Which is the better way to up my weekly mileage?

[Fuzzball]

I am commuting 11miles each way to work and on days off do one longer ride, 20-30miles. I want to up my monthly mileage with least risk of burn out/injury. So which way should i go?

a) Take a longer route home to add about an extra 5 miles each day,
or
b) try and do some extra long rides on days off.

I work a shift pattern of 6 days on 4 days off and every other cycle I finish on 2 night shifts ending at 7am.

or is there a c) option i am open to any suggestions.

 

[palinurus]

I'd suggest it has more to do with when you have the time and inclination to ride, if you have time to ride more at the weekend then do it that way, if weekends are busy then take the long route home, or a mixture of both.

To allow yourself to recover only ride vigorously a couple of days per week, ride easy the rest of the time. Don't just ride everywhere at the same pace. You'll recover better and improve faster. If you feel tired don't take the long way home. It takes a bit of practice to ride really easy, especially if someone overtakes you. Let them go.

Really depends on when you like cycling, you could go for a longer ride in the morning after a night shift- but if you just want to get home and sleep then it might not work out.

The way I do it is when the evenings are light I tend to extend my commutes and train after work, during the winter I ride more at the weekends (I'm more likely to be free outside of the spring and summer). Having said that since I've got a nice dynamo lighting setup on my commute bike I have started to do longer rides on winter evenings.

 

[palinurus]

Why do you want to increase your monthly mileage? are you aiming at something particular?

 

[Fuzzball]

Its mainly just for fitness and I have just sent off for audux membership as i like the idea of building up to longer rides, so i know i am going to have to start upping the mileage on the longer rides.

I used to run quite a bit and always found that once i started training at the 2.5hr long run mark i became more prone to niggling injuries so keen to do what i can to avoid this on the bike.

I work shifts, 7am-2pm for 2 days, then 2pm-10pm for 2days, and then either 2 day shifts 8.30-5 and 10-7, or 2 night shifts 10pm-7pm. So i have to plan my rides round a 10 day cycle allowing for day/night shift differences.

 

[accountantpete]

Re the niggles,cycling is a lot more forgiving on the body than running. I had a persistent ankle problem when I switched to cycling and was very tentative as regards pushing myself at first - 20 years down the line my advice would be to ignore such concerns until they crop up - there are usually a couple of work arounds to niggles anyway.

 

[e-rider]

more frequent longer rides

 

[jimboalee]

I used to throw a dart at the map, but in this day and age, you can build a spreadsheet to randomly select Latitudes and Longtitudes between defined limits.