patentcad

And I'm starting to get faster. I can hang with the Cat 2/3/4 racers on most rides. Some terrain/courses elude me. I'm climbing well, my speed is up (I don't get dropped on 30mph+ flat stretches anymore) - the last hurdle is strength. I'm burying myself with 2-4 min. intervals weekly and doing a sprint workout.

It's working. I'm riding the slower racers/fitness riders off my wheel at times - and I'm not really trying to . I'll just turn around and they're off. Which makes me feel like a jerk, but it's not intentional. When that starts happening you're getting faster.

And it only took 17K miles (8000 last year, 9000 so far this year) after a five year layoff. That was easy.

Besides, riding with the super weenies is fun, but my whole ego/life isn't tied up in pursuing that. Well, OK, a large part of it, but it beats drinking a case of beer every night.

Dead Extra #2

I'm jealous! I'm only at about 3000.

Lithuania

1000 miles a month is a nice average

patentcad

And just think how fast YOU weenies would be if you rode that much. You'd be KILLING me : ).

And no, I don't have that much of a leisure life outside of cycling. But that's OK. My family puts up with it. And I'm generally back by noon on weekends, so I get to see them too.

Mayonnaise

where do you find the time?

GuitarWizard

Congrats dude....I wish I had the time to ride that much. I'm only around 2,700 miles for the year so far....

VosBike

I'm about to hit 12k since last year when I started road biking. 7k of that was this year. I too am enjoying the wonerful feeling of strength I'm just starting to get. Another 2k and hopefully I'll be able to hang with the 2's.

patentcad

I'm 48 years old with an older daughter (12, going on 13) and I'm self employed. I'm on the road most days between 6-7AM and back @ my desk by 9-10AM (I have a home office). On weekends I ride in the mornings, I'm rarely back later than noon. When my wife dated and married me 14-15 years ago I was already racing/riding and living this lifestyle. It came with the package. Fortunately she realizes this is what keeps me sane/happy and she's quite supportive of it. She has seen what I'm like without this (she lived with me through the 5+ year cluster-**** with my back problems/surgery.etc.) and she GREATLY prefers me with an endorphin buzz : ).

I'm quite grateful I can ride at all. And racing/fast riding is fun, but that's not why I ride. I never rode to race. I raced to ride. That is the racing gives my riding/training focus and makes riding much more fun. But if I get dropped or don't get the result I want it doesn't crush me. Hell, as every committed weenie knows, if you ride 5000-12000+ miles annually, you spend 90% of that time ALONE. So you better like riding by yourself - and to spend those hours pursuing cycling, you better love cycling for itself. I do.

I have a group of guys I ride with who are a bit younger and older than me - and most of them have been doing this like me - for 15-25 years. Once you get into this lifestyle - well, you probably love it or you wouldn't DO it, would you? Why ELSE would anyone ride 10K miles a year if they weren't getting paid to do it?

botto 

i'm beginning to wonder if it's an idea for you to taper it down a bit pat. give yourself a little R&R. have you tried that to see how it effects your riding?

You just might be going even faster if you have fresh legs.

just sayin'

timmhaan

ah, an early morning rider as well. the longer i do this sport the more i realize the only time i can really dedicate to riding is in the morning, first thing. even though i have a full time job, a 2.5 hour a day train commute, and lots of other stuff going on, i could easily fit in a 2 hour ride everyday (i opt instead for 1.5 hour and a little extra sleep.. ). i think people who complain about not finding enough time just aren't organizing their day effectively.

Lithuania

I wish it was just an excuse but I leave for work at 5am and I get home at 7pm. It is just too taxing to try and ride on work days. Its hard enough comming home and making dinner and still get in 8 hours of sleep.

Now on my 3 to 4 off days a week I can ride as many hours as I want

pedex

decent warm up, your getting there

patentcad

I totally agree. Took two back to back days off on my Greek vacation - and low and behold I was climbing the killer climbs there the following week in a HIGHER GEAR. But when I don't ride my back hurts. So I try to 'walk on the bike' - i.e. ride in such low gears it's not really getting the lactic acid flowing. Which isn't as good as rest, but it's the best I can manage until I can figure out some other way to keep my back from burning.

I agree with pedex. Decent warm up. I'm not there yet. But I'm starting to have hope that I'll be faster @ 50 than I was @ 35. Certainly possible given the right training/miles. Of course my standard isn't that high. I was never really that fast : ). But the guys I ride with (or try to) - some of THEM are fast. VERY fast. But not all of them. Thankfully.

patentcad

Oh yes. Somebody PM'd me yesterday and says I should treat myself to a nice cycling vacation (despite the fact that I just came back from Greece where I rode the mtns for two weeks). But when you ride 1000 mles per month and you're a dedicated bike weenie, your life IS a cycling vacation...

GuitarWizard

I don't know if I'd consider it a "vacation"....but ya figure 3,200 miles in 3 weeks....

patentcad

3200 miles in 3 weeks. That's 1000 miles more than the Tour de France. I don't like riding my bike that much. Does anyone?

timmhaan

i find the 150 miles per week range to be quite enough cycling for me. a little more during the base period perhaps, but i rarely go above 180-190. then i start to have problems making enough time.

patentcad

A) 'Training like a pro' is more like 1500-2000 miles monthly, not 1000.

B) Then the pros have to go and risk their lives in those dopey Euro 'classics' and the grand tours. I guess they're classic and grand if you don't crash @ 45mph. If you do it's a trip to some 2nd rate dimply Euro ER. Which has to suck very hard. I go and ride with the local racing weenies on weekends. We have about one crash per year on those rides. And I'm never in them.

C) I may ride a lot of miles, but it's for FUN. What USE is that? It's similar to the usefulness of sailing, motorcycling, rock climbing, walking the dog or any other leisure activity. But it makes you much skinnier and you look better in lycra.

Other than that, yes, it's utterly pointless. Tell me something I don't know.

And they wonder why there's so much doping in cycling. Honestly, you'd have to be on Ecstacy to even sign a pro contract unless you're Jan friggin Ulrich and they're paying you a million + Euros. Other than that, forget it. Yeah, OK, I'll risk my life in the most dangerous/grueling sport on the planet for 35K Euros annually (the minimum salary is somwhere in that range). Give me a break. I'll take my business income - the one I earn sitting on my ass in front of a computer.

'nother

Hey that's pretty awesome man. I was feeling pretty full of myself hitting 5000 just the other day and here you come along nearly double that. If memory serves, you're in a climate which is not nearly as conducive to year-round riding as mine is, extra kudos.

I wish I could carve out even more time for riding, however pointless it may be...

patentcad

I don't necessarily disagree with all of that. But 'junk miles' is a often a gratuitous term that generally comes out of the mouths of riders who don't want to put in the mileage. There's some truth to it, but typically the more you ride, the better you'll get. Not always - you have to train right and rest too - but riding more usually won't make you slower.

All I know is that 15 months ago I was getting dumped by the middle aged women on the 'B' ride. I'm hanging with Cat 2's @ 30+ mph now. And nobody's dumping me on the climbs around here anymore. I'm actually dropping guys now whose wheel I couldn't hold 6 mos. ago. So I am getting faster. And if I ride too many miles for somebody - that's OK too. I really do love it. And whether I get faster or not is quite secondary to that. Riding fast is fun for me. It's not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is living a better life. And so far, so good. Big time.

It's not for everybody. I was unable to ride this many miles before I was self-employed. And I love the long rides more than some of you do. But it's all good. Whether you ride 1000mi or 10,000+ mi annually, at least you're out there RIDING. And if we could get more people to do that I can't imagine how much our nation's collective health would improve.

hiromian

Same here.

9000 miles on a bike in a year = retired man with a wife who likes to be left alone. Lucky man

merlinextraligh

You're obviously doing what you enjoy, and it's working for you. And it doesn't sound like your goal is to win the local crit. But I 'd be willing to bet you, that you could be even faster in the short events we have for races around here with a program that had a little bit fewer miles, and more structured interval work, particularly once you're out of the base phase of the season. My take is that your plan is making you faster, and you're enjoying yourself. However, I'm not sure its the model most of us could, or should follow for our local crits.

patentcad

I have a VERY busy business with two employees, a 12 year old daughter and a happy marriage. If you read my intial post you'll see that I'm rarely home after noon on weekends, often earlier. And I ride early in the AM most days. In fact half the time when I hit the road, my wife is either on her way to the office or still asleep. So I'd say the impact on my marriage is positive. You could ask my wife, but she'd probably reply 'what's your point?' I specifically get out and back early so I can HAVE a life with my family. And I do. I'm on the road @ 5-6AM some weekend mornings.

Maybe she compares me to the stressed out, fat, smoking, one foot in the grave husbands half the other 50 year old women she knows have and figures 'a bike weenie spouse isn't so bad after all' : ). But like I said, it might not work for everyone.

merlinextraligh

As an aside, I'm curious how many miles Vinokurtov has with his 50 races. I'm guessing it might be lower than yours.

For me, I've done more racing this year, than I have for a number of years, and my mileage has dropped. One, because I'm driving to and from races rather than doing lots of 4-5 hour weekend rides, and two, my training has involved more intensity work in shorter sessions.

patentcad

The presumption implicit in the post above is that I'm doing this to become a better racer. I don't race anymore. I ride with racers on very competitive weekend rides but that's about it. The bug to race again has bitten me, but I'm not sure I have it bad enough to get up @ 4AM, drive 60+ miles, pay an entry fee, finish in the field and come home. I can ride 80+ miles in that time frame. But racing is lots of fun, particularly if you're on a team that rides like one. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever want to do it bad enough to race regularly given the longer drives I face compared to where I used to live. Besides, the competitive rides around here with the super weenies ARE like races. I did plenty of racing in the 90's. And these rides can be harder. Often you have starting groups of 30-70 that wind up with 10-20 hard core guys at the end. Which leaves no pack suck you along like you have in many races. I get dropped on these rides sometimes - but last year I was getting dropped ALL the time. Now I typically make it to sprint or final climb with the leaders. Don't ask me how I do IN the sprint or final climb. I'm still working on that part : ).

Hell, if racing was my goal, I agree. I'd cut it back 50 miles a week and observe strict rest days. I'm already doing the stuctured training. So, yeah, OK, I may be 'over-trained'. So WHAT? I'm not really training for anything. And I AM getting faster. And I'm HAPPY. And that (HAPPY) is the goal here. Mission accomplished.

Besides, several of the older (50+) successful vets racers I know ride this much. The increased mileage does have benefits if you're prudent. IF you're careful. I'm not really that careful. I'm a cycling FOOL. I admit it. You're all right.

But I'm not going to stop riding. Oh yeah, 47 miles today, 27 yesterday, that's 74 this week + my 8941 year to date equals 9,015 miles. The best part is that's a couple thousand more than I have on my CAR in 2006. Next stop: my personal annual best. That was 9300 or so (can't recall exatly how many miles it was, that was over 10 years ago).