Today ended my first 30 days of cycling.
 

One month ago I was 330 pounds and sitting around alot. I bought the family bikes, and quit drinking beer. Today I am at 296, and completed my month at 301 miles. I have been increasing the level of difficulty every day or so. To day I did the hardest ride yet. Not the longest but 7 hills each way that we see people walking up with bikes. It was 16 miles long and my avg speed was 13.3 both ways. I feel I accomplish something. Looking forward to a 30 mile ride tomorrow with my 11 year old. We both got new road bikes this week, and are really stacking on the miles. Im glad I found you guys for inspiration. Now I just gotta find a 3x jersey!

impressive work man... keep it up.

for the jersey thing... check the manufactures fit specs... there are some 3x that I prob couldn't fit into when I was in a normal Lg tshirt

Congrats on your progress! Keep up the good work...

Dang Good Miles......

Very very nice! Make sure you are conscious of the fact you can take a day off here and there so it doesn't turn into a dreaded chore.

Thanks. I will be taking today off. I am pretty sore in the legs today. Yesterday's hills are showing their strength today. I will be doing a slow paced family rife today.

Congrats on your progress! In a month, that's quite impressive.

Great job! Keep it up and keep it FUN!

That's mighty impressive for a month, congrats. Looks like we have another victim of the bike bug.

Great news man! Congratulations! Keep up the good work.

If you have pictures that would be great. I'm curious as to what your 11 year olds road bike looks like.

My son just riding his mom's hybrid and he goes pretty fast on it but no way he can do 30 miles on that thing.

I'm impressed!

Manny

nice numbers!!! Enjoy the ride both on and off the bikes. Take lots of pics of your journies too

Congratulations amrmatt. I commenced bicycling 28 months ago (at age 55) and I often reflect back fondly on my first several months of bicycling. I get around exclusively via bicycle these days and I love it. My longest ride was to Jim Thorpe, PA and back, a 200-mile ride and I rode my 35 pound Trek Wahoo 29er hardtail, so I've come a long way over those 28 months. I can hardly wait to ride to Jim Thorpe again (though it may have to wait until next year unless we get a warm snap, as it gets cold in the mountain portion of the ride late at night).

As concerns your 11 year old

As a child, there was nothing I loved more than riding my bike and I’d ride all day long however, I never rode any farther than 3 miles away from home (I was 14 years old when I rode that distance), which seemed like quite a haul at that (though I still found it to be a fun ride). A 30-mile ride is 5 times longer than that in both directions. And so, bear in mind that, to an 11 year old, a 30-mile ride could seem like a trip to eternity therefore be prepared to shorten the ride if they feel inundated by the intended distance.

Personally, I wouldn’t prefer to ride 30-miles with an 11 year old (10 miles would be more like it). If your 11 year old finds they’d like to ride farther after succeeding at a 10-mile ride, then the ride could be extended by 5 to 10 miles depending upon how well they did.

Additionally, younger children tend to pedal at lower average speeds than many adults, so don’t push them too hard by trying to maintain your higher average speed. I’ve ridden with my friend and his children of comparable age and we definitely had to pedal slower to allow the little guy to stay with us. We still had fun, but it wouldn’t have been any fun for the little guy if we pushed him to ride as fast as he could the entire ride. We also kept the ride fairly short, just a few miles in total. I hope you find this helpful.

I have different experiences with children than Gnosis. My youngest is 7. We just bought him his second bike, this one a hardtail MTB one by 7 I believe. On our last ride I was hoping for a recovery ride and he kept the pace around 15 mph for 8 or 9 miles. I do believe he would have gone longer had I let him. Kids are just like adults in that the variety is so great that forming conclusions is fool hardy. Some kids are strong riders some are not. Some clydes are strong riders some are not.

What I think Gnosis is trying to say however is match the ride to the kids abilities and if it is less than yours go at their pace and distance. I can and do agree with that.

I always have w support vehicle waiting if he needs to bail. So far he has only needed it once. But the road bike is just the right ride for him. As for pics of his bike look below.
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/l...psc0fc0848.jpg