The bike riding thread 3, the revenge of the bicycle

So here we are in 2019, last year this thread didn't get much traction until December. But I believe some injured riders are healthier now. Lets see what we can do.

I'm at 202.5 miles, the vast majority of which is on the trainer. (Give me a PM or a reply if anyone uses Rouvy/Zwift and wants to ride together. Goal this year is 3650 miles, or 10 miles a day average. Secondary goal is to ride Mountain bike trails once a week from May through September.

Cool idea for a thread!

Miles ridden doesn't tell much. Many folks use a GPS, so lets get the whole story.

How about this..


We're hikers... and live in the mountains. When we do a "flatlander" hike it's a piece of cake verses one in the mountains.

You can report whatever you like. But I live in the flat lands of Michigan and want to look more impressive, so miles it is. In all seriousness miles is an arbitrary number, an arbitrary goal. I might add elevation as well, as I do want to get better at climbing but I don't know if I'll set a goal. But feel free to post hiking stuff here too, it's more of a fitness motivation thread.

Where do you ride in Michigan? I go up to Fort Custer from time to time. I haven't been biking yet in 2019, but I did go up to Cadillac and skied 19 miles and 12k feet of vertical minus whatever distance I spent on the lifts. There wasn't enough snowpack to hike out where I normally go after taking the lift up once.

this year's goal is to ride more, much more than I have in the past 10 years!

Someone had an app to note GPS coords, distance & speeds travelled. anyone have a good one?

I use Strava to track my ride stats. Free version works well enough.

NateB said:

Where do you ride in Michigan? I go up to Fort Custer from time to time. I haven't been biking yet in 2019, but I did go up to Cadillac and skied 19 miles and 12k feet of vertical minus whatever distance I spent on the lifts. There wasn't enough snowpack to hike out where I normally go after taking the lift up once.

Click to expand...

Now? I bike in my house on a trainer. During the nicer months I bike around the Grand Rapids - Holland area. I would say 80% I do road biking, I'm very much a beginner/intermediate at MTB. I will be heading down to Indiana in late just, doing two days in Terra Haute at Griffin bike park, followed by two days in Brown County and then 5 in Indianapolis for GenCon. I would be more than willing to meet up with you at Fort Custer some weekend (That's a bit far for an after work ride)

dr wogz said:

this year's goal is to ride more, much more than I have in the past 10 years!

Someone had an app to note GPS coords, distance & speeds travelled. anyone have a good one?

Click to expand...

Strava is the app most cyclists tend to use, I pay for it, but the free version is great as well.

I haven't made it to Griffin Bike Park yet, but I have been meaning to. Terre Haute is about a 3 hour drive for me, but so is Brown County.

Brown County is great for all skill levels if you pick your trails wisely and keep your speed in check. I don't recommend tackling Schooner Trace until you are really confident in your skills. It is a fun, very hard, trail; but the penalty for failure is high. I watched a friend tumble to the bottom of a valley after a fall, but I couldn't reach him easily without falling myself. He was okay except for a badly sprained ankle, but it took a while to get him to our vehicles.

Custer is a 2 hr trip, when we go we usually make a day of it. I'll post a note if we head up there.

I mountain bike more than I ride on the road. Road rides for me are just a workout. Sometimes I'll ride on the greenway after work, but I enjoy trail riding much more.

Bought myself a new bike last year for my 60th birthday. Bike trail runs right past my back door. I've been using "Map My Ride". I'll give Strava a look-see.

Fantastic thread and goals and momentum thus far!!

I don’t pay much attention to miles because I do so much riding on the trainer too. During the week and winter it’s super convenient bc I can get up and get on the bike. But already counting down to longer days and warm weather for those long weekend outdoor rides.

Last year I did ~250 hours cycling. Also with about another 250 of running/swimming with (I do triathtlons).

This year hoping to do similar bike volume, but my main goal is to keep getting FTP up.

scsager said:

Bought myself a new bike last year for my 60th birthday. Bike trail runs right past my back door. I've been using "Map My Ride". I'll give Strava a look-see.

View attachment 371989

Click to expand...

Boy, that looks a lot like Lincoln, NE. Is it?

A slow start so far this year (only 55 miles so far), although I'm starting to get on the trainer, finally. Really want to get to 3,000 miles this year, it's been a while. I need to lose some weight! Finally got snow this weekend, need to get out on the fatty this week. Yearly stats...

Sum of Distance (mi) Column Labels

Row Labels 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Grand Total

Cross Country Skiing 3 5 2 9 (gave this up, fell down too much)
Cycling 2,459 3,425 3,240 2,144 2,345 3,200 2,285 1,735 20,833
Hiking 15 26 66 131 126 66 429
Snowshoeing 14 6 14 27 60 13 73
Indoor_Cycling 518 518

Grand Total 2,459 3,425 3,271 2,180 2,426 3,357 2,411 2,332 21,862

dr wogz said:

this year's goal is to ride more, much more than I have in the past 10 years!

Someone had an app to note GPS coords, distance & speeds travelled. anyone have a good one?

Click to expand...

Just depends. I have a Garmin, so Garmin Connect. MapMyRide and Strava are the other two biggies.

Mike Haberer said:

Just depends. I have a Garmin, so Garmin Connect. MapMyRide and Strava are the other two biggies.

Click to expand...

Garmin Connect plays well with Strava btw.

End of January update, tomorrow is a rest day so these are my January totals.
Yearly Miles 401
Yearly Elevation 5713'
Monthly Miles 401
Monthly Elevation 5713

February's goals are to match the distance I did in January, do a 50 mile ride (Hopefully outside if it can break 50f), and break 7500' elevation.

I don't enjoy riding on a stationary bike and I do not have a trainer or set of rollers. Today, I took advantage of the warm afternoon, loaded my son on a trailer and we set out to rode our normal 12 mile loop on the Greenway. Most sections were closed with melting snow and ice, but we still rode 5 miles. After our ride, he spent some time practicing track stands on a balance bike. Hard to believe a week ago we were sledding and hiking through fresh snow and 3 days ago we had -50 degree wind chills.

So far in 2019:
Road: 5 miles
Off-road: 0 miles
Hiking: 6 miles

I dusted mine off yesterday and went for a short ride around the neighborhood. It felt good to be back on it after a long hiatus.

didn't clear the drift down to the creek on Faturday...

kevindcornwell said:

Boy, that looks a lot like Lincoln, NE. Is it?

Click to expand...

43.105157, -87.910800

Anyone else riding in the Suffolk VA Tour de Cure in later April this year?

Logged 3.5 miles tonight, then freezing rain set in. I crashed twice in icy roots and called it a day with a very sore wrist now.

So far in 2019:
Road: 5 miles
Off-road: 3.5 miles
Hiking: 6 miles
Injuries: 1 minor

NateB said:

Logged 3.5 miles tonight, then freezing rain set in. I crashed twice in icy roots and called it a day with a very sore wrist now.

So far in 2019:
Road: 5 miles
Off-road: 3.5 miles
Hiking: 6 miles
Injuries: 1 minor

Click to expand...

All my riding on a stationary bike this year. Hit 540km last week. Pretty happy with that as I've never really been an exercise guy. My wife has some exercise/weight loss goals so I thought I'd join her and motivate eachother. Seems to be working...

The plan is to bike to work (10km) when the weather is back to spring here. We've been stuck at -25 C for weeks...

Well, do we bring this thread back to life or start a new one? Ended 2019 with 855km logged, over half on the stationary bike. Two moves this year plus an injury right in my best biking season kept me from the 1000km goal. I think I'll state that as my goal this year. So far this year, 20km