Training & Nutrition - Ride for fitness or fitness to ride?

I'm curious... do you ride to stay fit, or do you stay fit for the sake of your riding? A few years ago, I would have said the former, but over the last year or so, I've been thinking that that long ago ceased to be the case. I train to ride... the fact that it makes me healthier has become a secondary consideration...

I started off cycling just to get fit, but now I find myself training thinking of being lighter and faster. It's still partly to get fit, but my thinking has changed since I started.

I decided I didn't want to just sit on the couch and wait on my heart to explode. I am waaaay too far out of shape to be 31. I got to thinking a while back about my excuses for not doing something. My main logic was that I don't have time for it, but it occured to me that I really don't have time for a heart attack either. I know that you can't stop everything, but you have to do what you can.

Besides, biking is the only thing that even remotely appealled to me. It was fun when I was a kid... so why not now?

I started to cycle seriously as a means to getting/keeping fit, but now it has become my main hobby/activity for the sake of itself.

Forgive me if I sound patronizing.

This poll is "right on." Great question, great food for thought/action.

To be honest, for me it's a chicken-and-egg thing. I wanted to answer both options.

I started to get in shape, now I have to stay that way to maintain the performance I've come to enjoy. Great post!

:D

(Velocipedio, you should have waited and let this one go longer in the oven. So much potential!)

Heck, not sure how to answer the poll! I ride for the sheer joy of it as well as for the exercise, but try to be more disciplined in my work-out habits in order to fully benefit from my rides. I suppose it's the chicken/egg quandry for me as well. One of many Life's mysteries I'm happy to consider. :)

-Rob

I started riding to keep fit over the summer for skiing.
The skiing is long gone but I still ride.
I find I ride now for the sheer pleasure anything
else is just gravy.

Marty

I never gave much thought to these things until I met a guy on a ride who said with a smirk, "I only ride to keep in shape for basketball."

Kind of irked me at the moment.
I realized then, the real reason why I ride -- I love it!
I would ride even if it was BAD for my health.

Originally posted by Pete Clark
Forgive me if I sound patronizing.

This poll is "right on." Great question, great food for thought/action.

To be honest, for me it's a chicken-and-egg thing. I wanted to answer both options.

I started to get in shape, now I have to stay that way to maintain the performance I've come to enjoy. Great post!

:D

(Velocipedio, you should have waited and let this one go longer in the oven. So much potential!)

Ditto :D

Richard

When I first starting riding, I rode as my main source of exercise. I lost a lot of weight riding, too. Now I ride to maintain a good weight and because I have come to love it.

Both? Two years ago, i would have answered fitness to ride, however post surgery, its more of "a ride for recovery" (or fitness). I cant do a single push up yet, but i have done a handfull of 20+ mile rides so far this year. So i voted the first option "I ride to stay or get fit"

I ride simply because I love it. Since I consider fitness a pretty nice side affect I voted ride to stay fit.

Pete, how's your cadence coming? Keep practicing!:D

Originally posted by Moose
Pete, how's your cadence coming? Keep practicing!:D
It's amazing how raising the seat a few inches can increase your speed and keep you from feeling like an elephant stepped on your knees! Thanks to LBM for showing me that! (But I could have done without his profanity! ;) )

Originally posted by Pete Clark

It's amazing how raising the seat a few inches can increase your speed and ... cause you to topple over at stop signs!:crash:

I didn't vote, because I'm not riding regularly enough RIGHT NOW to answer honestly either way. But when I ride daily (or almost), it's in order to be fit, in part. And partly just to get where I need to go, and a little bit for fun.

Definitely stay fit to ride . . . I don't think I could bring myself to go to the gym so faithfully during the winter if it weren't for the hope of being able to, at worst maintain, at best improve, my performance on the bike in the spring . . . I actually never worried about fitness before I discovered cycling. I was very thin, which doesn't equate to being fit, and it was easy to stay thin . . . I just smoked a lot and didn't eat much. Now, I don't smoke (had to improve my lung capacity for riding), I eat a lot more (gotta feed my muscles!) and I work out every day, either on or off the bike (gotta keep the system in good shape for cycling) . . . Guess I'm just lucky that I just love to ride! :D

Originally I just plain loved to ride... then I really loved to ride... then I loved the way riding and lifting weights made me feel... then I liked riding even better... then I grew older, and we have heart disease in my family...
I ride because I want to be able to ride again, and the more I ride, the better I ride.:D

First of all, I stay fit...well, to stay fit. No question that I'm a better rider because I'm fit but that wouldn't be the main reason.

Having said that, there's nothing like a good 40 mile ride to make you feel like you've just, "cleaned out the arteries this afternoon". That's a great feeling.

I think I stay fit and eat healthful foods because when I look around, the alternative scares the bejebbers out of me.

Good Riding!

Started for fitness, as an alternative to running. Wasn't long until riding became an end in itself. From there, it branched into bike-commuting and a social thing (group rides, etc.). What really keeps me at it is the way it makes me feel, and maybe even more so, the awful way I feel when I don't ride.