Eddy who???

Well, it's actually 10 now but 2 are older son's (single speed and vintage MTB), 2 are younger son's (vintage tourer and vintage MTB), 3 are wife's (road bike, vintage MTB and town bike) and 3 are mine (road bike, commuter and vintage MTB). 8 of them are in the garage (7 hanging over wife's car and my commuter in front of my van), single speed is with older son at collge and town bike is at M-I-L's house for wife to ride for errands.

Currently looking for a vintage road bike, a full-suspension MTB and a tandem to add to my stable. With my 2 sons in private college, I'll only get them if they are screaming deals but I do keep a close eye on Craig's List and have just missed a few great deals. Hope springs eternal.

I second, third and fourth the "Listen to your body" and "Ride for fun" -

You are being very conservative, which is most circumspect. But, don't be afraid to push a bit more. It will not kill you (please don't have your wife respond and tell us it did!)

Mostly, smile!!

Smiling all the way DnvrFox. Rode my 12 miles this morning and when I returned from work this afternoon rode another 12. Woohoo! I'll probably be tired tomorrow but it will be a good tired.
I'm gonna try and do some more of these "double days" and still add 10% to the miles each week. I really want to be able to ride a century before too long. Will be looking for a road bike before too long, might be able to get one off of CACyling, he's got plenty 8-)

In my garage

1 vintage Peugeot U08 Road Bike
1 Lemond BA Road bike
1 Windsor Leeds "utility" road bike
1 Specialized Rockhopper mtn bike
1 Sun Recimbent
1 Specialized Hard Rock (wifes)
1 Trek hybrid (wifes)
1 3 wheeler - son Andy's

In my basement

1 Specialized Hard Rock as a trainer

I think you will find a LOT of bikes by most posters here.

That's not fair, I only got one,

but I'm working on number two.

Rookie.

look it up

Joe Friel among others

But Joe is targeting people that are training for competition, and usually already at a comparatively high level of effort. If your training load is already high, increasing it quickly can lead to overtraining. When you are starting out, your improvements in fitness are huge compared to where you were, and you can handle much larger increases in miles/hours. 10% of 150 miles is another 15 miles. 10% of 10 miles is only a mile. People love to have these simplified guides, just like with heart rate max formulas, but applying simplifications based on an entire population, to individuals, is rarely appropriate.

Sitting here at my desk this morning after riding a double yesterday and am really feeling it in the quads. Like I said yesterday, I'm a little tired but it's a good tired. Don't think I want to ride again today unless just a couple miles. Will definitely try and push myself more. As long as the knees are good I don't see a problem. Got to get up to speed because I really would like to join a riding group. I looked at their requirements for the slowest group and it looks like I need to be able to ride a little futher and faster than I do now but it won't take me long with the improvements that I've made already.

In my experience, going from 3 to 4 days could be a huge benefit for you. I used to ride 2 days a week, and found that this is not enough frequency to feel energized after a ride, rather than mostly worn out. Three days seems like the minimum for the kind of cycling fitness that leads to a great feeling after a ride rather than a tired feeling (for me). For me, adding the fourth day was a big leap forward. Now I try to ride 5 days a week and have found that virtually all rides leave me feeling great, rather than tired. My advice (YMMV) would be to try adding a day but make it shorter at first if you're concerned about over-training.

Also ... I respect the sentiment expressed by many of you that this should be fun. Fun is fine, but for me the key is just do it. As they say, "when people ride bikes good things happen." Many of those things, in my experience, require frequency and consistency. Sometimes that is more work than fun. Everyone's goals are different. I'm not saying mine are better than anyone else's, but while I would love for every ride to be fun, they aren't. I'm riding anyway.

If you start thinking "I have to ride X miles today." Then you've increased too much. If you're thinking "I can't wait to ride today." then you're OK. The benefits are in consistent exercise. Not in a every once in a while sufferfest.

That's exactly what I'm thinking this morning. Can't wait to get home and jump on the bike.

Agreed, but the OP's situation is that he doesn't know what is his maximum comfortable level (i.e. current level of fitness), and is anxious about pushing too hard and getting hurt; nonetheless he's ready to grow it. Limiting his growth rate to 10% would enable him to improve a lot, certainly to the point where he will find his maximum comfortable level. I have a friend in the same situation, and she's been asking me the same question. I want to see her ride to the point where she loses anxiety and has the self confidence to spread her wings. I suggested she start by pedaling up the sidewalk for 10 minutes, then turn around and go home and see how she feels. Then do it again the next day.

But I'm not a racer or a coach, I just read books and ride a little, these days at least. And help out my friends.

Tried to send a return PM but I don't have enough posts for that to work so I'll say thanks here.

Thanks, I had been tracking on a word document, this should work much better.
Thanks again
Gary

Definitely broke that silly rule today. Rode 15.5 miles instead of the 12. Also increased my average speed to 12 mph. I'm really liking this stuff, look out for n+1 or whatever ya'll call it.

Spread your wings and fly!

Just test rode a Trek 2.3, Madone 3.1 and a Specialized Allez. Could't really tell a lot of difference. Only road through the parking lot, couple times. Need to do a little more research and go back and test ride for a little longer. All these were about the same price so it's just a matter of chosing. Think I will go ride a CAAD 10 5 just to say that I've ridden most everything in town. No I would also need to ride the Giant.

Going to N1 just gotta figure it all out.

Any help out there?

Thanks

Don't just ride each one a little longer; take each one for good ride. And push the LBS if you have to, to get each one set up as for you as well as they can. Make sure your test includes a hill, so you can see how it feels standing up and climbing. Do some all out efforts on each bike to see how that feels. Do some slow tight turns, and do some fast turns. Pay really close attention to how the bike is responding to you during all this, and how it makes you feel. So long as each of them can be tweaked to fit you properly, choose the one that makes you feel the best riding it. That includes how you feel about the looks.

Will do, good advice.

I have a few mates that have started riding this year. One is young and fit and fast so I don't ride with him often.

Then there are two that started about the same time--Mick and Pete. Took years to get them riding but loaned Pete a bike to come out with us a few times and he enjoyed it. Mick has had the offer from me to borrow a bike and take it out on his own for a few years and has never taken up the offer. Then on June 19th and Pete did a ride that just about finished him off as he had not done enough training. That day Mick got enthused about riding as if Pete could do it- So could Mick. Set the bike up for him and gave him a key to the shed so he could take the bike whenever he wanted. First ride was 5 miles up a MUP and back. It hurt- so did the second and third ride. Then two weeks later and a gentle 20 miler with Pete-Mick and a few other friends. Hurt both of them but Mick got enthused and I started taking him out with me. In 3 months he got up to 40 miles on a flat ride- a 30 miler that took in 2,400ft of climbing and last week he did a hilly metric. Pete will still struggle on the 20 milers for Coffee and Pie as he does not ride often enough.

It does depend on how much you want to ride. Pete sees it as exercise that he should be doing in his early 40's. Mick sees it as something he enjoys doing and as an aside- he is getting fit. Pete has never bothered to make time to get the bike out and only comes on the occasional ride with us- and only if it is an easy route. Mick will now do anything- gets out on the bike in the evenings after work and will do a short ride on Saturday and the long harder training ride on Sunday with me.

So in 4 months- I expect any rider to go the way of Pete OR Mick. Get the rides in- no matter how short but gradually increase the milage or severity- and you can do a Metric 100 Kms in 4 months. Or not put the effort in and you will still struggle to do 20 miles.

Edit---At the start of the riding- both Mick and Pete were not fit so they both started from the same base. Neither would walk to the local Pub which is only 1 mile away as it was too far. I made them one evening and I can vouch for the fact that they were typical Couch potato's that never did anything that required physical effort and 1 mile of exercise had them puffing.

That next bike has to be found. Test ride as many as you can but the difficult part is finding the LBS that suits you. (Local Bike Shop) Not all are the same.

Test riding as many different bikes in as many shops as you can and you could be lucky in finding the bike in the right shop. But those test rides. When you have found the bike it will give you a sign- normally a shout in your ear of "BUY ME". Contary to belief- most bikes at around the same price will ride the same and have roughly the same components. But when the right bike finds you- you will know. May be the fit or the way the shop has set it up for you- could be a fraction on the dimensions or the reach of the bars. Could even be the tyres fitted to the bike but when it finds you- You will know.

I have to agree. Out of the three that I rode today the Allez seemed a better fit for me but I think it only had to do with the bar being a little higher.
What AzTallRider saidabout the set up of each bike made a lot of sense too. I have time to get this right so I'm not going to rush in just to get a bike, I'm going to take my time and find the best fit. Size, type of bike, looks, price and any other thing that I can think of. Still have the 3 month old hybrid that I can ride until I finally decide.

Consider riding the hybrid for a year before getting n+1. You will know more in 6+ months about what you REALLY want.