Fifty Plus (50+) - I always feel like crap for the first few miles....

...even though I look forward to my ride all day and I am happy once I'm past those first few. Every day in the first few miles I'm thinking that it's too hard and I have too far to go and my thighs shouldn't hurt so much when haven't yet done anything hard....usually I take it easy at the outset, but even so, it takes a a while for my attitude to adjust.

I've been riding now for almost 7 weeks. 15-22 miles/day for 47 days, to be exact, with 2 days off. It wasn't until I started reading this board two weeks ago that I realized that I need to take at least on day off a week. I can feel the progress, though it's small and very slow and I know I've got years before I'll really have appreciable ability. I have to take the next two days off for travel. I guess I've earned it.

I'm trying to remember that a headwind is my friend. There are no tailwinds, though. I'm just riding really well.

Finding this group has been a great encouragement and education. I ride alone and I don't have any cycling buddies, so you guys are my virtual community. So "thanks". My plan is to keep riding alone until the weather chases me inside to a gym with spinning classes, and then in the spring I'll look for a cycling club.

MinnMan

I can understand you. I also bike alone most of the time.
Biking is exercise for me. Biking is more easy on me then other forms of endurance sports.
I found a few 50 mile round trips close to my house and one from my house. I do these as often as possible and shoot for 3 hours biking time but settle for 3.5 hours.
If the weather is bad I use the trainer at 17 MPH. At least for two hours in 30 minute intervals.
Watch what you eat. It matters.

I've learned never to worry about how I feel on a ride until after five miles or 20 minutes. It takes that long to work out the kinks and get the juices flowing.

Early on there were a few times when I turned around after less than that, and I arrived home thinking, "Now what in hell was the problem that made me come home?" Then I'd turn around again.

It takes me at least 5 miles to start feeling warmed up. Unfortunately, we hit a hill about 3 miles into many of our rides. :p Because I usually ride with a group, I don't go home early on a bad day, hoping there is someone else in the group who will be slower than me that day.

I use the first few miles to warm up. Start off gently- get the HR to 130 and recover- get to 140 and recover- get to 150 and fully recover back down to about 110. Then I am fine for the rest of the day.

Without that warmup- the first time I try to get the HR up for the first hill- I will struggle.

I agree with starting at an easy pace and building up on a ride. I used to push really hard the first few miles, and often felt weak and slow. Now I go easier and by the time I've covered the early miles I'm feeling ready to ride harder and faster.

Nice to know that I'm not alone. Like everyone else it usually takes me a few miles to warm up. However, like Mojo I always hit hills in that time frame and they are always a pain in the a..

The older you get the longer it takes to get warmed up on the bike. For me, if possible I like to take the first 30 min at an easy pace. Sometimes that isn't possible though as the group dictates the pace.

I've gone into this before - maybe in too much detail :innocent: but your body needs rest after training. Depending on your fitness, a rest day may include long slow riding. For most of us, to get the most benefit, it is necessary to actually take a day (or 2) off after a training push.

Yes, you can improve by riding every day. But it will take longer and you will plateau. There's a good training article on page 38 with a training schedule on page 40 in the October issue of Bicycling.

Enjoy the ride.

I've gone into this before - maybe in too much detail :innocent: but your body needs rest after training. Depending on your fitness, a rest day may include long slow riding. For most of us, to get the most benefit, it is necessary to actually take a day (or 2) off after a training push.

Yes, you can improve by riding every day. But it will take longer and you will plateau. There's a good training article on page 38 with a training schedule on page 40 in the October issue of Bicycling.

Enjoy the ride.

I appreciate your point - I didn't understand this until I started reading this group. So now I take 1-2 days off/week. But I'm afraid of taking off too much time because I fear that it's a slippery slope. If I don't begin with the assumption that I will ride TODAY, TOMORROW, + THE NEXT DAY, it's too easy to allow other priorities to crowd out my riding time.

I find that if I pace myself according to how I feel, eventually I'll be up to speed. Lately it takes just about 3 miles and I'm flying, of course the first two out of my driveway are up hill!!

So if I feel slow, I ride slow. It's not a race for me. I know that soon my body will naturally speed things up and I just pay attention to the surrounding scenery. Before I know it I'm cranking along at a good clip and I didn't even feel myself speeding up. I usually notice that I'm up to speed as I lean through a corner. Yep, the speed truely does sneak up on me like that.

My bride and I have dealt with the slippery slope by scheduling ride days. We usually take a good training ride on Tuesday morning. We take another recovery ride - smell the roses - on Wednesday. We then do a longer ride on Thursday morning, up to abut 35 miles and take Friday off. We then do our "club" ride on Saturday and take Sunday and Monday off. If we feel like going for a gentle spin on Sunday or Monday afternoon/evening, we'll tour the city and stop and visit with folks along the way.

(So far our "club" consists of us and a lady friend from church, and her 75 yr old father. Once a month her 70 yr old uncle comes up from Tucson and dusts us. He's good for a 20mph pace. He gets his exercise by riding at his pace and returning to check on us every 15 - 30 minutes.)

Proper warmup is one of the keys to a good ride and recovery. Heart rate and other essential systems significantly lag power requirements on the bike. Warmup takes quite a bit of time. It takes me about 30 minutes to feel good. I like to start out in active recovery and work up through the various zones. It is okay to throw in a hard effort but only for a new seconds. What if you do not warmup. Well, besides feeling like crap, you overload your muscles / blood with lactate. The effect is to promote fatigue and lose power. Also, it inhibits recovery.

Once you are warmed up, lactate is burned as fuel. Increases in power result in lactate production but now it is reprocessed. Of course, if you ride above lactate threshold, you produce more lactate than you can process. The result is muscle fatigue and loss of power.

The older you get the longer it takes to get warmed up on the bike. For me, if possible I like to take the first 30 min at an easy pace. Sometimes that isn't possible though as the group dictates the pace.

+1, but for the most part I ride by myself, so I can get a good warm up without pressure from a group.. I really don't start hammering until I'm about half way through my ride. I do take a day off a week and it really helps a lot.

I ride 4 days a week. I used to ride 6 days a week. Now, I look forward to each ride whereas before I started to dread some rides. The volume is close to the same though. I just cut out the fluff.

Yep. . .warm-up. . .it's important. I find that an easy 40 minutes [longer in the winter] pays off handsomely; allowing longer rides, more effective training, and a more pleasing experience over-all.

I also suffer from Exercise Induced Asthma, not always, but sometimes. This really is a problem if you are riding in a group as they are long gone by the time you recover. I have found that a few minute rest and I am good to go for the rest of the day.

So my routine now is to arrive early for the Saturday/Sunday group rides, go out and do 3 miles or so by myself with a few short bursts of speed. Then relax for ten minutes or so while the group organizes and then ride. Been working great, I get a few extra miles in and I am always ready to go no matter how fast the group hammers out of the gate.

And like everyone else here, I always feel much better after at least 20 minutes (even after a warmup). That is a wonderful feeling you get when you think 'this is so easy', why was I working so hard 10 minutes ago. :)

Mark

Every morning I start with yoga (this is a new thing, I suspect eating quiche is next). Since I wake up about 3:30 am, it is painful to start, but by the end, I am glad I did it.

I think it is called getting old. :rolleyes:

Hats off to everyone on their dedication. Unless I wake up very early, I can't fit those rides into my schedule. I've been agonizing all day whether to treat myself to a 55 mile LSD ride tomorrow as if I were contemplating donating a kidney to someone.

Two weeks ago I participated in a "beat the heat" club ride at 7 AM. We left the parking lot and then it was full throttle. I thought I was going to die. Fortunately, I got paged and had to stop to answer it. Getting paged is a nuissance but it can make for a great reason to drop out of a hammerfest.

You folks are great role models, though.

It always takes me 5-6 miles to get into the swing of riding - I really enjoy it, but that first 5-6 are always hard. I usually ride 32 - 42 miles every day.

It's not just age, but fitness will also actually <increase> your required warmup time. The more muscle mass you have, the longer it will take to warm up. I've known track sprinters who tell me that it takes them about an hour sometimes to warm up.

I'm not a track sprinter, but I always liked to warm up with the sprinters. They roll along at about 25 kmh, just fast enough to not slide off the banking at a track like Alpenrose in Portland. And the speed would increase very, very gradually, until we were in a flat out sprint for about the last ten laps 20 to 40 minutes later. But by then, we'd be ready for it.

You get in a warmup with the beginners, and they'd be trying to boost the speed to over 40 kmh in the first five minutes. The more experienced the riders, the longer and slower the warmup. And once the racing starts, these guys who had warmed up slowly and gradually would be averaging over 50 kmh in the mass starts. The beginners who had warmed up at their top speed would be first off the back!

L.

It's not just age, but fitness will also actually <increase> your required warmup time. The more muscle mass you have, the longer it will take to warm up. I've known track sprinters who tell me that it takes them about an hour sometimes to warm up.

I'm not a track sprinter, but I always liked to warm up with the sprinters. They roll along at about 25 kmh, just fast enough to not slide off the banking at a track like Alpenrose in Portland. And the speed would increase very, very gradually, until we were in a flat out sprint for about the last ten laps 20 to 40 minutes later. But by then, we'd be ready for it.

You get in a warmup with the beginners, and they'd be trying to boost the speed to over 40 kmh in the first five minutes. The more experienced the riders, the longer and slower the warmup. And once the racing starts, these guys who had warmed up slowly and gradually would be averaging over 50 kmh in the mass starts. The beginners who had warmed up at their top speed would be first off the back!

L.

+1 Here is a track workout from this year. Warmup is a 30 to 40 laps in an 80 inch gear which always seems to turn into a scratch race with 2 or 3 to go. It is followed by 100 meter jumps and etc.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/May12TrackAveSpd.jpg

Like so many of you, it takes a few miles to get going. I usually hit a tough hill getting out of my development and I usually dread it, but I try to take solice in the fact that I will be going down that hill upon my return.

Unfortunately, my ride tomorrow starts at the base of a 10 mile 7% climb. There is only so much soft pedaling I can do on a 7% grade.

On my 6AM ride (which I do 2 days/wk) we don't really warm up much, we go right at it. Within 1 to 2 miles we are doing 20+ mph. For this ride I get up an hour early, eat and stretch so that when my riding buddy comes by I am ready to go. These rides are about 18 miles long

However - for a long ride I typically start off slow, and after about 3 miles I am up to speed.

What I usually find is that the first 1/4 mile is always a mental game, the "why do I do this?" thought creeps in, but then I begin to feel good and I know the answer - it's always the same. Like the old Niki commercials use to say "Just do it!"

Same here guys, about 20 minutes before the body makes the transition to cycling mode. It really takes a good 45 minutes before I'm ready to climb telephone poles.
The hotter and more humid the better.

Hills: I Use 48/36/26 and 27/13 and take advantage of the available higher cadence, lower KW output configs if faced with hills during early parts. I see no reason to look at the upcoming grade and say "why am I doing this?", but been there done that. Altering/playing with different pedaling techniques seems valuable.
(I really avoid going into the red til the last half hour.)

Mini-intervals seem to be crucial after the first 20 min, increasing intensity and duration according to comfort. I used to do 25-40 dailys but now do more spirited 1 hour, 15-20 mi rides with rare daily breaks and for some reason feel Like I'm in better shape now than ever. Don't now why.

I never go out with the intention of excercise, but for fun. Exercise, however, typically follows.

Lastly, I road much in my youth, rather mindlessly. I started back in '04 and have found that there's no substitute for experience: '04 vs now. Pacing, gearing, just plain feel, safety, many subtleties of what is really an art form Undergo radical changes.

A few thoughts from one still on the vast learning curve.
Dave

Unfortunately, my ride tomorrow starts at the base of a 10 mile 7% climb. There is only so much soft pedaling I can do on a 7% grade.

10 miles of a 7% grade would just about kill me.

10 miles of a 7% grade would just about kill me.

LOL. You get used to it when mountains are all there is to ride.

Can we get an Amen from the choir on this?
I've got 'other medical problems' that make this "u show U go" 17mph from the get go, a real pain.
I prefer to build up to speed. I tend to spin more than push big gears.
Let the body adjust.
When I could, I rode into the club rides which allowed me 5 to 8 miles of riding before the club ride started.
You'll note the "could and rode" in the previous sentence.
Last month I started 'riding solo'
Made up my own maps of places I wanted to check out (living as close as I do to the Canadian Border,expanded my options a lot)
I started out at around 14 and stayed at 15/16 and incurred none of the 'burn and tightness' I'd get doing club rides.
So far, I've piled up 800 miles of memorable solo rides (memorable because I can stop to talk with folks or look at something at my leisure)without much of the previous 'pain'

Well its nice to see that I am not alone on riding by my self.Wish there was some one to ride with here my wife sure want ride with me.I took a long ride this morning I started at 5:35 am about one hour before the sun came up here.I saw one police car he looked at me as he went by.If anyone is from Arkansas reading this and wants to start riding with some one then we need to set up a place to meet in Little Rock,Ar.But this will have to wait until I get back from my trip to Bangor Maine. I start on this trip on 9/23/09 and I will be going on US 70E to start off so if anyone wants to join in all welcome.70E for me starts in NLR Ar.Anyone from here should know where that is at.Going to leave or try to leave at 6am that morning.My money is short so there want be a lot of pics to see but I will try to get as many as I can.All of these pics will have to wait to be uploaded when I get back home.

Ok, great so its not just me. I need at least 15-20K to get warmed up, and a few short hills as well. I did a mountain climb a few months ago with minimal warm-up, when I got to the top, I could barely walk. Still had to make my way down and drive home. Took me 2 days to recover.

If anyone is in Chambersburg, I ride daily, usually starting between 10-11AM. I've been doing shorter rides lately but 25 miles is just about ideal. 20-30 minutes warmup, 17-24 on the flats, wind dependent obviously. Hills are all over the place. I've only ridden with a partner several times so am essentially new at that.

Sometimes I'll do a leasurely 10 mile recovery ride. My max distance thus far is 50 miles. I've never done a century and frankly am not compelled to do so. At the end of 50 I've pretty much had enough cycling and am ready to move on to other things. (Actually, it kind of bugs me that I don't have a century under my belt!)

I ride a blue Rivendell and safety green shirts. The probability is very low but maybe you've seen me riding primarily on route 30 between Walmart and Caledonia.

Chambersburg is small but there must be someone in the area that reads this forum.

Dave

So far, I've piled up 800 miles of memorable solo rides (memorable because I can stop to talk with folks or look at something at my leisure)without much of the previous 'pain'

I do understand why group ride commanders insist on starting out without some reasonable warm-up period. Well, I guess I forget that most of the riders are not in the 50+ category.

Dave

I do understand why group ride commanders insist on starting out without some reasonable warm-up period. Well, I guess I forget that most of the riders are not in the 50+ category.

Dave

I think you meant to say "do not understand". I think the reason for the blast-offs is peer-induced testosterone surges.

I start my rides at an easy pace. There is no point in inviting injury. The key is to keep fitness at this point in life fun. ;) I am not training for the Old Farts Olympics...I just want to ride until I can't swing my leg over the top tube. :thumb:

Being an insomniac sometimes the whole trip feels like a challenge.. But, normally I feel more stressed about 30 minutes into the ride.. I credit the first portion of the ride, where I am feeling on top of the game to be enthusiasm just to be on the road. Then fatigue often sets in , but you accumulate and catch up..

"do not...." thanks

I have been riding for 5 months, usually 5 days a week. I agree about the painful starts. I start trying to make a deal with myself - go ahead, turn back, no one will know.... But i remember the BF slogan "HTFU" - by 15 miles, I am feeling good, and by the end of a weekday 25 miler, I feel great. I've just learned to do it/

The cycling coach/fitness expert types call it "warming up", and it gets more important as the ol' bod gets older. The young punks can go flat out from the gun, but it takes us "more experienced" types a while to get the blood flowing, and when that happens, watch out!

SP
Bend, OR