Exercise! Love it or hate it, let's motivate each other to just DO IT!

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Old 03-01-2007, 12:18 AM   #1  
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Default Any bike riders here? (outdoor)

Hi all,

I'm new here. My sister and I have decided to train up for a 30 mile bike ride that is happening near the end of June. I wondered if there are any others that are using outdoor cycling as part of their exercise routine? I'd like to have a place to post times/mileage and share experiences with others, because I have never really tried to ride a bike for any distance or for more than just recreation. If anyone is interested in joining or starting a new thread on biking, please let me know. Thanks!
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Old 03-01-2007, 07:55 AM   #2  
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I'm a biker. I have two bikes, road and mountain. I'm planning to go out Saturday for a 25-30 mile road ride with my friend, assuming that I can shake the last dregs of this cold. I usually try to get out a couple times a week in good weather.

What kind of bike do you have? What kind of training plan are you and your sister working?

Anne
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Old 03-01-2007, 08:13 AM   #3  
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I ride but its still to cold and snowy for me. It'll be April before I get out regularly. I have a Trek Mountain bike but we dont have any great trails close so I basically take it on the dirt roads around here with the occasional trail ride thrown in.
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Old 03-01-2007, 11:32 AM   #4  
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Thanks for the replies!

Wndranne, right now I just have a cheap 100 dollar bike with nobby tires, but I'm going to start with that. My sister has 2 road bikes, and if I can fit one of them, she said I could borrow one for training and doing this ride, but she is a lot taller than I am, so I may be stuck with what I've got. Just for trying out the sport, though, I think what I have will be fine. If I find that I want to stick with it past this ride or do longer distances, then I could look at getting a better bike.

As far as a training plan, I don't have one yet, except to just start riding. I got out for a short 2 mile ride on Tuesday, just to dust off the bike and see if I could ride. I recently bashed up my ankle crashing the dog scooter, so I wasn't sure how it was going to take to the bike, but it did fine, at least with the short distance. I don't know what is the right thing to do for building up mileage on a bike, but for now I'm just faking it, and will start with tues, thurs and either sat or sun (we run dogs one of those days, usually, so whatever day we're not running dogs). I'm just going to start easy, with the 2 miles, and will build up time or mileage from there. (I'm still holding out hope of finding an actual "plan" to follow, though, since I don't really know what I'm doing.) I'll ride again today. I'm just waiting for the roads to thaw and for the morning rush to finish using our country road for a freeway (which will be about 9 am here).

Artsygirl, I have not tried mountain biking, but some of the trails we run dogs on with the scooters (they are like mountain bikes with a skateboard plate to stand on, instead of pedals and a seat), I think it is a similar effect, lol. Since the dogs take care of beating me up and getting me out on hard trails, I'm sticking with road biking for now. I remember one trail we went on at a group ride 2 or 3 years ago, and you would have loved it for mountain biking...lots of jumps and tree roots, crossing the river on log bridges and crazy drop offs. Try that with 3 crazy dogs dragging you along, lol. At one point, we came to a "puddle" that was about 30 feet across and just as wide over the trail. The dogs wouldn't stop, and it was too soon to turn back anyway, so the dogs jumped in, swam across, my scooter was underwater with just the handlebar grips sticking out, and me trying to keep my footing in the mud, wading through water up to my collar bone. I ended up crashing and dragging about 5 or 6 times on that run, lol. Afterward, we all drove our dog teams into the lake, to try and get some of the mud off before loading them back in the vehicles. It was insane, but a lot of fun. That was the run where I learned to always bring a full change of clothes and about 10 towels, lol.

Do you all think that riding 3 days a week would be enough for me to get up to a 30 mile ride by the last week of June? Right now I can do 10 miles, which is what I've done just riding with my son, though I'm starting much smaller. I figured since I'm starting to ride it 3 times a week instead of maybe once a week in summer, that I should start small and build up from there, just to be safe and avoid getting too gungho and injuring myself. I'd appreciate any opinions on whether this is the right approach, or whether I should try to see what my max time/mileage is and build from some percentage of that?

Cheryl
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Old 03-01-2007, 12:56 PM   #5  
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>>Right now I can do 10 miles,>> Let me just eat those...munch, munch! The 2 miles kicked my butt today! I tried adjusting my seat, because my nephew rode it yesterday and it was too high, but I got it too low instead, which I started feeling about half mile into the ride. I thought, "it's only 2 miles, don't be a wimp!" Holy smokes, I was dying after a mile of standing on my pedals or trying to pedal sitting on that low seat. I'll have to mark the seat-height on the post when I get it back to normal...sheesh! Unfortunately, my cheap-o bike doesn't have a QR adjustment on the seat post, and I didn't think to take the allen wrench with me. Thirty miles??! I might have to start the day before everybody else, lol.

Cheryl
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Old 03-01-2007, 01:35 PM   #6  
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I have just started doing some bike riding again within the last month. I used to love to do it, but it had been many years since I had done any. Right now, I'm just using a cheapo bike that is actually my DH's bike. I have visited a couple of bike shops looking for my new bike. At both places, they have recommended a hybrid bike. So far all of our riding has been on dirt/gravel roads or on the highway. Eventually, I would love to do a rail to trail path nearby, but 4 - 5 miles is all I can manage at a time right now, so that will be a goal to aim for.

The salespeople that I spoke with showed me Trek bikes (at both shops) and they were within my price range, so that is what I will tryout once I actually go to purchase it. I'm thinking about waiting another month before I go. Riding DH's bike has actually been a good experience for showing me what I definitely want my bike to have or not have.

Looking forward to reading more from folks who know something about bikes. I'm not one of those people yet, just a wannabe.
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Old 03-01-2007, 08:16 PM   #7  
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>>Looking forward to reading more from folks who know something about bikes. I'm not one of those people yet, just a wannabe.>>

Me too! Thanks for joining the thread. I was worried I'd be the only one doing bike riding on here. Can you tell me what a hybrid bike is?

Cheryl
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Old 03-01-2007, 08:29 PM   #8  
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From what I've seen and read, they are kind of a combination of a road bike and a mountain bike, with the handlebars usually like a moutain bike, gears and tires usually like a road bike. My very basic understanding....
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Old 03-02-2007, 12:02 AM   #9  
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I just recently bought a new road bike and put in around 30 miles this past weekend. I'd LOVE to have a place here to post our mileage and training. Here's a link to the bike that I got. Up until that I'd been riding a mountain bike on the road. The new one is SOOO much better. The tires, the lightness, the posture, the clip-ins. If you're serious about biking it's definitely worth looking into a good bike. My husband and I and sometimes his friend ride together. They're both training for triathlons so I'm just trying to keep up! I'll try my best to answer any bike questions if you get 'em and what I don't know I'll pass on to my husband. Looking forward to logging miles with you all!
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Old 03-02-2007, 01:53 AM   #10  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stacylambert View Post
I just recently bought a new road bike and put in around 30 miles this past weekend. I'd LOVE to have a place here to post our mileage and training.
Thanks for joining us Stacy! Here's my mileage: 2 per ride, 4 total. I'll try to improve that, though, lol. That's a great looking bike!

Jtammy, thanks for the reply. I've not heard of that, but I'm a total noob at this. I'm impressed that you can go 5 miles already! I've been about 4 to 12 miles on different rides with my son, but those were just cruising on the flat, with lots of breaks to look at stuff and just making a day of it. Totally different story when I'm trying to really get a workout and pedal most of the time.

I do have a question for all of you, if you care to participate: How many times a week do you ride?

Cheryl
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Old 03-02-2007, 08:00 AM   #11  
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I try to ride a couple times a week. I'm also a triathlete, so I have running and swimming to work in there as well.

My plan is 6 miles today to test my new bike fit on the road bike, and then 25-30 miles tomorrow for my ride of the week. I'd normally try to do a lunch-time ride one day of about 16 miles, which is usually just a smidge over an hour for me, but it didn't happen this week with a huge week-long meeting at work. I'm hoping to get my mountain bike out next week, but need to get coordinated with my riding buddies, since that involves inevitable falls, and I'd hate to knock myself unconcious somewhere out in the desert alone.

Cheryl, make sure you are fitting on that bike! As you discovered, a bad fit (seat too low in your case) is disastrous.

My parents got bikes for Christmas 2005, some decent Trek hybrids, and in about a year had worked up to rides of 40 miles a day, with rest and making a day of it. They went on a rails-to-trails vacation and did 200+ miles in one week. They are in their early 60s and started from pretty much scratch. They are also retired and had a decent amount of time to train, which I think they worked up to a couple hrs at about 20 miles.

Finally, here's a plug for going to your local bike shop (LBS). They can help you get fit on your bike, check it out for safety and component upgrades that match what riding you are doing (e.g. swapping out knobby tires for slicks if you are riding on the road), and get you info on biking in your area, bike clubs you might be interested in, things like that.

Anne
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Old 03-03-2007, 03:45 AM   #12  
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Anne, thanks for the information. That is really helpful to me, and makes me feel better about my made-up training plan. I plan to start with 3 days a week, and just building from there until I feel like I can handle longer rides/more days. Right now, I still have dogs to run 3 mornings a week, and skating 3 nights a week. When the weather warms up, I will be easing the dogs' mileage down, so I'll have more time for bike riding, plus by that time I should be able to handle longer or more frequent rides.

I've been reading about triathlons a lot lately. That sounds like a really cool thing to do, and I'd like to try it some day, maybe next year. Need to take some swim lessons and learn some actual strokes, because I don't know anything except how to play in the water and not drown. Hopefully the Y will have some lessons for clueless adult swimmers!

I had my one-week weigh in today...six pounds down!
Did not ride outside today (will tomorrow), but got 20 mins in on my sister's recumbent stationary bike (totally different feel from the real thing..all the work seemed to be in the backs of my legs). Got in 4 hours of skating tonight (Friday), with lots of dancing and tried to "work" the whole time, not just rolling around, so I'm beat!

Should we start a new thread for reporting miles and/or time on the bike, or just stick with this one? If somebody wants to start a new thread, feel free to just do it, otherwise just give a preference here, and I don't mind opening up a new thread if that's what we want. I'm thinking a new thread would be a good idea, so folks don't have to sift through all my noob questions to get to the good parts.

Cheryl
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Old 03-03-2007, 05:14 AM   #13  
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*squee!* BikeThread!!!!

Sorry, lost myself for a minute.

Add me to the list of outdoor bikers - I LOVE my bike. I'm off it for the season, until the roads clear, though. One of my long-term goals is to be a year-round bicycle commuter, but I have to work up to that.

During the summer, I'm all but glued to my bike (Specialized Rockhopper). I'm really lucky - we have a fantastic trail system, here, so it makes riding all the easier.

I totally understand not wanting to sink money into a sport you're not sure you'll love - I resisted doing so for YEARS. I finally replaced my had-it-since-junior-high Huffy with my bike last spring, and all I can say is that I wish I'd done it years sooner. Maybe watch Craigslist? (I see decent bikes on ours all the time.)

Either way, best to you. Enjoy your rides and wear your helmet!
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Old 03-03-2007, 07:49 PM   #14  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cinderly View Post
*squee!* BikeThread!!!!
(snip)
I totally understand not wanting to sink money into a sport you're not sure you'll love - I resisted doing so for YEARS. I finally replaced my had-it-since-junior-high Huffy with my bike last spring, and all I can say is that I wish I'd done it years sooner. Maybe watch Craigslist? (I see decent bikes on ours all the time.)
(snip)
I like the squealy brake noise, lol!

I got in 4 miles today, but man! I was ready for a new bike today! The pedaling part was fine, but geez, the seat was about as comfy as a fence post, and I definitely want some different handlebars, plus the shifter is apparently broken somehow. I might just go ahead and invest in a better bike, because I don't think I could ride 30 miles on this bike, and sinking money into it is probably a waste. I'll ride it for now, but I'll definitely be looking out for something better as soon as I have some money to spare for it. "I would like something in a granny seat with springs, please.." lol!

Thanks for joining us. I have to run, but I'll be back later to check in. Any other mileage reports today? I know mine is kinda ridiculous, but it's better than the zero miles I was doing before!

Cheryl
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Old 03-03-2007, 08:00 PM   #15  
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How many miles do I get to count for staring longingly at my bike this morning?

Four miles is nothing to sneeze at. When I got back on my bike for the first time in years last summer, I couldn't do the mile around the block without stopping to rest halfway. Just keep plugging away, and you'll get there.
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