Show us your.......newbie progress! [4 Sep 2012 - 4 Oct 2014]

[Nigelnaturist]

Sorry if I have insulted a few people about me calling my Viking Fixi a BSO, well of today she is no longer a BSO, her SPD pedals arrived and she will now be called a bumb number (until her Charge Spoon arrives), only managed a tad over 6 miles today as my backside was still hurting from yesterday so in my great (or not so) wisdom I decide to walk a half marathon, as this is a cycling forum I won't bore you of the 10 mile stop at a local watering hole , surffice to say 3 Magners in this hot weather does hinder ones progress . Still tomorrows another day and what with being on the late shift I will get out on one of my bikes and do a few miles..

T

Only pulling your leg, it's ok, I just find it a pain kitting it for wet weather, or rather the sun as it usually means taking everything off (not clothes before anyone pipes up) as it's usually wetter than dryer in this country.

I started something a different today since I just finished reading another cycling book I thought I'd try to see how hard intervals can be by following one of the plans put in place by some famous coach (never heard of him personally but my sport culture is pretty limited TBH) ... Well as I found out, they're not hard as I though, they are bloody painful but ... enjoyable in a weird masochistic way.

Basically I did 15m in Z2 followed by 10m in Z3 with by 5 minute rest followed by 3 x 5m in Z4 with 5m rest between intervals. Since pedalling this hard tends to get too fast for dealing with traffic in a safe and responsible manner , I went for a small hill which I've done some time ago in 12:18 minutes.

Now this is where it gets interesting, 1st Z4 interval I managed to about half way through, 2nd I did it in 7:02 and the last interval was down to 6:20 and PR. To be honest I would have expected the performance to decrease as I got more and more tired after each interval but the opposite has happened which is very interesting to say the least. Second point was that I don't feel exhausted or hungry at all, if anything a bit more energised.

Will see how I feel tomorrow but I'm looking forward to trying some more of these.

Just in case you might be interesting, this is the book, very easy read in plain english, aimed at beginners. Covers bike training, nutrition, indoor training and weights. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1605294063

It's simply your body as got into rhythm to deliver blood to the muscles, the rest between intervals allows the blood cells to exchange co2 for o2 at a greater rate, so the next time you work hard there is more o2 but is delivered quicker as you are already working. If my understanding is corrected, though someone will put me right i am sure.
I find I work best from about 10 miles on, by which time my body is functioning better, mind you a lot of runs end about that distance.
I am still a little sore from Saturday, which surprises me really, so apart from a run out to get new tubes yesterday I haven't been out, and the flats on Sunday.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I agree that some people see £'s spent on bikes as some sort of passport to instant speed and mega-mileages which is patently not the case.

!

The only way of getting these is to cycle, as we all know.

 

[RWright]

Well, I dusted off my old Raleigh tourer a couple of months ago and started getting some healthy exercise riding round a local reservoir. Very popular area with cyclists and I was impressed by them all. Being 65 and recently retired with some time on my hands I have persevered and now feel a lot fitter and can 'push on' a bit more.

Today I got a little trip computer and the result of my big effort: 17 miles at an average of 13.7mph. I weighed my bike and it is 15kg - if I invested in a more suitable road bike at say 10 or 11kg does anyone know what effect that would have on my times?

Cheers Paul

I am about 2 mph faster on my drop bar bike than on my Townie, the Townie probably isn't quite as fast as a tourer though, but weighs about the same. I would say about 2 though, because I think if I really pushed things on both bikes I would probably be even a little faster than +2 on the drop bar bike.

 

[RWright]

Sunday while I was riding I saw some nice bikes going slow myself. The guy that scalped me was just easing along, he had the body of a pro rider, you could just tell by looking at him that he was putting down the power. He didn't blow by me or anything, he was polite and we exchanged good mornings and then he pretty much was gone. I did see a lot of aero bars on bikes, most were going really slow, I figured it might be some new training thing.

I also saw something I forgot to mention, I saw two bikes sort of like a recumbent but they were pedaling with their arms, going pretty slowly with a regular bike following them. It was pretty wild. I didn't go the particular part of the route I wanted to because they were going down it. I thought they might be handicapped or something and I didn't want to be scalping handicapped people on Sunday morning. It just seemed like the wrong thing to do.

I did a little longer than normal ride today. I wanted to check out the 100 km route that they do the local animal shelter charity ride on. I am going to score this ride as a character builder. The wind had me in every direction, it was kind of warm, the route was just up and down the whole time it seemed like, nothing brutal to climb but just constantly changing with some of the road surfaces being the rough buzzy finish. It was cloudy most of the day but I only got rained on lightly near the end. I took the wrong turn once and it cost me an uphill ride of about a half mile, wasn't so bad when I realized it and cam back to the course but by this time I was beat. There was a road closure with a detour on part of the route. I went thru anyway, it was the Strava thing to do, I get home and load the ride and don't even see the segment listed. I wanted to compare my most likely slowest time ever with others. The place I stopped for lunch was over priced and my burger was dry. I dropped the chain making stupid shifts, twice.

The historic colonial era revolutionary war house I stopped at, called the House in the Horseshoe, was ok but not what I expected. I had been there a long time ago and there were some great views, now they are growing corn around it, and the corn was pretty tall. I was not able to see the river that makes a horseshoe shape around the hill the house sits on. I did get a few pictures of the house with bullet holes in it. As well as a few inside too, but with the way things went today they will probably be terrible, I haven't checked them yet.

About the only good thing I can say about today's ride is I didn't get hit by a car or truck. The drivers were excellent for the most part. Sorry to make my ride sound like so much fun but everyone has a bad day sometimes. Just thought I would share.

 

[Ciar]

First commute this week, lovely morning I left slightly later than i usually do so more cyclists and cars, but nothing too major, looks like I upped my average speed and time we shall see how tonight runs, if the slightly higher temperatue makes a difference on the return route seems my bluetooth cadence monitor needs adjusting as it's not showing any readings!

there was one thing that stuck out as well, as i was slightly later than usual more cyclists I got to experience just how many cyclists rlj, i reckon it was in the high 90's % wise.. reckon me and two others stopped at each light hah

Route: To Work
Activity: Cycle For Distance
Started: 10 Jul 2013 06:10:11
Ride Time: 37:01
Distance: 9.16 miles
Average Speed: 14.86 mph
Fastest Speed: 23.60 mph
Ascent: 725 feet
Descent: 568 feet
Average Heart Rate: 139 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate: 163 bpm
Average Cadence: 0 rpm
Maximum Cadence: 0 rpm
Bike: Cannondale Hybrid
Shoes: Specialized Tahoe

 

[Goldcoast]

First ride since getting back from holiday couple of days ago and legs hurt but just glad to have got out as I have felt a bit "meh" towards cycling due to seeing a pedestrian mowed down outside our house, very grim driver didn't even brake. Allegedly an alcoholic who was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

First commute this week, lovely morning I left slightly later than i usually do so more cyclists and cars, but nothing too major, looks like I upped my average speed and time we shall see how tonight runs, if the slightly higher temperatue makes a difference on the return route seems my bluetooth cadence monitor needs adjusting as it's not showing any readings!

there was one thing that stuck out as well, as i was slightly later than usual more cyclists I got to experience just how many cyclists rlj, i reckon it was in the high 90's % wise.. reckon me and two others stopped at each light hah

Distance: 9.16 miles
Average Speed: 14.86 mph
e

Never seen this amount, and people wonder why we have a bad reputation.
Good avg in traffic.

 

[Ciar]

Never seen this amount, and people wonder why we have a bad reputation.
Good avg in traffic.

in all honesty not much traffic even though I was slightly later, i think they only reason I noticed the rljs more was because I hit every red light this morning, where as normally they are green, but from the top of leytonestone high road all the way onto the mile end road, it was just one red light after another, i actually don't mind i get to drink and take a breather

 

[Nigelnaturist]

First ride since getting back from holiday couple of days ago and legs hurt but just glad to have got out as I have felt a bit "meh" towards cycling due to seeing a pedestrian mowed down outside our house, very grim driver didn't even brake. Allegedly an alcoholic who was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.

Life is a risk.
If that is the case, he/she will be looking at time, I was fortunate I didn't hurt anyone, or rather they were, even so I paid dearly for it and quite rightly so, it took time, but I managed to stop drinking, I still have the issues that caused the drinking, but I try and manage the down moods better, i.e. cycling.
I hope the pedestrian is ok.
I seem to be running a gauntlet in recent weeks, nearly been toasted 4 or 5 times, last time on Monday.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

in all honesty not much traffic even though I was slightly later, i think they only reason I noticed the rljs more was because I hit every red light this morning, where as normally they are green, but from the top of leytonestone high road all the way onto the mile end road, it was just one red light after another, i actually don't mind i get to drink and take a breather

This is what they don't realise. I made a delivery on the The Mile End Rd once, got a ticket for it too, mind I had informed the company I couldn't drop anywhere else, so I didn't have to pay.

 

[SamC]

I saw lots of red light jumpers yesterday too. More jumped the lights than stopped at them to be honest, which is infuriating. The ones who hover in the middle of the junction are most irritating. Either stop at the line or go through the light, don't just hover there in the jaws of death!

I forced myself to do 32 miles yesterday, although all I really wanted to do was lie on the sofa. This nice weather is too good to pass up. It felt slow but I went 2 miles further in 5 minutes less than last time so perhaps not.

I think it was my first cycle in rush hour proper, so I had to do my first bit of filtering. I really need to relax my death-grip on the handlebars in traffic. I cling on for dear life when I’m stressed and my thumbs are aching as a reminder. Audi drivers and Range Rover drivers have a strange idea of what constitutes passing a cyclist safely though, don't they?

 

[RWright]

First ride since getting back from holiday couple of days ago and legs hurt but just glad to have got out as I have felt a bit "meh" towards cycling due to seeing a pedestrian mowed down outside our house, very grim driver didn't even brake. Allegedly an alcoholic who was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.

That would be a shock to the system to see something like that. Good luck getting back out riding, just go when you are comfortable to start with. I have seen a couple of disturbing things while riding. I won't get into them on here, they would be a little too graphic, but they did not involve humans getting hurt. Sometimes we all get unlucky and see things we have to live with for the rest of our lives but it will hopefully become a little more tolerable with time.

 

[RWright]

Life is a risk.
If that is the case, he/she will be looking at time, I was fortunate I didn't hurt anyone, or rather they were, even so I paid dearly for it and quite rightly so, it took time, but I managed to stop drinking, I still have the issues that caused the drinking, but I try and manage the down moods better, i.e. cycling.
I hope the pedestrian is ok.
I seem to be running a gauntlet in recent weeks, nearly been toasted 4 or 5 times, last time on Monday.

I made a very stupid move on my last ride, I jumped a red light on a wide intersection that rarely has traffic on it. I saw the car trigger it to go green for them but I kept going slowly thru it. The vehicle went through it very slowly causing me to have to hesitate. During this time some girl had exited the highway like a bat out of hell, I was unclipping to go to the island in the middle but the girl managed to bring the car to a complete stop, on wet roads and then motioned me to pass in front of her even though she had the green light, she was even smiling, it was a great piece of driving, all totally controlled. I was really impressed.

I did apologize and thank her as I went through.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Afternoon all.

22.15 miles / 13.64 mph av' / 1390' climbing - chose a hilly-ish route even though it was very humid here today.

Bit of a lower av' speed than of late but there was one whopping great hill (well I think it is) that climbs 630' in 1.4 miles. I was panting like a dog most of the way up. In truth I was Pretty Blooming Chuffed to get up this. I have given myself a Gold Star for effort.

Had a nice shower and all is well with the world.

One more ride planned this week and then off to Snowdon for long hill walking day on Sunday.

Stay safe all.

 

[Mo1959]

@SpokeyDokey Well done on that hill. Sounds a toughie. I think we just have to be pleased with our own achievements and try not to compare with others too much. I just lost one of my QOM, s that I was very proud of However, to put it into perspective, the rider that took it is a member of the Perth United Cycling Club and regularly enters races, time trials, hill climbs, etc! I think her average for the ride was 19mph. How do you compete with that! Answer, you can't so just have to be happy with what you can do I suppose.