I ride a Road Bike and have been for about six weeks now...have a few questions about fatigue and when my legs start to burn.

I ride about 5-10 miles a day 3-5 times a week depending on my time in the office; I average about 60 hours a week in the office so sometimes I am just too tired when I get home.

In any event I average about 15.5 MPH but would like to increase that or go longer distances even if at a slightly lower speed. I notice the first sign of fatigue is in thighs; is this normal? When I purchased my bike I had a professional fitting and nothing else hurts or is sore except for my thighs.

Just want to be sure that is normal and if what I am reading here in the forums is correct I should try to maybe slow down and go for longer time/distance to build up endurance?


Thank you.

Yes, it's normal, particularly when starting out. The rule of thumb is if your legs are hurting but your lungs feel good then you should shift into a lower gear and pedal faster.

Generally, newer riders tend to pedal at a low cadence in too high a gear putting more strain on their legs. Aim for a cadence of around 90 RPM.

Thanks!

I'm loving the burn!!! I pace myself, and vary my speed between 10-20 mph. I do sprints, and then active rest breaks. My legs are getting more toned as a result. I'm only on week 3, but my body & lungs are reaping he benifits. Especially coming up on 5 years smoke free, and a little over 5 years cancer free (bladder cancer).

Honestly, I never realized how much I missed & love riding a bike. Fitness is only a side effect,...I feel alive when I ride!!!

i just did my first big group ride (80 people!), which ended with some 2hrs of riding in semi-hilly terrain, more than I am used to! I've been super sore, but also had to do a fast-paced mostly-uphill ride the other day as well, and now my legs are shot, even climbing stairs hurts, heh. But im taking it easy, eating a plenty, and I know in a day or two when I go for a longer ride again ill be blazing

Can someone point me toward a good place to read up on cadence? I keep seeing it referred to and I've spent a few minutes here and there googling it but I still would like to understand it better and I know that's probably about the newbest of newb questions - but I warned you in my intro! (sorry rvk, don't mean to hi-jack!!)

https://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/art...matters-16394/

Or you can do a search in the Road forum (provided the Search function is working) and it will give you lots of threads on cadence.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...hlight=Cadence

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...hlight=Cadence

Thanks CbadRider, I skimmed the first few posts of each of those threads and they seem to be full of good information on the direction I need to head. To be even more basic, how does everyone know their cadence for every minute of every ride? I have a Garmin 305 and I set one of the fields to cadence last night but it didn't register anything. A setting somewhere on the garmin?

You need a magnet on the crank arm and a sensor mounted on the frame to register a blip every time the magnet passes by. Those are not very expensive, and are easy to link up to the Garmin. Make sure to get a wireless one -- the wires are a pain in the rump.