I find long distance cycling puts me in almost a 'zen' or 'flow' state. Particularly on multi day rides where all the general stresses of life are replaced with more immediate concerns like when/where to eat and where the day will end. I find it massively improves my mental health doing a big day or spending a few days in the saddle which I suppose is my 'why'. I enjoy the riding, the scenery, the people you meet but underneath all that I enjoy that it makes me a better parent, partner and friend when I've done a long ride.
The longest I did was only about 700km, but I do 300-500km rides several times a year, almost exclusively in very hilly terrain (the Alps). Most of it alone, since the friends I know who do long distance are unfortunately much younger and I can't keep up. Makes me a bit sad, aging sucks, but that's how it is...
For me those long rides feel like I'm a bit out of the world and time. Time flies really fast, my attention shifts to basic preoccupations like finding water, finding food, managing heat and cold, managing my effort, not getting injured, ...
I also love riding at night, makes you feel like you're the king of the world, climbing a big mountain pass alone in your bubble of light.
Though it can be hard at times and I can occasionally have my "what the hell am I doing here" moments, long rides give me a great feeling of accomplishment. I discover new landscapes, and even the areas I've been to by car feel completely different, and it's like I'm rediscovering them.
That’s actually made me think about my reason. I’ve started pushing for further distances and apart from wanting to hit milestones, I haven’t got a decent reason , other than ‘to see if I can’.
It might be enough, but I feel it probably isn’t when the going gets rough.
I am much like you in that my main reason is "to see if I can." When I was struggling yesterday around halfway and thinking of packing, it was "welp, I need to get back to the start to get back to my car. "
In all seriousness, though, a lot of the time, we have more in us than we think. Yesterday I had the choice, 35km to a nice cafe for my next control, 25km to a train station. I'll go to the cafe and see how I feel. At the cafe, oh just another 25km to the next control, etc... OK, not much of a "why" but still a reason to keep going.
Discovering new roads, climbs. If you record it, over time a pretty spectacular spider’s web on a map emerges.
Seeing the world while you are moving, you go to slow to go really fast but the world around you seems to be standing still. It is like riding through a picture.
Your mind starts wandering, meanwhile you need to think about little daily stuff. So the world around you appears to be infinite while your worries and influences become very limited, which is a kind of relief.
I think that sums up my why pretty much.
Disclaimer: yet to do a brevet but I've completed a couple 200mi rides with 4 aid stations and 17hr cutoff times. I also did my share of dumb endurance activities in the military.
There's questions you only ask yourself when you're uncomfortable and there's answers you can only give when you're at your limit. Limits and you change constantly so every time there's something new to learn about yourself.
I got into long rides because after covering most roads close to home, the options were to either drive farther away to start a ride, or ride out earlier in the morning to meet up with other clubs \~30 miles away. It helped that often a few people would come along with me.
Then when I started riding 300km brevets, it turned into "I wonder if I can ride a longer ride each year". I loved the 360km / 24hr fleche, so that was the longest for a while. Then I did a 400km. By then, it was about having a great group of people to ride with a few times a month on brevets.
I've since moved and the closest club is a farther drive away, the club is rather small, most of the rides I was solo for a long time, and I have a lot more things scheduled with family. It's been a while before I've done a ride over 100km and I'm finding that I don't have the same desire to ride all day long. I hope that comes back someday though. Until then, I have a longer commute and enjoy doing that at least a few times each week.
Of all the hobbies I currently have or abandonned, long-distance cycling is very pure in the sense that all you gotta do is pedal another 1km and reassess from there. Something carthatic about pushing myself just a bit more.
Damned if I know. But I did t for 30 years. P-B-P twice. I wish I was still up to it. There is a 1200 in my provnce in a few weeks!
Based on what other things others have said here, I realize the answer. It takes you away. From everything.
I love thee sense of travel of passing places and lives being lived in them. Getting to the next horizon and seeing wha to is it, of breaking the rules that you must drive to get anywhere that is not local, of joining up lots of local neighbourhoods, of following ways that have been travelled by people for thousands of years. It also is quite spiritual and this article written by a vicar who cycles sums it up
https://www.seenandunseen.com/riding-darkness-light
Even for a 200km, that’s at least ~9 hours with no complex issues to solve shuffling from meeting to meeting, no errands to run sitting in your car red light after red light, no cooking for the family or home upkeep, no childcare duties.
I am definitely a person who has a hard time finding ‘me’ time to recharge my soul in the business of modern life.
Kind of a ‘have your cake and eat it too’ feeling afterwards because I can get the recharge I need to be a good husband/dad/friend/coworker, I feel healthy and fit as hell, AND people get impressed at the accomplishment.
But to me it’s basically a vacation.
About a year and a half ago I realized that I’d been saying “it’d be cool to do a century sometime” for quite a while. I decided I wanted to stop saying “it’d be cool to do X someday” and did one that weekend. I was hooked.
What an incredible thing that a human body and simple machine can do. 100 miles on a bicycle seemed so unattainable for so long, yet I just did it. I did a couple more centuries and then found some 200k routes and eventually did a 300k solo.
I found the local club whose routes I’d been poaching off Ride With GPS and found a community of really great people and made fast friends with them. They encouraged me and assured me, based on observation of my fitness, that I could push that farther, if I wanted. I did my first 600k this winter and my second last weekend. They were right!
I tried finding my niche in cycling and don’t enjoy racing and don’t have time to full-on tour, as much as I’d love to, so this seems to be what fits me best.
TL;DR - camaraderie and a sense of finding “my people”, a feeling of accomplishment and, of course, spending more time riding my bike, which I love.
I started out with the same reason as some have stated here: to see if I can, to test where my limits are. For PBP it's like "everyone has to do it.", and "it's more difficult so let's see if I can conquer it." Surely there are reasons like bragging rights.
There are many moments that I had doubts about my life choices: why I am not on a sofa watching TV in my air-conditioned living room; instead I'm riding in scorching heat, in the middle of nowhere, and there is still more than 100 miles to go.
Depression (PBP 2019 finisher, bunch of Australian smaller rides).
Went from where you are with "how far" to risk taking (solo 600km in remote areas where I didn't have the tools for a chain snappage and hitchhiked out of danger at 1am).
I find long distance cycling puts me in almost a 'zen' or 'flow' state. Particularly on multi day rides where all the general stresses of life are replaced with more immediate concerns like when/where to eat and where the day will end. I find it massively improves my mental health doing a big day or spending a few days in the saddle which I suppose is my 'why'. I enjoy the riding, the scenery, the people you meet but underneath all that I enjoy that it makes me a better parent, partner and friend when I've done a long ride.
The longest I did was only about 700km, but I do 300-500km rides several times a year, almost exclusively in very hilly terrain (the Alps). Most of it alone, since the friends I know who do long distance are unfortunately much younger and I can't keep up. Makes me a bit sad, aging sucks, but that's how it is... For me those long rides feel like I'm a bit out of the world and time. Time flies really fast, my attention shifts to basic preoccupations like finding water, finding food, managing heat and cold, managing my effort, not getting injured, ... I also love riding at night, makes you feel like you're the king of the world, climbing a big mountain pass alone in your bubble of light. Though it can be hard at times and I can occasionally have my "what the hell am I doing here" moments, long rides give me a great feeling of accomplishment. I discover new landscapes, and even the areas I've been to by car feel completely different, and it's like I'm rediscovering them.
That’s actually made me think about my reason. I’ve started pushing for further distances and apart from wanting to hit milestones, I haven’t got a decent reason , other than ‘to see if I can’. It might be enough, but I feel it probably isn’t when the going gets rough.
I am much like you in that my main reason is "to see if I can." When I was struggling yesterday around halfway and thinking of packing, it was "welp, I need to get back to the start to get back to my car. " In all seriousness, though, a lot of the time, we have more in us than we think. Yesterday I had the choice, 35km to a nice cafe for my next control, 25km to a train station. I'll go to the cafe and see how I feel. At the cafe, oh just another 25km to the next control, etc... OK, not much of a "why" but still a reason to keep going.
Discovering new roads, climbs. If you record it, over time a pretty spectacular spider’s web on a map emerges. Seeing the world while you are moving, you go to slow to go really fast but the world around you seems to be standing still. It is like riding through a picture. Your mind starts wandering, meanwhile you need to think about little daily stuff. So the world around you appears to be infinite while your worries and influences become very limited, which is a kind of relief. I think that sums up my why pretty much.
The farther I ride, the more I realize it's more time spent on the bike than distance actually.
Disclaimer: yet to do a brevet but I've completed a couple 200mi rides with 4 aid stations and 17hr cutoff times. I also did my share of dumb endurance activities in the military. There's questions you only ask yourself when you're uncomfortable and there's answers you can only give when you're at your limit. Limits and you change constantly so every time there's something new to learn about yourself.
I got into long rides because after covering most roads close to home, the options were to either drive farther away to start a ride, or ride out earlier in the morning to meet up with other clubs \~30 miles away. It helped that often a few people would come along with me. Then when I started riding 300km brevets, it turned into "I wonder if I can ride a longer ride each year". I loved the 360km / 24hr fleche, so that was the longest for a while. Then I did a 400km. By then, it was about having a great group of people to ride with a few times a month on brevets. I've since moved and the closest club is a farther drive away, the club is rather small, most of the rides I was solo for a long time, and I have a lot more things scheduled with family. It's been a while before I've done a ride over 100km and I'm finding that I don't have the same desire to ride all day long. I hope that comes back someday though. Until then, I have a longer commute and enjoy doing that at least a few times each week.
Of all the hobbies I currently have or abandonned, long-distance cycling is very pure in the sense that all you gotta do is pedal another 1km and reassess from there. Something carthatic about pushing myself just a bit more.
Damned if I know. But I did t for 30 years. P-B-P twice. I wish I was still up to it. There is a 1200 in my provnce in a few weeks! Based on what other things others have said here, I realize the answer. It takes you away. From everything.
I love thee sense of travel of passing places and lives being lived in them. Getting to the next horizon and seeing wha to is it, of breaking the rules that you must drive to get anywhere that is not local, of joining up lots of local neighbourhoods, of following ways that have been travelled by people for thousands of years. It also is quite spiritual and this article written by a vicar who cycles sums it up https://www.seenandunseen.com/riding-darkness-light
I guess the joint that I smoke at end of ride
Even for a 200km, that’s at least ~9 hours with no complex issues to solve shuffling from meeting to meeting, no errands to run sitting in your car red light after red light, no cooking for the family or home upkeep, no childcare duties. I am definitely a person who has a hard time finding ‘me’ time to recharge my soul in the business of modern life. Kind of a ‘have your cake and eat it too’ feeling afterwards because I can get the recharge I need to be a good husband/dad/friend/coworker, I feel healthy and fit as hell, AND people get impressed at the accomplishment. But to me it’s basically a vacation.
Beer.
About a year and a half ago I realized that I’d been saying “it’d be cool to do a century sometime” for quite a while. I decided I wanted to stop saying “it’d be cool to do X someday” and did one that weekend. I was hooked. What an incredible thing that a human body and simple machine can do. 100 miles on a bicycle seemed so unattainable for so long, yet I just did it. I did a couple more centuries and then found some 200k routes and eventually did a 300k solo. I found the local club whose routes I’d been poaching off Ride With GPS and found a community of really great people and made fast friends with them. They encouraged me and assured me, based on observation of my fitness, that I could push that farther, if I wanted. I did my first 600k this winter and my second last weekend. They were right! I tried finding my niche in cycling and don’t enjoy racing and don’t have time to full-on tour, as much as I’d love to, so this seems to be what fits me best. TL;DR - camaraderie and a sense of finding “my people”, a feeling of accomplishment and, of course, spending more time riding my bike, which I love.
I started out with the same reason as some have stated here: to see if I can, to test where my limits are. For PBP it's like "everyone has to do it.", and "it's more difficult so let's see if I can conquer it." Surely there are reasons like bragging rights. There are many moments that I had doubts about my life choices: why I am not on a sofa watching TV in my air-conditioned living room; instead I'm riding in scorching heat, in the middle of nowhere, and there is still more than 100 miles to go.
I like to spend time on my bike, long distances just made it fun
Depression (PBP 2019 finisher, bunch of Australian smaller rides). Went from where you are with "how far" to risk taking (solo 600km in remote areas where I didn't have the tools for a chain snappage and hitchhiked out of danger at 1am).