Originally Posted by
meshcarver
Yeah mate- as I say, I don't have access to my actual bicycle for the next months so I have to train on this machine.
Honestly it's not too bad boredom wise etc as I've never used one before and there's a great view from the gym..! Up to now I've done a solid 10 miles a day for three weeks, taking a rest day on Sundays. It feels good to already be preparing for the trip like this rather than twiddling my thumbs waiting around.
I know it's still basically seven whole months away but I just think it's a good idea to slowly build up to the stated 40 miles per day target- as I've been so out of practice and shape for many years now tbh. In that regard alone it feels good to be "getting fit" again and it can't hurt I think.
Saying that, I'm also mindful of not aggravating any old knee injuries and so am doubling down on the taking it easy, slow and steady path.
I'm assuming this will indeed build up my fitness, endurance and also resilience to the old knee injury..!
you're absolutely doing the right thing -- building up your cycling leg and knee muscles gradually. For anyone getting back into cycling, not "overloading" the pressure going into your knees, more spinning than grinding, is always good. I've always listened to my body, or rather, I've gotten better at listening to my knees, and by regularly training on a trainer and or on bike, you will build up your fitness and all that jazz.
One thing that is good about your bike, being a mountain bike, it has good low gearing, so you'll always be able to downshift to take care of your knee / knees.
The other thing about eventually getting out on your real bike regularly is see how your older self adapts to its position. Seeing the photo of you on it, its good to see that you have bar ends--they are super essential to be able to change up hand positions. One of my bikes has them and they allow different hand positions, and I change up all the time. It really makes a difference for not having pressure points always on the same spots. I have mine angled downwards a lot more than yours in the photo, and use them almost like being on the hoods of a dropbar bike.
You may find also with your present bars that you may want the bars a bit higher, and "riser" type mountain bike bars with both a bit more rise than your present bars, and perhaps a bit of backwards sweep, can make a real difference to riding comfort. Only you can know how your bars are for you, but changing out mountain bike bars is quite easy, although if you raise them up quite a bit, you probably have to get longer housings for the shifter and brake cables--thats doable by you with some help, would be a lot lot less money spent, but this is just guessing on my part if it would be better for you with slightly higher bars.
But riding your bike regularly when you have access to it will at least give you an idea of how it works now for an older you.
Oh, re seat height-make a little scratch mark on the seatpost after riding it a lot and when you are sure of the good height--so that when the seat is either pushed all the way down into the frame for boxing, you put it back to the exact same height that you know works best for you. Even after decades of riding, I've made the dumb mistake of not putting it back to the right height and finally realized it days later after not feeling right.