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Originally Posted by M_Six
Finally got a bike (Trek Verve 2) and took it out for its maiden ride today (my first ride in 30 years as well). Some lessons learned the hard way:
1. NEVER, ever, ever go riding without water. I was parched after a mile and suffered the rest of the ride. I have a bottle and holder, I just hadn't got around to washing it out. Big mistake.
2. Don't overestimate your fitness level. I'm more out of shape than I thought. Which leads me to my next lesson...
3. Don't underestimate hills. My ride route today included two fairly steep hills. Even in very low gear, they were killer. Mostly with breathing. In 1st or 2nd gear you're still pedaling like crazy to keep forward motion. My aerobic stamina is much worse than I had thought. Oy.
4. A strong headwind (20MPH today) will kick your butt almost as bad as hills.
All-in-all, though, it was an enjoyable ride. I can see getting hooked on this. I just need to get back in better shape, but that will come with time, I guess.
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Nice! Glad you settled on one. Those lessons are often overlooked by new riders. The rest of the people look at them as impossible to overcome obstacles. Seems like you're not discouraged by them which is great.
1. Rule of thumb is 5oz every 15 min while riding. Get a 20-25oz bottle. Figure one bottle per hour. Your fluid requirements increase with effort. When you add in a head wind or hills to your ride, increase you fluid consumption. Often overlooked when riding is food. If you're going to be riding for more than 30 min, bring an energy bar or snack of sorts. Figure on consuming 300 calories of mainly carbs and fat per hour of riding. Honey Singer makes these little waffles that travel really well. But a snack sized ziplock with a hand full of your favorite nuts works just as well.
2. Your fitness level will come back quickly.
3. There is a reason "climber" is a cyclist classification. People who are good at it are generally in tip top shape and very fast. Keep doing them. They pay dividends when it comes to increasing your fitness. They are essentially forced intervals and intervals really whips your ass into shape.
4. FL doesn't have many hills but we have wind. So a stiff headwind is referred to as a FL hill around here. Unlike the hills though, you can hide from the wind. On a windy day, wear tighter clothes and make yourself as small as possible with your riding position. Or, if you're riding with a buddy, take turns drafting each other for a rest.
Try and ride for 30 to 45 min twice a week for the next 5 weeks. Then up your time to 45-60min or increase your frequency to 3 rides a week for the next 4 weeks. Then try and stick to 3 rides a week but make one of them 90 min or so while knocking the other two back to 45 min. If you're still riding and somewhat following that, you'll be in tune enough to make some changes/increases from there. That constancy over the next 10 weeks or so will really show through in your fitness level.
Quote:
Originally Posted by M_Six
This is where I need work. I have to learn to work the gears better to maintain a more constant pedal cadence.
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There are loads of tools to help with this. You can get cadence and speed sensors to mount on your bike, get a HR monitor to monitor your cardio gains. These sensors will pair up with smartphone apps via bluetooth. Or you can pick up a GPS enabled garmin cycling computer. Doing this really allows you to track your data. I'm kind of a data geek, i don't live by it, but i love pouring over data and see the increase i'm making.
These garmin sensors are small and have worked flawlessly for me and everyone i know who uses them.
https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Bike-S.../dp/B00JM6DKUA
You can get both speed and cadence for $60 or just the cadence for $40. Strava is a free smartphone app which uses your phones for map tracking which also gives you speed data via GPS. The sensors will connect to the phone app and you'll have all your data in Strava. I personally use Garmin Connect for my primary data storage as it's a little more in depth than Free strava. Garmin connect is also free but i think you need to have a garmin device in order to link to Garmin connect.
Strava is essentially Facebook for cycling & running. We can connect and see each others activities, etc... kind of cool.
I don't know about you, but when i started cycling i did not feel wonderful after riding. After a few months though, light headedness gave way to feeling fantastic for several hours after riding. Hope you stick with it!