Do you take into consideration wind and what sort of route when training?

If you want or need to figure out calories burned, click on link below & fill in the blanks. As another stated, a good heart monitor will also help tremendously. I've personally never seen a bicycle race on a route that was all flat. Yes, start doing some hills. You can not control wind direction & speed.

Hills and wind make a huge difference in the amount of energy you expend. If you want to figure out how much energy you expend, you have to have some kind of device to give you an idea how hard you have worked. A heart rate monitor is very good for this. Elite cyclists will also use power meters to monitor how hard they are working, but these are quite expensive compared to a heart rate monitor. The other way to compare yourself to others is to ride with them. You can only get so far training alone. Until you have doen a training ride with someone you won't have any idea how strong they are

foozie Yes. Wind, like in my area can be pain beyond belief. I ride for fun anymore, and to stay in shape. But true pain is not part of the deal. Going flat out for 30 miles,, then turning around to face a thirty to forty mph wind ... head on... is pain. At certain times of the year, or if in the foercast, I avoid certain routes. On other days I reverse the directions that I ride. At one time of the year, I will ride in directions that will have the wind coming from the sides. Terrain issues, like hills, I don't worry about. Nor do I worry about altitude. UNLESS I am injred or perhaps ill. Distance is something that you can adjust at any single moment. I adjust my ditance ride all the time. Road traffic, good / bad riding conditions, wind, illness, riding partners are some of the variables that either shorten or LENGTHEN my ride. Soccerref

I have to agree with the use of a heart rate monitor. I do some days where I train by keeping my heart rate at a certain level and ride for distance. If that means going slower into the wind or climbing a mountain that's ok. I usually avoid the really steep hills that day. It gives you a good base to work on. Other days I climb hills on purpose and work hard to just be able to reach the top. Recover going back down and look for the next hill. If there are no hills you can do sprints until you run out of breath or your legs give out. That really helps your average speed on the flats. You have two types of muscle fibers. Slow twitch muscles use fat as a fuel and go on forever. You see that in long distance cycling or running at a moderate pace. Fast twitch muscles use glycogen as a fuel. They provide a lot of energy for short periods of time but once you use up your glycogen supply you are done. You see that in weight lifters and sprinters. You want to train for both types.

neither wind nor hills determine how hard the ride is you can always go easy and if there are wind or hills you just go slow same if it was all downhill both ways you can always still pedal and make it harder, go faster it;s up to you what you need is a heart rate monitor that is the real bottom line wle

No, I spend my time on my bike getting exercise rather then worrying about whats going to be out there. How many times have you gone out with the wind in your face only to have it chance directions to wind in your face when your coming back? Its futile to worry about what you cannot change.