Fifty Plus (50+) - Huffing and Puffing

I ride 4 miles to the train station every morning, I always seems harder gong from home to the train than the train to home. The mornings are a workout for me I poke along at about 12 mph on my MTB, comming home I hit 20.5 mph today for a mile and averaged about 15 mph. I fired up the GPS and found that the train station is about 150 feet higher than my house. I knew it was up hill but I had no clue that it was that much up hill. I never thought that a 150 feet in 4 miles would be noticable.

Total commute each day 16 miles.

One of the ladies at work today saw me doing the 4 miles from the train stop to work it amazed her. She thought I was only doing about a mile from a different station she was amazed. I told her not bad for a fat old man!

I like amazing people.

Joe

I ride 4 miles to the train station every morning, I always seems harder gong from home to the train than the train to home. The mornings are a workout for me I poke along at about 12 mph on my MTB, comming home I hit 20.5 mph today for a mile and averaged about 15 mph. I fired up the GPS and found that the train station is about 150 feet higher than my house. I knew it was up hill but I had no clue that it was that much up hill. I never thought that a 150 feet in 4 miles would be noticable.

Total commute each day 16 miles.

One of the ladies at work today saw me doing the 4 miles from the train stop to work it amazed her. She thought I was only doing about a mile from a different station she was amazed. I told her not bad for a fat old man!

I like amazing people.

Joe


I ride quite regularly and find it takes me about 5 miles to get comfortable on a bike before I can start to put in some effort. If you find it tough for the first 4 miles, why not cycle to the next station on the line and get yourself comfortable. Either that or move house so that you can have a downhill run in the morning

It's your call: either accept the lower speeds in the am or stretch for 15 minutes before you start. Your body is simply not read for those easy 4 miles.

I fired up the GPS and found that the train station is about 150 feet higher than my house. I knew it was up hill but I had no clue that it was that much up hill. I never thought that a 150 feet in 4 miles would be noticable.

I know - it's Like "Funny, I didn't notice that hill when I was driving!"

Next station is 25 miles away across a 1000 foot hill with 8 lanes of freeway. I was just supprised at the small agin in altitude would slow me down so much. I wish I had the time to do the next station but I also have a two hour train ride to where I work. I would have to leave the house at 3 am and would not get home at night until after 10 p,.

I think part that is hard is walking out of the house and having to hit it hard right out the door with no warm up. I takes me about a mile before I feel loose and ready to ride.

This next week is a no ride week for me because I will be in a class.

Joe

Next station is 25 miles away across a 1000 foot hill with 8 lanes of freeway. I was just supprised at the small agin in altitude would slow me down so much. I wish I had the time to do the next station but I also have a two hour train ride to where I work. I would have to leave the house at 3 am and would not get home at night until after 10 p,.

I think part that is hard is walking out of the house and having to hit it hard right out the door with no warm up. I takes me about a mile before I feel loose and ready to ride.

This next week is a no ride week for me because I will be in a class.

Joe

Like I said, Cycle to the next station. At least that way you will learn to climb hills better. 4 miles is not really long enough to get into cycling condition, so persevere, or leave home 5 minutes later than normal and make up the time. That way, you will get fitter, or you will have more time to cycle as the boss has sacked you for continually being late.

I have improved my first four mile time by 10 min in the past month. I try to push it hard. Like I have said I have an odd commute, 4 miles on the bike 62 miles on a train and 4 miles on a bike. There is just no time to do any more riding as I spend about six hours a day commuting. When the days were longer I was doing an extra few miles in the evening but now it is just stright home, I hate riding at night, cars and bad sections of town to traverse.
Joe

I know - it's Like "Funny, I didn't notice that hill when I was driving!"

Drivers never notice the hills because it doesn't take any more effort. On a recent bike trip across Wisc, we stopped in a bar at the top of a small Mountain. They said it was all down hill to our destination. Even though it was mostly downhill, we encountered the worst uphill sections of the entire day during our "descent."