This has varied through the different stages of my life.
In my mid 20s to 30, (when we had our first nipper), I had loads of time and loads of energy. I'd head out once a weekend for a BIG day ride. Evening rides throughout the summer pretty much at will because I could recover in a day. Lights extended my range into winter.
I took a year off riding when nipper 1 was born. After that, day rides became early (07:00 on the trail), local half day rides and night riding after baby and mummy bedtime twice a week.
I took another year off when nipper 2 was born and reverted to very early (05:00 on the trail!) local rides that finished late morning. The demands of 2 squirts meant that my night riding dropped to once a week. I'd often return at midnight from those.
Once the mini officers were both in school, I could supplement with even more local woods riding from the house in the summer for a 2nd evening ride in the week, or more, depending on my energy levels.
It's stayed like that until this year, where no.1 has gone to uni, and no.2 is finishing their A levels.
I'm now back to a '3/4 day' weekend ride and slowly going further afield again, after effectively only riding in the SW for 20 years (with the odd lakes, North wales, and Spain trips thrown in over the years).
This has only been sustainable for me because I can ride to the local woods from my house, the Mendips (my true local) and Ashton Court in Bristol are 20 minutes drive, the Quantocks and Cwmcarn are 45 minutes drive, so I have decent access to a range of venues withing an hour of driving. Even then, when the kids were little, its only the 20 minutes and under venues that saw all almost all of the riding.
Since having covid in 2022 I've struggled to recover well from exercise in good time to be able to ride at will, so despite having a bit more time recently, I have to be much more measured and plan further ahead.
I'm pretty sure that my advancing years (I'm now 50) are slightly perceivable in my exercise capacity and recovery compared to an earlier version of myself too.
At the end of last year I introduced an SL eeb, both to help with recovery, or extra riding when not recovered from prior rides, but also to give me the ability to do more during my rides for maximum enjoyment.
I'm perfectly content with that schedule at the moment, although when spring kicks, I'm sure I will become restless for more riding, as I nearly always do as the weather improves.
This year will be the first year when I will have some more opportunities to ride, so its going to be interesting to see how an uplift in riding will be tolerated by 50 yo me i stead of any previous version!
Yeah its totally subjective of course but personally I'd consider a 4 hr ride a pretty long one- I reckon I only did a few 4hrs rides last summer and I doubt I did any over 5hrs.
I do fit-in about 7-8hrs of exercise a week (this is a mixture of road riding, running and workouts) and use the Trainerroad calendar to plan this time at the start of every week, so I know roughly how it will pan-out (in theory).
I don't have kids but I do study part-time on-top of my full time job so am a little time-pressured but am quite lucky with my WfH routine too if I'm honest.
I think if I was really determined to I could maybe carve-out a single 7hr session most weekends but I'd rather do several 2 or 3 hour sessions across the week but obviously everyone's different.
What else are weekends for? I had a wife and kid when I was doing more riding than any other time of my life.... Saturdays were for going out riding. I'm divorced now 😂
In summer I get out at 6 and sometimes 5:30 for a 5-6 hour ride. Winter drops to 3 hour rides from 8. Rest of the weekend is kids and family. No better feeling coming home before lunch with a 6 hour ride under the belt. Often everyone else is still in their PJ’s!
There was the '5am club' thread recently and I was impressed by people's commitment to get a ride in. MTB for me is a hobby so I just ride when it suits me.
general faff, overheads of things that need doing to keep on top of life and being responsible for a house. Then the other day provided I’m not tired, there’s no family/friend something on, etc
It's a matter of priorities. I forego other holidays so I can have more riding trips. I've skipped many an event i 'should' have been at and there's no chance I'm doing any DIY or gardening if the weather is good because I would much rather be riding.
CBA to read the whole thread but you sound like a pal.
We see him once a blue-moon on a ride as he just faffs at EVERYTHING he does.
As the OP pointed out, he uses a weekend day doing stuff he could no doubt do at some point midweek.
In the passed when the kids were young and I was working a heavy travel job (half the time overseas) I'd still get out for a proper MTB ride at least very week - often it was a night ride, but still got out.
But now the kids have grown and left I average 3 rides a week - enduro, XC, gravel or road - don't care which, just get out.
Ah yes. The car park faffers.
Turn up to the ride meet with a bike that needs basic maintenance tasks that should have already been completed at home. Has to beg water and food from the group, uses trail tools in the carpark borrowed from every one and discovers new problems just as you start the ride that were entirely avoidable if they had stayed on top of their prep.
In a life of little spare time, I edited these people out very quickly because they were stealing my time from me.
Yes I've said I need to try and do more chores on evenings.
I'm always prepared though and don't match the faffer description. Please don't assume that because I might be like your pal in one aspect then I am in others too.
Pretty much all covered above but if it helps, I try to get all the house running jobs done on weekday evenings instead of watching TV.
I’m always prepared though and don’t match the faffer description. Please don’t assume that because I might be like your pal in one aspect then I am in others too.
So the main issue is that you live a 3 hour round trip from decent riding? Tbf, if I lived that far from a decent ride then I wouldn't ride regularly either - I couldn't devote such a large part of the day to one thing every weekend. (I'm trying to think of anything I do regularly which involves that much travelling and nothing comes to mind.)
I'm struggling to think of any cities in the north that don't have any decent riding less than an hours drive away.
Recent years for me have been a couple of rides per week in general one evening/night ride midweek and a either a ride early doors on a Sunday or the very occasional day out to the Peaks, Cannock or similar.
This winter though, the night rides never started as everything in the "local" has been sodden since October. Sunday rides with the exception of 1 have been on the Gravel bike.
Having a dog that needs quite a bit of exercise, which invariably means muddy dog/boots/clothes (the latter from other peoples dogs jumping up) means my tolerance for muddy mtb kit is defo lower than pre-dog.
I am fortunate to get in a lot of riding (plus a bit of running), but a 'proper' ride is less frequent. I usually manage 3-6 rides per week, but most are 1-2 hours.
Great riding from the door, to suit a range of bikes (gravel, road, HT, FS) and weather conditions. And excellent riding within an hour's drive.
Typically, through the week, I'll do some version/mix of the following (not all of it, every week)
- post breakfast/pre-work ride once a week, usially gravel/MTB, 1-1.5 hours
- commute once per week (straight in, longer route home), usually gravel bike
- lunch ride/trail run once per week, 1-1.5 hours
- night ride with a mate or 2, 2-3 hours riding then a couple of beers (not every week, works out every 2-3 weeks). In the summer, train/drive out to ride is doable on occasion.
- ride on a Friday (my NWD) ... when I can, it'll be 2-4 hours, but currently elderley-parents-life-admin is taking precedence
- ride/run (1hr 15) on a Sunday morning whilst my parents are at church.
- longer weekend ride (half/two-thirds of a day) about once every 4-6 weeks.
Key to all of this is:
- variety of bikes (SS HT and gravel bike with full mudguards make winter slop possible)
- planning - check the weather regularly, negotiate with family, book with mates
- prepare bike/gear ... choose the appropriate bike and get it ready in advance, lights charged & on the bike, shoes/boots/helmet/bumbag etc can all be got together in advance, so when your riding window arrives, you can be out of the door within a few minutes.
- life admin/domestic stuff - get these done when you can. I do washing, ironing, hoovering, DIY etc in the evenings instead of vegging in front of the TV.
So, I'm pretty fortunate overall. Work is flexible enough for me to WFH 2/3 days per week, and when I do commute, there's decent 'interesting' route options. Good trails from the door (a Northern English city). Kids are older (still need a lot of ferrying around). Wife is understanding and accommodating (she has her own running/riding/singing/guitar-playing interests too). I'd like to do more bigger rides, but that will come in time.
So the main issue is that you live a 3 hour round trip from decent riding?
More like 2 usually. Plus an hour of faff all in between loading the car, unloading and kitting up, cleaning and packing up, then unloading at home.
@bails on the first page has it worse!
I’m struggling to think of any cities in the north that don’t have any decent riding less than an hours drive away
There is just about. Sogginess and rights of way a bit limiting though. As someone said, I should prefer being out on an ok ride over being at home wishing I was doing an awesome one.
When I used to work Mon-Fri pre kids I'd be out one evening and most weekends. After kids it turned into the odd evening and an early ride on a Saturday or Sunday.
Kids both of school age now and I work shifts, weekend rides are very rare as this is valuable family time. But if I'm off through the week I usually manage a ride during school hours. Still have the odd evening ride to be sociable too.
As someone said, I should prefer being out on an ok ride over being at home wishing I was doing an awesome one.
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I always end up back at the intro to a W.H.Murray book, Mountaineering In Scotland I think, where he - a grizzled inter-war climber - recounts how he sets off alone on a foggy, unpromising morning from a valley campsite on, I think, Skye only to break through the clouds and find himself above a stunning inversion.
The lesson he takes from it is that if you don't get out there, you'll never know what an awesome day you might have missed. Meanwhile his friends have sat sulking under a blanket of fog.
So I try, not always successfully, to get out on a bike however unpromising things seem. Sometimes it is as crap as it appears it will be. Occasionally it turns out to be something amazing. But it's almost always better than I think and I'm happy to have been out. It helps that I can ride from my front door - I chose to live somewhere with decent riding - and that in some respects I have simple dog wiring and would happily chase sticks all day given the chance, but there's a lot to be said for not dwelling on reasons not to and just to get on with it.
And 'awesome' doesn't necessarily have to mean long or technical or particularly scenic. It can just be the sound of tyres buzzing on the trail. Or wet summer evening smells. Or getting to spend some quality time with a mate you haven't seen for a while. I try to think about what the ride is rather than what it isn't. It doesn't always work, but I rarely regret having left the house even when conditions are less than stellar.
That and I really hate DIY.
So I try, not always successfully, to get out on a bike however unpromising things seem. Sometimes it is as crap as it appears it will be. Occasionally it turns out to be something amazing. But it’s almost always better than I think and I’m happy to have been out. It helps that I can ride from my front door – I chose to live somewhere with decent riding – and that in some respects I have simple dog wiring and would happily chase sticks all day given the chance, but there’s a lot to be said for not dwelling on reasons not to and just to get on with it.
And ‘awesome’ doesn’t necessarily have to mean long or technical or particularly scenic. It can just be the sound of tyres buzzing on the trail. Or wet summer evening smells. Or getting to spend some quality time with a mate you haven’t seen for a while. I try to think about what the ride is rather than what it isn’t. It doesn’t always work, but I rarely regret having left the house even when conditions are less than stellar."
^^^^ This. Absolutely this.