More Frequent, Shorter Rides?
My bike-riding pattern this summer has been to take 2 to 3 rides a week. Generally one of the rides is a hard one. The problem is that the harder rides exhaust me and I need 2 or 3 days of rest afterward. For the last several days, I have been considering whether it would be better to ride shorter easier rides, but ride 4 to 5 times a week. Since I am currently unemployed, I have a rare opportunity to try this. Plus, I enjoy riding so much that it would be nice to do it 5 times a week rather than 3 times a week. I may have to find some new routes. I currently have 3 different routes that I usually ride along. It may get rather old if I follow these same routes 5 times a week. Anyway, I decided to try this approach. Or at least, this was my plan when I left for my bike ride this morning.
I slept in a little this morning and did not get onto the road until 9:15 or so. I planned to take a nice 30-mile ride up Highway 1 and partway up Swanton Road until I hit 15 miles from home. Then I would return along the same route. I started along some side roads before I hit Highway 1. As I was riding, a guy came along side of me and we rode and talked for a bit. He said that he thought that I rode faster than he does, but he would like to ride with me for as long as he could keep up. I was enjoying the conversation, so it was fine with me.
As we rode along, I tried to let him set the pace, so I would not tire him out too fast. It turned out that he set a pretty fast pace for me. I later found out that he was riding faster than he normally does, thinking that I wanted a faster pace. When we got to the turnaround point on Swanton Road, we were huffing and puffing, so we decided to rest for a bit. I looked at my bike computer and found that we had averaged 17.6 MPH over 15 miles! Since I normally average between 13 and 14 MPH, that is very fast for me. As I mentioned before, we were huffing and puffing, but I did not feel too bad.
Of course, when we turned around for the trip home, we discovered that we had been riding with a nice tail wind; the return trip would be tougher. We had to work much harder, but we still kept up a good pace. We had a nice conversation that provided a good distraction for the ride. By the end of the ride, we had averaged 16.5 MPH over 30 miles. This is the fastest pace I have ever ridden for 30 miles. Especially, when you consider it is both downwind and upwind. The only caveat is that there were no large hills to slow me down, but still a good ride.
I feel really good about the pace we set today. As I have been attempting harder, longer rides I have been riding at the same pace, just for a longer time. I have been riding at about the same speed as I began the year. That is not entirely true, I have been riding up hills faster, but I have been pretty consistent on level ground. This pace becomes a problem if I decide to attempt longer rides. If I decided to go for 70, 80 or even 100-mile rides, they will take a long time at 13 MPH. I will also have to think about packing more and more food to sustain me for these rides. Today, I could not have sustained this pace for much longer than 2 hours, but hopefully in the future, I will be strong enough to sustain it for longer periods.
It turns out that I had actually met Bob before. He is a local doctor that treated me about 5 or 6 years ago. I remember that we had a short conversation about biking at the time. Anyway, we seem to be at similar fitness levels and have similar biking interests, so we exchanged contact information and plan to ride again in the future. We are both looking forward to it.
So here I am, lying on the couch with pretty sore legs. So much for the more frequent, easier rides. Originally, I had planned to ride again tomorrow morning. We are going to a party tonight and I am doubtful that I will feel much like biking. I may go on a short easy ride anyway. We'll see.
I slept in a little this morning and did not get onto the road until 9:15 or so. I planned to take a nice 30-mile ride up Highway 1 and partway up Swanton Road until I hit 15 miles from home. Then I would return along the same route. I started along some side roads before I hit Highway 1. As I was riding, a guy came along side of me and we rode and talked for a bit. He said that he thought that I rode faster than he does, but he would like to ride with me for as long as he could keep up. I was enjoying the conversation, so it was fine with me.
As we rode along, I tried to let him set the pace, so I would not tire him out too fast. It turned out that he set a pretty fast pace for me. I later found out that he was riding faster than he normally does, thinking that I wanted a faster pace. When we got to the turnaround point on Swanton Road, we were huffing and puffing, so we decided to rest for a bit. I looked at my bike computer and found that we had averaged 17.6 MPH over 15 miles! Since I normally average between 13 and 14 MPH, that is very fast for me. As I mentioned before, we were huffing and puffing, but I did not feel too bad.
Of course, when we turned around for the trip home, we discovered that we had been riding with a nice tail wind; the return trip would be tougher. We had to work much harder, but we still kept up a good pace. We had a nice conversation that provided a good distraction for the ride. By the end of the ride, we had averaged 16.5 MPH over 30 miles. This is the fastest pace I have ever ridden for 30 miles. Especially, when you consider it is both downwind and upwind. The only caveat is that there were no large hills to slow me down, but still a good ride.
I feel really good about the pace we set today. As I have been attempting harder, longer rides I have been riding at the same pace, just for a longer time. I have been riding at about the same speed as I began the year. That is not entirely true, I have been riding up hills faster, but I have been pretty consistent on level ground. This pace becomes a problem if I decide to attempt longer rides. If I decided to go for 70, 80 or even 100-mile rides, they will take a long time at 13 MPH. I will also have to think about packing more and more food to sustain me for these rides. Today, I could not have sustained this pace for much longer than 2 hours, but hopefully in the future, I will be strong enough to sustain it for longer periods.
It turns out that I had actually met Bob before. He is a local doctor that treated me about 5 or 6 years ago. I remember that we had a short conversation about biking at the time. Anyway, we seem to be at similar fitness levels and have similar biking interests, so we exchanged contact information and plan to ride again in the future. We are both looking forward to it.
So here I am, lying on the couch with pretty sore legs. So much for the more frequent, easier rides. Originally, I had planned to ride again tomorrow morning. We are going to a party tonight and I am doubtful that I will feel much like biking. I may go on a short easy ride anyway. We'll see.
posted by Steve @ 1:21 PM
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