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

[Phoenix Lincs]

Had a planned 10 mile walk with hubby yesterday. Nice change and lovely lunch out half way, I'd been awake since stupid o'clock, so decided to have a little nap when I got in then woke up with a cold! Grrr!

Think I'll dose myself up today and stay off the bike - not practical to be riding when my nose won't stop dripping!

Sme great rides recently. Well done folks

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Had a planned 10 mile walk with hubby yesterday. Nice change and lovely lunch out half way, I'd been awake since stupid o'clock, so decided to have a little nap when I got in then woke up with a cold! Grrr!

Think I'll dose myself up today and stay off the bike - not practical to be riding when my nose won't stop dripping!

Sme great rides recently. Well done folks

Wouldn't be the the first time I have done that.

Well, stuck religiously to plan and pottered gently along in the small ring. A very gentle 23 miles at 13mph. Hope my legs appreciate it.

Horrible grey, murky and drizzly so the speed suited the sombre weather.

Does this mean I have to put the guards back on.
I need another bike. There as always got to be a reason for me to buy something

 

[Mo1959]

Mo wasn't you tempted just a little....

Well, maybe just a bit!

 

[starthms]

I am being very thick. but how do you get the box of someone else Post in your Post ?
100km feels so far off for me. extremely impressed with your guys distances .

 

[MaxInc]

I am being very thick. but how do you get the box of someone else Post in your Post ?

Click on the Reply link on the right side of the Post you want to add to your Post.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

100km feels so far off for me. extremely impressed with your guys distances .

I am pretty sure most of us felt like that when we started, just keep doing the miles, and soon enough 100Km won't seem so far.

 

[MaxInc]

Back from the dead today after 2 days of intense rest Saturday my heart was still beating 100bpm while lying in bed 5 hours after the ride. All I could think about was food and air. Sunday I felt fine except that I couldn't use my legs. Heart rate was back down and so was the blood pressure. The good part is that my resting HR this morning was 54 which is the lowest in a year (down from 90+) since I decided to do something about my sedentary lifestyle.

Today is a new beginning, looking forward to start a structured kind of training based on time and HR zones rather than distance and speed. It was a lesson I learned the hard way, first cycling experience I did not enjoy at all, despite the support and kindness of the group members. But I'm glad I did it, at least I have a personal benchmark to refer to.

Quite a few resources on the net regarding HR zone based training for cycling but was wondering if any of you followed such programs aimed at beginners and if there are any reads you would recommend.

 

[starthms]

Click on the Reply link on the right side of the Post you want to add to your Post.

I am pretty sure most of us felt like that when we started, just keep doing the miles, and soon enough 100Km won't seem so far.

Thanks will keep at it

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I've just noticed that for the first time THE GREEN IS AHEAD OF THE RED LINE

Not any more it's not, quick go do another ride

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Averaged 14.7mph over 38 miles today. Not too shabby for me.
I'm having a debate with myself over whether to use flat pedals for the London to Brighton since it will be busy and walking up Ditchling Beacon inevitable. I only have the crappy plastic things that came with the bike though and don't want to spend lots of money on nicer ones.

If you are staying with flats, get yourself a pair of DMR v8s, brilliant pedals and you should pick them up for less than £25. Big thanks to Mo for this recommendation

 

[sleaver]

I did the following ride on Saturday.

http://app.strava.com/activities/59245473

There has been something going around at work so I thought I would go out on Saturday instead of Sunday as I thought I was coming down with it. Saturday morning I felt fine but after about 20 or 30 km that changed in that everything was hard work.

The cat 4 climb, I didn't know it was cat 4 until I uploaded the ride, was fun I had run out of gears before half way and then on the steepest part I had people cycling the other way saying hello and by the time I had said the same while huffing and puffing they were a few miles down the road. Also, I had a car behind me so I couldn't stop and then I looked down at my Garmin and it said 14% I wasn't going to give up and I made it in the end all while sitting down. The KOM (which includes a downhill section first) is 4:20. I did it in 10:56

Also brought some clip less pedals yesterday so let the fun begin

 

[RWright]

Back from the dead today after 2 days of intense rest Saturday my heart was still beating 100bpm while lying in bed 5 hours after the ride. All I could think about was food and air. Sunday I felt fine except that I couldn't use my legs. Heart rate was back down and so was the blood pressure. The good part is that my resting HR this morning was 54 which is the lowest in a year (down from 90+) since I decided to do something about my sedentary lifestyle.

Today is a new beginning, looking forward to start a structured kind of training based on time and HR zones rather than distance and speed. It was a lesson I learned the hard way, first cycling experience I did not enjoy at all, despite the support and kindness of the group members. But I'm glad I did it, at least I have a personal benchmark to refer to.

Quite a few resources on the net regarding HR zone based training for cycling but was wondering if any of you followed such programs aimed at beginners and if there are any reads you would recommend.

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Some on this thread (myself included) are at or coming up on a year or so of riding, many putting in a lot of miles, time and effort. I am pretty sure all new members will not realize this and I hope it is not too misleading to them. I will say that about everyone on here will tell you to take your time and enjoy the ride to start with. I am just now considering working out with heart rate zones and such. I have not started to seriously study it yet but that starts today with a visit to my Cardiologist.

I am on blood pressure meds so I have to kind of watch what I do. I have not tried any group riding for the very reason of what you experienced. I know how I am and I could very easily push myself out of my comfort zone if provoked. On the bright side, I just recently discovered that one of the guys that leads some of the group rides in my area is a great guy and one that I could not imagine a better person to help people learn group riding from. He just happens to be a old college room mate that I lived with for two years. Really one of the most easy going, level headed people I have ever met. I will probably try to do a ride with them this summer if I get a chance.

I don't have a lot of heart rate training sites bookmarked yet but as I find some I will post them up. I think if you go to the Health, Fitness and Training section of the forums you can probably find a lot of good suggestions. Just take it easy to start with, let the distance and speed come to you to start with, while you just enjoy the ride.

 

[babsy]

Well after only having had my bike for ten days now I have started to introduce the dreaded hills into my routes. I have just come back from a ride on which I attempted to cycle up crag vale. To some of you that don't know it is supposedly the longest continues climb in England being some 5 or so miles of gradient. Well I am happy to say I covered 4 of those miles without stopping. That may not seem like a great feat to sum of you but to me its huge.
2 months ago if someone was to say that's what I would achieve I would have laughed. When I climbed off my steed at the top I thought my thighs were going to burst through my shorts they felt that huge.
I carried on back down into mytholmroyd via a different route clocking up 11.5 miles in total.
Well pleased. Did record it on strava but don't know how to transfer the link to here.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Well after only having had my bike for ten days now I have started to introduce the dreaded hills into my routes. I have just come back from a ride on which I attempted to cycle up crag vale. To some of you that don't know it is supposedly the longest continues climb in England being some 5 or so miles of gradient. Well I am happy to say I covered 4 of those miles without stopping. That may not seem like a great feat to sum of you but to me its huge.
2 months ago if someone was to say that's what I would achieve I would have laughed. When I climbed off my steed at the top I thought my thighs were going to burst through my shorts they felt that huge.
I carried on back down into mytholmroyd via a different route clocking up 11.5 miles in total.
Well pleased. Did record it on strava but don't know how to transfer the link to here.

Well done.

Re Strava link, go onto the page with the ride on it, highlight the address in the address bar at the top of your browser, right click the mouse, select copy, come on here, start a post and right click the mouse again and select paste

 

[SpokeyDokey]

My first +15mph - did 11.03 miles at 15.27mph and it included one flog of a hill that had me sweating (it takes a lot to make me sweat - consultant thinks it is related to my thyroid condition).

Really happy - only a short ride but that's an average speed I could not dream of at Xmas time.

No loonies on the road (at least in my vicinity) today although no doubt they are out there lurking!

Good stuff in the previous posts apart from Phoenix Linc's cold of course - bummer!

Take it easy everyone.