How much cycling progress did you make since you first started cycling?

[raleighnut]

Similar here, I've always cycled

 

[Colin Grigson]

I returned to cycling in May this year after a 38 year gap. I started with 10km rides for the first couple of weeks at about 20kmh and just kept plugging away and increasing the distance every couple of weeks ... like you - I was scared I’d run out of steam and have to phone my wife, but it never happened. The past couple of weeks I’ve been managing 60km + and upping my speed to over 29kmh for the duration. I’m going to attempt a 100km next week but slow just to get past that milestone and then I’ll up my pace again to see where it ends ... it’s all incredibly encouraging so far .

 

[pawl]

Work out a circular route approximately 10 miles or less from home.Ride as far as you feel able .You have only a short distance back to home if you decide to bail

I usually do this if I have been of the bike for a period of time

 

[rivers]

I bought my first road bike in July 2016 and joined a local cycling club. My first ride with them I averaged around 12 mph. Today was our first ride back since lockdown rules began easing (we are a large club which required a large amount of logistical planning on the committee's part to get us back out). Today, I averaged 17mph with two of my friends, which is a speed I have been chasing for about a year. When I started cycling, I struggled to ride even 3 miles. I did my first metric century 2 months after I bought my road bike. Like a poster above, I can do 200 miles+ in a day (usually a14-15mph average because it's a pace i can easily hold all day, but also depends on factors such as weather and climbing). Previous years i have focused more on endurance/ultra endurance riding, but i've decided to focus more on speed over longer distances this year (a friend and I have set ourselves an absolutely insane long distance TT challenge for next year), as opposed to seeing how far I can ride in a day. Although London-Wales-London, and a few other long rides are on my radar for 2022/2023.

 

[sleuthey]

I always get paranoid that I will cycle too far 1 way and then I will be screwed on my way back as I won't have enough energy to cycle back.

Ride a circular route with your home in the middle

 

[All uphill]

I always cycled locally, but for many years thought 5 to 6 miles and back was my limit. Since retirement I have finally got over that mindset and soon was doing 35 miles on my hybrid.

Now I'm very comfortable with 60 mile days out, and am confident I'll do my first 100 mile this year. My priority is enjoyment, not distance. I take plenty of tools and food.

Thanks for mentioning the mental aspect - I still get the occasional feeling "I can't do this" but it soon passes!

 

[plustwos]

Started aged about 3 and never had a break from cycling. I’d imagine it wasn’t far. But by aged 7 we’d cycle to the local parks and woods with the odd 36 mile round trip to Buxton. You could ride on A roads back then as traffic wasn’t anywhere near comparable to now.

Ah, a late starter. We live in a quiet lane and the last few months watching children pass has taken me back to my childhood when there was little traffic and children were out on bikes much of the time. I ,too, was seven when I went with a friend from the west side of Birmingham to the Clent Hills and back. We rode about 15 miles. Today the route is cut by a motor way and dual carriageways. I hope for their sake that today's children will get the bug. We are heartened by the fact that they will chat to us when we're on bikes, it's as though being on a bike says you're not a paedophile.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Ah, a late starter. We live in a quiet lane and the last few months watching children pass has taken me back to my childhood when there was little traffic and children were out on bikes much of the time. I ,too, was seven when I went with a friend from the west side of Birmingham to the Clent Hills and back. We rode about 15 miles. Today the route is cut by a motor way and dual carriageways. I hope for their sake that today's children will get the bug. We are heartened by the fact that they will chat to us when we're on bikes, it's as though being on a bike says you're not a paedophile.

I had a tricycle before that, but I was about 3 when I switched to two wheels 😁

 

[Paulus]

I had a tricycle before that, but I was about 3 when I switched to two wheels 😁

I was 5 when I switched to two wheels, I had a raliegh tricycle before that.
I used to cycle to primary school, and then as I grew I moved up to a 20inch wheeled Raleigh .
I continued to cycle, on various larger bikes,
then to secondary school, and then work aged 16, and onwards and upwards.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I was 5 when I switched to two wheels, I had a raliegh tricycle before that.
I used to cycle to primary school, and then as I grew I moved up to a 20inch wheeled Raleigh .
I continued to cycle, on various larger bikes,
then to secondary school, and then work aged 16, and onwards and upwards.

Yep I cycled to all my schools , that transferred to cycling to work, and never stopped.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

As for cycling too far. Plan a circular route around where you live so you can bail out and return home earlier if getting too fatigued.

 

[Lovacott]

I started out at 3 on a trike and got onto 2 wheels at 4 1/2. I cycled everywhere (school, friends houses, long days out) until I was 17.

Then I went onto a motorbike (1976 Triumph T140V).

When I was 24, after 7 years off a pushbike, I bought a Raleigh 5 speed racer and decided to cycle to work (I lived one side of Bristol and worked on the other and the traffic was terrible, even on a motorbike).

Day 1 nearly killed me but after a month or so, I found it easier. I kept this up until I moved to London a few years later and commuted to work there as well (17 miles each way, all year round in all weathers). I kept that up for nine years. Then I had another break (four years) before starting again in Devon (only 5 miles each way but very hilly and again, it nearly killed me at the start).

Then I moved abroad (Australia) and spent 7 years going nowhere near a bike apart from a hired one on an island.

Back in Devon, I bought a bike to ride up and down the Tarka trail once or twice a year with the kids. Most of the time, the bike has sat in the shed.

When lockdown started, I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to sit around watching Netflix so I dusted off the bike and started going out on level ground doing about ten miles each day. It was a bit hard at first, but over a few weeks, I built up speed and increased my distance.

When I started work again after six weeks of furlough, I started cycling the ten miles to work. Big hills (I live in one river valley and cycle to another over a ridge which peaks at 422 feet above my start and end points). The views from up top are breathtaking and being on a bike lets you see over the hedgerows.

I walked some of the hills to start with, but after a couple of weeks, I could do all of them in the granny gear. Lately, I have been trying to do all of them in bigger gears (a couple up from granny). I've knocked ten minutes off my travel time in the last month.

I suffered quite a few aches and pains to start with. Knees, thighs, calves and ankles. Over the last month or so, these have subsided.

My calves and thighs have gained a fair bit of bulk and my blood pressure has dropped from 135 over 95 to 116 over 69. I haven't lost weight, but I am a lot slimmer. I can only assume that muscle weight has gained and fat weight has dropped. I no longer have a pot belly.

Apparently, I no longer snore.

The first month or so, I had to force myself to ride my bike (there was a nice comfy car sitting outside).

Now, I actually prefer to cycle. The only days I miss are when there are winds forecast in excess of 30mph. I don't mind getting a soaking, but I don't want to be blown sideways into a passing car.

Once bike shops start getting a bit of stock, I'm looking at splashing a grand or so on something half decent. Meanwhile, I've spent a small fortune replacing/upgrading most of what matters on the cheap MTB I had sitting out in the shed.

 

[Ridgeway]

Was quite seriously into BMX when i was a teenager, then grew up and started road cycling until i was around 19, then life, girls, job etc came along although i did commute for a few years in my twenties..... then a 20yr gap until my mid 40's when the Tour de Romandie rolled through our village and i smelt the chain oil again bought a 2nd hand Scott road bike and thought i was king when i completed a 30km loop (i used to ride Marple to Sheffield via the Snake pass in my teens). Since returning to cycling i've only taken it more seriously since mid of last year, and this year turning 50yrs old i'm just on the back of a 6,000m weekend although my climbing is still crap but i love the uphill stuff and that's what gets me out of bed on a Sunday morning. Yesterday i was happy with a loop of 128km with 1100m elevation and an average of 30.5kmh, room for improvement and another 5kgs to loose

Still yearning to have a blast on a BMX though

 

[HLaB]

When I started cycling again the flat 1mile commute felt easy (as it should do for a 28year old) and 5-25miles trips at the weekend whilst feeling doable seemed like the limit. My commute then became 17.7miles oneway with a lot more climbing (although I'd mostly use the train am and cycle pm). After a wee while of that commute, I was comfortably doing rides of 40-60 miles at the weekend and with hard work I managed a few hilly tons. Then I moved down here where cycling was relatively easy and I was smashing out 200-300 mile weekends (205miles was my longest) which made hillier European sportives doable. Then I got hit with cancer causing a chronic iron shortage and whilst I was still managing tons the were no longer fun even on my LEJOG. Through those two years I still cycled 17,000miles and I can smash out a ton easily again now thing are behind me, I just don't know if I want too. At the moment I'm preferring 40-60miles trips at 18-20mph, shorter faster TT's and even turbore interval sessions as oppose to a ton about 15-17mph. Im 45year old at the end of the year, maybe its a mid life crisis

 

[RoubaixCube]

Not very far and not very fast. My first attempt was with one of these halfords specials

I think it weighed 14-16kg. chain always slipping on the rear cassette. I rode it for a few months then I left it to the spiders in the shed to have their fun with it.

cycling at walking pace alone for 10-15mins had me in a sweat. i wasnt that fit either for that matter. Im quite a few stones lighter now than i was back then and even though i still have it in the shed - thats where it will stay unless someone wants it.

Dunwich Dynamo still hurts though. The first 60-80miles is always easy but the last 20-30 is a right pain.