I was going to say the same.
But I do have to say that going faster is a much better buzz.

There's a lot of good advice here so I don't have much to add. Keep cadence up if possible, alternate your route and intensity on a daily basis (variety is the key) and more importantly, keep riding. Probably the best advice I can offer is to remain relaxed. I find a lot of cyclists allow their legs to stiffen because they keep muscles tensed unnecessarily. If you find your legs getting tired during a ride, stretch them while pedaling by flexing your ankles for awhile... almost an exaggerated walking motion while pedaling. It's a technique I started using almost 30 years ago during long rides and to help me get through the day as a bike messenger.

If it doesn't get easier, than you're not doing it right. You should be able to ride the same pace you struggled with a month ago comfortably today. That quote doesn't really apply to her situation at all...I doubt she's out there racing up that hill.

...And I can. Problem is, I don't want to ride at the same pace I rode a month ago. :p

Just from personal experience, after a month 3 miles should be feeling a lot easier unless those hills are pretty stout.

I can't stress enough the importance of getting your seat at the right height (probably up). If it's an inch two low, even an easy climb will start burning your legs something fierce. I can definitely tell when my seat's slipped down, my legs know it as soon as I hit the hills.

Gearing too, as mentioned. I'm pretty sure every newbie, myself included, uses too high a gear. For me, I felt good if I could get going fast in the highest gear, which is silly. Now I spin a lot faster, my legs don't hurt, and I go a lot faster. Oddly enough, I've found for a while now that the stronger I get as a rider, the less I use the highest gears.

Maybe get a cyclocomputer (speedometer) to see how you're doing. As with the LeMond quote, you might just be going faster now! If you see the improvement, you might not mind the pain. ;)

This may be true for racing or competitive recreational cycling, but not in my experience true for commuting or just getting started cycling.

When I first started I was half the speed I am now and worked much harder at it - it wiped me out for the rest of the evening after getting home, back then I did have sore muscles, not any more. After all my commute then was 45min+, now 23min. That was an extra 23min of pushing hard with a body that was in worse shape.

Al

I will tread on Greg Lemond. It does get easier for a commuter. It never gets easier for professional racer. Greg's quote is habitually taken out of context. Very good quote, by the way.

The commuter starting at zero may take months to a year to realize that it is easier than at the beginning.

Two months after I started my 22 mile roundtrip commute, I went to stand up out of my desk chair. I placed my palms on my upper legs just above the knees to push. I had a shock. My upper legs felt swollen in my hands. I thought I had some new malady.

Boy, was I wrong! I didn't realize it at the time but, I had already cut 20 per cent of my commute time.

I didn't start commuting via bike until age 51.

Looks like TRUMPHENT and I were picking up the same brain waves simultaneously, must be some wave tunnel between AZ and FL.

Al

It gets easier for a commuter after a certain point. However, if they go faster and keep pushing themselves then the quote still applies. Some of us like to race from here to there. It kept my commute from boring the heck out of me.

Just stay with it.
It will get easier and you will go faster.
Make sure you are well hydrated and eat something after each ride, (a yogurt smoothie has everything your muscles need to help them recover quickly).

You guys are right. I was just being snarky. (Probably spending too much time in the Road Racing and SSFG forums).

Loads of good advice here, especially on proper warmup and recovery, making sure the bike fits and is in good mechanical order, and using a low enough gear.

I think if your legs are giving out on you you're relying on your leg muscles too much rather than your lungs/heart. Try spinning the lowest gear you can stand. If you do that for a while you will eventually be able to spin up any hill you want, however long it takes. If you have a race-geared bike you might want to switch to a mountain bike or something with really low gears, esp. for trailering a kid in a hilly place.

I do too. I push myself most commutes and also on very competitive recreational rides. I still have never felt worse than when pushing myself when I was out of shape and starting commuting. Perhaps you don't remember how terrible you could make yourself feel way back then (or perhaps more likely you never were at such an out of shape level when starting out)

Al

You're trying to build up the biggest muscles in your body, AND you're trying to rearrange your metabolism. It will take a few months before you see truly noticable improvement.

Your body wants to be lazy. I've been commuting daily for 3 years now, and I took 7 weeks off a couple of months ago to drive my son to school (he'd broken his ankle). When I got back on, it took me 2 weeks to feel right again. So starting cold and expecting much change in 4 weeks is probably a bit optimistic.

It'll be worth it though. Honestly, I feel better now when I've got a cold (as much as they're able to get me anymore) than I did when I was "healthy" at the end of those 7 weeks of not riding.

~1yr.

Al

+1. You may actually want to try spinning in a gear LOWER than you can stand until it becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, it'll start getting easier.

I disagree with the recovery posts to some degree. Coming from a powerlifting background, I can honestly say that the idea of "overtraining" can often be anathema to progress.

True signs of overtraining are: depression, insomnia, injury. It's when the thought of doing your workout makes you want to lie down and cry. It's when your workout log shows a loss of strength over a period of weeks. It's when you train hard and don't eat enough.

Soreness is just soreness and can be worked through, especially with something like cycling. An athlete (or commuter) can be overtrained and not even be sore.

All the posts about spinning and bike setup are spot on of course.

Cycling & powerlifting... Good comparison.

Thanks. I know you're being sarcastic but I'll take it as a positive.

Whether training to move a loaded bar 14 inches or to turn a crank 10,000 times in a session, many of the training principles are the same. Overtraining is a valid concern; the only point I was making was that soreness =! overtraining, and often times an athlete can do far more than he thinks. In lifting, it's easy to think you know your limitations, and guess what... those become your limitations.

Do all the people in the multitude of countries where bicycles are transportation mode #1 stop going places because they feel sore the day after a ride?

Oh no... I remember. I was completely miserable for the first 6 months. Going from a completely sedentary lifestyle to 30 miles a day in a couple months was.... interesting. The only major bonk I have had was during commuting when I first started on 30 mile ride home.
Anyhow, perhaps y'all are correct but it is just a saying.

For me this is true.

My commute is only 10 miles round trip. The first month or two I'd work hard and get pretty out of breath and my legs would hurt. Ofcourse I was always riding pretty hard as I see the commute as a replacement for driving to "the club" and taking a spinning class. Over time I'd easily be able to ride faster and faster. The legs did get much stronger and for the most part didn't bother me much any time during the Fall or Winter. During the Winter there was much more Wind so that had my lungs working much harder. Spring finally arrived 3 weeks ago... for a while it seemed like Winter would never leave is here in the "frozen" North. For the first week life was easy as the Winter winds appeared to be lessening, the Studded snow tires came off, and I could ride with fewer layers. Now the commute was being coming easy and somewhat boring.

Then I went and bought a road bike... Now I ride the road bike any day the weather looks clear and use the hybrid is there is a chance of rain. I also use the hybrid to bring a few days woth of extra cloths, and extra cans of soda (I have just love my ONE 12oz can of Pepsi at lunch), and any other supplies I may need. When I have the road bike I'll regularly take a long ride in or home adding an other 10 to 15 miles to my commute. So my base commute is getting easier, but I have made it more fun and interesting my adding distance and therefore I just go longer and faster. Just yesterday I had the need to go to one of our satelite offices. What a great excuse to ride an extra 25 miles!

So there you have it. When the commute gets easier, you'll start getting adicted and invariably you'll find more and more reasons to go for a ride. Therefore it doesn't get easier... but you'll be a MUCH stronger rider.

Enjoy the ride,
André

I never said stop because you're sore, I said give yourself a break in the beginning. Build up at first. If you ease into it, give yourself time to heal and recover between workouts, you'll increase your gain more quickly, especially for endurance sports. I know this guy is not training for the marathon, but taking a day off here and there for a couple of weeks just might give him the chance to recover that he hasn't been getting by working those muscles twice daily for weeks on end. Sure, he'll get used to it after a few weeks or months, anybody will. But he'll get used to it more quickly with some recovery in between.

I'm really not talking about overtraining at all - I'm a marathoner, and I'm looking at this from the point of veiw of endurance sports training. Yeah, I know I'm making a big deal out of a 3-mile commute...

Sometimes less is more.

I'm one of those people that now rides centuries and randonees. When I started out I couldn't ride a mile without coasting. And my five mile flat bike commute had me breathless by the end.

IIRC, and its been a long time now, it took about 2 weeks of doing it 5 days a week before it felt "easier". But that was flat. I don't know how steep your "uphill" is but if its significant it may take quite a bit of time before it feels like the hill is easier.

The fact your legs hurt and are continuing to hurt, tells me that its likely that either your bike setup needs to be tweaked (maybe your seat is set too low), and/or you are trying to push too big of a gear. Pick an easier gear and spin the pedals faster instead of spinning the pedals slowly in a hard gear. Also be sure to pick a pace that is comfortable and you can maintain, if you are riding anaerobically (such that you can't carry on a conversation at the pace you are riding) you'll get tired quickly.

What kind of bike are you riding? Hybrid? Mountain bike? Road bike? Smooth tires or knobby tires? Make sure there is plenty of air in your tires, nothing like low air pressure to make a ride feel really sluggish. Also make sure your chain is lubed. Hopefully you have enough gear range to get you up the hill effectively, an old single speed bike would indeed be a challenge.

And it could be your bike that is tiring you out. I can ride 200 km rides, but trying to go more than 5 miles on a heavy upright bike (more wind resistance) with a bouncy seat and sluggish drivetrain has me quite pooched! If you think it may be the bike test ride some at a bike store or try and borrow one for a friend to see if it feels easier for you on the other bike.

And it doesn't hurt to try some weekend rides that are a bit longer, its possible (and particularly if there is a lot of stop and go in your 3 miles) that you don't have long enough to get warmed up to find a groove.

Oh and even though your commute is short, I'd recommend toe clips and straps if you just have plain pedals right now, you can wear any shoes with them (unlike clipless), but they will hold your feet in a good position so they won't slip going uphill - it does make going uphill easier!

Look forward to hearing how it goes!

It will get easier over the first few months - could take 6 months before you think back to the beginning and realize that it's a lot easier than it used to be. Some of that is technique (i.e. doing the right things at the right times), and some of it is conditioning. Then after a few years you'll start to notice that it becomes harder - yep, we all get older! :eek: Keep in mind that if you always do the same route you'll get used to that exact level of activity - adding more distance won't be easier, but at least you should adapt quicker to more cycling than if you were still green.

Ok I only read the first post I am short on time.. Are you sure its a "good hurt" vs a "bad hurt" after your 3 mile ride? If your bike isn't adjusted right / right size for you, you could be getting bad hurt. Bad hurt usually effects joints like the knees, ankles, shoulder, elbows and tendons where the muscle attaches to your skeletal structure. What I call "bad hurt" represents damage to your body that can become permanent or reoccuring soreness.

Your body should adapt to the stress after a short time and a month seems pretty long but it can take a while. "Good hurt" is called DOMS by weight lifters and health professionals and stands for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. It represents your muscles breaking down and regrowing stronger. When I took a weight lifting class at college the general feeling was although annoying, DOMS is fine because it ties in to a reaction of your body getting stronger (kind of like how a suntan is supposed to help prevent the sun from hurting you, your body adapts). I found an article on it and it says massaging can reduce the pain by %30:

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/injuries/a/doms.htm

Answering a few questions...
--I ride a hybrid bike with flat bars and upright geometry. I have smooth, skinny tires (Schwalbe Marathon).
--Now that you mention it, maybe my seat is too low! I'll mess around with that over my weekend.
--The pain I'm feeling is DOMS, not joint pain.
--The hills are gradual, but the ride home is pretty much a constant climb. I'm not sure how much downhill I have on the way home, but I do know that it can be measured in yards rather than blocks or miles.
--I stretch, hydrate, and eat like a horse. My diet is mostly healthy, except for when my wonderful coworkers bring me fast food.
--I have two panniers with a combined weight of about 7-10lbs. (depending on weather - big temperature change = pack more layers).

This would really do it. If my saddle is for some reason lowered so little as half an inch, my legs start to complain after less than a mile. Riding with a saddle that's too low is sure to cause lots of hurting, and make you really inefficient.

That's good. :)

Gear down and SPIN. Take it easy. So what if it takes you a little longer to get home?

Hey,

I think you may want a　resting stop. The common symptom for noob quitting runners/jogger is not knowing it is perfectly OK to rest-stop or "walk it." I think the same applies for bike-commuting.

I regularly take rests at stop lights when I get tired. If there is no light, there is always some coke-machines, so I stop for an "Oolong". I used to go for Pepsi, but I am older now.

Tomo

P.S. You know I regularly stop to worship sexy bicycles. I think you can call that rest-stop too.

Took me 6 months to really get used to it everyday, and another 6 before it could come natural.

girljen,

Congratulations on starting. Trust me, you are over the hardest part. Things will get better. Just keep it up!

since you didn't say anything about your fitness level before you started, I'm assuming you didn't take up cycling to work as something to do in between your marathon running. That being said, it will take some time to develop the leg muscles to cycling. How much time depends on your level of fitness, your willingness to work at it, and your general athleticism. Without knowing you, I can't really say. I can talk about my own experience, and maybe you can deduce from that some meaningful info.

I started cycling for exercise seriously after suffering an ankle injury that prevented me from running. I'd been running 20 to 30 miles a week forever (like 25 years or so) on top of the weekly basketball game, twice weekly volleyball league, and other assorted outdoor activities. I used to be an athlete in college, and still weight the same as I did when I graduated. In short, I was relatively fit and used to exertion.

On the first group ride I got shelled, quickly. I went into the red, eyes got crossed, legs ached and my lungs felt like they were coming out my throat. That was maybe 3 miles in to a 30 mile ride. I kept coming out, each week hanging a little longer, each time going a bit more. I also understood that things improve with practice and began to ride more in between the friendly group rides (sarcasm intended).

After about 6 months I began to catch on. After a year I was solidly with the group. Now five years later I ride as fast, as hard, or as long as I feel like and can hang with any of the local guys. My commute is 6.5 miles round trip. I ride between 120 to 250 miles a week, and have for the last five years. Clearly my fitness level doesn't come from riding three miles to work. Yours won't either.

I suggest you pick out several routes that add some daily miles to your riding. Vary them so you don't get bored, match what you do with how you feel (feel tired, go slow and rest, legs hurt from yesterday's effort, go straight home) so that you don't prevent yourself from doing tomorrow's ride. Keep putting in some effort and I promise it will get easier.

Best wishes, and congrats again for riding to work.