Cycle schedule - How many miles..

toon_mad

toon_mad

toon_mad

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ok, been a good 5 year or so since ive been a proper bike ride, canny sluggish from lack of excercise, beer and crap, anyway my bike comes soon and im gonna print some maps out have a look for some decent bike trails.

anyway, what miles should i be looking to do, bearing in mind lack of excercise (apart from a few games of football a week).

i was thinking something like this, but maybe someone can suggest a better plan:

1st month - 3-6 mile a day (one day off each week)
2nd month - 4-7 mile a day
3rd month - 5-8 mile a day
..
..
..

is that too much too soon, or too little:eek: :confused:
 
Don't really no mate my bike comes tomorrow and i was thinking of doing 2 short 8 miles in the week and a long one maybe 15+ at the weekend.
 
dont make it too easy for yourself, you wont improve.

when you return home from a ride and your not knackered and sweaty, your doing it wrong.

invite and make the pain your pal.


get those calfs in tune and hills will become a breeze.


endurance and strength , work on them.


3- 6 miles is nothing , my 20 stone overweight smoker of a cousin can do 40 , not everyday like but certainly in 1 of them. agreed it takes him 8 hours to do it.


there is a pain barrier and when your through it , that pain , turns into pleasure.

you just got to get through it. it does exist .
 
thanks, thats what i needed to know, i dont mind going through some pain, wasnt sure what starting miles to hit.

might go between 6-10 miles first then, see how that goes. can always do a bit extra the next day if its not enough
 
depends on the gradients you'll be riding. 10miles on the flat is easy unless it's into big headwinds.

You mention 'trails'- offroad 4-5 miles will be plenty to start with.

Whenever I get the bug to 'get back in shape' I do 3-4 rides after work offroad in the cotswolds (probably only 3-4 miles but very hilly) and after a couple of weeks I can feel a difference. I find 10miles on flat roads on my singlespeed WAY easier than 3 miles on proper hilly off-roads on my mountain bike though. Also find that adding in a couple of 3 mile jogs helps
 
There's a (fairly) nasty hill on my route to work (8 miles) - long and slow one way, short and steep coming home.

To begin with, both killed me. I ended up in nearly the lowest gear both ways. Panting like mad at the top. Wondering why the hell I did it to myself. Barely able to pedal having crested the hill. Took me about 45 mins.

That was mid February, now less than 4 months later (less than that even, as the first couple of weeks were busy and I barely managed one ride a week) - it's brilliant!

I mean, still tiring. But because I can push it harder. I can power my way up hills (within reason!). I have got the commute down to 35 mins. Amazing how fast progress happens, to be honest!

But you do have to push it to improve, I think. I automatically got pushed by being in time for work and by all the traffic keeping me trying to get faster - but you can do that yourself by timing your trips, picking a hill and getting better and better at climbing it, etc.

Enjoy, it's awesome :D
 
The thing with riding a bike is you can do 10 miles and not even get the heart pumping, getting out of the seat and pushing your body is the way to get the cardio going and losing the fat and getting fitter.

I do 6-7 miles a day to college and take it easy going as its down hill takes 15 mins and push it coming home takes about 19 mins, get cycle computer and try and keep your speed at a certain level also helps and pushes you eve harder, one day I said to myself that I was going to stay above 14 miles an hour all the way home and I did it, kept me pushing.
 
good advice, im getting a speedo clock thing, doesnt tell how many calories burned but thats ok, will tell me how fast im going, distance etc.

see if i can get a consistent speed too
 
I was going to the gym pretty regularly, but decided to cycle to work which is a 32 mile round trip. I'd not used my bike at all the previous 8 months. Depending on your base level of fitness, try to do something like an hour a day and build up the milage.
 
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