Taking breaks during ride or reduce distance?
 

I'm new to road biking but I've been riding off and on for a while. I went out and tackled what was a long ride for me last week and I'm going again Friday. After about 10 miles and a long hill I just had to pull over and catch my breath for about a minute before I finished the last few miles. I can't find any info on this. Do I keep focus on completing the goal distance even if it involves a short rest or am I pushing too far too soon?

What are you trying to achieve? The answer might vary with your answer.

If you're having to stop to catch your breath, clearly you're going harder than you can currently sustain. So the usual answer is just to back off, change to a gear you find more manageable, and go a bit slower.

On hills, if you're gasping for breath but your legs are OK, try changing into a harder gear and pedalling slower for a while. If your legs are struggling but your breathing is ok, do the opposite. If your legs hurt AND you're gasping, get into your easiest gear and just go up slowly.

Take a rest, keep going when you feel up to it. Maybe you can set your rides up so you wind up at a park after about 10 minutes, then you're not resting you're taking in the scenery. :)

If I stop, I tend to cool off and stiffen up. Rather than pulling over and stopping completely I prefer to sit up and soft pedal. Just put it into a very easy gear and turn the pedals over with very little pressure.

I want to go the distance. I'm shooting to make 25 miles straight by March and 50 by this fall. That ride was 14.5. I'm usually in the highest gear possible to keep momentum because my legs are strong but not very fast. It was a long hill that finally caused me to stop at the top. So would it be safe to say that a short mid-ride break isn't ideal? I'm definitely trying to push myself, but I haven't learned to recognize my limit until I'm just beyond it.

Ride as far as you can.
Rest days are good days.

Should take you about Six Months to get in shape for long rides.

Hey, you're just getting started in biking, and 10 miles is very good for a recent rider!

No shame in taking a break. The more you ride, the longer you will go between breaks.

Getting fit through cycling can be counter-intuitive. It's mainly an aerobic exercise, so you're better off cycling for long periods at a steady pace than you are going as hard as you can, because the former is what builds your aerobic systems. Try to spend most of the time at a pace you feel you could maintain for a couple of hours at a time. That will feel very easy at first, but quite soon you'll find your speed will rise for the he same level of effort. Go hard occasionally, of course - but not most of the time.

You should have no trouble getting up to 25 mile rides in March. Once you can do that, 50 will come along pretty fast - certainly before the fall.

Dont worry. Taking breaks is not a bad thing. It depends on your body. Some people stiffen up if they stop mid ride. Try setting goals for yourself. Keep them attainable and ride similar distances for a week or two before increasing them. Once those routes get "easy" focus on doing them a bit faster and gradually increasing the mileage. I've only started road biking again back in November and I'm already up to 30 mile rides. Your goal is attainable. Just be consistent. Remember, it's better to do several short rides a week than one long one.

Are you able to measure cadence? If so, what is your average? If you are running in high gear, your approach may be wearing yourself out unnecessarily and sabotaging your efforts!

+1

I agree. At this beginning stage, I think you'll be much better served by spinning an easier gear for longer. Increase time and distance gradually. There will come a time for big gear training, but I wouldn't recommend it for a rider who's just starting out.

+1 Lots of potential for problems related to overdoing it in a hard gear.

Some of the people here are giving you good advice, and you should try out what they're telling you. I bump into chasm54 and caloso a lot, these are very smart guys. The other folks here seem pretty clever too.

You should try an easier gear. You're using a hard one to take advantage of your strength (legs) and to avoid relying on your weakness (cardio system). Instead, try using an easy gear that requires no strength, spins quickly, and has you just slightly out of breath. Maybe at first you'll do that for a while and then rest or go back to mashing a heavy gear. But spinning an easy gear will get you in better shape and over the long run it will help you to cover more distance.

Also, I say take all the breaks you need, and keep going when you're ready. You'll cover more miles in a day that way, your body will get more exercise overall. In time you won't need the rest.

But make sure you take rest days too.

Well said. Your goal is to reach 50 miles. That's 3-4 hours of riding. For now, you are doing 15 miles. You want to find the pace where you can go the 15 miles without slowing to a crawl or having to stop late in the ride. That speed is one that will feel easy, even too easy, early in the ride. A good way to monitor your speed is to watch your breathing. If you cannot hold a conversation easily in the early miles, you are going too fast. Uphill, obviously things get harder and you won't be able to converse. But if you cannot talk at all, that is too fast and you will pay for it later.

As you progress though this "training" you will find your conversational speed getting faster and the distances getting easier. You will find you can push further into breathing hard uphill and recover on the downhill. That's a guarantee. For now, it won't always feel that way. Just stick it out.

Remember, gears are your friend. Look for the ones that allow you to spin easily on level ground and roll along at that conversational pace. And uphill, gears that allow you to keep the pedals turning and your breathing, while heavy, not wild. So you can say a few words without gasping. This might require lower gears than you currently have. (Talk to your shop if this looks like the case. It might be as simple as putting a bigger cassette on your rear wheel.) You might find it easier to stand on the pedals when the hill gets steep also. If so, you might want to make the jump to cycling shoes and cleats.

I just re-read your post. "I'm usually in the highest gear possible to keep momentum because my legs are strong but not very fast." That is your enemy - that high gear. Racers use it to: have a big enough gear for racing down mountains and being fast enough in the final mile or two of a race when the group speed ramps up to 30+ miles per hour. Watch that same racer training at this time of year. He's spinning along in his small chainring and a middle cog chatting with his teammates. At the end of the year, he has spent hundreds of hours in those little gears, maybe two in high gear.

My advice will seem very frustrating at times. Stick with it. The pay-off is so gratifying.

Ben

I'm also new to cycling and was very unfit when I started 3 months ago ....

this is what I have been doing and it seems to be working so far:

first few weeks, choose a route (not too long) and try and cycle at different speeds .... i.e. ride easy for a section, then go fast for another section, then slow down etc etc

do the same route for a week or two and you will see that you are able to do it much faster (as you get fitter)

as you get fitter, increase the distance and do the same (go fast, then slow to recover), then fast etc etc

I also have routes where I try and do a high cadence for half the route (80 RPM +), then on the way back, choose a smaller (harder gear), and try to cycle at a steady pace (cadence), so as to build strength

as time goes by, and you get fitter and stronger, you will see that you will be able to do the higher cadence rides in smaller gears

I must admit though that my rides are mainly on flat roads with few hills (I still struggle on very steep hills but it's a lot better than 3 months ago)


when I started, the route that I used was 10km (6 miles) on a cycle path with no cars and no stop signs/traffic lights (I'm fortunate to have one where I live)

I started off by cycling 5 straight days in a row and had 2 days rest with no cycling

also get a bike computer that does cadence such as Cateye or Sigma etc and sign up to Strava so that you can monitor your progress

thats my opinion, but I'm still learning as I go along :)

This sure sounds like a cadence-related problem. Pick a gear that lets you turn the pedals at 80-90 rpm, and if your speed changes you should shift gears to maintain that cadence. Riding in high gear everywhere will unduly tire your leg muscles and probably cause knee problems if you do it enough.

Pretty much all of the above.
Stop if you need to.
Keep going if you can.

If you can't make it up a hill, perhaps stop for a minute, then get back on your bike and ride to the top of the hill.

A 10 mile ride is pretty short (for some). Weight???
But, if I'm doing a 50 to 150 mile ride, I'll force myself to stop and take a couple of breaks and eat and drink something.

Many of my trips are for shopping and errands. So I might ride 10 miles, then stop, poke around a store for a bit, then get back on and do a few more miles.

I second this. If you have to stop and take a break, do it ... just keep it short. If you are riding for distance, IMO you will gain more from the miles you put ion in the second half of your ride than you would from doing two shorter rides.

Likely before too long you won't be stopping, but only coasting and soft-pedaling, then slowing less and less, and before you know it, doing 25-30-45 miles at a stretch.

because of my heart, I generally have to sit up and soft-pedal after even slight inclines, but i find that if I sit all the way up, or stand, and pedal very little, I get the same rest I would from stopping but I keep my blood flowing, which actually helps because the blood flow clears away lactic acid and exhausts the C02.

This is a lot more varied advice than I thought I would get and that's awesome. Let me back up and clarify a little bit. I've dusted off my bike after a couple years of sitting and me packing on a lot of weight but I'm not a beginner in the sense that I'm just getting into bicycles. I am a beginner when it comes to road cycling and covering distances and I'm getting more hooked every day. That said, cadence is not anything I put much thought into and as a matter of fact did just get a Cateye speed/ cadence sensor delivered today so I could try Zwift. I'm going to monitor that while i ride from now on. I do shift a lot but it's mostly to maintain a slower mashing pace until I have no other choice. I am out of shape for sure and could stand to take all of this advice to heart going forward.

1) There is nothing wrong with taking breaks mid-ride. In fact, as your rides get longer and longer, chances are you'll need breaks.

2) Try to keep your cadence somewhere between 80 and 90, if possible.

Ok, I installed the sensor and started going in Zwift and realized that I my comfortable cadence was only 45rpm! I pushed up to 80 and after a couple minutes it felt right. Then my tube blew out which was the second time in 20 minutes. No wonder these wheels came free and not on the bike :cry:

Yeah ... 45 rpm is painfully slow. Blow out your knees kind of slow.

If 80 felt good, keep it at 80. :)

Ditto to downshifting to an easier gear. That's the whole point of having gears.

I don't think you mentioned the exact bike, but get good tires, often $40 or so per tire if you get them cheap. There are quite a few threads discussing different tires, and flat resistance. Watch where you ride.

Also spend a few minutes trying to figure out the cause of every flat. It could be anything from bad rim tape to a piece of glass or radial tire wire in the tire carcass. If you're getting blowouts, the tire could be stretched, or you might not be getting the tube installed right.

Make sure you have adequate pressure in the tires for the tire size and weight (the sidewall rating is a good place to start).