first longish ride in almost 3 years

[SteCenturion]

YAY ! @stuee147 !


Encore !! Encore !!

Allez ! Allez !

Chapeau !!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Allez allez from me too
Well done!

 

[vernon]

well last night i did my longest road ride so far (i normally head to the park for a ride) and to be honest i did a hell of a lot better than i expected. i knew the rout was around 4 to 5 miles (yes i know thats not a lot but for me its a hell of a run) and with some long energy sapping hills, iv been eyeing up the rout for a few weeks its follows the bus rout for most of the way with one small short cut about half way. i catch the bus along there a couple of times a day either way so i know the rout and the hills so i aloud myself 1 hour to do the ride. (yes 1 hour to do 5 miles is slow but again for me just getting back into cycling its a good time )
any way i set up my phone with the ride with gps app running and checked i was all ready and off i set.
then 36min 39 sec later i arrived amazed that i had made it let alone well under my 1hr estimate.
the ride info on the ride with gps app is
distance 4.2mi
elevation gain 341 ft
elevation loss 242 ft
total time 36:39
moving time 33:10
stopped time 03:29
max speed 21.7mph
avg speed 7.7mph

now i know them figgers may not seem much to most of you on here but to me they are great and have given me a real boost in confidence. i cant wait to get out and try another long road run and see if i can get them times down a bit

stuee

Some tips Stuee:

Ten or so years ago I was in your situation. I could barely walk to the end of my street and back having received a tentative diagnosis of heart failure - subsequent investigates and tests over six months failed to reach a definitive diagnosis by which time I was cycling regularly without feeling like death warmed up.

I started at Easter with a two mile ride - uphill for a mile and downhill for the homeward leg. I suggest that you ditch all of your tools and spares apart from a pump, puncture outfit, tyre levers and a spare inner tube. The worst that can happen to you is that you'll have to push your bike home for a couple of miles and your 'ride' will take twenty to thirty minutes longer than you planned.

After a week or two of daily rides I devised a circular route of four to five miles and rode it three or four times per week. When friends talked about cycling the York to Selby cycle route I could only dream of ever been fit enough to cycle fifteen flat miles. By the end of three months not only did I cycle the York to Selby Cycle route in the reverse direction but I'd also cycled to Selby from Leeds to get to the start of the ride and caught the train home from York.

Distances were slowly increased and by the time I got to late August I deemed myself fit enough to do the Coast to Coast (C2C) cycle route, 130 miles, and did it in two and a half days. There were hilly bits where I got off and walked but that gave me a chance to admire the scenery instead of staring at the patch of road immediately in front of the front wheel despairing about my breathlessness.

My cycling has developed apace and although not fast, I always get there in the end. I've cycled over 150 x 100km audax rides, Land's End to John O'Groats, Channel to the Med, half a dozen coast to coasts, and this summer I'm about to complete the last leg of the Eurovelo Six route by pedalling between Budapest and Constanta at the Black Sea.

At no stage was I ever below twenty one stones and when on tour I take full camping and cooking gear with me. Apart from porkiness I have a clean bill of health.

Keep plugging away with your bike, your miles will increase and your enjoyment will increase exponentially.

I cant wait to hear about your first ten miler next month.

 

[stuee147]

Some tips Stuee:

Ten or so years ago I was in your situation. I could barely walk to the end of my street and back having received a tentative diagnosis of heart failure - subsequent investigates and tests over six months failed to reach a definitive diagnosis by which time I was cycling regularly without feeling like death warmed up.

I started at Easter with a two mile ride - uphill for a mile and downhill for the homeward leg. I suggest that you ditch all of your tools and spares apart from a pump, puncture outfit, tyre levers and a spare inner tube. The worst that can happen to you is that you'll have to push your bike home for a couple of miles and your 'ride' will take twenty to thirty minutes longer than you planned.

After a week or two of daily rides I devised a circular route of four to five miles and rode it three or four times per week. When friends talked about cycling the York to Selby cycle route I could only dream of ever been fit enough to cycle fifteen flat miles. By the end of three months not only did I cycle the York to Selby Cycle route in the reverse direction but I'd also cycled to Selby from Leeds to get to the start of the ride and caught the train home from York.

Distances were slowly increased and by the time I got to late August I deemed myself fit enough to do the Coast to Coast (C2C) cycle route, 130 miles, and did it in two and a half days. There were hilly bits where I got off and walked but that gave me a chance to admire the scenery instead of staring at the patch of road immediately in front of the front wheel despairing about my breathlessness.

My cycling has developed apace and although not fast, I always get there in the end. I've cycled over 150 x 100km audax rides, Land's End to John O'Groats, Channel to the Med, half a dozen coast to coasts, and this summer I'm about to complete the last leg of the Eurovelo Six route by pedalling between Budapest and Constanta at the Black Sea.

At no stage was I ever below twenty one stones and when on tour I take full camping and cooking gear with me. Apart from porkiness I have a clean bill of health.

Keep plugging away with your bike, your miles will increase and your enjoyment will increase exponentially.

I cant wait to hear about your first ten miler next month.

thanks for them tips im itching to get out there and do a long ride but i know if i do ill only over do it and set myself back and i find that the hardest thing. i keep thinking that it was only 6 years ago i cycled from suffolk to stirling and never had a problem and it gets so frustrating when i get on my bike and after just a few hundred yards im starting to get a bit breathless after half a mile im getting short of breath so end up slowing right down not that iv been going fast in the first place, it feels like i will never get back to any sort of decent ride, but i know if i keep at it i will get there i just have to keep remembering to take it easy.

the funny thing is i was expecting my legs to ache and throb after that ride but nothing my legs were fine it was my right arm that throbbed that night, i think just due to using muscles id forgot i had lol.
im hoping to get out and try the run again tomorrow if the weather holds up for me fingers crossed

stuee

 

[Saluki]

Well done @stuee147 Keep up the good work.

 

[slowmotion]

Well done stuee. I was in the same situation about five years ago but worse. I honestly thought that I would die on my first attempt to cycle the five miles to work. A van driver stopped next to me as I was gasping for breath, overcome with nausea, holding my bike on a traffic island.
"Are you OK mate?". Well, I wasn't, but we all start somewhere, and it's got better and better. Little and often is the way to go when you begin.

Have fun.

 

[vernon]

thanks for them tips im itching to get out there and do a long ride but i know if i do ill only over do it and set myself back and i find that the hardest thing. i keep thinking that it was only 6 years ago i cycled from suffolk to stirling and never had a problem and it gets so frustrating when i get on my bike and after just a few hundred yards im starting to get a bit breathless after half a mile im getting short of breath so end up slowing right down not that iv been going fast in the first place, it feels like i will never get back to any sort of decent ride, but i know if i keep at it i will get there i just have to keep remembering to take it easy.

the funny thing is i was expecting my legs to ache and throb after that ride but nothing my legs were fine it was my right arm that throbbed that night, i think just due to using muscles id forgot i had lol.
im hoping to get out and try the run again tomorrow if the weather holds up for me fingers crossed

stuee

Another tip - use a lower gear than you are at the moment and don't make every ride a race against yourself. Let your respiratory system get used to dealing with more air than it's accustomed to.

 

[KEEF]