Originally Posted by Mirysien

I can't comment on the technical stuff, MO, but for me the first rides I experienced the same sensations - rubbery legs (out of shape), achey arms, wrists - out of shape plus wrong positioning. I'd kept my arms locked (big mistake) which didn't give my body any "flex" and took the full pounding.

I made several changes: bike more, slight bend in the elbows (takes some getting used to), hold in the abs (makes a huge difference - but is hard at first), cushioned my grips and made a point of changing my grip frequently.

for the cushioning of the grips, you can purchase really kewl biking gloves -- but it was more money than I wanted to spend, so I just stuck some soft-cushy winter mitts on the handle bars by sticking the finger parts inside the mitt and then the mitt just sleeved onto the handles easily -- stays in place and when one wrist needs more softening than the other I just double it up.

I know .. quite freddy of moi

I've read in these forums that a good rule of thumb is to increase your mileage by only 10% per week... just keep that in mind too.