How many miles should I bike every day for health?

Justwondering..: How many miles should I bike every day for health?
I am almost 16 and getting a new bike this weekend. I want to tone up my legs especially, as my upper body is really good from karate. How many miles should I bike every day? I am getting a speedometer too. Thanks, 10 points! God bless.

Answers and Views:

Answer by silverbullet
Those of us who actually LIKE cycling think about it in the reverse. How many miles can I squeeze in today?

It doesn’t start getting difficult until I get over 250-300 miles a week.

Answer by Anonymous Tipster
like 300? maybe more depending on how fat you are

Answer by kyle
this all depends on what type of bike you buy as well. If you are getting a road bike, I would go for shorter ride to get used to the bike. Go out for a couple hours a day. Don’t push yourself too hard at first, or you may turn yourself off from cycling.

Answer by GeologyJoe
If your just staring out. 45 minutes a day a few days per week and longer on the weekends will have you in shape by the end of the summer.
but like the first post mentions, once you get into it you will want to be doing more and more.

Answer by Makkaio
You’re at a great age to start biking as a lifestyle. As noted in other answers, once you get on a bike and it becomes a way of life, you’ll want to do it more and more.

My advice would be to pay attention to your body. You’re going to run into three different kinds of endurance tests…cardio, respiratory, and muscular.

To build your cardio endurance, you want to get your heart rate up to between 140 – 170 beats per minute and keep it there.

To build your respiratory endurance…well…you want to breathe…deep in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Muscular endurance to me was the most difficult to get a handle on. You’ll need to learn the resistance you can maintain throughout your ride by using your gears.

At first, less resistance is better so you don’t hurt yourself. Nothing like not being able to walk or sit for a few days after a bike ride to turn you off from the sport.

A not-so-scientific measure of tracking your endurance is: If you can sing clearly and hold notes while biking, you’re not working hard enough. If you can talk normally, you are not overdoing it. If you find you can’t talk normally while biking, you may be stressing yourself.

As you feel you can handle it, increase your resistance by dropping into harder gears. Also, over time, sprint for a certain distance here and there push your endurance even more.

I won’t go into it here, but eating right and having the right kind of energy is important for all three forms of endurance.

Last, but not least, drink plenty of water. I stock a 40 oz. waterpack backpack and a 16 oz. water bottle.

For staying fit, it’s not so much how many miles you ride, it’s how you ride those miles that is important.