Riding Score #3: How far can you ride?

Distance riding, to me, doesn't mean just "miles on the trail". Living in western Pennsylvania, in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, means that I want to be able ride distances on various terrain, up hills and down, on dirt, gravel, and paved surfaces; I want to be able to stay on the bike (as opposed to pushing the bike), and I want to be able to get where I need to go safely.

The best way I've found to improve my distance riding is, well, to ride. And ride. And ride.

You don't actually have to be in very good riding condition to improve your distance. Modern multi-speed bikes take a lot of the torture out of riding distances. As long as you've got a good fitting bike and a good saddle, as discussed in the previous post, you're probably going to be able to increase your distance pretty quickly.

I probably break every "rule" of bike riding. I don't stretch before I go on a ride. I don't do much prep for long rides. I just pretty much get on my bike and go.

One thing that I do, though, is pace myself. Later we'll be talking about gaining speed on a bike, but for now, working on distance means pacing yourself so you can hang in there for the long haul. Don't start out trying to go fast; work on going far first and you can work on the "fast" part later.

It might be best to start out on a level trail. The Allegheny River trail, for example, is extremely level for nearly all of it's length. Start out with a casual "pleasure ride" of 10 miles round trip. Pay attention to where your comfort level is relative to the gears on your bike; for example, do you ride most of the time on the smallest chain ring (the gear on the pedal crank) and the largest sprocket (the gear on the back wheel)? This would be the lowest gear your bike has, and hence the easiest gear to pedal in, but it will take you a long time to ride 10 miles in this gear. Keep track of how long the ride takes you, and see how you feel the day after the ride.   If you feel OK, increase your distance; if you're sore, rest a couple of days and then do the same distance again. I prefer to ride every other day when I can, either on a real bike or, if that's not possible, on a stationary bike. I also like to do at least one "epic" ride per month (longer than 25 miles round trip) when I can, and at least one "day trip" (at least 75 miles round trip, which takes me pretty much a whole day) per year.

The biggest problem with this kind of riding is the time it takes. I can ride a stationary bike at the Y for about an hour in the morning before I go to work. If I commute to work on my bike, that's 12 miles in and 12 miles back, and takes me a half hour to get there and an hour to get home (due to the hills).

A 25 mile round trip ride on the bike trail, which is flat, still takes me about 1 1/2 hours.

The only way to get around this time consumption is to increase your speed, which we'll discuss in a future post.