Weekly Mileage?

I got my first trike and first recumbent, just over a week ago (Saturday 13th December) ~ In that time I covered 149 miles and enjoyed every one of them...What distance do other recumbent riders cover in a week?

I live in Texas so I get to ride all year long. Well almost, when the temp gets down to 30, I stay in bed.
Saturday it was 50-60 degrees and I got in 35 miles.
I can average about 65 miles a week but I have friends who do those 200K rides alnmost every weekend.

imppact wrote:I got my first trike and first recumbent, just over a week ago (Saturday 13th December) ~ In that time I covered 149 miles and enjoyed every one of them...What distance do other recumbent riders cover in a week?

That kinda depends, my distance will vary. I use my Catrike for most of my shopping needs as well as riding on the weekends, I also ride the Strada some so if you combine the two I guess my distance could run as high as 100miles in a week.

The miles we ride each week when the weather allows us to ride (we don't ride in threatening weather, or in the extremely hot or cold temperatures) can very from 50 to 150 per week. 2008 was quite wet in Michigan during the summer so we only did 2000 miles this year, 400 of which was done in Florida in February. Don't get the idea that we ride fast, as I am 66 and my wife's health is delicate as she is a cancer survivor and it has limited her lung capacity, and caused other major health problems. However, she was expected to be dead 18 years ago and was given a 2% chance of survival at the time. We are thankful for any time we can ride.

My goal for this year is 40 miles a week. So far I'm behind but I have a 40 mile ride planned for this Sunday. I just started riding again in September after a 30 year lay off.

Racer46 wrote:My goal for this year is 40 miles a week. So far I'm behind but I have a 40 mile ride planned for this Sunday. I just started riding again in September after a 30 year lay off.

Where you planning on riding

Admin wrote:

Racer46 wrote:My goal for this year is 40 miles a week. So far I'm behind but I have a 40 mile ride planned for this Sunday. I just started riding again in September after a 30 year lay off.

Where you planning on riding

West Orange Trail end to end. I had been thinking about renting a Sun tadpole from West Orange Trail Bikes and Blades Co. for an hour then finishing the ride on my Infinity. Not sure if I want to do that or not. If we do we'll start at the Winter Garden Station then ride to County Line Station and back then continue on to Apopka and back. If I don't rent the trike we'll start at County Line Station go 20 miles and turn around. If you would like to join us let me know. We'll be leaving my house in Orlando at about 9:30, probably stop at Mc D's for a Mc Breakfast and arrive about 10:30. Forcast is calling for 30% chance of rain on Sunday morning. I don't like to get wet when I ride so we'll be keeping an eye on this.

Also planning on riding the VanFleet trail on Feb 1st. It will be my buddy's 60th. birthday and he wants to do 60 miles. We'll probably tack on a couple of extra and make it a metric century.

Warning if you want to come along: We're not the fastest riders 12 - 13 mph average with rest stops about every hour or so.

Pete

Racer46 wrote:

Admin wrote:

Racer46 wrote:My goal for this year is 40 miles a week. So far I'm behind but I have a 40 mile ride planned for this Sunday. I just started riding again in September after a 30 year lay off.

Where you planning on riding

West Orange Trail end to end. I had been thinking about renting a Sun tadpole from West Orange Trail Bikes and Blades Co. for an hour then finishing the ride on my Infinity. Not sure if I want to do that or not. If we do we'll start at the Winter Garden Station then ride to County Line Station and back then continue on to Apopka and back. If I don't rent the trike we'll start at County Line Station go 20 miles and turn around. If you would like to join us let me know. We'll be leaving my house in Orlando at about 9:30, probably stop at Mc D's for a Mc Breakfast and arrive about 10:30. Forcast is calling for 30% chance of rain on Sunday morning. I don't like to get wet when I ride so we'll be keeping an eye on this.

Also planning on riding the VanFleet trail on Feb 1st. It will be my buddy's 60th. birthday and he wants to do 60 miles. We'll probably tack on a couple of extra and make it a metric century.

Warning if you want to come along: We're not the fastest riders 12 - 13 mph average with rest stops about every hour or so.

Pete

Renting a trike may not be advisable thing to do unless you want to own a trike. I don't know about the WOT but the Van Fleet sounds promising weather permitting. My speedy days are over 12 -13 mph sounds good. If I can go this weekend I'll call.

Admin wrote:
Renting a trike may not be advisable thing to do unless you want to own a trike. I don't know about the WOT but the Van Fleet sounds promising weather permitting. My speedy days are over 12 -13 mph sounds good. If I can go this weekend I'll call.

I think I would like to have a trike. I figure a 10 mile ride will tell me if I want to consider it seriously.

Pete

Racer46 wrote:

Admin wrote:
Renting a trike may not be advisable thing to do unless you want to own a trike. I don't know about the WOT but the Van Fleet sounds promising weather permitting. My speedy days are over 12 -13 mph sounds good. If I can go this weekend I'll call.

I think I would like to have a trike. I figure a 10 mile ride will tell me if I want to consider it seriously.

Pete

It wont take ten miles. The day I purchased my Catrike Speed it was raining and the guys at Bicycle Outfitters made me a little track inside the shop and showroom so I could ride the trike and by the time I finished the fourth Lap I was sold. I expect you've heard of the recumbent grin, well on a trike It's about twice that size. The next question you'll have to answer is what one or model to buy. The one piece of advice I can offer is to ride as many different trikes as you can before you decide to buy.

Admin wrote:

Racer46 wrote:

Admin wrote:
Renting a trike may not be advisable thing to do unless you want to own a trike. I don't know about the WOT but the Van Fleet sounds promising weather permitting. My speedy days are over 12 -13 mph sounds good. If I can go this weekend I'll call.

I think I would like to have a trike. I figure a 10 mile ride will tell me if I want to consider it seriously.

Pete

It wont take ten miles. The day I purchased my Catrike Speed it was raining and the guys at Bicycle Outfitters made me a little track inside the shop and showroom so I could ride the trike and by the time I finished the fourth Lap I was sold. I expect you've heard of the recumbent grin, well on a trike It's about twice that size. The next question you'll have to answer is what one or model to buy. The one piece of advice I can offer is to ride as many different trikes as you can before you decide to buy.

I am new to recumbents, I bought a sun ez-3 in July 2008, I tried several other trikes but decided on the ez-3 because it was more comfortable. It is a heavy bike but rides great. May not be as fast as other trikes or two wheels. but because of health problems I do not need to go fast. but I still get good excersize with it.

So far I've ridden a TerraTrike Cruiser at Riverside Recumbent Bicycles in Cocoa. That was in September and it was the first recumbent I had ever ridden. I only went about 1/2 mile around a couple of local streets. It was fun but being as it was my first experience with any recumbent, let alone a trike, I had nothing to compare it to. Also at that time the furthest I had ridden was 3 miles on a mountain bike so even after just my short ride I was sore and winded.

I also rode a few different Catrikes at the Bacchetta / Catrike rally in November. I remember liking the Trail the best because of it’s more upright seating but I think I would like to be able to adjust the recline. So for right now I’m ruling the Catrikes out.

My current ride is an Infinity LWB, (pictures in the LWB area) with the bottom bracket lower than the seat. I wanted to try a longer ride in a trike with the BB above the seat to see how it feels. On my current bike I have to stop every 10-12 miles because I get a case of “Hot Foot” and I understand that a higher BB may make it worse.

I didn’t rent the trike this weekend. I’ll probably go back in a week or so on a Monday, my day off, and try it out. My friend and I went 40 miles on Sunday, a new record for me since I re-started riding. This was the first time that when I got to the end of the ride I was glad it was over. About 8 or 9 miles from the end I felt like I couldn’t go any more, I think this is called “Hitting the Wall” or “Bonking”. I had a couple of energy bars with me but hadn’t thought about eating them, I wasn’t hungry. I ate one and drank a bunch of fluid waited about 15 minutes and was able to continue the ride.

Prior to the holidays, I was getting in excess of 200 miles/week. Sometimes closer to 300. Commuting gets me at least 120 miles/week and I usually do 50-100 on Saturday. I ALWAYS do 30 miles on Sunday, as I lead a casual breakfast ride.

Mark

I thry to get 25+ miles a day in. But this Winter, between procedures at the VA hospital, and the snow getting too deep for me to snow plow through. I haven't been keeping that average up at all. That and I flat refuse to ride in -20 weather.

Strictly riding indoors with my bike up on a trainer. I hate cold and snow!

Averaging about 65 miles / 4 hours of riding per week. Using some of the Carmichael Training System intervals.

I usually ride at least 150-200 miles a week from March-December. When I'm able to commute (I don't ride to work much during January or February, too cold for me, yea, I'm a spoiled Florida wimp!!!) I easily add around 70 miles a week.

Walt

Well you guys are all in a different league than me. My wife and I were going riding about three or four evenings per week last summer, and we'd do 5 or 7 km each ride, so about 15 to 20 km per week. That about 10 - 14 miles maybe on three maybe four rides.

I was up to 90 km on my cycle-puter over the course of about 6 weeks of cycling. My cycle-puter is attached to one of my front tires so it does not record the stationary distance done indoors in the winter (Oct-Apr).

I bought my Catrike Villager last July so maybe this year, if I keep at this indoor prep work I'll get up to 10K per trip. I can dream can't I?

Speaking of dreams - one of my longer term goals will be to take our trikes into the Canadian Rockies and cycle on the old number one highway from Banff to Lake Louise. But I am no where near being ready for a trip like that yet, that trip is at least 100#'s away.


As for too cold fer ya, ... the weather station is forecasting another dip below minus 30° C for later this week. Sounds a little warmer if you say it is only going down to 23° below zero in the F scale.

Dreams have a funny way of becoming reality. Today's dream will likely be tomorrow's chuckle.

Mark

R42Pilot wrote:Dreams have a funny way of becoming reality.

Mark

That is so true.

My wife and I do about 80 miles per week (20 miles x 4 days). Twice a week we do Pilates. If the weather is crummy I get on my rowing machine for an hour, one day a week we rest.

I agree, test riding a trike can be hazardous to your wallet!

My goal is to commute to work at least twice a week (round trip of 16 miles X 2 = 32 miles).

Make sure I take a scenic ride at least one day out of the weekend (round trip of at least 9 miles).

About four evenings in the week, I like to take a little jaunt up to the Starbucks to treat myself and watch cars flash by (round trip of 4 miles X 4 = 16).

So, let's see here: 32 + 9 + 16 = 57 miles.

Any more than that and I might hurt myself.

I am a teacher so I plan to bring in my bike mileage next year each week, and mark it on a map of the U.S. and plot how far I have gone. Then have the kids use the internet to look at the towns coming up for the bike and also look at the things to see in the states. Sneak in some reading and research, and writing into the curriculum in a fun way.

Besides the recumbent trike will probably be sitting in my classroom after i start riding it to work. I hope I have room for it or it will go sit with the motorcycles.

kitkatz wrote: have the kids use the internet to look at the towns coming up for the bike and also look at the things to see in the states. Sneak in some reading and research, and writing into the curriculum in a fun way.

I too am a teacher and used a similar project with my computer applications class. The students had to travel from state park to state park within Florida without traveling on any toll roads with a mileage cap of 50 - 70 miles before they had to find a camp ground to spend the night. The paths were marked on Google Maps and website location was posted within a word processing document. They had to travel to a total of 5 parks. The parks were chosen randomly. If interested, I could try and find the word processing directions for the project.

That would be great. Thanks.

kitkatz wrote:That would be great. Thanks.

Here are the directions to the project...
Choose your destinations (5)
Look to the chart found in your folder that is titled State Parks.doc
Click on the hyperlink for the park you have chosen
Locate it on the Internet web site
Search the individual Internet link for that specific park for interesting things to do
After you have listed the things to do
Create a pathway from your present location (SRMS) to that park using the mapping feature of Google Earth.
Save the created pathway to your file folder
The file name of the created pathway should include a “hint” of the name of the state park.

Plot a logical pathway starting from SRMS
Must travel on state or county highways (no Interstates or toll roads)
Must travel only 40 to 50 miles between locations.