edinburgh_col
Regular
- Location
- Edinburgh
Hi,
Thought I'd join this forum as it seems friendly and full of good advice. I'm a newbie as far as cycling goes but really keen to improve.
Like many folk on here I took up cycling as a way to improve my fitness. Last year, at the age of 44 I decided to lose weight, and since then I've shed over 5 stones. I go to the gym (fairly) regularly but got a bit fed up with this so decided to start cycling as well. I dusted down my Revolution Trailfinder that hadn't seen much action since I bought it about 5 years ago, and could only manage a few miles at first, but soon started believing in myself a wee bit more and gradually built up the miles.
After doing a 40Km round trip a few weeks ago I got an incredible buzz, really enjoyed myself and this spurred me on to do more cycling. I know 40Km is not much to some of you more experienced guys and gals, but it was a huge boost to my own self confidence.
After that I decided to do something I never would dreamed of doing before, that is enter an organised bike ride - Pedal for Scotland in September, the 50 mile route between Glasgow and Edinburgh. What I liked about it is that you're not timed on this ride, and it's about going at your own pace and enjoying it (there's a 100 mile sportive too for the more hardcore cyclist - maybe one day!!), so even if it takes me the whole day, as long as I complete the ride, I'll be extremely chuffed. This has made me realise I needed some sort of training programme (I mean - me? training?? never would've believed it). So, I'm still learning about how much my body can take, when to push it and when to go easy.
I'm now going out 3 times a week, twice during the week during lunchtimes at work, with a longer ride at the weekend. I use Endomondo on my Android phone to track my routes - fantastic programme and would recommend it to anyone needing a simple to use way of recording routes, distance, calories burned, etc.
Anyway, hope to speak to some of you soon, keen to learn more about bikes, cycling, and other people's experiences!
Colin
Thought I'd join this forum as it seems friendly and full of good advice. I'm a newbie as far as cycling goes but really keen to improve.
Like many folk on here I took up cycling as a way to improve my fitness. Last year, at the age of 44 I decided to lose weight, and since then I've shed over 5 stones. I go to the gym (fairly) regularly but got a bit fed up with this so decided to start cycling as well. I dusted down my Revolution Trailfinder that hadn't seen much action since I bought it about 5 years ago, and could only manage a few miles at first, but soon started believing in myself a wee bit more and gradually built up the miles.
After doing a 40Km round trip a few weeks ago I got an incredible buzz, really enjoyed myself and this spurred me on to do more cycling. I know 40Km is not much to some of you more experienced guys and gals, but it was a huge boost to my own self confidence.
After that I decided to do something I never would dreamed of doing before, that is enter an organised bike ride - Pedal for Scotland in September, the 50 mile route between Glasgow and Edinburgh. What I liked about it is that you're not timed on this ride, and it's about going at your own pace and enjoying it (there's a 100 mile sportive too for the more hardcore cyclist - maybe one day!!), so even if it takes me the whole day, as long as I complete the ride, I'll be extremely chuffed. This has made me realise I needed some sort of training programme (I mean - me? training?? never would've believed it). So, I'm still learning about how much my body can take, when to push it and when to go easy.
I'm now going out 3 times a week, twice during the week during lunchtimes at work, with a longer ride at the weekend. I use Endomondo on my Android phone to track my routes - fantastic programme and would recommend it to anyone needing a simple to use way of recording routes, distance, calories burned, etc.
Anyway, hope to speak to some of you soon, keen to learn more about bikes, cycling, and other people's experiences!
Colin