Inspiration maybe?

[Onthedrops]

I'm a relative newbie to this great sport.
Now on my 2nd roadie. Like many I dipped my toe with a relatively cheap ally road bike. Hardly rode it then committed to a sportive to give me the kick up the backside I needed to get out and ride.
Did several easy training rides which almost killed me but I did find I was riding further each time.
I was frightened to death of hills. Not particularly handy as there are many, many hills round here. Found myself riding routes which avoided them. Not particularly a good idea for building fitness and stamina.

Last year I pushed myself that bit further and attempted a few hills mid ride. I found I could do it. Subsequent rides involved hilly sections and I conquered peaks and climbs I would never have dreamed of doing.
My confidence also grew. With the practise I found my riding was smoother, my gear changes smoother and better anticipated. In short, I was becoming a cyclist.

3 weeks ago I rode out with a friend. I was a bit nervous at first, especially about the hills we would no doubt be going up.
We did do some hills, some of which were very steep along with other long inclines. I managed them all much to the admiration of my buddy who is an accomplished cyclist.
Move onto very recently. I received an invite from my pal to go out again.
This time we were riding out to the moors and possibly beyond. I was up for it but didn't exactly know where he meant by beyond.
I soon found out when during our ride he suggested we have a crack at one of the steepest hills in our area!
Cutting a long story short I made it. It was bloody hard work but the sense of achievement I felt at the peak enjoying the wonderful view was something which cannot be adequately described.
Chuffed to bits, proud and feeling great.

The moral is. With a bit of practise things once considered nigh on impossible can be achieved. Never in my wildest did I ever think I would accomplish what I had done.
If I can do it I'm certain many more can do likewise.

Stick at it guys, it will come if you try hard enough.

 

[Serynia]

Well Done Always a great feeling when you a accomplish a new cycling feat
I have been working my way up to bigger and bigger hills recently, they still scare the living snot out of me.. I managed one in my area called Lizard Lane (tame name for a hill ) yesterday and I agree is an amazing feeling. Anyone in and around south shields will excuse me hopefully for not tackling Redwell bank yet, it's the one t the end of the great north run short but when your at the bottom seems like a sheer cliff face, one day I will tackle it just not today lol.
Us newbies need some more good inspiration stories, cycling for me has been a scary sport to get into especially when your struggling up a hill and some super fit guy over takes you and even has the breath available so say hello and encourage you on.
Post your inspirational stories we'd love to hear them

 

[welsh dragon]

Well done and well written. As TMN says, anyone who rides a bike even just a few miles each week is a cyclist.

 

[Donger]

......... It was bloody hard work but the sense of achievement I felt at the peak enjoying the wonderful view was something which cannot be adequately described ...... Chuffed to bits, proud and feeling great....... The moral is. With a bit of practise things once considered nigh on impossible can be achieved. Never in my wildest did I ever think I would accomplish what I had done....... If I can do it I'm certain many more can do likewise.
Stick at it guys, it will come if you try hard enough.

Well Done
Us newbies need some more good inspiration stories, cycling for me has been a scary sport to get into especially when your struggling up a hill and some super fit guy over takes you and even has the breath available so say hello and encourage you on.
Post your inspirational stories we'd love to hear them

Well done, both. The important thing to remember is that it doesn't matter what someone else is capable of. So long as you are riding further, faster or up bigger hills than before, then you are making progress, and the sense of achievement will continue.

I made a conscious decision to make cycling my main form of exercise at the beginning of 2009. I was a middle-aged, overweight, stressed out wreck. At six foot six and a flabby 21 stone I was a heart attack just waiting to happen. When I first started, I was always out of breath. My legs always ached. I was embarrassed to wear lycra not only because of my body image, but because to some people that marks you out as a serious cyclist, and my performance just didn't match the look. There is a gentle drag of a hill near here that I used to regard as my Alpe d'Huez, and I would plan routes that would avoid it so as not to be seen stopping for a rest or getting off and pushing.

Fast forward 7 1/2 years ...... I now speed up that hill in the big ring, and hardly notice it. I now regularly enter 100km audaxes, and have kept plugging away at the Cyclechat Metric Century a Month Challenge for 19 months in a row now. My first four years averaged about 1, 500 to 1, 600 miles per year, but lately I have been averaging closer to 3,000 miles per year, and as of last month, I was nearly 59% of my way around the circumference of the world. I have joined my local cycling club and found a group that I can keep up with, and in two years they have only ever found one hill that I couldn't get up (although I'm still one of the slowest at climbing). I've taken my bike abroad with me 10 times, and have been able to head off anywhere I like without having to worry about the terrain. Always wondered what riding the Ardennes would be like .... Now I know. Loved it. I was curious to see what it was like to ride in the South of France in the heat of a Summer's day. Done that a few times now (in fact the middle section of today's Tour de France stage between St Chinian-Cessenon sur Orb- Murviel les Beziers all featured in my holiday posts in "Your Ride Today" last year). Always wanted to feel how it it felt to take on a monster climb with hairpins. Later in the year I will be off to the French Alps for the third time with my bike, and I will be taking on some more of the climbs that will feature in stages 19 and 20 of this year's Tour de France, having already done two TdF climbs from earlier years. I have done Bealach na Ba - the biggest climb in Britain, and I've had brilliant fun going off on trips with cycling mates - such as doing Cheddar Gorge with one mate and day-long tours of the Isle of Wight and the new Forest with another.

Strangely, although now much, much fitter than I was, I still weigh over twenty stone. And at six foot six I am certainly not your typical body shape for the sport. I just approach every challenge as setting a new veteran's super-heavyweight record, and ignore how much easier it is for some of the others. Every now and again I get a magnificent double-take from cyclists half my age and half my weight, with all the kit and riding lightweight bikes .... when I climb past them on my heavy steel tourer as they stand gasping at the side of the road on a steep hill pretending to admire the view! Moments like that make you realise how far you have come.

Enjoy your moments when they come. When you put in the effort, cycling really does just keep on giving. Just get out there and do it, and you will have no reason to worry about how much stronger or faster anyone else is. I thought I might not be the right size for cycling, or that I may have left it too late, but I now know that when my cycling days are over, I shall have nothing to regret. Everything I want to do, I am going to do.

Cheers, Donger.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Super post @Donger Stirring stuff.

Try reading the last paragraph out loud, doing a Winston Churchill impression.