In 2023, my goal was 4,000 miles, and I made it, so I started with the same this year.
In late September, 2024, my local club did a ride across our state, about 350 miles over 4 days. After that, I was about 20 miles shy of the 4,000 goal, and hit it within the following week. I normally ride 80-120 miles per week, so 350 was a huge jump.
Then, I upped the goal to 5,000 miles, then finished that in late November or early December. A friend congratulated me and noted that 5,000 miles was almost 100 miles per week, so I made the new goal 5,200 miles.
Of those 5,348 miles, 2,111 miles (~39%) were on Zwift. I did three imperial centuries on Zwift this year, and several more metric centuries on Zwift. The rest were all outdoor, ranging from 25 miles to 120 miles.
I haven’t decided on a goal for next year yet. Right now it’s at 5,200 miles (it automatically resets to the same). But, for various reasons, I’m not sure whether I’ll ride that much this year.
Indoor gives you consistency with the ride.
It’s nearly impossible for me to do a 3 or 4 hour base building ride at low watts without being wildly over or under my targets. Indoors, I’m able to pretty much nail the target zones, so it’s probably a more effective way to do specific training.
But my longer outdoor rides will include some monster hills, which aren’t easy to duplicate with my current setup.
I’ll make due with what I’ve got, and will look to upgrade when the need arises.