I finally dusted off my mountain bike. I have a Trek 800 sport and I'm looking forward to adding rides to my workout routine but I have some questions.

How often do you ride?
How do you measure your distance?
Did biking help you lose weight?
What speed do you ride?
Do you ride on road or off?

Are there any other tips you learned along the way that you can share?

I will be going out tomorrow for my first ride.

Last year, I rode 1-2 times/week, not much this year to some injuries (non bike related) and heat.

I measured distance by using paths with known distances for the most part or using something like mapmyrun.com

Speed - Not sure, but went out with a friend once and we were doing 12mph or so, she had something to calculate speed.

I have a road bike so riding off road is not a good thing I used paved paths for the most part, sometimes short distances on gravel/unpaved.

My tip would be that riding a mountain bike will be a completely different experience than a road bike. You will be working harder to go shorter distances than someone on a road bike so it isn't a good comparison. I'd say just go out and have fun.

I just got a bike, wooohoo! I live in a city so I ride it around my neighborhood for exercise. I definitely overestimated how far and long I can ride in relation to my fitness level. I can do about 20min and be ok, when I go longer I tend to get over tired.

I use an app on my phone called iSmoothRun. Best app ever! I can use it for walking, jogging, or cycling. It uses GPS to track my distance, speed, calories burned, it even maps and charts your course and even your elevations. I set it so that it chimes in every 3min and alerts me how far I've gone and what my average speed is. I think it cost $4 or so but it was the best fitness app I ever got.