Building up to long distance

[ayceejay]

Call me old fashioned but this all seems a bit ass about face to me.
If you don't enjoy the riding you are not going to find the motivation regardless of where you live.
On the other hand if you go out with a Mars bar and a bottle of water and ride a circular route so that you are not too far from home and pass that un-named plant that smells so good or the house you used to live in or that long downhill bit where you just fly - quite soon you will be looking for something other than distance or performance at a sportive.

 

[Soltydog]

We like cake but we will tone down the smutty conversations

That's not going to encourage him is it

Seriously though, accept the offer of riding in company & you'll find it much easier. Steady pace talking about this & that, eating the odd bit of cake, & before you know it 30+ miles

 

[Cyclist33]

Call me old fashioned but this all seems a bit ass about face to me.
If you don't enjoy the riding you are not going to find the motivation regardless of where you live.
On the other hand if you go out with a Mars bar and a bottle of water and ride a circular route so that you are not too far from home and pass that un-named plant that smells so good or the house you used to live in or that long downhill bit where you just fly - quite soon you will be looking for something other than distance or performance at a sportive.

Eh?

 

[vickster]

@ayceejay Where does he say he doesn't enjoy it? He's only just started and wants to know how best to build up his mileage so he can take part in events and what not

 

[Cyclist33]

@ayceejay Where does he say he doesn't enjoy it? He's only just started and wants to know how best to build up his mileage so he can take part in events and what not

If you substitute all the "you"s in that post for "I"s, it makes much more sense.

Doesn't help the original poster in the slightest but it does contextualise the post.

 

[ayceejay]

Once again the subtlety of language defeats the urbane. The article to replace 'you' should perhaps have been 'one'.
The rough meaning for the rough of comprehension is that if a person enjoys riding this may turn to something more serious whereas heading off to the "something more serious" in advance of the enjoyment is something different.
Incidentally nowhere did I say above that I don't enjoy chocolate but if this interests you please ask politely rather than assume.

 

[Cyclist33]

Once again the subtlety of language defeats the urbane. The article to replace 'you' should perhaps have been 'one'.
The rough meaning for the rough of comprehension is that if a person enjoys riding this may turn to something more serious whereas heading off to the "something more serious" in advance of the enjoyment is something different.
Incidentally nowhere did I say above that I don't enjoy chocolate but if this interests you please ask politely rather than assume.

Different strokes and all that. Some people benefit from the how can I up my distance as a priority, and others would prioritise just enjoying what riding they do manage. Not that either is mutually exclusive.

Substituting you for one would still have implied that you were being inclusive and generalist, whereas the point I was trying to make, albeit badly, was as above, that your whinge actually reflected your own preference and priority rather than any fixed and immutable law of cycling.

Btw I'm a linguist by training and certainly not "urbane".

 

[martint235]

Or head south and east into Kent and the North downs. I'm not a million miles away from you and I know some others that are frequently out and about

 

[Racing roadkill]

When I first stepped up to long rides, I found the best way, was to plot routes, with no possibility of a train evacuation. You'd be surprised how motivated you can get, when you're hearing Banjo music, you're 40 miles from home, and you're running out of day.

 

[gazza81]

You are a fair bit faster than me over 15 miles

Its all flat mate! Just hack it there, took 25-30min to do 7 miles have a sit down for 10mins or so and hack it back 7miles.

Im sure with hills involed that time will double!

 

[gazza81]

As long as you are slow and don't mind riding with middle aged women, @jefmcg and I will drag you from sutton to boxhill and back (or we can dump you on a train from somewhere)

We like cake but we will tone down the smutty conversations

Haha i will take you up on that, but ill get a little bit more practice in first dont wanna hold you up!

 

[Markymark]

About 50 mins give or take 5 min

Seems like a gps is a good way to go in the future! Will definitely invest in one.

15 miles in 50 mins? That's a good pace. You could slow diwn a little to 15mph and you'll go furtger. Then build the speed back up again.

 

[Globalti]

There are these amzing things called MAPS. They fit in your pocket and don't need batteries and at a glance you can see the entire country laid out, with all the attrattions, hills, lakes, rivers, canals, bridleways, footpaths, roads - it's amazing!

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Depending on how good your memory is you can do routes with a bit of planning on the PC and a page of notes on where to go when. I must of done that for a year or more before I ended up with the GPS to help out. The biggest problem on a bike (and maybe not that big a problem if you want to do miles) is you can miss turnings and end up adding a few extra miles which would mean nothing to you in a car but is all extra energy expended on the bike. Also you may suddenly find yourself on an unexpected hill, or dual carriageway. Especially if you don't like retracing your route. Hills can be spotted from road names (look for 'hill' in the name :-) ).

I largely bought a GPS (Edge Touring Plus) to stop us getting lost on our leisure rides, because aiming to do 30 and ending up doing 40 mattered a lot to us because we got lost accidentally made a big difference to us.

On going further, just ride regularly and as you have done more miles on a day to day basis your ability to do more miles on any individual day will increase.

 

[vickster]

Its all flat mate! Just hack it there, took 25-30min to do 7 miles have a sit down for 10mins or so and hack it back 7miles.

Im sure with hills involed that time will double!

There's no way we will keep up with you at that pace