Another Newbie

[sawyer280769]

First of all hi. Really interesting and informative forum. I'm 38 years old and up untill a few years ago pretty fit. Due to work and an injury I really fell away from any exercise and really need to get my butt moving again.

I am a pretty in-experienced cyclist but have recently bought an old TREK road bike and plan to get myself into shape. I ultimately would like to get into doing some serious miles but I am well aware I have to build up some experience and fitness. In relation to starting off fitness wise have you any advice about how many miles and types of routes I should start off with?

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[accountantpete]

Personally I wouldn't worry about the miles and would place greater importance in getting out on the road every day or as often as possible.

Don't know about you but as I get older the route depends pretty much on how I am feeling on the day.

As an alternative I have a nice quiet back road with a dip in it followed by a mile straight bit of road and I often pop down there to practice my climbing techniques and a bit of speed work- personally I gain more from this than putting in the miles as I can have a rest in between the exercises.

 

[sawyer280769]

makes sense. I will look for a route that incorporates some inclines and some straight stretches.

 

[sawyer280769]

Would you recommend that I do say ten miles and see what times I can improve on and then after a while make the distance longer and better my times each ride if you know what I mean?

 

[accountantpete]

Would you recommend that I do say ten miles and see what times I can improve on and then after a while make the distance longer and better my times each ride if you know what I mean?

It depends what you want out of cycling - a very basic aim is to be able to cruise at a certain speed (say 15 - 20mph) and do say a 50 -100 mile trip. So you train to able to achieve the desired speed and then gradually increase the distances that you can maintain this speed over.

In the case of the former I would stick to the shorter distances until you are happy with your cruising speed and then work on the longer distances but you could do it the other way around -that's the beauty of cycling.

It's also very important to think about your cycling - climbing and pedalling techniques,equipment etc as it is not just a case of putting the miles in each week!

 

[sawyer280769]

thanks for the reply. I have been looking at some of the threads and have picked up a bit on pedalling techniques and some training methods. I think I will set myself a set distance and see if I can maintain a decent speed until I am then happy to lengthen my distance and see if I can keep maintaining the speed