xanadu

I am interested in finding out what your overall fitness level was and how quickly you have improved on the bike.

In my case I was pretty athletic in my teens and early twenties (soccer, swimming, biking, running, chasing girls ) but became a totally overweight cigarette smoking couch potato later on.

I started cycling seriously last year (32 y.o. at about 195lbs and 5'10"), quit smoking, lost weight and quickly improved on the bike.

My friend who started couple months later, but was slim and quit smoking years ago progresses slower but was definitely a less active youth.

What are your experiences, observations and conclusions?

Ratfish

I would wager that it has more to do with how you ride and recover than your childhood fitness level. I find that early on I made much faster progress if I rode hard, less frequently. In fact, that's still the case.

Machka 

I started cycling when I was 6 years old, and although I eased back on how much cycling I did between the ages of 17 and 23, I was still fairly active.

When I started cycling "seriously" (regularly & keeping a log of it) at the age of 23, I did a 2 mile ride and had to take a break after the first mile. But I was up to a 50 mile ride a couple months later.

I think I would have gotten into doing centuries etc., and a lot more cycling in general, if I thought it was possible. But for some reason, for my first few years, I thought 1000 miles (1600 km) between May 1st and August 31 was a lot of cycling, and I pretty much packed up my bicycle in early September and didn't dig it out again till April.

It wasn't till I was 26 that it dawned on me I could do more.

pdedes

i was a chub chub as a kid. played soccer through my teens to 21 (varsity level) wrecked my knees and took up cycling. wound up racing as a cat 1 till i was 32, retired, got fat, started skiing and riding my way back into shape 3 years ago. i won't race again, but i could.

agarose2000

Definitely depends on your fitness and background. If you're from endurance sports background, it obviously helps a LOT.

I was faster than a lot of Cat5 and Cat4 cyclists within my first 2 weeks of cycling, mainly because of the aerobic endurance I picked up as a marathoner. I'm finding that once you hit that plateau of improvement though, gains are hard - it's the same with running. Takes a lot of work for very little improvement. That little improvement = big gains in race position, though.

JohnKScott

I was extremely athletic when I was young. Played football & basketball in HS and used to run all of the time. Knocking off a 10 mile run in around an hour was no biggie for me...

Then I stoppped doing much once I hit college and for about 25 years. I fear that anything I had back then pretty much got up and left .

My first ride 2 years ago was 15 miles and I had to walk up one hill that would be nothing now. I didn't feel all that bad, but mostly my arse hurt a lot. Did my first Century 4.5 months later (my wife said I didn't look to good afterward) and haven't looked back. Entering my my first bike race ever next Saturday (assuming it doesn't get rained out) and I'm expecting to get shelled . But I'm enjoying it!

I would say I got a certain level of fitness back fairly quickly. More of the endurance type of fitness. But I'm also finding that getting a "racing" type of fitness seems like slow progress. I'm pretty sure that if I had raced in High School I would have been pretty good. I was built for it (weighed about 140 lbs with big strong legs and great endurance). It just wasn't something that was ever thought of back when and where I grew up. That was a long time ago. I'm finding now that I have to scratch and claw for every little bit of improvement.

daxr

I doubt that there's any norm...but I biked and raced pretty heavily from 11 (time-trialing through the paper route) to 22 or so, just as a Cat 4. I was always in good shape, and when I stopped racing I alternated between gym work and biking "comebacks" for a few years, then sunk into a bad period. Smoked and drank and worked a too stressful job for about ten years. At which point I was feeling pretty aged, with bad knees, vision getting worse, equilibrium problems, lungs that hurt, chest pains and an occasionally racing heartbeat, etc...

Getting back into form was a matter of quitting smoking, then getting a new bike I could really put miles on to fill the "bad habit time". It was a whole lot easier than I thought, and it only took a couple of months to go from not knowing if I were going to be able to even ride, to feeling seriously good like I did when I was 20. At 45 now I'm sure not as fast as I was, but things reassure: I went out and rode a century at a decent pace last weekend, then did the grocery shopping, cooked dinner, took the dog out for a run, slept well, and had another nice ride the next day...pretty good for an old guy. If things keep on well I may race again next year.

On the whole I would say that if you had a good level of fitness growing up, its possible to get back to that level faster and easier than a person without the background.

Panic

I was pretty athletic growing up, when I was 17, at 5'11" I could dunk, weighed 165. Always pretty fast, and when on the bike riding with friends, I was always the fastest. Always faster, more powerful - but wasn't a big wind guy.

Got old, fat, high blood pressure the past year, but have lost 20 lbs since Feb 10 and getting faster and stronger every day.

Hopefully by September I'll be down another 40 lbs. Would love to weight 183 again - the weight I was when I got married 25 years ago.

ok_commuter

Agreed.

BenRidin

Pretty similar background. Swam at a national level through college. Graduated at 163#'s. Got a stressful job, traveled a lot, moved up the food chain, ballooned up to 230, took up smoking and drank waaaay too much.

I'm now 50. Gave up the smokes 9 years ago. Quit the job 4 yrs ago, took a year off and decided to get in shape. Lost the weight. Last year weighed in at 180, this year I am 175.

Got a personal trainer who kicks my ass twice a week doing a killer core workout. I ride w/ the racing team on Tuesdays. I can hang for a long distance at 28 and get dropped at 32. A lot better than last year, endurance wise.

I'm loving it.

BR

xanadu

I am just so happy I came across this life changing bicycle obsession (dad’s heart attack was a wake-up call) in my early thirties. Somehow the "lost decade" (21-31) is not so regretful after all.

I managed to immerse myself in charisma building nihilistic twenties (for some unexplained reasons, the ladies dig the residual of this period ) without (hopefully) longtime negative effects on longevity.

All is good. Second chances are second to none. Endorphins rule.

poopsik

Since I am able to ride everyday again, I am now doing around 30 miles a day. The weight is something that doesn't come off fast when cycling. Running, takes it off faster for me but I don't like the pounding associated with running. I can triple knot my running shoes and they will come open during a marathon.
My weight has come down from 178Lbs to 161.5Lbs after riding for 6 months and continuously doing it everyday. I am trying to get back around 155 when I used to race over 25 years ago. My heart beat is great. It was 38 to 42 beats a minute when I was at the doctors office a few weeks ago. I would say, watch your diet, drink lots of water and you will improve. Just have to keep at it.

MrCrassic 

WARNING: Long post; sorry.

I was always non-athletic. I mostly played baseball when I was young, but mostly because of my Dad. (I am Dominican, and it's almost expected that if you're a guy, you're playing baseball.) Otherwise, I ate a lot, did a lot of nothing, and, consequently, was chubby because of it. I rode back then, but nothing too crazy (though I did a 15 (?) mile round trip on my super heavy Pacific when I was 14 or 15 just because I could).

When I first picked up cycling again two years ago (on my Costco MTB special), I was always fascinated by distance. I didn't have problems doing 10 miles, 20 miles or 40 miles within my first few weeks/months of getting into it. I rode almost every day, at every opportunity that I could. I lost weight extremely quickly, and had difficulty gaining it back, even while eating like crap (pizza, chinese food, et al).

A few months (and a crash) later, I got my first "real" road bike and the rest is history. I was pretty slow (climbed the Bklyn Bridge at 14 mph, had massive trouble climbing River Road and rode at 17-18 mph average on flats) and didn't have the fitness of a racer. Sucked horribly on the collegiate scene and as a Category 5 racer.

Now, I have a pretty tight balance between diet, weight and performance (or at least for now), climb significantly better and have much more endurance than before. 100 miles are no problem for me, and I am pretty confident that I can finish the Ride to Montauk this year. I'm also much better acclimated to weather changes from the amount of commuting that I did recently. Moreover, I'm more subtle about my cycling, at least from first appearance (I normally commute in regular clothes now instead of cycling clothes like before).

It also helps that I went from 185-190 pounds and a 34-35" waistline to 155-160 pounds and a 29-30" waistline. I can wear shirts that I wore in fifth grade, and I haven't had this waistline since middle school. And I look sexy.

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