fireball
Well-Known Member
1st of January is within grasp and along with it plans are forming to start my running again to lose weight and up my fitness; the big question is at which point should I start cycling, what sort of distances should I be looking to do and at what point do you push to the next level?
Please don't tell me to go to a gym and jump on an exercise bike, I would rather stab blunt cocktail sticks into various parts of my body than be bored out of my tiny little mind on an exercise bike staring at some poxy unintelligible music video on a small screen with no sound because I keep forgetting to take headphones. I am however happy to run or cycle outdoors in the rain or cold, after all it will be good practice for the 6th of July!
Is there some kind of App where we can share progress with each other to help keep motivated or a monthly forum cycle ride for us to join in?
Any thoughts anyone?
Erm - first off - I think it's 6th JUNE not July ...
Sign up for a free account on Strava then join the Strava group ... there's a link in the dedicated forum ...
It's never too early to start riding - be careful if it's icy though - that's probably when you'd want to hit the exercise bike/turbo ...
Best way to start is to try a gentle ride - so you can hold a conversation (not just in your head - talk out loud if you're riding alone) - I don't know your fitness, but you should be able to do a 10 mile route fairly easily and (assuming it's not hilly) that'll take about an hour - you can then do two different sorts of efforts - the first is just a mile builder - so add 5 miles to the route each week and see how you get on, you'll not go (much) faster but you'll build stamina. The other one is intervals (much easier on a static bike) where you ride easy for a few minutes then beat the cr4p out of yourself for a few minutes, rinse and repeat ... that's the one that will build your speed - and probably best avoided until it's a) warmer and b) you want to ride much faster! Really, for now you should just be looking at mile eating ...