How much is too much for me?

NewTriGuy

I'm 35 years old and I'm just getting started Road cycling. I used to be a distance Runner, but lately I've been trying to get back into running but I've been getting shin splints and cannot get rid of them so I picked up cycling to strengthen my legs. I stay pretty active at work playing basketball and soccer with kids so I'm probably too active in order to actually get rid of my shin splints and give them the rest they need. Regardless I started cycling and I'm up to 20 to 30 Mi every time I go out which is roughly three to four days a week. Is this too much? I want to get back into great shape again but don't want to hurt myself also. I stretch before and after and I'm also hydrating often and protein loading after my ride. Any suggestions?

imposter2.0

Your body will tell you if you're doing too much. The more you ride, the more you can ride.

fat daddy

mileage is pretty ambiguous ... if your 30 miles is from Bedoin up Venteaux and back down again .. then yes its probably too much for a beginner

Only you know ... if youstart to ache, or hurt .... do less

fenix

Cycling is a lot more forgiving than running. I reckon it's about 20% of the effort - so your 20 miles 4 times a week is probbbbbably something like the load of running 16 miles a week. I don't think you really need to protein load after it.

Are you going flat out or easy ? That makes a huge difference.

Listen to your body.

OnTheRopes

I reckon you should look at hours rather than miles, 4 times a week is about right but as mentioned it depends on intensity.
The right intensity for now equates to what they used to call (pre Heart Rate Monitor days) "The gossip threshold" so breathing should be so that you can (just) hold a conversation. This is the best intensity to build a fitness base and endurance.
Do 1 hour a day 4 days a week for a month, then make one of the days 90 mins same pace. Then after a couple more weeks make it twice a week 90 mins and twice one hour. Then after another month make one of the rides 2 hours one 90 mins and two at one hour.
Your speed will increase as your fitness increases over time, you can up the times as much as you feel able.
After about 3 or 4 months of this you can if you wish start to think about upping the inensity.
A real base fitness will take about 3000 miles

N0bodyOfTheGoat

As a basic guide, you could wear a Bluetooth heart rate monitor and record the data on Strava free on a "smart" mobile, using running for all non-cycling sport, then cycling for rides.

Then use the free Stravistix plugin for Google Chrome http://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai ... pckn?hl=en to use its Multisport Fitness guide to see if you are "over-training."

burnthesheep

Fenix wrote:

Cycling is a lot more forgiving than running. I reckon it's about 20% of the effort - so your 20 miles 4 times a week is probbbbbably something like the load of running 16 miles a week. I don't think you really need to protein load after it.

Are you going flat out or easy ? That makes a huge difference.

Listen to your body.

Ironman competitions would like to disagree. In the classical argument of swimmer vs. biker vs. runner they came up with the ratio of 2.4 to 112 to 26.2 as the equivalent "marathon" for each discipline.

I'd say that's a very fair estimate so long as you stick to the same "cutoff" max times for each discipline.

I've done a 1/2 marathon and can say doing 56 on the bike at the same intensity is pretty fair.

FWIW, in an hour of training on the bike I can do about 700 calories an hour including warmup/cooldown. I've got a power meter so it's real. Running I do about a 10 minute pace for 1/2 marathon distance, slow runner. For my weight that's about identical....700 calories an hour.

The bike has a LOT more to do with intensity than running. You can bike an hour and do nothing. If you run at even a meager pace, you're doing something.

Get Strava and use it to log rides and estimated work load from the estimated watts.

kingstongraham

burnthesheep wrote:

Ironman competitions would like to disagree. In the classical argument of swimmer vs. biker vs. runner they came up with the ratio of 2.4 to 112 to 26.2 as the equivalent "marathon" for each discipline.

That is based on the distances of the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, the Around Oahu Bike Race and the Honolulu marathon. Not on any calculated ratio.

You can't compare - the two activities tire you very differently, and the training has very different impacts.

singleton

I've done a half ironman and there's not really a simple comparison between disciplines - stating that cycling is 20% of the effort of running is woefully oversimplifying things.
If you've done lots if running before, you should know how to listen to your body and to recognise the signs of overtraining and whilst these will differ slightly on a bike - they're not that different.
One difference is that you tend to stay in one position when cycling so I find it more important to do some cross training.

fenix

BTS - I think I've done about a dozen Ironmans. It's not equivalent really - definitely light on the swim distance but its enough to be a challenge and spread out the field. They wont push the swim longer due to safety - its OK doing that distance in cooler climes with a wetty but you still get people coming out with hypothermia - spend too long in the water and it gets risky.