Rubbish Fitness

hothead
hothead Posts: 123
edited October 2007 in Road beginners
Went out today after about 4 months of the bike (Various rubbish excuses) and am appalled how bad my fitness is. Can any suggest what I can do to improve quickly? Is it worth going to the gym to work on my basic fitness? Any ideas a big help. Please!

Comments

  • Jeff Jones
    Jeff Jones Posts: 1,865
    Ride lots.
    Jeff Jones

    Product manager, Sports
  • Crapaud
    Crapaud Posts: 2,483
    I've been off the bike for nearly a year and a half. As jjones says "ride lots" and ride regularly. It's surprising how fast the leg strength and fitness comes back. I'd have completed a 200k a few weeks ago, but for a lack of lights, after only a month of intermittent training rides. It was a slog towards the end though. I'm doing another next weekend and I'm expecting it to be a lot easier having put in more effort. That's really what it's all about IMO; you get out of cycling what you put in (and in life in general).

    Do a few test rides to find out just how fit you are and take it from there.
    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject - Churchill
  • ash68
    ash68 Posts: 320
    agree, no short cuts, just get out on your bike and put some work in.You'll have to make sure to give your body time to recover and adapt as well.If the weathers bad and you don't want to bike, the gym is a possibility as you say. Depends how you want to improve really, heart and lungs do cardio machines.Leg strength do squats, leg presses etc.Take it steady and concentrate on good technique when lifting weights will help avoid injuries.
  • AndyChud
    AndyChud Posts: 39
    you want to be riding at about 60%-80%, doing this will mean that you are using the correct energy system, any more and you work 'anaerobically'(sprint work), this won't help your cardiovascular fitness, anything less will just make you hungry

    Andy
  • SteveR_100Milers
    SteveR_100Milers Posts: 5,987
    AndyChud wrote:
    you want to be riding at about 60%-80%, doing this will mean that you are using the correct energy system, any more and you work 'anaerobically'(sprint work), this won't help your cardiovascular fitness, anything less will just make you hungry

    Andy

    Afraid that this is not quite true! Intervals will help your CV fitness but in a different way: you will be abel to sprint faster and for longer. Ideally, training should be done in all of the heart or intensity zones, the balance oif which depends on where you are in a season and what your goals are.
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  • AndyChud
    AndyChud Posts: 39
    Intervals will help your CV fitness but in a different way:

    This is true, however, for this to work, you would need to be doing what is called 'Fartlek' training, this consists of doing intervals of varying intensity, gradient, terrain and speed.
    This is difficult to do on a road bike(especially the terrain variation) however, it can be extremely enjoyable and rewarding.
    Just try lots of things out and find what's good for you.

    Andy
  • drenkrom
    drenkrom Posts: 1,062
    Before you think about intervals and fartlek, you really should build up your base fitness. My coaches always forced me to ride at least two months without intensity training every year, in low gears, keeping the cadence very high. That builds up your CV base and helps assure you get a smooth pedaling style, which is usually overlooked once you start grinding hard.

    Then you can really start hurting yourself, which is where the fun begins for me :wink:
  • AndyChud
    AndyChud Posts: 39
    I'm pretty sure my peddalling style is pretty poor, but i don't really concentrate on it(i probably should) seeing as i only cycle for fun and fitness

    Andy

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