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

[Stonechat]

Well, I played safe and put on my skull cap under my helmet and my silk liner gloves under normal gloves. Lightish weight jersey with a jacket on top. Needed it for the first hour but once the sun came up I almost got too warm. Don't know if the cold affects your muscles or not but I found it quite hard work even after having yesterday off. Still, nice to get out on a nice crisp morning. Makes you feel healthy.

Yes I was not overly cold yesterday, but lack of warmth in the muscles meant I did not add any to the ride, if I felt warmer might have added 5 or more miles

 

[Stonechat]

I know that you can do it on the Strava website, edit ride, you can,t change much, date and name.
Think maybe you can't do it on the mobile app

NOt I am wrong you can only edit something you put in manually - if Strava misses part of journey, I add it in - no maps just the distance and time

 

[Biggler]

I ended up manually editing the GPX file -http://www.strava.com/activities/83199476

Weirdly it was just the first data point that had the wrong date / time, all the others were fine

 

[1smartmonkey]

I've noticed that a lot of the threads in this 'beginners' section are from people who can do 50 miles easily or average 20mph over long distances. Which is a bit like those people who turn up for a beginners language course claiming not to know a word when in fact they own a property in the country in question, spend several weeks there a year and are semi-fluent. It is a bit disheartening for genuine completely unfit newbies like myself!

So I thought it would be nice for us complete noobs to have a thread where we can be brutally honest about our pitiful distances and average speeds and support each other to get fitter.

I'll get the ball rolling. I started off a month ago today doing 3 miles on a flat road twice a day at 8mph average. Now I am doing 20 miles a day (a hilly route in one go without stopping) and my average today was 11.6mph. I also have a shorter route of 4 miles which I do in an average of 14.0 mph.

So far I have also lost 5lbs of the approximately 30lbs I need to lose to get down to my ideal weight.

Pretty shameful really compared to a lot of the guys on here but I think I have made good progress in a month and I will get there eventually. Now let's see your newbie progress!

been riding for years usually 5mile work commute,bought single speed last month have done abut 100 mile on it,still kills me every time(hills know what I mean)but keep at it.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I ended up manually editing the GPX file -http://www.strava.com/activities/83199476

Weirdly it was just the first data point that had the wrong date / time, all the others were fine

Thats all it takes, for data to be screwed. You can also trim the ride, this would have worked but you would not have known how far to go using that method.

 

[Paulg04]

Looking for a bit of advice. I apologise to all the ladies on here but I've been experiencing some discomfort in the family jewels area. I feel like I'm sliding down my saddle at times. Do I need to maybe tilt my saddle back a bit. Gets pretty uncomfortable at times. Feel like my backside is getting use to the saddle now though.....thankfully

 

[Goonerobes]

Looking for a bit of advice. I apologise to all the ladies on here but I've been experiencing some discomfort in the family jewels area. I feel like I'm sliding down my saddle at times. Do I need to maybe tilt my saddle back a bit. Gets pretty uncomfortable at times. Feel like my backside is getting use to the saddle now though.....thankfully

Personally I have my seat spirit level straight & I'd guess tilting it up at the front may increase your problem. You may also want to make sure your setup is correct & you are now having to reach to far or are too cramped.

Some of the more experienced "newbies" may have better ideas but this works for me.

 

[kurt909]

Tackled my first n00b climb today haha

edit: ahhh sorry about huge pic.

 

[Paulg04]

Personally I have my seat spirit level straight & I'd guess tilting it up at the front may increase your problem. You may also want to make sure your setup is correct & you are now having to reach to far or are too cramped.

Some of the more experienced "newbies" may have better ideas but this works for me.

Thanks. I need to take the bike into the shop in the next week anyway so will see what they say

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Looking for a bit of advice. I apologise to all the ladies on here but I've been experiencing some discomfort in the family jewels area. I feel like I'm sliding down my saddle at times. Do I need to maybe tilt my saddle back a bit. Gets pretty uncomfortable at times. Feel like my backside is getting use to the saddle now though.....thankfully

It took me ages to get it right just adjust it a bit at a time in the direction that feels right, you should be sat on the widest part of the saddle without out moving forward or back whilst cycling. It will also change a little over time as you get fitter. also the padding in one pair of shorts may well be different to that of another pair, I have a pair of lidl capri leggings and some endura shorts that use a coolmax padding, these sit slightly differently to my Tenn shorts, which are much more comfy, and I use these for longer rides, if its cold I wear a pair of ski base layer leggings, over them and if colder still leg warmers under them, and if really cold (like freezing cold) a pair of thermal tights over the leg warmers.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Well I did 40 miles today the first 30 I averaged about 18.mph, the last 10 I lost an avg of 1.6 mph making the overall avg 16.4
I was down to below 11mph on a road I would generally be doing about 17mph, though I have yet to do this section at that speed.
http://www.strava.com/activities/83252437#1699795632

 

[eevvee]

Well I did 40 miles today the first 30 I averaged about 18.mph, the last 10 I lost an avg of 1.6 mph making the overall avg 16.4
I was down to below 11mph on a road I would generally be doing about 17mph, though I have yet to do this section at that speed.
http://www.strava.com/activities/83252437#1699795632

Nice ride Nigel, and a good average speed for 40 miles, how was the weather? It looks good up here but swmbo has a paint brush with my name on it.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Where has Nomadski gone - anyone know?

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Nice ride Nigel, and a good average speed for 40 miles, how was the weather? It looks good up here but swmbo has a paint brush with my name on it.

Thanks, quite a strong west N.W breeze, a bit of drizzle part way through so I put some over shoes on, then it decided to hold off, thats why I stopped in Selby. I had two choices go clockwise which I did and have the wind behind me for a good 20 miles or a-c and head in to it for 20 miles, instead of the 10 miles at the end, lesser of two evils really.

 

[Mo1959]

Where has Nomadski gone - anyone know?

He hasn't recorded a ride on Strava since 30th August. I know his knee was playing up. Hope he is ok.