Biggest ride of the year yet
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@Wrong-Wheel-Drive @StuckMTB and @CarsOfFortLangley got me thinking that I had not been doing enough distance
So, today involved a long climb into the city, cross the mighty river, ride 20mi on a rail trail, then cross back over and climb a lot more. Believe it or not this is my first ride over 40mi-I generally go for speed and fun factor over distance. Makes me realize I need a better saddle fit and probably some other little tweaks but overall it went great. 40mi and 3100' of vertical ascent were the totals, over just over three hours. 12.7mph average. The Rove and I ain't fast haha!
Bonus funny DOTS. I bet it has more bed space than the Maverick...
And the elevation profile for the day:
Ben | observer of rocks | VW Alltrack and many bikes
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@spacekraken Well done, nice push!! Funny how longer rides expose little things that you don't feel on shorter hops.
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@spacekraken All you people just flaunting your "elevation". I've had it!
I'm sooooooooo jealous.
2015 Suburban 4WD / 1988 Suburban (#squarebody) / 1976 BMW 2002
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@houstonrunner If it makes you feel any better, im 13.1 feet above sea level
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@spacekraken Damn, look at that elevation... I ride mostly flat valley roads or gravel dyke paths. I wish we got more credit for non-paved distance lol
My longest ride (73km) shows basically no real variation in elevation.
Curator
1986 Dodge D100 & 2021 Jeep Wrangler Willys -
@spacekraken So jealous. I'm so sick of sitting inside with no activity! Pretty soon my leg will be healed well enough to bike, then it'll all kick off
edit did you tell me about pinkbike? if so thanks, I'm drooling over used mountain bikes now!
I’m a thousand miles from nowhere, time don’t matter to me
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@beefchips said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
@spacekraken So jealous. I'm so sick of sitting inside with no activity! Pretty soon my leg will be healed well enough to bike, then it'll all kick off
edit did you tell me about pinkbike? if so thanks, I'm drooling over used mountain bikes now!
Oh I bet! I was down for a month this spring (majorly twisted ankle). It sucked.
I think someone else did... I'm still looking at bikesonline or chain reaction to get a new MTB
Ben | observer of rocks | VW Alltrack and many bikes
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@carsoffortlangley Gravel should count for more for sure haha! Though my 33 mile gravel ride was way easier than this. Less mountains, only 2200'.
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@houstonrunner said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
@spacekraken All you people just flaunting your "elevation". I've had it!
I'm sooooooooo jealous.
I genuinely would have trouble living somewhere flat haha. So used to hills here... it would make riding a lot faster though.
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@carsoffortlangley @HoustonRunner A good friend and riding buddy who routinely tries to kill me climbing pointed out that our flatland friends with less elevation may actually be working harder over long distances. The idea being that you guys have to work the entire time, keeping the watts up (especially if it's windy), whereas our rides are largely 50% up and down by definition. So while our vert numbers may look good, we're coasting the same amount down. For example, we recently did a 36 mile ride that climbed over 5000 feet, but the bulk of that climbing was all in the middle 15-20 miles and the rest was either level cruise or descending. Food for thought.
Ride bikes. Drive Toyotas.
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@rallywrench wind is a bitch, no doubt there
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@rallywrench said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
A good friend and riding buddy who routinely tries to kill me climbing pointed out that our flatland friends with less elevation may actually be working harder over long distances.
huh, interesting point. Some of my rides into the mountains with 3000' of elevation gain end with an hour of downhill and no pedaling. I don't know how watts measurements fits into the fitness or work equations but Strava estimates are pretty much the same for those kinds of rides or more flat rides.
You probably need to do both for optimal fitness. The climbs for anaerobic muscle strength training and the flats for aerobic cardiac training. Or something like that?
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@spacekraken awesome you can do that! I used to…,maybe someday in the new year…
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@vincentmalamute said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
@rallywrench said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
A good friend and riding buddy who routinely tries to kill me climbing pointed out that our flatland friends with less elevation may actually be working harder over long distances.
huh, interesting point. Some of my rides into the mountains with 3000' of elevation gain end with an hour of downhill and no pedaling. I don't know how watts measurements fits into the fitness or work equations but Strava estimates are pretty much the same for those kinds of rides or more flat rides.
You probably need to do both for optimal fitness. The climbs for anaerobic muscle strength training and the flats for aerobic cardiac training. Or something like that?
It definitely affects the average watts on Strava, at least. A good friend in Richmond, VA, who I know is in similar fitness routinely averages 100W+ higher than I do, on even the shortest rides, because going downhill is all but unavoidable for me, and he can do 50 miles with less than 1000 feet of total climbing. My highest average nudges 200W, and that was intentionally keeping it as level as possible and hauling ass for 20 miles with over 16mph average speed just to see what it would do, because my buddy and I were at a loss to explain our difference otherwise. Looking at the Z1-Z7 zones on Strava is interesting. I can hammer all the climbs I can find, doing over 400W, and still almost all of my local rides show most of the distance in Z1-2.
Ride bikes. Drive Toyotas.
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@rallywrench That's a interesting point that I would not have considered. I did a 40 mile ride the other day (electrically assisted, I'm old and not a masochist) and I pedaled the entire 40 miles.
I can't wait to do it again.
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@sovande said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
@rallywrench That's a interesting point that I would not have considered. I did a 40 mile ride the other day (electrically assisted, I'm old and not a masochist) and I pedaled the entire 40 miles.
I can't wait to do it again.
Excellent!
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@rallywrench What is interesting is for running that doesn't hold as much. Especially trail running, downhill takes much more concentration and similar effort, though you use different muscles.
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@houstonrunner said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
@rallywrench What is interesting is for running that doesn't hold as much. Especially trail running, downhill takes much more concentration and similar effort, though you use different muscles.
That's true! My running days are over mostly because my knees can't take downhill, especially on trails. Even long hikes lock them up, which is part of why I got into cycling.
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@rallywrench said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
@vincentmalamute said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
@rallywrench said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
A good friend and riding buddy who routinely tries to kill me climbing pointed out that our flatland friends with less elevation may actually be working harder over long distances.
huh, interesting point. Some of my rides into the mountains with 3000' of elevation gain end with an hour of downhill and no pedaling. I don't know how watts measurements fits into the fitness or work equations but Strava estimates are pretty much the same for those kinds of rides or more flat rides.
You probably need to do both for optimal fitness. The climbs for anaerobic muscle strength training and the flats for aerobic cardiac training. Or something like that?
It definitely affects the average watts on Strava, at least. A good friend in Richmond, VA, who I know is in similar fitness routinely averages 100W+ higher than I do, on even the shortest rides, because going downhill is all but unavoidable for me, and he can do 50 miles with less than 1000 feet of total climbing. My highest average nudges 200W, and that was intentionally keeping it as level as possible and hauling ass for 20 miles with over 16mph average speed just to see what it would do, because my buddy and I were at a loss to explain our difference otherwise. Looking at the Z1-Z7 zones on Strava is interesting. I can hammer all the climbs I can find, doing over 400W, and still almost all of my local rides show most of the distance in Z1-2.
As far as average watts (estimated) goes, we're not remotely comparable. I'm averaging 100W at the most! So NVM! My average numbers don't change between mostly flat and mostly climbing routes. Might be different for people making 2-3x more power!
So that's another factor to consider for your friend's hypothesis about workload on climbing vs flat routes. It may not matter for low power riders, something you guys would not know anything about.
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@vincentmalamute Give yourself credit! My almost 200 number was going flat out on purpose to test our little theory, but most of my road and gravel rides rarely get over 175 average. Take 30-40W off that for MTB. You've shared some awesome rides, forget the wattage! We can't let analysis kill the fun
Ride bikes. Drive Toyotas.
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@rallywrench said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
We can't let analysis kill the fun
You're quite right. I tend to do that. Thanks!
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@rallywrench @VincentMalamute we can never let analysis kill the fun! Though I'm kinda curious about power output on these rides... might get strava. I have a tendency to go full gas for the first 15mi and then kinda bonk on longer rides... basically avoided it today by purposely putting it in the little ring for some climbs I can do with the 42t. But still was really feeling the hurt for the last 10mi home and that was the easiest part of the ride.
Ben | observer of rocks | VW Alltrack and many bikes
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@spacekraken Hear, hear. I find it hard to pace myself on longer rides as well. It's so easy to push when you feel good out of the gate or just try to maintain the highest speed you can spin, but that starts to hurt by mile 20.
I like Strava for tracking progress, the free version is good for that but I decided to subscribe since I use it so much. I don't have a heart rate monitor or power meter, but I like the more detailed analysis.
Ride bikes. Drive Toyotas.
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@spacekraken said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
Though I'm kinda curious about power output on these rides... might get strava.
It's estimated power and Strava corrects for body weight. I've read of comparisons with power meters where it seems to be accurate within 15% (something like that). It doesn't take into account headwinds obviously and is more accurate the longer the ride.
I don't know much about this power/fitness/heart rate training stuff, just intrigued at watching power (est) because it's a single number.
My OCD likes having the record of rides and the numbers on Strava. There's the Oppo-Club on Strava which I actually am finding useful in motivating me a bit. The leaderboard is ranked by time spent riding so it kinda equalizes mountain bike and road riding. And doing it by time spent is letting me rank high
which I ordinarily wouldn't be able to.I have a tendency to go full gas for the first 15mi and then kinda bonk on longer rides...
Do you mean 'bonk' as in that complete feeling of no energy where you feel you have nothing left to move your legs? If so, that's eating related and occurs after about 1.5-2 hours since that's how much glycogen reserve is in your liver and muscles.
Seems early for that to be occurring at 15 miles . Or maybe what you're doing is just overdoing it and your legs are spent and it's just pacing like @RallyWrench mentioned.
...meh...
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@vincentmalamute said in Biggest ride of the year yet:
Do you mean 'bonk' as in that complete feeling of no energy where you feel you have nothing left to move your legs? If so, that's eating related and occurs after about 1.5-2 hours since that's how much glycogen reserve is in your liver and muscles.
Seems early for that to be occurring at 15 miles . Or maybe what you're doing is just overdoing it and your legs are spent and it's just pacing like @RallyWrench mentioned.
I do mean that... and I brought snacks this time (had them 1h in and 2:30 in, give or take). Guessing it's just pacing but I also don't usually do workouts this long.
