How much is too much? 230 mile+ weeks...

Depends. If you are in your late 20s and up and working a full time job and racing, 230 miles a week is a bit too much. It could also be counter-productive because you may not be getting enough recovery time. When you have limited time, training is all about quality over quantity. 12 to 17 hours a week is probably the norm, unless you are racing for a pro team or you can make enough money to work part time. 🙂

AmpedCycle said:

Lately I've been working up to doing long rides... 50-70 mile days consecutively. I'll ride maybe 4 or 5 times a week, with about 230 miles+ total. Throw in a recovery day (commuting to class on my mountain bike), and that's what I'll do. I'm wondering if, since I've been riding a little over a year now, if this is too mmuch.I saw in carmichaels book that the training routines he recommends for people with my amount of experience is a lot less than what I'm doing. Just for notes, though, I've been getting a lot better and keeping up with the local race team. So... what's the deal?

AmpedCycle said:

Lately I've been working up to doing long rides... 50-70 mile days consecutively. I'll ride maybe 4 or 5 times a week, with about 230 miles+ total. Throw in a recovery day (commuting to class on my mountain bike), and that's what I'll do. I'm wondering if, since I've been riding a little over a year now, if this is too mmuch.I saw in carmichaels book that the training routines he recommends for people with my amount of experience is a lot less than what I'm doing. Just for notes, though, I've been getting a lot better and keeping up with the local race team. So... what's the deal?

You are wondering if 230 miles a week is too much? Not sure what the question is here. If you feel good, there is no problem. There is no universal answer; all our bodies and time for riding (for that matter) are different. You are probably in the minority with regards to how much time you have to ride. Frankly, I'm jealous that you can ride that much.

Anyway, what was the question? 🙄

Ahh... the question... if I'm new to cycling is it too hard on my legs to ride 3.5 hour days back to back. Like, is there a correlation to my recovery time (not getting enough of it).

I'm not sure there is an answer to "How much volume is too much?" I know there are pros who ride 5-6 hrs/day and others ride much less. I can give you one data point -- me. I ride every day. My schedule is MWF 3.7 hrs hard w/ about 1.5 hrs in L4-L6, TuTh 3.25 hrs recovery at ~55% of 60MP; Sat/Sun group rides at ~85% of 60MP. Total is ~23 hrs/wk. I never feel "overtrained" and I have had no injuries due to volume. I strained my glutes about 5 months ago, but that was due to intensity and not volume. Also, I'm a bit older than you. If I rode for 4-6 hrs/wk, I'd feel like I didn't ride at all. I do think that if one does relatively high volumes or high intensity or both one should be attuned to the signs of overtraining and take immediate action if the symptoms appear.

as long as you can recover and feel good the day after you ride you are probbaly fine. But if you want to take a little more structured approach you could probbaly ride less and get stronger than just doing what you are doing now.

many of us are on fairly structured programs to maximize our gains and our recovery. Also many of us have family and 50+ hr work week commitments. I wish i was in college again when i was able to ride 20-25hrs a week and still have time to do other stuff. But not now. Enjoy the time while you have and make the most of these long riding days.. Unless you go pro, eventually they will fade away....🙁

AmpedCycle said:

Ahh... the question... if I'm new to cycling is it too hard on my legs to ride 3.5 hour days back to back. Like, is there a correlation to my recovery time (not getting enough of it).

If you really want to know, conduct an experiment and cut back on your mileage for a while and see what happens. You're young so you've got 3 months to find out, right? Especially if you plan on lifelong cycling as a method of staying fit.

Unless you're working with a coach all you're going to get on this forum is anecdotal advice. That may or may not be of any use to you at all. After all it's your time you are investing. It's real easy for forum members to type out what they believe to be useful but you're the only one that will really benefit or suffer from the advice.

That's way more than I do. I'm not really a distance rider. Added to that I wonder how much time I really need given my liking for intensity when I ride.
Last week I did a ride around a place called Oakamoor which gave me a whole new outlook to training intensity. After the ride I was totally spent, in fact, and had been 2 hours and 30 minutes in the seat.
In this Oakamoor region all you have is hills, some of which must be in the 30 per cent scale. Therefore, the descents are over so quickly you're back climbing again after only 4 or 5 minutes respite. That's what makes it so tough. While I was there I took some pics of the area and I'll publish these soon as I get the film developed. I saw quite a few serious cyclists in the area but was disappointed to see them descending past me at 50 mph while I was going in the opposite direction (reduced at one point to a pathetic 4 mph!)
It was so weird because my usual rides are tough going but nothing like as tough as on this new route. On my usual rides I'd be constantly using the big chain ring but way out in these country lanes I had to stay on the small ring all the time.
So, I guess I'm saying that on a personal level I can get a lot out of an intense session on the bike but I'm aware it's easy to burn out with too much of that. I guess I'd love to do some longer distance stuff but time is short and I have 12 hour shifts to balance with my riding.

AmpedCycle said:

Lately I've been working up to doing long rides... 50-70 mile days consecutively. I'll ride maybe 4 or 5 times a week, with about 230 miles+ total. Throw in a recovery day (commuting to class on my mountain bike), and that's what I'll do. I'm wondering if, since I've been riding a little over a year now, if this is too mmuch.I saw in carmichaels book that the training routines he recommends for people with my amount of experience is a lot less than what I'm doing. Just for notes, though, I've been getting a lot better and keeping up with the local race team. So... what's the deal?