Getting back some/any kind of fitness

[Ming the Merciless]

You have lost muscle mass, your heart will have shrunk, muscle capillaries fallen into disuse, mitochondria will have reduced significantly . It will take a while for it to come back. At least as long as you have been idle.

You need to follow the general training principles of progressive overload and recovery. Then be patient.

 

[Sharky]

Done a handful of 10’s in years gone by, bloody horrible experience but best of luck for yours tomorrow

It's nice when you get to the finish line.

I've done a few more than a few. Will be my 500th TT tomorrow!

 

[si_c]

Somewhat in the same position as you, regular commuter for years with a solid endurance base, but working from home has killed pretty much any consistent attempts at cycling the last couple of years. Currently about 13kg over what I consider acceptable and about 100W down from my peak. I'm working on building base right now, losing the weight and getting my endurance back, once that's at an acceptable level then I'll work on building power.

So for the moment it's mostly riding outside, but from this week I'm planning on building interval sessions back in on Zwift - so things like Jons Mix and over/under sweet spot sessions.

 

[CXRAndy]

I've been the same, only 26 miles this year.

I got myself an ebike and have done 200 miles in just over 2 weeks. Its flattened any type of gradient or stiff headwind into a calm ride.

I know how to regain fitness by lots of low intensity rides. Just increase the duration steadily. Im upto 2.5hrs now of high cadence low intensity riding, which suits me just right currently. I need to lose some weight.

But I've regained my sparkle to go riding again.

 

[Sittingduck]

Yeah I have told myself to forget about fitness and just get weight off at the start but I am not exactly the patient type and it's becoming a bit demoralising.

Yesterday's Zwift ride was ok, HR reasonable and was not totally bored on my 30 mins solo pootle. Did an hour group ride after that and it was Z2 and 3 so not terrible.

I am going on there again in a minute for 90 mins hopefully. Definitely aiming on a ride or 2 outdoors this week when it's a bit drier.

 

[postman]

Same here due to the hydrocele I am banned by the consultant from cycling and weights.So next year I will start off slowly with miles on the turbo,then I will enjoy short rides,building up.Otley will get a few visits,then Wetherby,only 25 miles there and back,then Rufforth,all planned looking forward to it,no speed just enjoying the scenery and cafe stops.Not ridden since October.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I'm dreading getting back on the bike whenever I'm allowed - shoulder injury.

Zero miles thus far this year.

Hiking, turbo trainer (I have to use it fairly upright to be comfy) and a treadmill are all keeping me at some level of fitness.

Good luck with your efforts.

 

[Sittingduck]

15kg off now and feeling a bit better but still early days...

I have noticed HR rate is bit lower in the past couple of weeks which is pleasing progress. I was also able to maintain 200+ watts for a longer duration, so it is gradually starting to improve - it's just been very slow, in particular for the first couple of months.

Even managed a couple of outdoor rides in the past week or so and hope to be able to go out this Saturday morning for a cpl of hours. Longest I have done so far was 1hr 55-ish last Sat and felt ok after the ride - much better than a few weeks ago when I over did it for 1h25m but this time I did take the majority of the ride very steady and only pushed it a bit in the final 20 mins or so. It is just old habits I suppose and I have always ridden tempo or maybe a touch above pretty much everywhere - get bored pootling and feels like I am cheating myself, dunno why.

My aim it to be able to do 2-3 hour rides outdoors again soon and chuck in some longer spells of higher effort during those.

How are others getting on with their road back to fitness?

One thing I am a bit puzzled by is how difficult I am finding it to sustain power on the turbo, in comparison to on the road. I know it is generally easier to put it out in real world riding and have of course seen that before all of the time but this is such a difference it made me thing there is something wrong with my trainer maybe. Then I realised I have a Neo that cannot be calibrated so I guess it's just learning to get used to the feeling of it indoors vs relative ease of outdoor numbers. I don't want to entertain the possibility that my Stages could be up the spout, and have calibrated it without issue, plus I think I am quite good at feeling what 200/300 or whatever watts feels like and can gauge this accurately. Turbo feels like it's short-changing me 😒

 

[Alex321]

Any tips for an easy 100watts gain?

I wouldn't worry about the power at this point.

Base your rides/workouts on HR, and you will gradually get to the point where your power in a given HR zone is somewhat similar to what it was before.

But I'd only worry about the power once you are getting back to a reasonable level of fitness in terms of how you feel while exercising and how you recover.

 

[Alex321]

15kg off now and feeling a bit better but still early days...

I have noticed HR rate is bit lower in the past couple of weeks which is pleasing progress. I was also able to maintain 200+ watts for a longer duration, so it is gradually starting to improve - it's just been very slow, in particular for the first couple of months.

Even managed a couple of outdoor rides in the past week or so and hope to be able to go out this Saturday morning for a cpl of hours. Longest I have done so far was 1hr 55-ish last Sat and felt ok after the ride - much better than a few weeks ago when I over did it for 1h25m but this time I did take the majority of the ride very steady and only pushed it a bit in the final 20 mins or so. It is just old habits I suppose and I have always ridden tempo or maybe a touch above pretty much everywhere - get bored pootling and feels like I am cheating myself, dunno why.

My aim it to be able to do 2-3 hour rides outdoors again soon and chuck in some longer spells of higher effort during those.

How are others getting on with their road back to fitness?

I'm one of the lucky ones, in that the pandemic actually helped my fitness level immensely.

Prior to last March, I had been doing very little exercise apart from 1-2 hours a week of Morris Dancing, and 15-30 minutes swimming 3-4 times a week.

But then a week or so after we were sent home to work, my wife said "Why don't you go for a bike ride" one evening after work, and within a few weeks I was riding almost every evening. For the first few weeks, I couldn't manage more than a few miles, and wasn't averaging more than about 10-12 miles an hour. But that gradually improved, I gained fitness and lost weight (down from 16st 1lb to 13st 10lb). It actually felt like quite an achievement the first time I did 15 miles in an hour.

Now, I am on the bike 5-6 days a week, doing rides between 10 and 18 miles, with some longer ones at weekends. Was averaging 15-16.5mph until I got a new road bike a couple of weeks ago, now most rides are between 16.5 and 18mph.

I don't have a power meter, so have no idea what watts I am putting out. I do have a HR monitor and cadence sensor. Most rides, strava is giving an estimated average power of between 175 and 200 watts.

For context, I am 62 years old, male, with a full time desk job.

 

[Sittingduck]

Nice work^
It is very satisfying to see avg. speed creeping upwards. It has been quite a while since I have seen that though, lol more in the other direction for me but hoping to have bottomed-out the trend and start to improve from now onwards.

Well done on your progress so far!

 

[Cirrus]

I've not done much cycling in the last year or so and my running had declined a bit too. I'm now trying to get fitter, mainly through running. I've found that the only thing that works for me really is to set up a plan and stick to it.

I've set up a half marathon plan on Garmin Connect, which syncs to my watch. And so far it's been working a treat. I'm getting faster and my endurance is improving week on week.

 

[Sittingduck]

Just bit the 'orrible tasting bullet and did an FTP test. Slightly better than the ramp test I had tried and slightly better than my best guess but not by much. At least I have a benchmark now and gladly won't have to do another for a a cpl of months!

 

[Peugeotrider]

If this makes you feel any better...I'm back 3 months after a 30 year lay off.
In my day as a junior rider in 89...I was winning at club events and my best ten TT was 23.40 on a steel frame Peugeot which I still have and use.
Ffwd 30 odd years and myself and my pal who also has a 30 year gap have been back out.
We started doing ten miles,then 20,then 30 and now we do 40 two times a week.
Average speed on our rides is about 15 mph.
Hoping to get it up to 20 mph but then we are close to 50 years old but that's been our progress in 3 months.
We did our first sportive last week and did quite well.
Many that started with us were away behind us at the finish of it

 

[PaulSB]

I've read through this and it seems to me people get obsessed by numbers. As amateur, I presume, riders most of this is questionable.

In January 2019 I had a full scale brain haemorrhage - the "let's see if he wakes up after 10.5 hours surgery" sort of thing. I got on my bike in the May and by August was feeling pretty good. I rode my bike, no numbers, nothing, just rode it.

During the first lockdown in 2020 I rode two hours/day five days a week at the highest speeds I could maintain - 16-17mph average. By mid summer I was fitter and faster than in my 20s. Today I'm 67.

Forget the numbers, trainers, turbos, etc. Get on your bike and ride it - hard.