whats best?

acebobby

I have had my bike for a week now and have covered 75 miles, and after doing what I'd call a moderate paced 34 mile ride this morning that I really enjoyed, I started to wonder, what would be the best way to improve!
Should I,,
A/ work to a training plan of sorts
B/ Just keep riding at a pace where I enjoy the cycling to start with and get some major miles under my belt!
To add I do RPM (spinning) classes 3-4 times a week at times I would be unable to be out on my bike to help with fitness!

Bobby

softlad

option B

Teach

I have a short (45 minute ride). Which I do fairly regularly. I've seen my time come down on the route, so I know I'm getting better/fitter. Living in Yorkshire means it has a mixture of ascents.

Mister W

What do you want from your cycling? If you're going to race then working to a focussed training plan will give you better results. If you just want to be able to enjoy your riding and get faster then going out and doing rides you enjoy is much more fun.

acebobby

Mister W wrote:

What do you want from your cycling? If you're going to race then working to a focussed training plan will give you better results. If you just want to be able to enjoy your riding and get faster then going out and doing rides you enjoy is much more fun.

Thanks for the replies
As a beginner to cycling my first goal is to drop from 220 lbs to about 180 lbs, then I do have a couple of races planned in my head for next year, the etape Caledonia and the etape Hibernia, I have these only in mind as goals to complete the events and prove to myself, well not quite sure what I'm proving to myself!
Anyway I thought that maybe I could get away with putting some good mileage in and enjoy the riding to help lose the weight and develop my muscles a bit then maybe think about training rides in the new year!

Bobby

zedders

Bobby,
Go with B.
I appreciate that everyone is different, but I found I needed to be doing over 100 miles a week to lose any weight (ave 2 or 3 lbs p/w). Broken down into an average of 3 or 4 rides per week. You need to try and be riding regularly. Doing one big ride a week ain't going to work IMO? You may find you don't need to ride as much to lose weight to start with? But to help you keep track, start a diary, noting down some basics after every ride: time, distance, weight, riding conditions, routes etc. After a few weeks review your data, and you'll see what works best for you etc. I'm no training expert but I would guess if your going to shift the lbs (your first goal) you need to up your mileage, and keep it up! Best of luck.

acebobby

zedders wrote:

Bobby,
Go with B.
I appreciate that everyone is different, but I found I needed to be doing over 100 miles a week to lose any weight (ave 2 or 3 lbs p/w). Broken down into an average of 3 or 4 rides per week. You need to try and be riding regularly. Doing one big ride a week ain't going to work IMO? You may find you don't need to ride as much to lose weight to start with? But to help you keep track, start a diary, noting down some basics after every ride: time, distance, weight, riding conditions, routes etc. After a few weeks review your data, and you'll see what works best for you etc. I'm no training expert but I would guess if your going to shift the lbs (your first goal) you need to up your mileage, and keep it up! Best of luck.

Thanks for the advice zedders,
I agree with what you say and I think I can easily manage 100 + miles a week riding 3 to 4 times a week. I use the cyclemeter app on my iphone so that should act as a diary of my progress, I also decided when I bought the bike that I wasn't going to get hung up to much on weight loss even though its my main initial goal I thought it would be best to try to focus more on my cycling technique and fitness and let the weight gradually drop of as a side effect of my lifestyle.
One thing for sure is I'm really enjoying my cycling and was really glad when I read somewhere on here that the best exercise for cyclist's is more cycling!
Thanks

Bobby