Glenn1234

Maybe this can be a reality check, too, in a sense...but I have to ask what the proper amount of progress should be. When I started out, I had problems, granted, and had to work to get 2 miles in. Part of that as well is that I face a 3% grade when I go out of the house, and numerous hills all over the place. But very soon I got to the point of working up to about 10 miles with rests before I'd have to quit.

Now it's two months later. The good thing is that I'm to the point that I have to rest much less to go places (2 times on the last 10 mile ride on a fast stretch of ground I found - about 75% flat). The bad thing: My upper limit is still 10 miles.

So, is this generally expected for a 290# (yes little weight loss for riding 5-10 miles a day), or is there something that I'm not doing that I should be doing?

Tom Stormcrowe

Sounds like you need to review intake vs output for the stalled weight loss. As to the rest, well, that depends....I'd need to know how spent are you at the end of the 10 miles, etc.

bcc

Why is your upper limit 10 miles? If you're riding 5-10 each day you should be able to go further. If it's pain, I'd suggest making sure your bike is properly fitted. If it's exhaustion then make sure you're drinking plenty and carry a banana or something.

I've been aiming for the 10% mark each week (I'm currently 365 lbs), and until last week my longest ride had been a fairly challenging 8.5 miles. I ended up going for a ride with a friend last weekend and accidentally did 13 miles. At 10 miles (on my own riding back to my house at that point) I was pretty much ready to pack it in. I was exhausted, aching and had 3 miles uphill (with 300 feet of climb) to get home. I stopped for a rest, drunk a pint of water and had a snickers bar (bought from a service station - I'd not expected to need food on this ride), and somehow managed to push on and get home.

Last week I felt I'd pushed too hard. Later today I'm going to attempt the same distance again. It feels much less scary now I know I can do it.

tpelle

bcc's advice in the previous reply is right on target. I found that there were lots of things that limited my progress. The saddle I was riding was one of them. Also hand numbness was holding me back.

I eliminated the saddle problem by going with a Brooks B17 - and putting in the time to break it in properly. Now I can ride with no saddle issues, but it took a good 250 miles on the Brooks to reach that point.

Learning to stop for a few minutes every 20 or 30 minutes, to let the Brooks/Butt Interface rest, helped let me add on the miles.

Picking an achievable goal and mastering it, such as riding one more hill that had always been a roadblock, helps with conditioning and with self-esteem (which is every bit as important).

Hand numbness took a little longer to solve. Conventional wisdom indicates that it's due to putting too much weight on the hands, compressing the carpal nerves in the base of the palm just below the wrist. Most folks would suggest raising the handlebars. In my case I discovered that the bars needed to be lowered - I dropped my stem one spacer, and the problem got a lot better. I'm getting ready to try dropping another spacer.

When I first started out, clothing was an issue. As is probably the case with many clydes, I initially avoided lycra out of a misplaced sense of modesty. Riding in cotton blend hiking shorts and a tee-shirt that rapidly became sweat-soaked was a drag. Eventually I came around, and discovered that the lycra clothing offers a lot of benefits to a cyclist - muscle support, sweat wicking properties, no seams to chafe, no bagginess to catch on the saddle nose, etc.

Simple heat in the summer months (and those sunburn stripes from the helmet vents on the top of my head) have been pretty much put to bed by a Headsweats do-rag that I soak in cool water and wring out as needed.

The biggest help to me, after I got all of the little speed bumps out of the way, was now I could really ride and start piling on the miles. I'm doing 30 miles easily now, and am on the verge of adding more. Starting to think of that first half-century, and the idea is hovering on the edge of my consciousness that a full century would be doable, with some planning and commitment, before too long.

I guess what I'm saying is this: Analyze exactly what it is that after 10 miles is making you feel like you'll be glad when the ride is over. After you figure that out, eliminate that particular factor.

StephenH

Sounds fine to me. If you didn't have hills, you'd probably be going twice as far and wouldn't be asking the question. Keep riding, keep going up hills faster, keep trying to go farther.

On occasion, drive to some place flatter and go for a ride there just for perspective.

lil brown bat

"proper amount of progress"? That's something you have to figure out for yourself.

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will do." - Chinese saying

"If you don't know where you are, a map won't help." - Watts Humphries.

Where are you, and where are you going?

spikedog123

Hills are your friends. It helps with your interval training. Don't worry about the mileage. Worry about putting in a quality workout rather than the total distance. Strength and endurance will come.

Glenn1234

Usually very. The first rest on the ride I mentioned was at about the 4.8 mile mark after a big climb (not really any getting away from hills here - when you do get some relatively flat stuff at times, you end up paying for it soon enough). More for getting off the seat, letting my shoulders and rear end rest, but I was sucking wind too (total time about 1 min). Second one was about the 9.8 mark (about 5-10 minutes). Had sweat in my eyes (where most of my water went that I had at the time), but I was sucking wind then too and feeling not right (not sure how to describe it in one or a few words, but probably consistent with general exhaustion). Wasn't sure I was going to get back but ended up managing it. +1, though is that I rode another 4 miles that night and finished strong enough. -1, however, is that I got maybe 2 miles the next day because I was sore in my legs. So I'd say exhaustion pretty much fits the bill.

My main problems I face are bike maintenance issues and this exhaustion stuff. I'm sure one plays into the other. I'm on a used X-Mart MTB riding mainly on road grade stuff, which has its share of problems that I charitably put on the bike (not pulling a "if you want it done right do it yourself") and not the 2 LBSes I've had it to to fix them (2 weeks out for that) but with no results. One of those problems is the gears are hard to shift. It pedals hard and grinds at times before the chain finally slips onto another cog - the bike will also slip gears too when riding. The brakes have mechanical issues, too (and the 2 LBSes have looked at those, too, to no avail). But as far as pains go these days, it's mainly shoulders, hands/wrist (mainly due to braking on the descents of those hills to control the bike), and some ankle pains. I've had others that have disappeared for most part (mainly leg numbness and saddle issues). So there's nothing saying that further changes couldn't be made to the bike (like how the saddle issue got fixed), just wouldn't quite know how to proceed there without finding a different bike (I'm a little short on knowledge, yes).

I figured the exhaustion would be part of the game, you got to get yourself there to a point to be able to improve, so I'm not surprised of that. More of why I make the post is that the ride I mentioned would be the 6th one that I've taken of 10 miles or more. So I have to ask, especially since not seeing the distance/endurance progress is discouraging at that point. I have seen progress in terms of being more able to cover the distances I have been so I'm not counting it a complete loss, though. Hopefully, though, I can progress towards my next intermediate goal (a 15 mile stretch I mapped out) and get it done without too much problem.

bautieri

Sounds to me like you've got a bike that doesn't fit you. This is likly the cause of your hand, shoulder, ankle, and leg pain. I can't figure out why an LBS couldn't solve a brake issue, even if it used some proprietary part they could replace the entire brake system altogether. Nashbar often sells their V-Brakes and side pulls dirt cheap, often less than ten bucks. The other thing to keep in mind is that x-mart bikes are quite often tanks, they are heavy and handle poorly often due to improper frame size. This is could definatly be a factor in the milage department. Afterall, you should only have to fight the road and not your bike.

Now I'm certainly not going to sit here and knock your bicycle, it has served its purpose and done it well. It has got you into bicycling and started you down the road to better health. I would say it's time to put her to rest. You could buy a singlespeed freewheel conversion for the bicycle and give it to someone without a bike for some good karma. BTW, about where do you live? Maybe we could help you out with some used bike hunting or if you have a budget established we certainly could toss a thought or two your way.

Neil_B

Leaving aside the problems with the bike, which sound considerable, you might simply be hitting a wall. It's easy to get the idea from reading the Clydesdale forum that progress is easy and a straight line. We all want to post, and read, good news. But sometimes moving ahead a step means marching in place for a while, or perhaps even stepping back. (I've been 'in retreat' so many times I could join the French army. ) You have to persevere in what you are doing. Perhaps question if you are doing it correctly, or if there's something you can improve, but stick with it. Take this advice from someone who almost gave up two weeks ago.

77midget

aside any bike issues, which it sound might in fact exist, I agree with The Historian 1000%. The first couple commutes I did (10 miles each way) I had to stop at least once on each leg, and generally felt as if death was in my backpack. After a bit, I was able to do it without stopping, which is to say that the bike was technically moving forward and I was upright, but that was about it.

I started with the soreness, and numb/tingly hands. It got better with refining saddle position, wearing compression shorts under my regular ones, and getting gloves. These things greatly increased my comfort while on the bike.

Even after getting into a good groove with my commute, my wall was still 10 miles, and every time I tried to add miles, I would really bonk out. Eventually, though, I was able to break through by adding shorter, 5 mile rides after I got home, and then trying to just append that ride to my home commute.

Now, my regular performance level for my commute is much higher, and I can do 20 mile rides on the weekends and still get up the next day to bike to work.

Proper diet has been VERY IMPORTANT for me. Since I am running a large, and calculated, calorie deficit, what I eat is very important, and I try not to wait until I get thirsty to drink, as that is too late, and try not to let myself get too hungry, since that means I am tapped.

This whole process for me has been about 2 months, right in line with you. I started at 250# (just weighed in at 237.5 yesterday), so I am a bit lighter there. Like others have said, don't concentrate on the distance so much as how you feel after you do the rides you are doing. If you get your bike dialed in, and your wind gets built up, you will start to feel better. The endurance and distance will come right along with it.

bribas

I wouldn't worry too much about the weight loss. It will come. When I started up early this year, I was where you were, and although I could do longer distances, I still felt crappy. Then after about two months, it was like a switch was flipped, and life on the bike got easier, and longer distances were accessible. Sometimes it takes a while for the body to get the point that you're serious about a change. Think about it like an oil tanker trying to reverse direction - it ain't gonna happen in a hurry. As far as the hand numbness, try adjusting the bars/seat to see if that helps. To help for distances, when you find a flat stretch, or when you get home, do a loop or two, ride the same section a few times. Another thing that helped me was to spin a higher cadence. Keep the heart pumping. Clydes sometimes worry about speed and distance, but in motor vehicle terms, we're not a Ferrari, we're a garbage truck. Don't expect to go far or fast, just do what you can, and add a bit at the end. That's my sermon for the day.

Glenn1234

Before I start replying...I just got done with Ride #7 of 10 miles or more (actually the same ground as Ride #6). Two rests, was sucking wind (not as much though), but the main problems were groin numbness and wrist/hand numbness. But right now I feel like I could go some more, and felt like I wasn't "pedaling weak" for most part, which means doing what I described earlier might be what I need to be doing. The temperature was about 10 degrees cooler, so I don't know if that plays a factor or not.

I'm probably pretty sure of that. I feel a bit better when I'm upright and not as much of my weight is going, so I'm thinking I'd like to raise the handlebars, but I'm not sure of that. I got the saddle right, mostly, and that's helped tremendously. But I don't know if there's anything more that could be done in the fit department that would help. I think really the shoulder and ankle pain might be more related to my weight than the bike (though the shoulder thing isn't helped by supporting my weight on the bike).

I'm not measuring my progress against anyone else, I know that lesson from long ago. I don't know what is "normal" or "expected", so I ask, as a way to learn how to gauge my own progress. As you suggest, I'm trying to find out what might be keeping me from moving on (I may have found it, I don't know for sure).

That's kind of how progress goes. I pulled 6 miles Sunday in 95+ degree heat without much trouble, but that's a far cry from where I started (lots of rests, lots of "weak pedaling"). Like I said, I'm more able to pull the distances that I am pulling, so I see progress there. In fact, I can do all my commute rides now without incredible effort, so I'm happy that goal got met, which was my real purposeful goal for the bike. But there's always the "it'd be nice if I could ride out to there" goals too, and I'm hoping to work to one of them by the end of this fall.

But like I said, doing what you describe (and what I did earlier) is starting to sound like the ticket for the exhaustion issue, though there's much that could be done with the bike (and will be with time).

(BTW, since I'm talking about this specific ride so much now, I might get some ride pictures to post next time I go out that way. I'm sure it'll be nice for all involved. )

77midget

One thing I have done for soreness and numbness is to periodically stand up on the pedals and stretch the legs and but out a bit. Also, I still get a bit of hand-numbness if I am not positioned well on my saddle, or, when tired, if I am leaning too hard on my hands. Gloves helped, regular hand repositioning helps, and also periodically shaking hand out helps. I used to get toe numbness until I realized that I tied my shoes too tight, and my straps were ratcheted down too much.

Of note, too, is that getting back into cycling, for me, caused 3 chiropractor visits for back and inner shoulder pain. Issues corrected were because of bad saddle posture. I am glad my chiro is a biker! This also just goes to show that there will be pain on the way-why wouldn't there be? You are changing the physical makeup and capability of your body!

All of these maladies have lessened the more I have biked. I like the thought someone else posted that everyone wants to post and read good news-that is true. But everyone also has (probably) equal amounts of challenges that they have encountered. I know I have.

You said that you have some goals which you are meeting and setting-this is excellent. I did, and do, this, and it works. My goal for the summer was to become a bike commuter, but within that, I have weight goals, fitness goals, mileage goals, distance goals, and silly little things like 'coming into hill x, I need to keep up speed and gear until that mailbox'. I call these pedal points and shift points, and they help me frame little goals into my daily rides.

However you frame the goals/targets, I feel that they help you to identify and quantify your progress better. Keep up the fight!

jyossarian

I know what you mean about the wall. I took up jogging and ran right into the wall after a couple weeks. Progress has slowed considerably. To try to break through it, here's a couple things to consider: pace and intervals.

Pace: are you pushing too hard? You may think it's unavoidable climbing hills, but if you change into the granny gears, you'll spin easy and climb slowly. Don't worry about it taking too long to climb like that, you want to pace yourself so you're not exhausted at the top. Pace yourself on flats too. Don't push too high a gear. Spin around 70 rpm or more (~12 strokes for every 10 seconds, just count it out) and make sure you're not breathing hard. Don't worry about time, the important thing is riding for a long time.

Intervals: Mix it up. Sprint , then slow pedal, then sprint again. You probably want to do this on a separate day and stay close to home. Your legs will burn, your lungs will burn and you may see stars. If you see stars, you're pushing too hard so back it off. Alternatively, attack the hill, then coast down, then attack it again. Good luck!

Glenn1234

Some good news (but we'll see until tomorrow and how I feel then)...I just went on a 4.7 mile ride (with a 0.75 mile climb), along with (my guess) about 0.5 miles of hard surface trail riding (which was fun stuff, definitely going to have to do the ride pic treatment on that, as well as find out where some of the forks went ).

As far as my bike goes, I thought about what was said here and looked real hard at things. I didn't realize it, but my seat got bumped back (or just was too far back to begin with), and ended up almost all the way back on the rails, too. I corrected that and raised the seat to compensate, and ended up with more power and comfort out of it. So a new lesson learned. Great! The only problem I had on this ride was soreness/numbness wise was the numbness in the hands. So hopefully I can figure out what to do about that.

So I'm at 15 miles for the day, don't feel very exhausted (I could go out again if I wanted), and looks like I got most of my answers. Thanks for the help!

Pinyon

I think most of your problems are due to bike fit. It is very hard to concentrate on riding farther or faster, when you hurt, can't shift gears, etc.

Here are a couple of standard websites that talk about making the bike fit you. The innitial setup that they reccomend should be considered as a starting point. Most of us have to nudge things a little in one area or another to make the bike fit us. No body is exactly the same, and you have to play with it a little bit to make it fit really well.

https://www.caree.org/bike101bikefit.htm

https://www.uspn.com/ibc/riding_tips/...ntain_Bike.htm

And here is an article on fixes for typical pain issues related to bike fit.
https://www.bicycling.com/article/1,6...5711-1,00.html

Have fun out there!

Bill Kapaun

For exhaustion, try a little different technique for ONE ride, and see if it makes a difference.
Run ONE gear LOWER and spin a little FASTER.
When I bought my cheap speedometer, I actually discovered I was slightly faster that way. The BIGGER surprise was my stamina was MUCH better!

As far as weight loss. Sometimes it's better to use the measuring tape instead of the scale. IF you are loosing INCHES, you're doing good!

AbundantChoice

This worked for me in the early weeks. I was getting totally blown in high gear, but dropped it down and spun a little faster, and suddenly felt alot better. This probably is not just due to the decreased resistance from the drivetrain, but also due to me riding 1~2 mph slower one gear down. By riding a touch slower I can go considerably further, no surprise.

The upside of all of it is i'm still getting a good workout, but can actually notice alot of the pretty scenery and whatnot more as i'm not going "oh god, i'm maxing out, here comes the wall, hitting the wall in 5...4...3..."

wrk101

My first ride was 3 miles. One month later I was up to 30 miles, and I am 52. So I would guess there are other problems like fit, etc. I have a triple, which provides a lot of gears for hills (so I can remain spinning).

As far as hands: gloves and change hand position frequently. If you have a hybrid or mtb style (with basically only have one hand position), get some trekking bars.

Glenn1234

Thanks for the links (a couple of them were very good) and the help! I ended up going 15 miles today, too (not at once but within about a 3 hr period), with only some of the hand problems. So I'm thinking some progress has been made

Thanks again!

socalboomer

also don't forget to get your rest. Don't try and push yourself every single day - work up a schedule and stick to it. Do your rides interspersed with a rest day. And try to have some variance to your rides - do a day that has more hilly, but shorter - look at this as your "challenge" day. Next day, rest. Next day, do a lighter ride - more level but a bit longer - do it slower and more relaxed. That type of thing.

If you don't give your muscles time to recover, you're not going to make as good progress as you could. Any time you exercise, you actually break down muscle tissue and it takes some time for that to rebuild.

longer/lighter rides build endurance (in general)
shorter/harder rides build strength (in general)
rest days allow your muscles to rebuild.

Glenn1234

It definitely has become apparent that I need to do some more serious planning on what kind of rides I need to be doing and the amount of rest I take. As was mentioned, I do use the bike for some commuting, so I would need to plan around that so I could be fresh for those. Other than that, things are pretty open. I tried a different route the day after I posted the last post here (yes rest day in between there) and ended up doing 18 miles and some change that day (more progress), but probably the point I need to figure out is what is workable both for distance and time for my schedule and fitness level. Yesterday, I just did a 3 mile sprint (10-15 mins time), but in a way it seemed like it was a bit "cheap" in terms of duration.

Only problem with that is trying to vary anything - like I said (I think?), there's no getting away from hills at all where I'm at. Just places with less hills, and places with more hills. No flat ground, always some kind of incline somewhere.

Glenn1234

A little report (for those that are still remotely interested): The X-Mart bike put itself to rest today. The chain got thrown off of the rear gearset a couple of times as I was starting a commute trip. After getting that done, I checked into it and it seems the rear derailleur is completely shot (and I really don't know if it would be worth the $ to fix). The chain skips gears and throws itself off very regularly now, more towards the low gears. I did finally get it into a middle gear where it was stable. So I could ride it as a singlespeed bike if I still wanted to, but the question is would I want to? Thankfully this didn't happen 6-7 miles away from home (I did a 13 mile ride a couple of days ago I think that contributed to its end), so there's always a positive.

Of course the question I have now about those 2 LBS trips is why they couldn't straight-up point out the problem that in a way I knew that was already there and suggest how to address it, like you suggest with the brake issue. I'm learning bits and pieces about bike mechanics, including how to do several things, but know very little about locating proper parts (hence the original brake issue if you remember that far back), troubleshooting, and the like. Probably the big frustration is that the 2 LBS trips put me down $50 to do next to nothing (they could have said, "well you know what you have, right?" or "We can't really do much for this bike because of the quality" or some such thing and have been honest) - could have almost had me another X-Mart bike for that . Such is the pitfall of contracting out work in any discipline.

I might have a line on a free used bike that might be good (I need to go see it first), but weight is always a concern. What's the rule to determine whether a bike can handle a Clyde's weight? Wheel spoke count? But beyond that, I need to figure out what my options are, so a couple of good ideas would be welcome.

Thanks for the thoughts and help, and thanks to those that have been reading my posts as controversial as they keep seeming to get.

Wogster

The rule is that, most frames and forks can handle any weight, although I would avoid used CF anything, as CF likes to hide damage, until it catastrophically fails. Wheels can be an issue, they need to be properly tensioned and trued, typically the fewer the spokes the more tension you need to keep the wheel strong, there are limits to what Aluminum alloy can handle tension wise. Generally heavier clydes should stick to 32 spokes or higher.