rousseau

My legs got stronger. How did this happen? What do I do now?

Background: I'm a 47-year-old who got back into cycling at the age of 40, but for numerous reasons and the vagaries of life I've never trained consistently or properly over the past seven years. I've enjoyed riding, but never really experienced much improvement.

This year wasn't promising: winter lasted far too long, then in August I caught a cold (first "summer cold" ever) that went into my chest, so the whole month was a write-off.

But in September I went for it. I rode almost every day, and did easy rides on days following harder rides. I also consciously made an effort to get out of the saddle on climbs. Why? Because I discovered I really enjoy doing that. So during the whole month my quads exhibited varying degrees of soreness, which I also enjoyed. My foam roller got a real workout.

But in the last few days, something happened: my legs don't feel sore anymore, my speed has gone up, and my waistline has even shrunk a bit (I'm sort of a Clyde). I feel really, really good. It's like I've made it to "the next level."

So what happened? And what do I do now? Push harder? Enjoy the plateau for a while? Is there a danger of regressing? I want to continue this forward progress, but I'm not completely sure of how I got here, save for the fact that I rode a lot more in September. That's got to be part of it, right?

caloso

Yes, riding more is a factor, but not much as the fact that did easy rides after hard ones. A lot of riders get trapped on a plateau because their hard rides aren't hard enough to force a training adaption and their easy rides aren't easy enough to recover. So what happens is you get stuck in a mushy middle. You broke out of that and are now seeing the gains.

So now what? It depends on what your goals are. Lose more weight? Climb better? Ride longer? 5-hour century? 60 minute 40k TT?

rousseau

Lose more weight. Definitely. I'm...too...fat...for...this...sport. I'm a Clyde. If I can keep losing weight, then the climbing and the distance will improve. Not to mention the speed.

So, what do I do (or continue to do)?

rousseau

Bump. Any tips on achieving some of those goals mentioned in caloso's post above?

caloso

To lose more weight, I would suggest keep doing what you're doing on the bike but take a really good look at your diet. There are a number of online tools that let you track your daily nutritional intake. I like myfitnesspal.com