling site, it's going to be operated this year, on October 2nd. Hope the fires stay away this year.

The Griz route.

Troul 

if i don't do equal or longer length rides prior to a set ride distance, I lag & may huff a little on the climbs.
Doesnt matter (within reason) how long those pre-long rides take, just so long as I go the distance. I can do a slew of smaller rides, & it will not set me up for success to the longer one ride I am after. The body just makes life difficult.

Aroyobob

He/They do seem to have a talent.

jackb

Riding longer distances, say 50 or 60 miles, gets you in shape for riding those distances. I'll bet that there is little difference in overall physical fitness between a person riding 30 miles regularly and a person riding 60. When I hike or ski or ride with others we all appear to be in that category called "fit," yet we do all kinds of different activities for pleasure and exrcise and at different levels of intensity.

PeteHski

Depends how you define overall fitness. I would have thought, all other things being equal, the person riding 60 miles will have more endurance fitness than the one only riding 30 miles (which you kind of implied in your first sentence). There is probably some diminishing return, but my training plan for endurance rides of around 100 miles certainly includes training rides much longer than 30 miles. Obviously non of this matters if you don't need that extra endurance fitness.

shelbyfv

Every time I see one of these compilations of OP's threads I'm reminded how impressive it is that he has continued to contemplate cycling when confronted by so many obstacles!

fredlord

Last year I was doing 120 - 200 fairly cruisy kilometres every weekend and very little in-between.

This year I'm making myself do 30 hard kilometres five days a week.

I feel much happier (like, ridiculously happier) and much more powerful and fit this year. A host of bodily niggles seems to have vanished, my weight has dropped, and I can't stop palpating my legs and arse and marvelling at how muscly they feel! My lungs feel 1.5 times their normal size. When not riding, I feel like I have an enormous store of energy to draw from.

ymmv

Phil_gretz

It's obvious that the thread titles are contrived, and brilliantly so. I imagine that he spends hours contemplating just the right phrasing. This is superior work, and should be recognized as such. I wonder if there are international awards for this sort of ... thing.

CliffordK

If you are planning on riding in a 4,200 mile bike race over about 16 1/2 days...
Or you are planning on riding in a grand tour with 21 days, and stages from around 100 to 150 miles at an average speed of just under 25 MPH.

Then you should be fine training riding around a park 20 miles once a week. There is no possible way to improve your fitness and preparedness.