How many times a week do you need ride to stay bike fit & how many miles do you think is a decent (off road) ride?

I seem to be losing fitness, I am only riding once a week for about 10 – 12 miles.

It’s all relative. How do you define fit?

If you’ve raced properly at some point, not much.

I was doing 100 odd a week at 1 point 30 off road miles rest commute and i started to slowly get worse. I have started doing circuit training instead and it seems to be helping more than hundreds of miles did. Still doing around 30-40 miles a week aswell though.

If the gym helps you more than riding then you are riding wrong.

Currently doing 120+km a week and improving.
Only a wild guess, but I reckon about half that would keep me where I am.
Any less and I’d start to lose it.

depends what else you have on in your life. if you are busy as fek then you will just bollox yerself if you do to much but if you lay in bed half the day and have nothing else to think about then bash on.

I havent ridden for a couple of days, if I go out tomorrow I’ll probably feel better for it.

I reckon if you make sure your miles are hard miles then thats what matters. Even doing one or two hard 30milers a week would suffice.

I read about a pro roadie who maintains his fitness on 3 hours of riding per week or something like that.

I try and balance my riding out with swimming, and road and off road cycling. If I do 25 miles one day, I’ll only do 10 or 15 the next to give my body a little rest. Aim to ride at least 5 days a week.

It depends.

I do a 2.5 mile each way commute, 5 days a week by term time only. That’s enough to keep me ticking over at a level where I can complete the Kielder 100 (on a year where it doesn’t toss down all day) with only 5 or 6 other rides in my legs all year.

That’s with no other exercise really.

It all depends on the intensity really.

My preference for maintenence is shorter more intensive rides more often, rather than one big ride a week.

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Be honest with yourself, one ride 10-12 miles a week isn’t gonna generate any fitness really. Obviously other things come in to it. Do you have a sedentary job or active one. I’m lucky in that I live 14 minutes walk from work. So I at least get 30 minutes exercise walking 5 days a week as a minimum. I cycle most days doing a 15 minute ride in the AM (so not too hot and sweaty so simple change of clothes, flannel down and I’m fine for the day. I then try to do 30 minutes minimum most evenings, 15 minutes very least if I feel wrecked, but try to do at least one night of 60 minutes, preferably 2 nights and if I’m in the mood and wethaer is good maybe a 2 hour road ride. I can then ride 60-70 miles on the road bike at about 14/15mph with no real problem.

Cynic-al i didnt say gym i said circuit training including sqauts. Lunges, sprints etc etc no weights used at all its increased my aerobic threshold ten fold so doing hill sprints is a hell of a lot easier than it used to be.

when i raced 20yrs ago i rode 5 days a week tues to fri and race sunday
and probably excluding the race did couple of hundred miles a week plus 1 nights circuit training and 1 night a week cyclo cross traing.. i dont reccomend it though as i blew my heart up.. now i pootle and do 25 miles a week 10 on the canal and the rest up hill and down dale.

At the moment I’m doing between 7 & 800km’s a month, about 75% of that is road based the rest being off-road.

I’m getting fitter and faster and are better than last year and will hopefully be better agin next year.

Train smart.

All dependent on weather, what I have on and how gubbed I am after a day at work, I try and do 5 miles per night. In no way am I a serious rider(clearly) but I enjoy it and I would sooner do 5 miles on a bike before i’d do 5 miles running. I like to do little, often, rather than loads all at once. Each to their own and try not think too much about it or compare yourself to others mate,just listen to your body.

^^^ and when i say “what i have on” i’m not talking about clothing,just to clear that up

quality not quantity. i find laying off the reefers for a bit helps too.