Need My Cycling Gurus Once Again

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is a two-parter, y’all - so bear with me, okay?

  1. There is a CD-ROM advertised in Nashbar called Break It, Fix It, Ride It. I would like to buy it since I want to start doing some of my own repairs. Only thing is, it seems to be geared:wink: toward mountain bikes and I ride a comfort bike (Schwinn Sierra). Is this CD-ROM gonna help me, and have any of y’all had any experience with it?

  2. I am now able to ride 32 miles and my average speed this morning was 11.4 mph. I know I’m no Lance Armstrong, but I’m pretty proud of myself being that I’m 52 and at 220 - overweight.
    My question here is, should I stop working on distance now and concentrate on speed? My cadence went all to hell this morning, BTW. :smiley:

FYI, I ride on a Rails to Trails path called ** The Silver Comet Trail**, and except for the short tunnels, the trail is mostly what you’d expect in Georgia: not that much of a challenge for you serious cyclists, with very little elevation.

As always, I appreciate your insights and advice!

Quasi

2

I haven’t used Nashbar’s CD ROM. I prefer a plain old paper repair manual. Of course, you could always print out whatever section of the CD rom you need. I’ve had good luck with Lennard Zinn:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Zinn%2C%20Lennard/104-3238934-2224709

Bicycling magazine’s book comes highly regarded as well.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1579540090/qid=1027736897/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-3238934-2224709

If you get really stuck on something you can try one of mountainbike review’s tech talk sections.
http://www.mtbr.com/techtalk/

I don’t know that much about training. It would be easier for someone to provide useful information if they knew what your goals are (just get in better shape, you want to do a century, weight loss). 32 miles ain’t bad no matter what your avg speed. What I do is simply try to up my average speed if I do a regular ride.

3

You do not mention your height or build so you leave no real clue as to your physical state.

220 pounds and 52 years might seem largish numbers but then you might be 6’8’ tall, you may have a history of keeping yourself in reasonable shape, there is no telling here.

One big advantage of cycling over running is that there is less chance of impact injury to the knees, hips and lower back.

I might be inclined to increase my cadence a little, but I would also not make speed my ultimate goal, not until I’d been assessed by my family doctor.

Try to make some sort of shedule, any exercise gives most benefit when it is regular.

4

Sorry! I’m 5’8" and of medium build and my goal is just weight loss right now, although a century certainly wouldn’t hurt. I’m just kind of a “lone wolf” and am not part of a cycling club, which is why I ask my questions here. :smiley:

I ride three times a week and never less than 30 miles at this point. I was just wondering if, in addition to the diet, speed rather than distance might be the way to go.

Thanks!

Quasi

5

Damn man, after reading this I feel like I must start riding again.

5’8" 275.5 pounds Totally out of shape.

6

Perhaps to begin with you could improve your speed to a set limit, say, 2 hours for the 30 miles (to pick a figure from the air) or about ten percent under your current time now.

Then increase your distance to, say, 32 miles, get your time down to two hours again, then increase the distance again, and get the time down again, and so on until you run out of track to increase your distance on and just work on your time.

I’m not a hobby cyclist, I ride because I can’t drive, so I’m not really that aware of what a ‘good’ time or speed is. But I don’t think that’s really necessary, as you just need to improve your own speed, within your own limits, and always give yourself something to aim for.

Good luck, and well done for keeping it up for this long. Whatever your size, you must be pretty fit!

7

One problem with cycling is that using time and speed to predict your fitness is not very accurate since there are so many environmental variable, from wind, to temperature, to humidity, and these make it very difficult to compare performance.

What you can do is chart your heart rate and recovery time from a particular level, or you can look at a longer term trend.

In your case though I don’t really think that this kind of measure would be appropriate, you might try too hard and either put yourself off altogether, and your aim is not competition.

I would say that what you are doing is fine, concentrate on enjoying yourself, maybe you could find someone like-minded.

If you really are interseted in improving performance then use a heart rate monitor, and keep your rate between the limits advised for your age, you will find that as you become more able that you can ride faster with the same heart rate, ignore the actual journey times, these do not necessarily indicate fitness for the resons mentioned earlier.

You may be shocked to find that your weight will at first increase as you build up more muscle bulk, but this weight is the sort that carries you, rather than you carrying it.

You need to combine riding with a reduction in food intake, neither works well on their own, you can lose weight by riding a huge amount of mileage, or just by dieting but combining them is better, takes less time and brings other health benefits.

Set yourself a target of losing maybe two pounds per month, no more, and look at the sort of stuff you eat.

There is no harm in going to a health professional anyway and declaring your intentions.

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:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o
Gotta start wearing that heart rate monitor I got for Christmas last year again! :smiley: Heart Rate: Got up to 140 during one sprint, as I remember…

Casdave and the rest of ya’: Y’all are the GREATEST. I appreciate and value your advice. Mack, I appreciate the links as well.

Thanks

Quasi

9

Hey Quasi, you oughta check out Bicycling magazines “How to train for a century”. They’ve got two tracks, one for beginner types just trying to finish, and one for finishing in under five hours. If you follow the century training plan, you ride about 5-6 times a week, and it tells you what day to ride easy (better results with your HRM), pace, and hard, with appropriate recovery days. The total mileage for the first week is 65 miles, and by week 10, you’re logging about 150. One of the things that helped me for weight loss was not riding as long, but more frequently, like instead of 3 x 30, do 5 x 10. Glad to see your enjoying the sport (next thing you know you’re gonna be asking us whether to go steel, carbon or aluminum forks on your new roadbike!!).

10

quasi

Your heart rate of 140 for your age sounds too high for endurance or efficiency to me.

There are loads of charts available which show your weight etc and from them you can get a reasonable band within which to ride.

You will likely find that when you stick to the band that you don’t feel at all tired or physically stressed, but the idea is to ride at an efficient rate and not at your limits.

Too many people try too hard too soon and end up just giving it all up.

11

casdave’s right, Quasi, using the general rule of thumb. Which is, to calculate max heart rate use 220 minus your age. So 220-52=168 max heart rate. Using the percentage method for training bands (target areas), at 65% of max, which in this case is 110, you will burn calories and increase your endurance. We call this area the LSD for long, slow distance. At 75%, it’s 126, and 85% it’s 142. So, technically, if you’re riding around 140 HR, you’re close to 85% which is the high end for all out effort, which you should only be doing for short periods of time, like sprints or short, steep hills. Now, a disclaimer, this is a GENERAL RULE of thumb for lack of expert diagnosis via trained medical professionals and specialized equipment.

12

The 140 HR was during a sprint, and what I am using is a Polar HR monitor, and one looks at the wrist to gauge one’s HR, and I don’t do that often because I need to keep my eyes on the trail and don’t see that well anyway. I guess I need to get a gauge that mounts on the handlebars…

BF: Thanks for the advice on the century. Is the training on the internet, and can you give me a link if it is?

Thanks again

Quasi

13

Quasimodem, first, congratulations on the serious exercise program! If I understand you correctly, you’re logging about 9 hours per week on the bike. That’s impressive.

Do you feel that you’re not losing weight fast enough, considering the time you spend riding?

If you’re not losing weight as quickly as you think you should, considering all the time you put in, you might want to add some weight training to your routine. See Scylla’s post here.

If you are losing weight or if you already do weight training, then I apologize for butting in.

14

heresiarch: Sorry to be so late in responding, but I keep getting a “Page cannot be displayed” message every time I have tried to log in here!

I do feel frustrated that I am not losing weight fast enough, and after going to Scylla’s post, I intend to start some weight training.

My friend, you were not butting in! I appreciate your taking the time to write and I appreciate your support!

Quasi

15

Quasi, here’s the link. I noticed that the mileage guide is no longer included, I’ll put it in an excel spreadsheet and email it to you. (I saved a hard copy printout from years ago)

16

…Thanks very much. Went to the site and printed it. Great info!

Quasi

17

BF et al: Just popping back in to tell y’all that the forums on www.bicycling.com that BF linked me to, are awesome! I really appreciate the link! Maybe y’all already post there? If not it’s definitely worth a look. very easy to navigate.

Thanks again!

Quasi