Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:49 am Post subject: Optimum Bicycle Range
I have begun to use my bicycle in earnest. Besides riding around Central park and the East Side green path, I have also been biking around the city during the weekends. What I have noticed is that there seems to be a limit to how far I can continuously bike before muscle fatigue sets in. That range seems to be about 25 miles for me. Is there any way to improve this?
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:34 am Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
Yeah, long-distance biking is like running marathons and backpacking, it's all about pace and building up endurance. The best way to build endurance for biking is to bike more. Specifically, once a month or so do a long ride longer than the last long ride. You can do longer rides more frequently than that, but you have to make sure you fully recover between those long rides. If you're young and get plenty of rest, you can increase the distance each week.
The other thing to do is watch your pace. If you're really having muscle fatigue instead of general fatigue, you would do better with a faster cadence and slower speed. Also, if you bike somewhere with hills, you'll last longer if you don't try to power up the hills. If you have stop signs and lights to deal with, don't accelerate hard off of the stops.
I read a useful way to think about it in a magazine years ago. You have candles and matches. Every time you bike hard - climbing a hill, gunning it to pass someone, taking off from a light hard - you burn a match. When you're biking smoothly and without a lot of effort, you're burning candles. You only have so many matches and candles. You can run a lot longer on candles than matches. If you burn all of your matches before you run out of candles, you're done. That's muscle fatigue. When you run out of candles, you're also done. That's general fatigue. Strength training adds matches, endurance training (longer rides) adds candles.
Joined: Sep 16, 2004 Posts: 4908 Location: Southwest WI
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:29 am Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
Slow down or get a lighter bike. Every year in the spring when i first jump on the bike, i'm usually out of energy very quickly. After a few times out it gets better. If your riding a tank of a bike, think about moving to a light road bike.
30 miles is pretty easy (as long as its not to hot, raining, snowing). Over on the biking forums, a "century" is sort of a milestone in biking (100 miles in a day). I've done around 60 miles in one day, but thats the most. Biking up here blows. _________________ Clothing should be optional.
Joined: Dec 30, 2007 Posts: 16 Location: South Carolina
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:24 pm Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
I like the metaphors about candles and matches. Anyone that has done any serious cycling can relate.
As an additional pointer, equipment really does make a huge difference in cycling. A light, stiff bike with thin high pressure tires will make a big difference. 120 psi in a set of lightweight, $30 to $40 clincher tires (23c size) makes a huge difference. For general commuting, you might consider 25c sized tires, especially if you're carrying any sort of load.
I recall some of my earliest road rides years ago. 10, 15 miles nearly put me under. Now 15 to 20 years later I can go all day.
Keep at it. You'll get there.
Joined: Jun 05, 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Portland Oregon, USA
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:20 pm Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
First of all, good for you for biking! Consider this transition a MAJOR step for PO preparedness.
As far as making biking easier and getting more miles per day, I agree with what everyone else has said. I'd add that you want to keep the bike in good repair - splurge on professional tune-ups at least every year to keep it running smoothly and reduce friction.
Move to a lighter bike with thinner tires. Mountain bikes look cool, but the wide, knobby tires slow the city rider down and take more energy to move.
Consider consulting with a bike "fit specialist". These people make sure your body's geometry is optimized to the kind of bike you're riding and can recommend a better bike for your physique when you're ready.
Joined: Jun 02, 2006 Posts: 62 Location: ...over yonder..
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:30 pm Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
MMmmmm.....yes! All of the above mentioned is great advice. I might throw in for my two cents worth; mental discipline, if you can imagine yourself doing it, you can.
My first ever 70+ miles in one day, consisted of a serious mountain notch climb up here in Vermont. All in all, it was a good day considering that the biggest ride up until then was probably a 20 miler. Since then its not uncommon for me to pair up a 60 mile bike ride with a 4 mile mountain hike (on foot) in the same day.
All, in all, remember that biking is fun. Remind yourself that you are participating in the most efficient means of transporting us humans.
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:38 pm Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
25 miles seems to me VERY good. I used my bike every day in Germany, baby in the back shopping in the front, we didn't have a car and I used seldom public transport (it was a bit costly).
I think the most important thing is odd: keeping the bike technically OK. And then it is important not to ride with backpack it is hot and dangerous and you can't transport. You need a good big basket.
And a very good saddle and if you're female don't use a unisex saddle it not comfortable. Always pump up your tyre to the maximum.
Everything depends if our region is hilly or not.
Here in Australia I seldom use the bike. The roads don't follow the same system than in Europe and the smaller roads in the suburbs are often dead ends the bigger roads only go somewhere but they are too dangerous, full of trucks and drivers aren't used to deal with bicycles.
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:00 am Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
I find that the proper switching of gear is highly beneficial when going through hilly terrain. The trouble with Manhattan is that the roads and paths are of very uneven elevation.
I'm going to try to ramp up my max range to 30 miles this weekend.
Joined: Nov 02, 2007 Posts: 34 Location: Perched behind the Redwood Curtain
Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:16 am Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
xerces wrote:
I have begun to use my bicycle in earnest. Besides riding around Central park and the East Side green path, I have also been biking around the city during the weekends. What I have noticed is that there seems to be a limit to how far I can continuously bike before muscle fatigue sets in. That range seems to be about 25 miles for me. Is there any way to improve this?
Take a rest stop for a few minutes every 10 miles. This helps stretch out a ride for me. Here it's mostly hilly/mountainous so I agree 100% about "spinning" up the hills. Call me pokey on hills but my knees thank me later. It also helps not to start out fat. I started with 70lbs. of extra blubber, now gone, so it's taken me 6 months to work up to a 40 mile day.
Also be sure to stay well-hydrated. _________________ The birds shall re-inherit the earth.
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 64 Location: Little Blighty on the Down
Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:20 am Post subject: Re: Optimum Bicycle Range
xerces wrote:
I have begun to use my bicycle in earnest.
That's your problem. You are beginning. To develop endurance, there is no substitue for hours in the saddle or pounding the streets. Day after day, month after month, year after year.
But it'll come. I've been running most days for about 4 years now, and last night I ran 20 miles in 2.5 hours without getting out of breath, raising a sweat, or feeling tired. I'll probably do the same again tonight.
The secret is to keep your pace/effort down to the level where you could have a conversation, keep well-hydrated, make sure you replenish your carbs immediately after a long session.
You might want to consider cross-training. Runners/cyclists are generally lousy at this. Given the choice of a 3 hour run or a 2 hour run plus an hour with the weights, the former will win every time. As a result, it will be my back or shoulders that are aching long before my legs feel tired.
BTW - to second what others have said, when I used to cycle to work, I increased my average speed from 16mph to 18mph simply by replacing the knobbly tyres on my MTB with slicks.
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