# Building up my strength and loving this new sport/hobby of cycling



## mmlee (Apr 15, 2012)

I've been cycling for two months and been mainly going on 1 hour rides. With work, family, and current health (40lbs overweight, 49 year old) it's about all I can handle/have time for.

I finally went for a 30 mile ride (2+hr at ~15mph pace) and felt remarkably well after the ride. I've lost 7lbs so far and gained tremendous leg muscle/strength. I'm not so concerned with loosing weight as I am with just improving my health. As long as the fat turns to muscle I don't care if I don't loose a single pound. My wife commented and noticed the physical changes (which made my day and now keeping me more motivated).

I'm feeling better than I've felt in a long time. Cycling has been great and really enjoying it. My flat feet and bad knees haven't really allowed me to enjoy too many other activities. But cycling is really something I'm enjoying and not suffering and paying the price afterwards like I was with jogging. It would take me half a day to recover from jogging where as with cycling in less than an hour I'm fully recovered after a ride and ready for a productive day.

I wish I had gotten into the sport earlier but am just thankful that I'm into it now. 

My next goal is to build up for a 50 mile ride, hopefully in another 1-2 months I should be able to take on that challenge. 

Just wanted to express how much I'm enjoying cycling.

Take Care,
Mark


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## GabooN85 (Mar 7, 2012)

I love hearing about people getting into cycling and improving their health. It is nice to know that people are still willing to start something new in order to make a healthy change despite barriers such as age etc. I know how easy it is to not be active and I'm lucky I made some changes now and avoided 'letting myself go' in the coming years.

I'm on the younger end I suppose, I'm 26, but haven't been overly active in the last 8 years. I grew up playing soccer and hockey until I was 18, then moved away for university and haven't done much more than some snowboarding in the winter and a few odd things here or there. I have flat feet as well so I don't run or jog as it bothers my legs, but cycling has been good to me so far.

I got back into cycling end of last summer and bought my first road bike. I love that I have something to keep me active and that I enjoy, like when I was playing sports in my teens. Like many, I wish I had started sooner, but I should be glad I did start when I did.

You'll be surprised (you may already have noticed) how quickly you build up the endurance in your legs. I went from doing 18-30 km rides last summer and this past march, up to 45-65 km rides recently. Going to push it to 85+ this coming week, and plan to move up from there. Signed up for a 148 km ride June 9th! 

Enjoy and good luck pushing it to 50 miles!


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## wwells (Apr 13, 2012)

It has amazed me as well. I have been riding 3 weeks I think and the weight is obviously tightening up. My blood pressures are moving in the right direction and my resting pulse has dropped as well. The most exciting result to date is that I now use 1/4-1/3 the insulin I previously used (diabetic).

On the off day that my schedule will not allow me to ride, I put the bicycle on a trainer and spin for at least an hour. I actually look forward it!

Onward fellow struggler...


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

mmlee said:


> My next goal is to build up for a 50 mile ride, hopefully in another 1-2 months I should be able to take on that challenge.


Using the fairly conservative 10%/week schedule, your long rides starting next weekend can go

33, 36, 40, 44, 48, *50.*

So you're about right on your time guesstimate.  Another guideline I like is that your long ride shouldn't be 50% of your volume for the week. So to support the 40 mile long ride, you should have about 40 miles of other riding that week. Those hour-long rides are great for that. Making them longer, if that fits your life better, is fine too.

You can also mix in rest weeks. A more conservative way to do the build would be to have a rest week after three of the build weeks. You can either start the next build week at the last week's high mileage or keep building. (For example, 40, rest, 40, or 40, rest, 44.) All this stuff is published all over the internet with varying degrees of quality, and also in some books that are generally better-regarded. I have _Base Building for Cyclists,_ which is okay, and _The Mountain Biker's Training Bible,_ which I like a lot better; Joe Friel also wrote _The Cyclist's Training Bible._ Training books tend to be fairly race-oriented, but a lot of the concepts generalize well to anyone trying to expand what they can do on bikes. You also may not want to get into that much structure. I find it's hard for me to follow heavily structured training plans, and it can be counterproductive if I get frustrated with them. I try to set my weekly goals according to what I can actually comply with - like a certain total volume and a long ride length, and not stress out too much about which days they're on, or what structured workouts I need to do.


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## Longhair-NL (Mar 31, 2012)

mmlee & wwells - also look into an elliptical trainer for your do not have time for cycling / spinning.

I have noticed that by spending 30 minutes a day on the elliptical trainer, it has helped my cycling endurance while speeding up my weight loss.


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## BostonG (Apr 13, 2010)

OP, you are thinking remarkably well about this whole thing. Don't focus on weight loss - it'll come off. 

1 hr rides are great and really do allow for a good workout. It's about intensity - ride/train smart not long. There is tons of stuff on the interwebzzz about how to use 1hr to get strong. Try to do a longer ride on the weekend. I have family and career too and I'm sometimes forced to get up at 4 am on a weekday to get in a workout. Keep going and one day you'll be motivated enough to do things others think are over the top. Lots more to say but I'll stop here and just finish off with:

Welcome.


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## mmlee (Apr 15, 2012)

Appreciate the feedback and advise. I'm definitely looking into getting some sort of training aid (rollers, indoor trainer, elliptical(thanks Longhair), etc...) to work out with for the times I just can't go for a ride but can squeeze in the extra time either late or early in the morning. It's amazing the time you can free up by not just being a couch potato in front of the TV.

Thanks again,
Mark


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## willieboy (Nov 27, 2010)

Mark, welcome to the sport and the forum. You are going to improve consistently for sure and there's nothing like the open air  Thank for posting this. I enjoyed the read. Keep rolling :thumbsup:


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## mmlee (Apr 15, 2012)

Update,

Just completed metric 100 last week and 20-30 mile rides with 1,000+ feet of hills 4-5 times a week are the norm. Lost over 23lbs and the "belly"......now I can get down low on the drop bars and don't have to worry about my knees hitting my belly.  I can actually wear a cyclist jersey/outfit without embarrassing myself, at least not to my wife but my kids that's another story. Love threatening my kids that I'll come to a parent teacher conference in my cycling gear :blush2:

Now that I'm more fit and able to take on pretty much any hill I face I'm getting addicted to climbing. I'm purposely looking for hills. The joy of conquering one, looking down on the hill and feeling a sense of accomplishment is pure adrenaline. Luckily for me living in the Northwest there are plenty of hills to be conquered. 

Now my next goal is the 100 miler, should be able to set one up in the next couple of months. 

See you out on the road............


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## Teamgrazzi (Jul 15, 2012)

Ok am I doing something wrong here?? My legs are cashed out after about 5 miles. Now granted I am riding when I get off work (I stand a lot and climb a lot of stairs for work as a correctional officer) so that may have something to do with it, but still. Now I will say that today was only ride 4 of my "career" and it was the longest at 5.5 miles I guess I just need to be more patient and keep at it.


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## mmlee (Apr 15, 2012)

Teamgrazzi, you just have to keep at it. My first couple rides where short at a very slow pace with me questioning every minute if I was crazy and just nuts for being out on the road. It took me several weeks (about 10 rides) to just to build up to a 12 mile ride. Back then I was using granny gears to "climb" 100yd 2% grades, those same rolling hills I now ride through at 53/16 gears. After you stay with it for awhile you'll start seeing noticeable improvements. 

Just give it time and stay with it....... setting weekly goals..... helped me stay with it and I also treated myself to little cycling "rewards" for hitting my goals. Now that i'm over the hump in motivating myself I just look forward to getting out on the road after work. Another secret is that I gave up watching TV. The times I used to just vegetate in front of the TV are now spent cycling on the road or in the garage.


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## Lanna (May 27, 2012)

Great job on the weight loss and longer ride!


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## sandcritter (Jun 3, 2009)

Great work, Mark.

Am 36, little overweight & out of biking for, ugh, about 10-12yrs. Usual reasons. Former recreational road and mtb xc/race. Now 1month back in, feels like a steep climb to "get back". Hills are kicking my azz, which is humbling as that was my strength at one time. But it'll come.


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## crudad (Jul 18, 2012)

Great story, thanks for sharing. It is good to know that road cycling can get you back in shape and lose the weight. I swam all my life from youth through college competitively. Never really liked it but the workouts were insane. My passion was water polo, also insane. But from all those years, I can't keep up with jumping in the pool and swimming for an hour for exercise. The scenery sucks!! Early morning swims bring back bad memories.  So I tried running and as someone previously mentioned, I just couldn't do it with my flat feet and knees. I tried mountain biking but for some reason it just wasn't doing it. So, I recently purchased a road bike and so far I love it. Have done basically 10 mile rides starting out and holding a 14 MPH average...I love it. Can't wait for my next ride...can I do two rides in one day?  

Thanks for inspiration!!


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## mmlee (Apr 15, 2012)

crudad said:


> So I tried running and as someone previously mentioned, I just couldn't do it with my flat feet and knees.


Same exact problems for me as well... had knee surgery and my flat feet ache if I walk more than couple miles let alone try to jog. It took me a dozen plus rides (made adjustments 1-2cm at a time) before I finally was able to tweak my setup so that I had no knee pains or any other ache issues. Cycling has been a great find for me. 

Just completed another 100K ride this afternoon with 2,900' of climbing , some serious 12% grades that I thought was going to defeat me...... love those super low gears.

Thanks for kudos everyone...... see you guys out on the road..............


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## Mr. Versatile (Nov 24, 2005)

Good on you Mark. Keep on keepin' on.


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## DMLew (Jul 28, 2012)

Great news to hear. As long as you enjoy yourself the weight will drop in due time.


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## JasonLopez (Aug 19, 2012)

Keep on having fun. Once it's a chore, it's over.


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## gabedad (Jul 12, 2012)

Great story - keep it up.


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## FindTheRiver (May 26, 2012)

I actually love reading threads like this when the enthusiasm is genuine and you can feel the pride in accomplishment coming through. Keep at it!


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## thebludoc (Aug 21, 2012)

Awesome - think of getting a cyclocomputer to keep track of your accomplishments in real-time, it helps me!


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