Originally Posted by
nahungry
Hello,
I've recently started biking regularly, about a month and a half ago.
Before, I was only biking on weekends on my hybrid and a bike that I bought on amazon that just looked like a road bike.
Since riding on regular basis, as a beginner, I didn't do anything significant; riding about 4 times a week, 20miles, avg of about 17mpg.
No considerable climbs(in Chicago) just stop and go type of riding.
I felt very comfortable doing the type of riding that I was doing and it was getting easier and easier, given how I felt after the rides, that I wanted to extend my rides by about 5~10miles per ride.
All of a sudden, about a week ago, I started having fatigue in the middle of the rides, usually at around 5miles into the ride and I have extremely hard time finishing even 20mile rides I was doing. Completely out of breath, thighs burning.
I can't seem to push harder in segments I was doing well due to the fatigue and I'm barely finishing the ride, let alone extending the distance.
Has anyone experienced something like this in their beginning days? How do I get over this? Its so sudden and too strange I have hard time thinking its just muscle fatigue build over a month or so. Thanks for your tip in advance.
Burning thighs pushes me to suggest you are pedaling too low of a cadence. Try this: next time you're pedaling in a way that feels normal, count how many times your right leg completes a circle in one minute. If it's below 90, you should consider pedaling faster in the next gear down for a given road speed. You're very new at cycling and riding what sounds like 100-120mi per week is a pretty aggressive start so it could be that you just need to let yourself recover for a few days and then start back slowly.