Solare

I am wondering how long it will take to get rid of the jelly legs and achy elbows. I ride when I can and try to get out everyday if that is possible. I have a comfort bike so the bars are flat and I have been experimenting with moving my hands so they mimic being on hoods and that helps the elbows but then the palms start up.

I'm planning on getting a Fuji Gran Fondo Ultegra next week so the comfort bike will be banished to the basement or maybe slaved to a trainer.

Well that's all for now just curious about the jelly legs. I try to do 15 miles on each outing but that doesn't always work due to the locale that I'm at at the time.

Ursa Minor

When I started out I took it very slow to avoid injury. Its been 3 years of constant slow increased effort but now I feel like I'm finally getting back to good biking shape.

Anyway good luck.

Charlie

exile

There is really no telling how long recovery will take. When I first started there was a hill I would have to walk up some days depending on how I felt. After a while I could ride all the way up all the time. Truthfully I wasn't that excited about the accomplishment because it just seemed to happen gradually.

Drew Eckhardt 

Don't ride so hard, where "hard" is relative to your fitness level and could be children passing you on big wheels or a five hour century.

Otherwise they don't go away - you just go faster, farther, and more days in a row for the same feeling.

mkadam68

Only do a hard effort once or twice a week. The rides the next day after these hard ones? Do as a "recovery" ride--totally easy: easy gear, easy terrain, shorter distance/time. Like Drew said, let little kids pass you. The other rides? Something in-between: not too hard, not too easy.

Also make sure you understand the concept of spinning.

Solare

Thanks for the great replies. The jelly legs I get is for a short time after the ride and I really only notice them if I walk upstairs. Otherwise my legs seem a little heavy for 15 minutes or so.

My bike has 3 rings in the front and 8 in the back and I use all of them during the ride. I read here that it is better to get into the correc gear at the bottom of an incline than to have to downshift on the incline due to momentum loss. So that is what I have been doing. A customer of mine who rides told me that knee pain was partly due to being in too high of a gear going uphill and that I should downshift and pedal more. I have been following that advise and it is working for me.

Thanks again for your input.