Biking 100 Miles a Week: Is It Enough?

Biking 100 Miles a Week

On your journey to finding fitness, it’s important to set goals for yourself. Goals can give you focus and increase both your motivation and productivity. For those that love biking, many set goals to bike a certain amount each week. For many, that goal is biking 100 miles a week.

Biking just 10 miles a day comes with some incredible benefits. It reduces your risk of health problems like heart disease, promotes better sleep, increases thinking skills, and so much more. But, to do this, you need to dedicate about 45 minutes to an hour each day to achieve this and it’d still only be 70 miles per week.

While biking 10 miles a day is a great goal for some, it doesn’t work as well for others. If you have kids or travel for work, setting aside this amount of time each day isn’t realistic. 

However, if you set your goal to ride 100 miles a week, you’ve got more flexibility. Some days, you could go for shorter rides and then do a longer ride on the weekends. That’s why many set weekly biking goals over daily biking goals, but is biking 100 miles a week going to be enough? 

Determining whether this distance is enough, you’ve first got to understand your why. What is your reasoning for setting this goal? Is it to lose weight? Is it to stay fit, build strength, etc? Knowing why you’re setting this goal in the first place will better help you answer whether this distance is enough for you! 

Biking 100 Miles a Week to Lose Weight

Is biking 100 miles a week enough to lose weight? Well, biking is great cardio. And with great cardio, you’re going to burn calories and, therefore, probably lose weight in the process.

In just 10 miles at 150 pounds, you are likely to burn around 450 calories on average. So, if you’re biking 100 miles a week, that is an extra 4,500 calories burned per week. While monitoring your caloric intake, this is definitely enough of a burn to lose some pounds.

The thing you’ll need to keep in mind if the purpose of biking 100 miles a week is to lose weight, is that you can plateau with cardio alone. Your body will get used to the routine and start slowing your metabolism. 

So, yes! 100 miles per week is plenty if you’re wanting to lose weight, but if you want to keep it off, you’ve also got to mix it up. Throw in some HIIT, strength training, biking up hills, and any other variety to keep your body (and your metabolism) on its toes.

Biking 100 Miles a Week to Stay Fit

Like I said above, biking is an excellent form of cardio. And, it’s important to know that cardio is great for you regarding your fitness level. It is great for building endurance and improving your lung capacity, which are both big indicators of your fitness level. Cardio, in the form of biking, is also wonderful for your heart, which keeps you strong and healthy.

Now, the question is… Is biking 100 miles a week enough for you to stay fit? Now, this is a little more complicated. The answer is really that it depends. Before you can know if biking 100 miles a week is enough to stay fit, you need to factor in the following..

Fitness Level

Your starting fitness level plays a huge role in determining whether 100 miles a week is enough to keep your fit. For example, if you are already at a level where you can easily do a century ride on a Saturday morning, then setting a goal to ride 100 miles a week probably won’t keep you fit. You might need more mileage.

On the flip side, if you are just starting out, you may not be completely ready to dedicate yourself to biking 100 miles a week. In this case, start with 50 miles for a few weeks, then move to 75 and then 100. 

You want a fitness goal to stretch you just enough where you are a little out of your comfort zone, but not too much that you risk injury. 

Length of Goal

Another determining factor of whether 100 miles a week is enough to keep you fit is how long you have been achieving this goal. If you’ve been riding 100 miles a week for an entire year and you are like the example above where you can easily do that in one morning, then you probably need to adjust your goal.

As with any type of cardio, your body will adjust to what you are asking it to achieve. So, if you keep the same goal for a really long time, it becomes mundane and your fitness will plateau. 

Workout Routine

The last thing to consider is your overall workout routine. Are you biking 100 miles a week as your only form of exercise? Or are you supplementing this goal with cross training? 

Like I mentioned above, with cardio, your body will plateau. Sometimes, you can even suffer muscle loss and fat retention from the exertion and calorie deficit if you don’t mix things up. 

In order for 100 miles to be enough for you to stay fit, you need to incorporate cross training into your workout routine once you’ve been achieving this goal for some time and it feels like less of a challenge. Only then will you truly stay fit! 

How Often Should I Bike?

If you’re new to biking, 100 miles can be a lot to tackle. It can even feel overwhelming not knowing where to start and how often to bike. Spreading out your 100 miles as much as you can while still allowing for a rest day or two would be my recommendation to those that maybe aren’t as physically fit or are new to biking. As you grow in your strength, endurance, and confidence, I’d suggest that you can bike less often by spreading out your days, but making the miles longer on each ride. 

While everyone is different, has different life circumstances and availability in their schedules, here’s an example of what I might try to go for if I’m new to riding 100 miles per week…

Because I work a traditional Monday through Friday job schedule, I would shift more of my miles to the weekend as I can build up my endurance with my biking. Here’s an example of what I’d like to do as I become better at my 100 miles a week goal…

Of course, knowing how often to bike is completely up to you, your schedule, and your level of fitness. As always, before you determine any kind of workout or fitness routine, you may also want to consult your doctor! It’s great to push yourself to your limits, but only in a way that is safe and appropriate for you and your body! 

What is a Century Bike Ride?

A century bike ride is a 100 mile ride that will take 6 to 7 hours for the average rider, depending on terrain and speed. Many cyclists regard this as the ultimate bike ride. 

In your fitness journey, you may get to where you can ride the 100 miles in its entirety. This is definitely something that takes a lot of determination to work towards, but it is a high-regarded accomplishment! 

If you’re planning to bike 100 miles a week, this could be a great goal for you to work up to. As with the example schedules above, you could easily increase your Saturday ride incrementally until you get to 100 miles! 

What is a Half Century Bike Ride?

As the name suggests, a half century ride is a 50 mile bike ride that takes somewhere around 4 hours to complete. It is also an incredible goal that you could work towards in your journey to getting fit!

Maybe a century bike ride just seems too out of reach right now? Maybe dedicating a whole day to riding just won’t work with your schedule right now? That’s totally okay! You could just start out with making a goal to do a half century bike ride first!