flipperty

I do hope you realize how lucky a man you are. Treasure that woman!

Wooden Tiger

It's not something I lose sleep over. It's just irritating to me that I put in a lot of effort to no such avail. I'm sure I'm probably quicker than I was but I feel like I'm not making ground.

Neil_B

Read this:

https://www.chubbysuperbiker.com/2007...lways-win.html

Wooden Tiger

Good story!

JonMejd

No question this is a forum that understands challenge...

Defeat = loss. Loss = learning opportunity. Great, your wife is kicking your behind... Boo hoo. So what? If you are going to use your relative position in that "race" as a means of keeping score, then I would strongly challenge you to describe the specific steps you have taken to CHANGE THE OUTCOME.

Get Selene Yeager's book - it has a ton of ideas and programs to improve your fitness (doing something accretive to change the outcome) which will allow you to get fitter and faster...

And, lest you think I am being harsh... I run (and ride)... My 8k, 10K, and half-marathon paces are all the same (medium to slow at 8:35 or so). Why? Because I do nothing to get faster... Would I like to be faster? Sure... Do I know how to get there? Yes. Intervals, intervals, intervals... Do I EVER run intervals? Nope. Too lazy to figure out distances and have a hard time (ego) slowing down for space between... (read: I am being lazy by not spending a bit of effort to improve)

You have data. She is seemingly faster. Great. Get a program, follow it... Exactly (or, realistically, mostly). Then start keeping score (and some data) Report back. Repeat if necessary.

I know you can get there if you really want to... But, you have to really want to.

Good luck - go get her!

P.S. No relation or anything to Selene Yeager - I bought the book and, while it was a bit warmer, was following the program, AND getting faster...

Wooden Tiger

Well, without going all "Dr. Phil," "keeping score" is an excellent way to destroy a relationship. Her being faster than me doesn't affect me all that poorly. This thread is more along the lines of being frustrated with working hard and seemingly seeing no results from it, which makes it hard to be motivated. Yes, I know what I have to do to get faster. I could either work really hard or stick needles in my ass.

There are a lot of things I want to do but feel so far behind I don't feel like I'll be able to achieve them. That's basically what this thread is about.

...But thanks for the advice and the heads-up on the book, I'll check it out.

vesteroid

lol you crack me up, you are saying you run a 8:35 pace on a half, so thats a 112 minute time for a half marathon, and you consider that slow? I have buddies who have been running for years, and I mean train all year long, run 3-4 halfs a year, with 4 or 5-10ks mixed in who have never run a 112 minute half.

IBOHUNT

8:35 pace is slow....

Got it. I'm 40% slower than slow for a half. Just when I was getting my head right. BAM! it gets shot off.

JackoDandy

I think that sometimes people are just faster than us heavier folk. I can ride and ride but know my friend (who does not ride regularly) can whip my butt anytime he climbs out of the armchair. He has done....many times

JimF22003

The Shepherdstown ride? This is a really great event. I have this as May 18th though.

If that's the one, look me up. I'll try to remember to wear my 50+ jersey.

contango 

Coming in a little late to the thread but have to agree with this.

I'm about 6'4 and when I first went to the gym some years ago my weight was somewhere around 280. Running didn't work very well at that weight so the way I burned calories was to set the treadmill to a moderate walking pace (usually ~3.5mph) and a halfway decent incline and effectively just walk up an endless hill. To change the intensity I adjusted the gradient and only dropped the speed if I absolutely had to.

The end result was that for a time I still weighed in at ~280 but could walk up hills without slowing. My calf muscles grew to the point they could haul me up hills, which meant they looked rather silly and disproportionate to the rest of me, but they did the job. Fundamentally despite the fact I was overweight/obese (my BMI was in the 30s) and had a very obvious spare tyre around my middle, my legs had developed the strength to haul me around.

Now I'm fitter and stronger even if not much lighter (I dropped to ~230 and then several weeks off the bike combined with Christmas saw me head back to ~250) but can still routinely drop a friend of mine who is appreciably lighter (he's ~190), simply because my muscles developed the strength to haul a heavier frame around so when my weight dropped they could haul the lighter me around even faster.

For the OP - your fitness didn't disappear overnight and it won't come back overnight. Push a little harder each time, accept you're going to turn yourself into a bath of sweat in the process and push yourself enough that you have to work for something. Give it time and then look back to see how far you've come.

Wooden Tiger

Is this the ride that's held on the C&O or is this a road ride?

rdtompki

I assume the C&O Canal is relatively flat. The difference in the bikes is much more likely to be the tires. The wider, possibly lugged tire on the MTB would do much better on even a hard gravel surface. It's true she might have had a wider-range cassette, but I'd discount that as a factor.

Neil_B

A road ride with a 'family option' on the towpath. Anyway, I should be there through Sunday, and if you are around I'd love to ride with you then or on Saturday after the road ride.

Neil_B

That's it. I was going to go last year but I wasn't up to the drive so soon after getting both knees replaced. I'll be doing one of the road rides and seeing how the joints handle hills.....

Wooden Tiger

Yes, the C&O is pretty flat for the most part. If there's very little grading to it. Due to the grading, eventually you realize you are "climbing," but you can't look at the surface and say, "Yes, we're going uphill."

Wasn't the tires. We were both running Continental Town & Country tires, so the only explanation would have to be the gearing, right? Theoretically, the gears on an eight-speed would be wider spread than those on the nine-speed, correct?

Is that going to be this Sunday? If so, I"ll have to wait and see what's going on, but if I have some free time, it'll be great to get together for a ride!

Neil_B

No, weekend of May 18.

youcoming

If you want to get faster be prepared to work hard and it doesn't much matter what bike you do it on. I too come from a BMX background but I got to race, never broke anything. Well unless you count both the wrists, a few concussions and lots of fat lips....lol After years of playing on mounds of dirt and then not riding for years I started off on a POS bike and I was SLOW too. Finally bought a Trek Hybrid which made me faster but still slow, went out and bought a road bike, no huge gain. Joined a club and got in with a great group who taught me how to get fast. This is what worked for me. Was told I had pretty good pedal stroke but was in way to big of a gear all the time and was working too hard to get what speed I could muster. For three rides I rode with one of the old racer type dudes and no matter what I had to keep it in the small ring(double). If he sprinted I had to stay on his wheel, climb on his wheel everything on his wheel. Sometimes I thought my legs were going to spin off! What this did though was teach my legs how to spin a gear. My next mentor had me follow him and suck his wheel for as long as I could(this was over a three week period) but was allowed to choose my gearing just as long as I could keep up. I can remember being in my 50 on the front and 21 on the back spinning along and concentrating on his shoulders and maintaining that perfect distance to get a good draft yet not touch his wheel. I didn't really keep track of my gears but kept that spin going, he turned around at one point and asked how fast we were going< this guy has never rode with a computer, I quickly look down and see 40kph on flat ground, he just smiled and said your turn out front! After that he said from here on in it's all about the effort you put into riding and told me all about solo interval training and hill repeats and if you do these combined with some group rides with faster riders you will get stronger and faster.
I'm really grateful to have had these mentors help me to become the rider I am today. I think the number one lesson was learning how to spin, not just a small gear but how to spin a big gear too. Being in your big ring but chugging along with a 45-50 cadance won't make you fast but using that same gear with a 80-90 cadance sure will. Not sure if this is anything the OP can use but I too thought I was slow and I was but I sure ain't slow now.

Wooden Tiger

Ah, okay. Hopefully I'll be around that weekend!

I think part of my problem is that I'm always in the wrong gear, because when I ride, I do a lot of spinning and going nowhere. The feet are moving but the bike isn't. Then, if I slow things down a bit and mess around with gears, I wind up in a gear that I'm really working hard in...and then I bonk out.

How much "effort" do I want to be using to power the bike? What I've been trying to do is keep it in the gear where I'm straining the least but the bike is moving forward. Unfortunately, it's not moving very fast. In other words, I'm using very little effort to move the bike and the bike isn't really going anywhere. Do I wanna be in a gear where I really have to mash into it?

ClydesMoose

I always tend to settle into a cadence that's comfortable for me. I shift a lot to maintain ~75-80 RPM. It may take some experimentation for you to find where you're comfortable.

youcoming

You don't need to mash, you need to work at it. Next time you are out just ride but pay attention to what gear you are in. Next ride do a 10-15 warmup in that gear then move to one gear harder but work at doing so with the same leg speed. Do you ever get to ride by yourself? How often and far do you ride? What speed are you riding now? Mashing will wear you out quicker, it sounds like you need to spin an easier gear. Another question, do you know what gearing you have? Double or triple up front and cassette size, knowing what you have can help, myself I spend most of my time in my big ring which is a 53 and anywhere from my 19-15 on the back and on flat ground try to keep an 80-100 cadence, depending on wind. It takes a lot of training to get fast but so worth it.

Wooden Tiger

I may be spinning too fast because I really tire myself out quickly. It seems like when I'm riding with my wife, I'll watch her and my legs are spinning a whole lot faster than hers and I'm going slower.

Usually when we ride, we go about 14.5-15.0 miles. My average speed is usually about 12-13 mph. When I'm riding, I'm spending most of my time in the small ring. Would it help to be in the big ring?

ClydesMoose

It all depends on the gearing of your bike really. If you're spinning like mad in the small ring and a smallish cog, go up to the big ring and a larger cog for the same speed at a lower cadence but with more "mashing" (Even though mashing isn't the right term).

I think.

Do you know if you have a compact double or regular double. It should say if its a 50/34 or a 53/39 or similar. Do you know what the range on your cassette is?

MattFoley

+1 I did the full ride last year and my wife and I might do the half century instead this year, since we have Cap2Cap century the weekend before and I have Mountains of Misery the week after. 3 centuries in 3 weekends is more than I care to do! That said the CASA century is pretty easy, and Cap2Cap should be totally flat and easy...but MoM is gonna be a killer.

jsigone

you sir need Strava and make some segments on your local trails and just ride that nice race bike you got. Use it to judge how you're doing each time you ride. Dig deep and don't cheat yourself.

Don't be scared of hot weather over 85, learn to ride in it. Drink more few days before your ride and pack more water for the ride. 100oz plus a water bottle or two should be enough for 3 hours ride time. Don't bring dehydrated food either such as clif bars, this requires water to break it down when your body needs it first. You're not riding in the snow so you are limiting that riding time. Simply ride more and it will get easier and you will feel faster.