Originally Posted by
enfilade
I started with 15 mile rides! (Just to point out I wasn't riding every day. Usually did two or three rides a week) I'd ache afterwards but would heal well and be ready for another ride several days later. I adapted to that quite well over the following weeks, but I upped the mileage way too soon, doing tough 30 to 40 mile rides not long after the 15 miler. Then I'd notice my legs would start to ache bad during the hilly sections of these rides, and my average speed had dropped, but I didn't read too much into it. I just pressed on. My quads would ache on these rides, but I'd get home and lug the bike upstairs each time.
Allow me to add something to your story here for reference purposes .... according to another thread, you think 70 rpm is spinning. 70 rpm is NOT spinning, it's mashing. But I hate to think what you must have been doing if you think 70 rpm is spinning!!! No wonder your legs are in trouble. You must have been riding in the hardest gear you've got at what ... 40 rpm????
I do hope that when you go out on your rides now you've figured out how to use the shifters and are working moving your legs at least 80 rpm ... preferably more.