How can stopping 4-6 times for the first ten and last ten of your ride equate to stopping for 30% of your ride? 4-6 times in 10 miles is nothing. I have 10 sets of lights within the first 2.5 miles of my rides starting from my house! Even if you catch them just turning red, you can't be stopped for that long can you?

Hi everyone.

Curious to know people's opinions on how stoplights affect long-ride training. With gas prices what they are, I'm trying to avoid driving to my long-bike starts. Challenge is that for the first and last 8 miles or so, I'm dealing with stop lights. A typical ride looks like this:

First 10 miles - probably stopping 4-6 times.
Last 10 miles - probably stopping 4-6 times.
Everything in the middle is open road.

How much do those stoplights really affect the quality of my sessions? If I'm doing the stop and go for 30% of my ride, how much is that taking away from my endurance/benefit of the ride?[/quote
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I think you should petition your local council to have all the lights on your training route stay on green until you have finished your ride...Clearly they are discriminating against you!


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I think everyone is mis-reading his post. He says that "30% of his ride is stop and go" not that he is stopped for 30% of his ride. Meaning that he is doing stop and go for 20 of about 30 miles of his ride.