Getting back to training
 

I'm recovering from 2 knee replacement doing great, I got the ok
to start riding. I been riding indoors on a trainer 1/2 to 45 mins.
I got on the street theres alot of gradual hills where I live I did 2 mi.
I was kind of frustrated. My goal to ride a 25 or more charity ride by Sept
or try to ride in a group. Where do I start? I'm 57, the mind there, body not following.
thanks

Welcome aboard! Good to hear you are starting your recovery from knee replacement and the Doc said to go ride. I would leave any advice on how to train up to your physical therapist - if you have one. Given that there are no other issue I would think you should be able to do a 50 mile ride or even a metric by Sept. Have you discussed this goal with you care givers?

As an example - adding just 1 mile a day to your ride and riding 5 days/week should get you to 60 more miles in 12 weeks. Ofcourse you would not do it that way but I use that as an example to illustrate that it is not that big a stretch.

Fitness Cycling

Good reference. Probably available at your library.

What are you riding? Road bike? Hybrid? Are you in good overall shape (i.e., not grossly overweight, non-smoker, etc)?

+1 on the PT advice. Hopefully, your PT understands the dynamics of cycling.

My brother (age 59) had two knee replacements this winter. He's riding 25 to 30 miles 4 to 5 times a week. He does report, however, that is average speed is still a bit lower and hard climbs tend to cause some problems. So, he's approaching them cautiously (he gets off and walks if he feels any pain in either knee). Finally, he has said that there was a point at which he thought he would never be able to put in reasonable miles, but after about 8 weeks of regular riding that passed and his body started adjusting.

PT gave me ok to do 5 mi, thats when i was going for pt,i still do my
@home pt rom theraband etc. After 3 mos.surgeon does need to see
me any more. I'm able to clip in w/ no fear that was a big one. I need to
talk about this @ times it mentally helps me. I just got a new road bike it's
awesome had to sell old i was between sizes. I really love riding.
thanks for responses it helps

Not just solely for knee surgery- but any surgery.

I had a bypass in 99 and it was a struggle initially to walk 100 yards to the local shop for a paper each morning- for a week or so. So I started walking into Town- about 1 mile each way and that was a real struggle but within a couple of weeks- I was doing it at 6mph into town and 4 mph back- must have been the weight of the paper slowing me down.

4 weeks after the surgery and I was back on the bike- for 100 yards- that did hurt. Within a month I did a 20 miler. and within 3 months I did a 40 miler that if I knew how hard it was going to be- I would have trained for.

Do not push yourself too hard too soon. Take things steady but just push the distance or the effort up gradually. Do not over-extend yourself but just go that little bit further or that little bit faster each time out- and I do mean just a little bit. And if it hurts- stop.