Day-After-Day: How Many Hours On The Bike?

For those who go on multi-day rides: what is your comfort level
in terms of hours per day spent on the bike for, say, a 1-week
trip?

Something where you have plenty left over to do other things at
the end of the day.

Leisurely pace - not racing anybody or trying to get there in a
hurry.
--
PeteCresswell

On Apr 25, 5:38*pm, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
For those who go on multi-day rides: *what is your comfort level
in terms of hours per day spent on the bike for, say, a 1-week
trip? * *

Something where you have plenty left over to do other things at
the end of the day.

Leisurely pace - not racing anybody or trying to get there in a
hurry.
--
PeteCresswell

I do a week or so on the bike every summer, and average 7 hours of
pedaling at 20kph over a week on almost every tour. That works out to
an 8-9 hour day with stops in theory, but it's sometimes closer to 10.
(I tend to have breakfast, then ride, then another breakfast, then
lunch, then a snack or two, then camp and have supper.)

By the end of a week, I usually feel like I could keep right on
riding, though a rest day every now and then would be nice on a multi-
week ride. My longest distance days tend to be towards the ends of the
trips, though not usually the last day.

On Apr 25, 5:38*pm, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
For those who go on multi-day rides: *what is your comfort level
in terms of hours per day spent on the bike for, say, a 1-week
trip? * *

Something where you have plenty left over to do other things at
the end of the day.

Leisurely pace - not racing anybody or trying to get there in a
hurry.

It's highly variable for me. I tend to get a much later start than a
lot of people, around 10 AM. I typically finish riding somewhere
around 5 PM, and there's normally an hour lunch stop plus multiple
breaks in there. So figure seven hours total time, maybe five hours
riding time.

But occasionally I've needed to do far longer time in the saddle, and
I recall once riding as few as 18 miles between two campsites, when I
needed rest.

- Frank Krygowski

On Apr 26, 3:10*am, Brian Huntley wrote:
On Apr 25, 5:38*pm, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

For those who go on multi-day rides: *what is your comfort level
in terms of hours per day spent on the bike for, say, a 1-week
trip? * *

Something where you have plenty left over to do other things at
the end of the day.

Leisurely pace - not racing anybody or trying to get there in a
hurry.
--
PeteCresswell

I do a week or so on the bike every summer, and average 7 hours of
pedaling at 20kph over a week on almost every tour. That works out to
an 8-9 hour day with stops in theory, but it's sometimes closer to 10.
(I tend to have breakfast, then ride, then another breakfast, then
lunch, then a snack or two, then camp and have supper.)

By the end of a week, I usually feel like I could keep right on
riding, though a rest day every now and then would be nice on a multi-
week ride. My longest distance days tend to be towards the ends of the
trips, though not usually the last day.

I've done most of my long trips in the West of Ireland, where I have
found 40 miles a day is a good average. I have done 80 or more at
times. It all depends on how much there is worth stopping for. If I
try too much on the first day, my stomach tends to get upset at the
change of diet that night, but in the morning I'm fine again.

The important thing, I find, is not to put yourself in the position of
*having* to do more than 10 miles in any hour, or even less if you are
tired or conditions are bad. It is a holiday, after all!

On Apr 25, 8:37*pm, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Apr 25, 5:38*pm, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

For those who go on multi-day rides: *what is your comfort level
in terms of hours per day spent on the bike for, say, a 1-week
trip? * *

Something where you have plenty left over to do other things at
the end of the day.

Leisurely pace - not racing anybody or trying to get there in a
hurry.

It's highly variable for me. *I tend to get a much later start than a
lot of people, around 10 AM. *I typically finish riding somewhere
around 5 PM, and there's normally an hour lunch stop plus multiple
breaks in there. *So figure seven hours total time, maybe five hours
riding time.

But occasionally I've needed to do far longer time in the saddle, and
I recall once riding as few as 18 miles between two campsites, when I
needed rest.

This is sort of reminds me of a two variable algebra problem. My time
in the saddle depends on how much ground I need to cover. How much
ground I need to cover depends on what sort of tour I'm doing. If it
is a tour of a compact and scenic area, then the mileage and time on
the bike is almost incidental -- I'm just going from one fairly close
scenic point to the next.

I think most people doing long tours that have to be completed in set
times usually anticipate an 8 hour day -- seven on the bike. That's
what I did on the TransAm. We calculated our return flight departure
based on an average of 75 per day with one day off a week (and staying
with frieds for longer periods in various states). That kind of
mileage was easily done in 7 riding-hours except for those days when
the weather or terrain turned wicked -- then we just made up the
mileage in Kansas. Really, in Kansas, eastern Colorado, Illinois we
would hit our mileage requirement by lunch and then just pile on miles
until maybe 3:00 -- our usual stopping time. That actually got us in
to trouble in some instances -- the whole mileage hog thing. You blow
past your scheduled stop point, tire out before you get to some place
good and end up in the middle of nowhere, eating your emergency food
and camping in some weird place. I've done the same thing on week
long tours, too -- you end up racing around and over-shooting,
expecting to find a store in the middle of nowhere that is not there.
Then you finish the tour early, go home and pull weeds. Sometimes you
have to tell yourself to slow down, particularly if you are with your
wife, girlfriend, or anyone less intense who starts feeling like a
driven animal. -- Jay Beattie.

On Apr 25, 2:38 pm, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
For those who go on multi-day rides: what is your comfort level
in terms of hours per day spent on the bike for, say, a 1-week
trip?

Five days straight this week (been a while since I did that). I think
all but one trip between home and work took over two hours (that ride
home Monday with the wind), but none of them much under one and three-
quarter hours. Today was a solid two hours getting home as I
discovered a sidewall bulging about nine miles from home and slowed
down after that. So about four hours a day is what I've been doing.

Some days, though, I really just want to keep going - and I know I
could just about every day. I think I could probably do eight hours a
day for five days straight (I imagine I might be able to do sixteen
hours a day for five days straight... heck, if I could do sixteen
hours a day for sixteen days straight I think I might start trying to
line up some time off from work for the GDR).


Something where you have plenty left over to do other things at
the end of the day.

My job's not too strenuous, but if I didn't have to do it I would have
plenty of time


Leisurely pace - not racing anybody or trying to get there in a
hurry.

Oh, I push myself at least a little just about all the time. I still
only average around maybe sixteen miles an hour, but that's fairly
loaded down and so forth.