Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Does bike riding get easier after awhile?

I weigh 275 and live in a hilly area. I dont think hilly area and 275 mix up well ecspecially since dirt roads make it harder. Does it get better after a few hundred miles of riding?

I've rode 140 miles since I got my bike 4 or 5 months ago. Skipping alot of days when it rained almost every day. I ride a mile or two a day and work up to 5 miles a day. Do you think a mile or two a day will be enough to make my heart and other stuff stronger? My heart rate goes high for a long time after a few hills.

I did conquer some hills I never though i'd be able to ride up.

"It doesn't get easier, you just go faster..."

When I got back into bicycling after a long lay-off, the first 3-mile ride to my office and back really knocked me out! I started riding regularly (3-4 days/week) and found that I made very rapid progress. It wasn't long before I was back to doing the same 30+ mile rides that I'd done before the lay-off.

Yes riding gets easier in time. You will just need to keep getting on and ride your little heart out. They say to work your heart, you need to have a hour of exercise. Im not a doctor, and I would suggest that you see your doc and get his advice on the subject.

Assuming you are fit for this kind of exercise, I would say it does get a lot easier fast. When I used to comute about 15 miles, after winter my fitness would go way down. The first day or two back in the saddle would be pretty harsh, big hills on the return home. Feel like dying. But by the third day I would sail up the hills, at least relatively.

After about 20 years out of comuting I decided to do a 1000 mile tour. Same kind of deal. No prep, threw myself into it. First two days were sorta half days, and I certainly slept hard. But after that I was a lot stronger, it seems to be a very fast ramp up. I don't know if this is normal or I have the right body for it (certainly not the case in other sports). I was about your weight, and 6'1", quite heavy. So I would say that as long as you aren't going to kill yourself you should push reasonably hard and expect noticeable improvements, if only on the basis of my experience, your mileage might vary.

One more thing, you need to be a reasonably sound technical cyclist. Right bike for the riding you do. Not all that expensive, but proper fit, proper fit on all the details, like the cranks. Correct gearing etc... If you aren't riding efficiently it not only makes it harder, but maybe the effort you are engaged in is not one that responds quickly. Cardio seems to pick up fast for me, but an exercise like pull-ups is not something I have made much progress with, too close to my max strength to get good practice in without one of those pullup machines. And obviously decent riding technique is important to your efficiency and safety.

Yes, pedaling a bike up the hills does get easier with time. When I first started riding seriously as an adult, I would find myself slowing way down at the slightest upward incline. Made sure I bought a bike with a granny gear and used it often. I live in a flat to rolling area and now when I ride I almost never have to shift down to the granny. Still need to bring granny along for real hills, but find I can climb many hills without shifting down to my lowest gear like I had to in the past. They say the way to get better at climbing hills is to go out and ride hills. Good luck and keep at it.

In my experience, it gets easier. Maybe you just get used to it being hard. Anyway, you'll find you can ride more.

It may take some time, but it does get easier.

Nope, riding gets faster, not easier:)

I agree with the faster, but not easier. I have experience this over the last year. When I started, a two miler would kill me. Now I ride 25 miles without stopping. However hills (or wind) always seem hard. I just notice that I do them at a faster speed and higher gear. Still hard.

My $0.02. Keep riding, and you will continue to challenge yourself.

Nope, riding gets faster, not easier:)Then i'd be the equivelent to a drag car,doing 1/4 a mile going fast but running out of fuel.

I was at 250, size 42 waist tight. After dieting for 6 months and biking. I found myself loosing
weight. 1 to 2 mile rides were awesome for me. By last summer, had got down to 175 with
some loose skin etc....now I'm at 184 to 187 clothed but waist size the same as 175 ( 34 ),
Loose skin gone, now a 3 mile ride is like barely warming up, when that would have been huge before. 20 miles for me now is a good ride, and I ride a Hybrid, not a Roadie. I hate that the scale numbers are going in the wrong direction,:lol: but the doctor says I'm building muscle.
Pants still fit the waist, but a little tighter on the legs. Do not have many pictures of me at 250
avoided the camera, but here some from Sundays ride.http://s936.photobucket.com/albums/ad209/xoxoxoxoLive/bike/?action=view&current=biketrip021.jpg&newest=1 It was almost
100 degrees, and 3 years ago never I would never have left out of the ac, above 70 degrees. I would say as you become
more fit, it gets easier, and you go faster, I do a lot of trail riding and road riding, (why I ride a Hybrid), Keep on pushing, it will pay off....:) Richard :thumb:

You will get there, Keep it up! I was that weight also and bike the mountains of Colorado. I love it, while I do find it easier than it was I am faster also

I was at 250, size 42 waist tight. After dieting for 6 months and biking. I found myself loosing
weight. 1 to 2 mile rides were awesome for me. By last summer, had got down to 175 with
some loose skin etc....now I'm at 184 to 187 clothed but waist size the same as 175 ( 34 ),
Loose skin gone, now a 3 mile ride is like barely warming up, when that would have been huge before. 20 miles for me now is a good ride, and I ride a Hybrid, not a Roadie. I hate that the scale numbers are going in the wrong direction,:lol: but the doctor says I'm building muscle.
Pants still fit the waist, but a little tighter on the legs. Do not have many pictures of me at 250
avoided the camera, but here some from Sundays ride.http://s936.photobucket.com/albums/ad209/xoxoxoxoLive/bike/?action=view&current=biketrip021.jpg&newest=1 It was almost
100 degrees, and 3 years ago never I would never have left out of the ac, above 70 degrees. I would say as you become
more fit, it gets easier, and you go faster, I do a lot of trail riding and road riding, (why I ride a Hybrid), Keep on pushing, it will pay off....:) Richard :thumb:

Great story, Richard! I'm in the same boat right now with the weight coming off more slowly than I want... but the wife reminds me that I'm building my leg muscles back, my clothes are fitting a LOT better, some are getting down right baggy and I have a LOT more energy! Some times i just get way to hung up on the scale numbers!

And to the OP, my feeling is yes it does get much easier... but I think you need to look at the amount of time you spend getting your old heart going, not so much the miles... I would try getting your heart rate up for 45 minutes to an hour for 4 or 5 days a week... When I decided to get back into cycling the first thing I did was buy a heart rate monitor and made sure I was staying in the "zone" and I concentrated solely on keeping my HR in the zone for an hour and not worrying about speed or distance...

Oh... and for the record... my 1/4 mile drag car

http://www.johnnystacks.com/gallery/d/11512-2/fest1.jpg

A lot of it has to do with the type of riding you do, as well as your reasons for riding. As others have mentioned, specific mileposts like the ability to climb a hill in a particular gear, or at all, are good yardsticks to measure improvements against. And if you tend to ride at a leisurely pace most of the time you may notice it getting easier, or you'll notice other improvements like being able to bump up your mileage incrementally.

OTOH, if you're riding for a specific fitness goal, and tend to push yourself each time you go out, then the answer is definitely no - it does not get easier. You'll improve in measurable ways - higher average speed, longer rides, etc. But it won't seem easier because you're always pushing against your limits.

A lot of it has to do with the type of riding you do, as well as your reasons for riding. As others have mentioned, specific mileposts like the ability to climb a hill in a particular gear, or at all, are good yardsticks to measure improvements against. And if you tend to ride at a leisurely pace most of the time you may notice it getting easier, or you'll notice other improvements like being able to bump up your mileage incrementally.

OTOH, if you're riding for a specific fitness goal, and tend to push yourself each time you go out, then the answer is definitely no - it does not get easier. You'll improve in measurable ways - higher average speed, longer rides, etc. But it won't seem easier because you're always pushing against your limits.

Good way of looking at it, pushing against your limits! Reminds me of the old adage, "Always ride with someone a bit better than youself" I lived by this 20 years ago when I was really an avid cyclist... Best friend and riding buddy was always a bit better than me, always pushing me... and while he was a better cyclist he knew I was right on his heels, which forced him to keep pushing himself!

You have answered your own question. (I did conquer some hills I never thought i'd be able to ride up.)

So yes it does get easier, or longer, or faster. You can pick which ever one you want to.

140 miles in 4 or 5 months, is a start, although a small one. You need to judge yourself by riding more. 140 is a very small sample, to look for big improvements.

Do you think a mile or two a day will be enough to make my heart and other stuff stronger? My heart rate goes high for a long time after a few hills.Mileage is a poor gauge of overall effort. Ignore mileage for now; ride up and down a hill for 30+ min at a time 3x or more a week (be sure to do some warmup riding before starting the intervals). You should see rapid progress doing this. Push as hard as possible during the climb but relax on the downhill. When you go out for a 'normal' ride you'll find the hills to be much easier.

Then i'd be the equivelent to a drag car,doing 1/4 a mile going fast but running out of fuel.

Then go slower. In my opinion you'd make more rapid progress with regard to your fitness by going further, at a pace you can sustain for a while, than by doing only one or two miles at an intensity that tires you out. Thirty miles per month amounts to what, an average of about ten minutes per day on the bike? Maybe even less? It's asking quite a lot to expect one hour of exercise per week to make a significant improvement in your fitness.

But yes, it gets easier the more you do it.

I weigh 275 and live in a hilly area. I dont think hilly area and 275 mix up well ecspecially since dirt roads make it harder. Does it get better after a few hundred miles of riding?

Seattle's topography looks like this:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It can be tough sometimes. When I go to lovely Seward Park, the way I prefer to leave is about 2,200 feet of climbing; sometimes I get lazy and take the flat route, which is only 1,600 feet or so of ascent. I used to think Greenlake was too far to ever be able to bike to, a few years ago; now it's a round-trip I'll take when I'm recovering from a much longer ride ( ie on Mondays ) or when I'm really busy and have other things I need to achieve that evening.

Definitely, it gets easier after a while. But our Limey friend Chasm is right; you'll do yourself a favor by riding more. Even in hilly Seattle, there are flats to be found. Valleys between two hills can give you a mile or two of level ground ... other days when I'm feeling especially lazy, I'll do a loop in my neighborhood with only a bit of climbing. It's exactly one mile, so I can do a dozen laps and call it a day. I only do this anymore when I make changes to my bike and want to test them out before I strand myself somewhere further from home ... but you can probably find something reasonably level to build up some miles on.

And as Mr Beanz will tell you, the way to get better at climbing hills, is to climb hills. But if it takes your heart a while to calm down after climbing a hill, spinning the pedals on flat ground will help your cardio-vascular system out.

Im also gonna limit my soda drinking to one can for every 10 miles I ride. Then when that gets easy then it will be for every 15,20 and up. Im also gonna stop getting seconds.

I started riding this time last year and was proud of an 8 mile, hour long jaunt.

Last Sunday was a 27 mile 2 hour ride. It was mixed pavement and dirt on fat tires, 2.1X26.

Biking is biking, it doesn't get easier-YOU GET STRONGER, especially CLYDES!

I weigh 275 and live in a hilly area. I dont think hilly area and 275 mix up well ecspecially since dirt roads make it harder. Does it get better after a few hundred miles of riding?

I've rode 140 miles since I got my bike 4 or 5 months ago. Skipping alot of days when it rained almost every day. I ride a mile or two a day and work up to 5 miles a day. Do you think a mile or two a day will be enough to make my heart and other stuff stronger? My heart rate goes high for a long time after a few hills.

I did conquer some hills I never though i'd be able to ride up.

I don't think a mile or 2 every other day will get you in shape, but you have to start somewhere. 1 mile leads to 2, leads to 3, 5, 10 etc... What feels impossible today will [almost] be fun by the time October rolls around. 3-5 times a week, go down the same road/path and turn around when you get to the 10 or 15 minute mark. You will notice you get a little further along every week. After a little while, you can work up to 20 minutes, then 30 before you turn around. Just don't push too hard and get hurt. Also, no matter how much you exercise, if you aren't eating well, you'll never get in shape.

Great story, Richard! I'm in the same boat right now with the weight coming off more slowly than I want... but the wife reminds me that I'm building my leg muscles back, my clothes are fitting a LOT better, some are getting down right baggy and I have a LOT more energy! Some times i just get way to hung up on the scale numbers!

And to the OP, my feeling is yes it does get much easier... but I think you need to look at the amount of time you spend getting your old heart going, not so much the miles... I would try getting your heart rate up for 45 minutes to an hour for 4 or 5 days a week... When I decided to get back into cycling the first thing I did was buy a heart rate monitor and made sure I was staying in the "zone" and I concentrated solely on keeping my HR in the zone for an hour and not worrying about speed or distance...

Oh... and for the record... my 1/4 mile drag car

http://www.johnnystacks.com/gallery/d/11512-2/fest1.jpg

!!you have a drag car??:eek: wow what sort of horsepower does that thing have:)

oh and great story richard - very inspiring and fingers crossed i'll be able to write of my own in the future:)

Is it bad to just coast down hill so your not as tired?

I was tempted to say it does not get easier, you just get faster, but that is not true. It gets much easier... IF..

You work a little on cycling well. Most do that incidentally, but decent form on a bike means it becomes more naturel and efficient.


You ride enough to make a difference. 275 is not 400. It is more than my 230-240, but at 230 or so I have done over 400 miles in a weekend. Yes only once and I suffered a bit.

One should be shooting for at least 15 miles in some of your rides, that assuming decent roads that are not all hills. Not saying yuo need to start there, but yuo need to get there to see real results.

My local truely social road club has multiple rides every Saturday and Sunday, the very shortest is 25 miles. The 25 -30 mil rides are decent roads and pretty flat.

Mind you, when I started 25 miles seemed like a lot. But once accomplished a few times it starts to seem less and less.

Im afraid if I ride too far I wont be able to ride it back. Once I ride enough to know im ready I will ride 20 miles round trip to town and back.

As a lot of people have noted yes it gets easier and no you just get faster. I see this in my commuting times, I just kind of naturally work at the same level (and I think I take it easy on commutes) but my avg speed is going up and ride time going down.

As for 1-2 miles a day...... think about minutes instead of miles..... go for a minimum of 20, 30 would be better. Ride often. You will find that the distance you go in the same time increases. Better to do 3-4 days a week of shorter rides rather than 1 day a week a long ride (but throwing one in on the weekend is great)

Im afraid if I ride too far I wont be able to ride it back. Once I ride enough to know im ready I will ride 20 miles round trip to town and back.

I've been thinking more about when I started, and a few other events.

For me there was a bit of a learning curve early and perhaps one breakthrough. I live in hte San Fernando Valley (Northern Los Angeles). It is urban riding and getting comfortable on moderatly busy streets is an important breakthrough here. Until that is done significant rides are a problem.

The next breakthrough was with the local club. I mentioned that the shortest rides were 25 miles, no problem. The breakthrough was the difference between 45 and 50 miles. Oh but there is a twist. The longest of the in Valley rides is 45 miles, the Shortest of the out of Valley rides is 50. In valley means flat, out of valley means going over the biggest hill I had ever clibed and then down the other side, putting a second climb between me and home.

You seem to have alread beaten some hills you thought you could not. You are past a difficult barrier.

One thought, try to find some rides there where you can vary things. If yuo come up with 4 different 10 mile loop rides all starting from yuor house one for each point of the compass, then you can figure out a way to link say the North Ride withthe East ride. It won't be 20 miles, perhaps 15 or 16, but it has one great feature, you don't have to decide until yuo are at mile 5 or 6 if you are going 10 or 15 miles that day.

With my local club there were many paired rides, like a 25 and 45 invalley ride, both would have a break halfway through. Many folks would decide at the break if they wanted the long of short way home. Try for the same, find routes where you can decide to go extra miles. It is bad to figure out on a 20 mile there and back ride that yuo bit off too much (even worse if you just figured out the ride home will be into the wind!) But if yuo have options yuo can afford to push.

That part gets much easier once you are up to 25 miles and more, it is so much easier to figure out ways to add or shortcut 25 mile rides than it is for 10 mile rides.

Oh and yuo never gave us yuor height. 275 at 5'2" is rather different than 275 at 6'1".

Thinking of dirt and hills I rememebr one climb on a fireroad that had been freshly plowed. One mile of that was far harder than 10 on any flat hard road, dirt of paved. Loose dirt uphill is work at any speed.

Is it bad to just coast down hill so your not as tired?

The down sides of hills are made for coasting. You had to climb up the hill ( or will have to shortly ) to do the coasting, so it's your reward for the hard work. Unless you're on a fixie, in which case you just need to get on with your suffering.

It hasn't gotten any easier for me. My first ride I got home covered in sweat huffing and puffing. My most recent ride I got home covered in sweat huffing and puffing. Then again my first ride was less then 1 mile in over half an hour, and my recent ride was about 15 miles in under an hour.

My blood sugar is 41 mg, I tested right after I rode my bike a mile powering up the hills and ate alot of candy bars and soda. That might be why im tired after a mile or two.

I weight about 288 from 297 in a little over eight weeks of riding. I ride a hybrid and I ride every day between 12-15 miles at avg speed of 12.5-13.2 and I am in the burning zone for about 55 minutes to 65 minutes it takes me about five to seven minutes to get going and it does get easier everyday as I ride seven days a week rain or shine as I am done being a fat dude. Get your self a heart rate monitor as suggested and go at it dont worry about speed or distance worry about being in your hear rate zone...Good luck as I definetly know what you are going thru..

My blood sugar is 41 mg, I tested right after I rode my bike a mile powering up the hills and ate alot of candy bars and soda. That might be why im tired after a mile or two.

Wow, that really is concerning. The good news is, at least there is still time to do something about it.

I'm 318 ish now - down from 330 at the start of the summer. Dropping fast. I've been calorie counting - never over 2000 a day - and for the last three weeks starting with 5 miles - tonight I did 17 - longest yet. I'm making conscious efforts not to use the granny gear I depended so on 3 weeks ago. I have a 7 speed mega range - and I was constantly dropping to the 34 cog (granny) - and I rarely do it now - same hilly terrain - all in three weeks. I've put right around 200 miles on my bike in 3 weeks. I want to be with the 500 mile club by Christmas. . . I may have some advantage - I've always been a big walker - sometimes walking many many miles a week. I have some level of fitness if you could call it that (by no means in shape) - but I've walked to work etc often for the last several years. Just not enough often enough. That and my diet was atrocious.

By the way, one thing that helped me a lot with hills was really breathing to my full lung capacity. There is some effort required to fully fill the lungs when one isn't used to it. It turned out that I was not doing it, and it made a tremendous difference when I did. Another thing is spinning. I don't really consciously spin, I am strapped in, and aware of the idea, I try to keep smooth. But on hills, I do make an extra effort to spin, or at least use all possible muscles, like having a truck that shifts from 4 cylinder to 8.

Is it bad to just coast down hill so your not as tired?

Do whatever it takes. But as it happens, spinning downhill rather than coasting will tend to make you less tired, not more. Keeping the legs moving will increase the speed at which your blood removes the fatigue products from your muscles, so you'll recover quicker for the next hill.

I weigh 290.

Yesterday: I commuted to work, which meant taking the train in and riding my road bike 30 miles back home.
Saturday: I will do a 17-mile mountain bike ride.
Sunday: I will do a 50-mile road ride.
My vertical total for the week will be about 6,000 feet.

When I weighed merely 260 a year or so ago, I was even stronger. 100+ miles a week was easy. I pulled a few 180-mile weeks back-to-back in the summer, and even did a 5-hour, 50-mile, 5,000+ foot climb day on the mountain bike.

Did I start there? Hell no. When I first picked bikes back up five years ago a 4 mile ride kicked my ass. But I kept riding.

Here's the deal - the saying 'it never gets any easier' means you always suffer. If you consistently push your limits, you will absolutely get faster, stronger, able to ride longer. Once you do that, the rides you started on are absolutely easier. But, if you love the sport, then eventually those easy rides don't excite you as much as the suffering and the challenge.

Also, man... DO NOT eat crap food on the bike. Bring a banana or two, buy some electrolyte replacement drink mix, and get some of those gel bites or whatever. Those will help you ride better, instead of pouring a bunch of total **** into your system that just destroys your body's ability to fuel itself during exertion.

I started riding in May. During that first week I went on a 6 mile walk to pick up my bike from a friends house and then rode it the 6 miles home. The combination of those two things made me a wreck mentally and physically. Near home I stopped at a park and came about as close to a breakdown as possible. I was totally and completely spent.

Nearly 3 months later I'm doing 100 - 125 miles per week. July will be my first 500 mile month. Tomorrow I will do my first metric century and next month I'll do a MS150.

Its not all been on the bike. I take a group fitness class 3x per week to get more cardio in and some additional weight training for leg strength.

The scales say I've lost 25 lbs in 3 months but that's with the gain in muscle.

So yeah, it gets easier.

Im afraid if I ride too far I wont be able to ride it back. Once I ride enough to know im ready I will ride 20 miles round trip to town and back.


This made me smile. I'm the exact same way except i'm out in the woods on the fire roads. I feel like I can go much further with each passing day but I'm so afraid that I will get to a point that I won't be able to get back and nobody knows where I am in the woods. :lol: (Just me and the moose and deers.)

I have a similar problem in the early spring rides where I am getting leg cramps at my turnaround point. I have learned to stretch my legs on the bike to relieve the cramps and slowed the pace to a non stressing torque. I bring powerade on the ride for the potassium.

I'm on the "it does get easier" side of this argument.
I'm a person who's had not only a clydesdale body for a while but also knee and ankle problems to go along with it. Weight topped out around 300 at one point, now around 245 or so. Shrug, it is what it is on my 180cm frame.

Anyway, starting at 2 miles after knee surgery, I was wrecked even though that took me forever to complete (30 minutes I think). Despite that, I got back out and did it again for 3 days before taking a 1-day break. After the break, I added .1 mile (yes, a lousy tenth of a mile) on and out and back route each day for the next 4 days, then another break. Rinsed, Repeated until I got up to adding .25 miles to the same out and back route til I hit the Parish (county) line - wound up with a 10 mile round trip. Nothing to stick in the record books, but I had a solid route to measure myself by. This process was centered on the thought - just keep pedaling.

From that point on, I didn't measure distance as much as time - like some people suggest. I could either compare the time it took to cover that route against previous times or I could head in the opposite direction on the levee bikepath and ride 5 minutes more than "yesterday" before turning around and heading back - anyone can handle 10 more minutes of pain I figured. Again, this went through the "rinse repeat" cycle and I found myself hitting "personal best speed and distance 'records'" without really focusing on doing so - that was never the goal, it just occured. Again, the thought was "keep on pedalling, just a bit further". Out and back meant I HAD to finish to take a final break that day.

I won't say what my daily/weekly mileage is now as that's unimportant wrt the thread topic and I'm prepping for a ~1300 mile tour. However, it IS easier to ride the distances I have already ridden. It IS easier to see myself riding further than I've ridden before. It IS easier to recover when I really have a bad day or really push myself.

My 2 cents.

Let me clarify what I said before. You improve over time. No question about it. Whether that improvement manifests itself in apparent "ease" of riding depends on why you're riding in the first place. If you're out for leisurely-paced rides for the pure enjoyment of it or simply as a way to remain somewhat active (and believe me I mean that in absolutely no pejorative way), you will feel it becoming subjectively easier. If you're out for improvements in fitness, you'll tend to be working at the same subjective level of effort each time you ride. If that's the case, it won't "feel" easier. But that's not how you'll be measuring your improvements - they'll come in the form of higher mileage, higher average speed, climbing more quickly or in a higher gear, etc.

In the end it depends on what you're trying to gain from your riding, and how you personally define the metrics of "improvement."

!!you have a drag car??:eek: wow what sort of horsepower does that thing have:)

oh and great story richard - very inspiring and fingers crossed i'll be able to write of my own in the future:)

Nice car, what are you doing the 1/4 mile in ? :) Richard

I've been thinking more about when I started, and a few other events.

For me there was a bit of a learning curve early and perhaps one breakthrough. I live in hte San Fernando Valley (Northern Los Angeles). It is urban riding and getting comfortable on moderatly busy streets is an important breakthrough here. Until that is done significant rides are a problem.

The next breakthrough was with the local club. I mentioned that the shortest rides were 25 miles, no problem. The breakthrough was the difference between 45 and 50 miles. Oh but there is a twist. The longest of the in Valley rides is 45 miles, the Shortest of the out of Valley rides is 50. In valley means flat, out of valley means going over the biggest hill I had ever clibed and then down the other side, putting a second climb between me and home.

You seem to have alread beaten some hills you thought you could not. You are past a difficult barrier.

One thought, try to find some rides there where you can vary things. If yuo come up with 4 different 10 mile loop rides all starting from yuor house one for each point of the compass, then you can figure out a way to link say the North Ride withthe East ride. It won't be 20 miles, perhaps 15 or 16, but it has one great feature, you don't have to decide until yuo are at mile 5 or 6 if you are going 10 or 15 miles that day.

With my local club there were many paired rides, like a 25 and 45 invalley ride, both would have a break halfway through. Many folks would decide at the break if they wanted the long of short way home. Try for the same, find routes where you can decide to go extra miles. It is bad to figure out on a 20 mile there and back ride that yuo bit off too much (even worse if you just figured out the ride home will be into the wind!) But if yuo have options yuo can afford to push.

That part gets much easier once you are up to 25 miles and more, it is so much easier to figure out ways to add or shortcut 25 mile rides than it is for 10 mile rides.

Oh and yuo never gave us yuor height. 275 at 5'2" is rather different than 275 at 6'1".

Thinking of dirt and hills I rememebr one climb on a fireroad that had been freshly plowed. One mile of that was far harder than 10 on any flat hard road, dirt of paved. Loose dirt uphill is work at any speed. I was afraid of riding to far, and not being able to get back, so I made up some loops from the house like you said, if I felt I could go another 10 when nearing the house I would, if not go on home. I once started out on a ride for the Post Office, and found myself going into town, then across town, out of town going away from my house to visit a friend. On the return trip, last five miles six miles from my house started suffering from heat exhaustion, I was not dressed properly, blue jeans, black t-shirt, and a 90 degree plus day. Had to lock my bike up and catch a ride with a friendly motorist home,
and after a few ours of resting return with the car for my bike. Learned a valuable lesson,
do not go on long rides unless you have prepared for them. : ) Richard

It hasn't gotten any easier for me. My first ride I got home covered in sweat huffing and puffing. My most recent ride I got home covered in sweat huffing and puffing. Then again my first ride was less then 1 mile in over half an hour, and my recent ride was about 15 miles in under an hour.

This is the kind of story I like to hear!

Yes it gets easier, like many, I too was and still am were your at. Huffing and puffing is a good workout. It gets easier to ride and will the more often your ride. The effort it takes you to do one mile today will equal 2 miles eventually. You've done the hard part which is just getting out there and it is hard. I had been a five miles on a good day rider for a couple of months until this past week. Once you break beyond that it will hit you hard and be one of the best pats on the back you've ever given yourself. Keep it up. Don't worry about the distance so much as just stay getting out there. Try this ride as much as you can only ride 2 miles, in a month if not sooner you'll be riding 3. Keep it up, Your doing good, this forum can help you. It helped me.

I was afraid to go too far when I started riding again, too, so I rode loops. If you have a bike computer, you'll have a good idea of how far you can go, and have gone, and can easily track how long you've been out. That helps if you know you can ride 3 miles or whatever, and want to push a little further. Also, if your neighborhood has city blocks, you can ride a huge loop and have ditch-out points along the way. If you get tired, just cut through and go home.

This will probably sound terrible, but if you really want something sweet, you might try to skip the pop and eat something. Even if it's candy. Candy is more satisfying than pop is, and may actually have a nutrient or two. Also it gives you that maybe-I-shouldn't-have-anymore feeling that pop doesn't. If you're going to have 220+ calories of junk, go for a solid, not a liquid. Try to drink water with it!

You can also cheat and eat grapes or something, then eat some junky sweet thing. You can trick yourself into thinking you have a stomach full of candy :)

Cycling does get easier. It takes less effort to make the same thing happen. After that, you can push yourself as hard as you want to.

I'm in the "it doesn't become easier, you just get faster" camp.

Last year when I started cycling again I could barely make it one mile up the hilly road from the house.

Now, 60 lbs lighter and much better level of fitness, I'm cycling to work and back (25 miles each way) a couple of times per week.

It does get a lot more fun though. Now I can stick with those fitter riders on my commute and enjoy a fast ride and a good workout too!