General fitness

[chipmonster]

I have had my new bike for about 3 weeks now and I have done aproximately 50 miles on it (all off road and in the park).

I feel I am not fit enough, therefore avoiding the roads.

Anyway, how long will it take to get my fitness up. At the moment I can cycle for miles if it is flat but small inclines I can manage but in Blackburn, where I live it is full off hills (I mean big hills), and I have tried them and they are very very hard work.

My concern is that even if i was fit climbing up the hills time and time after again is gonna kill me, what are your views !!

 

[trio25]

You do get better at hills! I work in Blackburn and still remember the first time I cycled there from home (Bolton) I had to stop so many times, now I can ride there 5 times a week. it's just practise! Each time you try a hill you will find you get further, just keep at it!

 

[Absinthe Minded]

Yeah, what trio said. Remember to have the bike set up properly and to use nice low gears for the uphill parts of your journey. Grinding up hills and turning the pedals slowly will do your fitness and knees no good at all, so make sure you're spinning a nice small gear!

 

[domtyler]

16 miles a week is not a huge amount of cycling, can you try to up this at all assuming you can find the time?

I would say if you were doing around 50 miles a week the you would be pretty fit after around three months with a long way still to go to reach peak fitness.

 

[RedBike]

Keep trying to ride those hills, they will get easier, much easier.

 

[chipmonster]

16 miles a week is not a huge amount of cycling, can you try to up this at all assuming you can find the time?

I would say if you were doing around 50 miles a week the you would be pretty fit after around three months with a long way still to go to reach peak fitness.

Gosh 50 miles a week thats a lot, anyway I did 20 miles in one day. I normally do 5 miles each run.

Weathers no good lately, but gonna increase dramatically. At the moment i am avoiding the hills, therefore have to take the bike on the car to the local park, ride it and back on the car.

Once fitness comes in, gonna ditch the car full stop.

 

[domtyler]

Gosh 50 miles a week thats a lot, anyway I did 20 miles in one day. I normally do 5 miles each run.

Weathers no good lately, but gonna increase dramatically. At the moment i am avoiding the hills, therefore have to take the bike on the car to the local park, ride it and back on the car.

Once fitness comes in, gonna ditch the car full stop.

Hi Chipmonster, I have found that the best way to work a fitness regime into a busy life is by incorporating it into your daily routine somehow so that it is just something that you do and you don't think about it. For most people that means commuting to work by bike as you are using dead time anyway. Is there any way you can do something similar?

 

[GrahamG]

Just build up incrementally - little here, little there. If it's a trip to the shops, nip to the one a bit further, do one way trips to work when you feel ready and get the bus back etc. etc.

There's no need to jump right in if you have any doubts/worries, you can always scope the full route on a weekend or quiet evening to gauge when you're ready!

 

[Chris James]

I'd echo the suggestion about commuting (not that I bike to work at the moment!)

When I commuted in Manchester I was only going from Burnage to town each day - about 5 miles each way I suppose - I became noticeably fitter very quickly.

As far as hills are concerend, you will get better at them by riding up them! When I first moved to Huddersfield I couldn't get up lots of the local hills. Now I can climb pretty much anything.

 

[TWBNK]

One year ago I had a four mile ride into work, on a mixture of off road cycle tracks and roads, it took me over half an hour and I turned into work in a state of near collapse.

All I did was keep at it. Soon my 4 mile commute became 9 miles going to the same place but taking in a hill or two and taking only slightly longer than my initial commute.

I would go on what I considered to be a 'long ride' of maybe 15 miles every so often.

The other day I dropped my daughter off at school for an afternoon session and cycled out for an hour, turned around and came back. I went further than I ever believed was possible for a quick spin and I loved it.

The main thing is I have really enjoyed cycling so much that the fitness has come without me noticing a real difference.

With the hills my advice is yes, they do hurt. It is fairly flat around here but I do make a point of taking hills into my rides. Once again each time you do a hill you maybe won't notice a difference. But in the long run you will. You start to not notice the easy ones. The hard ones become easier, the 'impossible' ones become hard.

My last twelve months has been a realisation that 'I will never be able to do that' turns into 'Just think when I thought I would never be able to do that' - driving to the park for a ride becomes cycling to the park, riding twice as far in the park and then back.

Yes 50 miles a week is a lot. By next year though......