Originally posted by shaharidan
i'd recommend geting a heart rate monitor, and a book about training with them. "The Heart Rate Monitor Book" gets recommended a lot here, and seems to be pretty good. pushing your self 100% all the time isn't the way to go. the best solution maybe to do some slower aerobic work for awhile. but i think the best bet is to get the monitor and a book and go from there. you may also want to do a search on heart rate monitors here. you'll find lots of good info.
Hi,
Thank you for the suggestion. I am certainly going to check this out. I guess I need to moderate my cycling somewhat to get the most out of it. My main goal is to lose weight and gain more muscle mass. I do go to the gym but love being out on my bike. It is the only activity that I have really stuck with consistently.
I had always thought that training/cycling to the point of absolute exhaustion would mean I would burn more calories and be in better shape.
I now find that quitting when I feel that I could easily do another 5 KM seems to work better for me. I feel alot better afterwards and feel more excited about my next ride if I quit without reaching that point where you just can't cycle anymore.
Justen