I too went 35 years between bike rides. Thought I was in pretty good shape until that first ride. I had to stop to rest halfway home from the bike shop--a whopping 0.67 miles total, so a third of a mile did me in.

I had sort of an idea of how I wanted to feel and be on the bike. Took me almost three years to get there. That's one month for every year off the bike, which seems reasonable when you think of it that way. So give time time to work, and get out on the bike regularly--at least four times a week.

During your body's rebuilding phase, there's a certain amount of pain that's unavoidable. None at all means you aren't working hard enough. So much that you can't walk or sit, means you're working too hard. Somewhere in the middle is where you want to be. Listen to and obey your body's signals.

As for maybe commuting five miles each way in a few months, that may be a little too conservative a goal. At a jogging pace of 10MPH, that's only a half-hour ride. Of course the trick is that you have to work for eight hours afterwards, then ride home again, but those things actually seemed to provide me with additional incentive. I trained for my commutes evenings and weekends so that I could do that. These days, it's the other way around. I use my commutes to train for weekend rides.

As an example of what can be done, as a lifelong lowlander and flatlander, just 28 months after that first bike ride where I was tuckered out after a third of a mile, I went to Colorado where I rode my everyday commuting bike to the top of the highest paved road in North America. (At which point regulars will now groan and roll their eyes as I trot out the usual photos.)





It's not to brag, but to show that it's hard to set your goals too high, but easy to set them too low. That was a goal I didn't even know I had until about six months beforehand when I was invited to try.

EDIT: One thing I forgot: The best advice I got here when I started was that without a specific "training" program, just going out regularly and trying a little harder--if not every day, then every week or month--you can reasonably expect to improve for five years or so. There will be plateaus along the way, but plug along at it and the trend will be upwards.

With a specific training program, there's more you can do faster, longer and older. We have folks here putting in thousands of miles a year in their 80s, and at least one racer too.

As for me, see this thread over in the commuting forum to see where else cycling has taken me in ten years.