How much cycling a week

Each minute you ride at that level is a MET minute. To hit the 5, MET weekly threshold, you should aim to saddle up minutes—or Currently, the World Health Organization recommends at least MET minutes of physical activity—which is about 75 minutes of riding—each week. The challenge is making it happen. An hour and a half a day can be impossible to squeeze in among work, kids, a commute, and all the other obligations of life.

Shredding singletrack, hitting hills, and otherwise riding hard is a MET activity. So it takes just minutes—or 6 hours a week—to hit your minimum threshold. But current thinking places it at about to miles per week for people who work for a living. That's 6 to 9 hours of riding. As Olympic road cycling champion Connie Carpenter-Phinney has noted, "If you work full time, 10 hours of riding each week is a lot.

This leaves plenty of time to mow the lawn, buy the groceries, say hi to the spouse and maybe even hold down a job. Even though this program allots 7 hours, avoid simply riding an hour each day.

That can't give you endurance or recovery. Instead, ride longer some days and take other days completely off the bike. Your personal schedule will determine the exact mix, but most people ride more on weekends when they're off work. They schedule non-cycling days for weekdays. Here's a weekly schedule that works for many riders:. Remember, intensity is one key to this program. If you could ride to miles per week, sheer volume would guarantee a high level of fitness.

But you can't. Instead, make up for missing miles by including intense efforts. Mix short, hard efforts like sprints with longer, steady efforts on hills or into the wind. Spirited group rides raise intensity, too. Aim for efforts at or above your lactate threshold.

Lactate threshold is also called "anaerobic threshold. This is marked by muscle fatigue, pain, and shallow, rapid breathing. The key is varying the intensity during the week. If you always go at a medium pace, your fitness will be mediocre. So, when you go hard, go really hard. When you go easy, go at a pace that Colorado cycling coach Skip Hamilton calls "guilt-producingly slow.

Proteins actively help building muscle, which is why body builders and gym goers often take it in the form of a protein shake. Having sufficient carbohydrate intake readily available in potatoes, pasta, sugar and many other sources is also important. During your ride your body uses energy stored in your blood in the form of glycogen.

Carbs helps re-stock the depleted glycogen levels and they speed up recovery. Experienced riders fuel their ride with energy bars and drinks, which are sources of carbs. Drinking water helps flushing toxins from the body and it prevents dehydration that can lead to sore muscles and a whole host of problems.

If you get cramps on your bike during your ride or after riding, they are good indicators of poor hydration. When you ride your bike you can lose as much as — ml of water per hour by perspiration.

It may feel impressive to lose so much weight, but in reality this is not body weight lost fat burned , but rather water weight. If you want to ride your bike for weight loss, you need to play the long-term game, and proper hydration is essential to prevent injury and sickness.

During shorter rides under 60 minutes , you can hydrate with plain water, but if you go for long rides, you should add electrolytes, which are salts that include sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

Pour one of these in your water bottle and increase your performance on long rides. They contain essential minerals you should re-stock your body with.

This is the simplest and most underestimated sources of muscle recovery. Sleep deprivation leads to loss of muscle mass, it hinders muscle recovery and it increases the possibility of muscle injury, not to mention that it can also lead to loss of concentration and thus increase the chances of an accident source. Adults need 7 — 8 hours of sleep each night. Getting to know yourself and building evening routines to help you go to bed in time are efforts that will go a long way.

If you ride short distances mostly on flat surfaces, riding your bike daily is not going to cause harm to your body. I know elderly people in small towns in Hungary who have been riding their bikes their entire life, and no day goes by without them getting on it. If you want to ride your bike daily and you fall in this bucket, go ahead!

You will have plenty of fun and it will do you a lot of good. Riding your bike everyday at maximum intensity and for extended periods of time without taking any day of rest will do you more harm than good.

Michael Donlevy 25 May Grab a calculator and find out what they advise. Breaking it down. See related. How to get stronger legs for cycling. Why getting older is no barrier to being a better cyclist. Could fat-adapted training make you a better cyclist?