Ah, I love it when you notice a tangible difference when starting biking or getting back to it! Two years ago I started commuting to work (30mins one way) and first week was just painful, but I pushed myself, sweated like crazy and was dying after. A weekend of staying at home and eating chocolate cake like a mofo, Monday comes and... whoa, this is so much easier!
There used to be this one hill I would always dread, the stand-up-on-bike-halfway-through, completely out of breath by the time you reach top. After two weeks I was eating that hill for breakfast! Nowadays, I dont even need to switch to a lower gear, stand up or slow down much. I OWN that hill.
Out of curiosity, anybody else get this very odd but tangible sensation when you build the muscle strength and suddenly hit a steep hill? It's like... I don't know how to describe it, it's like you are thinking "crap I wont make it" and after 5 seconds your muscles suddenly kick into a higher gear, you start breathing in a bit more heavily and you stabilize, going up that hill at a steady pace, feeling your muscles, but not exactly hurting. And you know full well that you CAN keep it up and reach that top without being out of breath.
Originally Posted by
krobinson103
This current set 3 months 7 days a week 20-35km a day during the week. On commuting days that gets up to 60km. The weekends generally end up at 50-70km a day depending on family commitments and weather. Monthly it would be no less than 1000km and no more than 1200km. The pain is much less than it used to be so I suspect I'm gettinjg used to it. I also suspect that my definition of a 'day off' - 20km ride at slow pace, is not enough to let my body recover. But, I just love to ride so much that I feel worse if I don't ride on any given day.
Holy crap, that's intense, and here I thought I was biking too much. You must be eating like a vacuum! I remember when I was doing my work commute, 1hr a day of hilly and intense ride 5days a week. At first I was seeing big improvements week to week, but after 3 months of that my leg muscles just flat out started refusing to work. Flat surface would be fine, but if I hit even a slight incline, an almost unbearable soreness/pain would instantly overcome them. In the end I started taking more rest days and I also think I was way under eating (I did lose weight over that time), so my body wasnt able to rebuild / sustain my legs.