So I feel like I've reached a plateau and am struggling to improve a bit. One thing I thought about was how often I hit the trails and how far I ride, on average, a month. 

Winter is tough because I seem to suffer from a bit of cold weather asthma. But summer can be rough with all this heat (or, in the case of two summers ago, monsoon rains). 

So I wanted to get a feel for how much everyone around here rides. 

In June I logged 8 rides for a total of 64 miles. 
So far in July I have 8 rides for a total of 74.   

Someone suggested that I just increase the length of each ride to increase stamina, thus making me a bit faster. Other suggestions? 

How many times do you ride a month? How many miles? Miles per ride? 

Thanks.

I try to ride 4-5 times per week.  I naturally choose WWC the most because I love it there.  The atmosphere, the beer, the trails.  Has a little bit of everything - and it's only 20 minutes away.  The benefit of WWC is that you can log quite a bit of mileage without repeating in one ride compared to anywhere else in CLT.  My normal loop at WWC puts me at about 25 miles - but you can get about 30 by riding every trail. Seeing the mileage on my computer makes me feel "better" about riding. 

When I go to Sherman, it doesn't wear me out. I ride hard, but I typically will only do 1 or MAYBE 2 laps.  But even after that first lap, I'm bored of it.  I don't want to repeat it. 

Try hooking up with fellow riders. I know when I'm feeling lazy, I text my friends about doing a ride that day.  By committing to it, I HAVE to get off my fat butt and ride. Also, think about what your goals are.  Do you ride because you truly love to ride, or do you ride because you don't want to run on a treadmill at the gym?  I personally do it for both of those reasons - and I love to eat!! If I can ride 10-20 miles in a day, that gives me an excuse to eat my huge Italian dinner! .....Maybe that's why I'm 210lbs. 

But I also try to ride as much as I can when I can because for work, I'm often out of town for a week +, eating at restaurants, eating sugary snacks, and sitting on my butt in a cockpit.  So I always feel like I'm starting at square one each time I ride after a week or so out of town. 

On a side note, if you're looking for someone to ride with and maybe push you, give me a shout.  I ride at random times - typically middle of the day to avoid traffic.  But I'm flexible. Love to have company on the trails and keep me from doing dumb stuff! 

Half as much as I should and 1/3 as much as I want to....

Specialist wrote on 07/26/15 at 9:24pm:



Last year was a banner year, I got in over 11,000 miles both road and Mtn. I was doing about 14 hrs and 220+ miles a week. Really took a toll on my body.

This year, I'm down to about 10/12 Hours and 180ish miles a week. Trying to keep it close to 1/2 road and 1/2 mtn. I've been recording every ride since about 2002. Now I just upload it to Garmin and Strava

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Specialist wrote on 07/27/15 at 1:33am:


You should feel good.

Everybody has to start somewhere. I was right where you are, 10 years ago.  You start building, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Ride on ... Ride On...

Don't worry about comparing yourself to Jerry.  After talking w/ him last time he built some wheels for me I've decided that he is certainly a freak of nature and must have an awesome wife for him to be on the road so much... lol

I would ride everyday if my work schedule allowed but in reality I normally ride about 70 to 120 miles/ month schedule and weather dependant. Usually 6 to 10 rides I would say. If I only have time for a quicky I just go full tilt and try to blow myself up by the end of the lap.

SycoCell wrote on 07/27/15 at 10:59pm:


Quote of the weekend.  Jerry and I were riding Sherman on Sunday and we rode up on two guys who were moving okay.  Jerry told them to keep going, but they obviously felt they should get out of the way.  Dude in the front was probably in his early forties and looked at us and said, "you guys are too young for me!"  Jerry had a good laugh at that.

I don't ride as mush as I use too. 60- 90 miles a month now.  New job and school age kids have made me cut back on riding and racing.

I use to do about 3,000 miles a year.  In 2012 I logged 3779 miles.  In 2013 I had my best finish at ORAMM of 6 hours 6 minutes.   

I'm having more fun now with the less miles anyway.  I use to get stressed out if I missed a ride because it would mess with my training.

Riding a road bike on days you can't hit the trails due to either time or weather will still help with your stamina.  Even though my mountain biking has decreased significantly, my road biking has quadrupled and I still notice a huge increase in stamina on the trails the rare occasion I get to ride.  My upper body will still get tired quicker on rougher trails, but my legs feel good.   

I'm probably on track for 7000 total miles this year, and I'll be lucky if 300 of those are on the trails.