Improving overall fitness

MattyB85

Hi all,

Was at Swinley yesterday (most local trail) and did a 12 mile mixture of Blue and Red trails for the first time in a LONG time. Sorry if I held anyone up!! It was my first proper ride in about 15 years and took plenty of rest breaks just to get through it.

I'm 32, 5'11" and 14.6st- I know I'm overweight (but I'm skinny-fat so not much muscle anywhere, just a gut) and I'm hoping to lose some extra timber with riding. I'm currently riding a 2018 Giant Fathom 2 which is totally standard and much lighter than I've ever been used to.

I made sure I had a decent breakfast, warmed up and had plenty of fluid so I was as best prepared as I could be, but I found that I was getting out of breath very quickly and my legs were like jelly on some of the climbs. I just don't have the power to make it to the top of most of the climbs without walking/pushing. I'm well aware that more practice will reap huge benefits but I can only get to ride trails like these once a week at best so I guess I'm asking for tips on what I can do to build stamina or power in other ways while still on the bike. Would riding canal paths or road on weeknights for an hour or so work or would it be a waste of time?

I always used to ride before life and a job took over and It's so discouraging to feel like I"m not fit enough and it takes a lot of the enjoyment out of the sport I have loved forever.

Any help or tips from anyone who has been in the same boat is much appreciated.

Cheers,
Matt

tallpaul_s

I'm in roughly the same boat, last time I did any cycling was about 7-8 years ago, although I was fairly fit then as I rode a fixed gear road bike around Bristol, not the flattest of cities!!

I'm 36 and last did mountain biking about 15 years ago, have done 2 rides so far, one round swinley and one round bedgebury, both around 10-12 miles. I did stop a bit more on the 2nd ride as I was riding with a friend who isn't the fastest but the improvement over the first ride was noticable, jelly legs and lungs bursting on the first ride but much better on the second one.

Just keep riding, try and get long 2 hour rides in but without pushing too hard, you'll see your fitness improve massively over time.

As for the climbs, just stick it in the lowest gear and spin up, I managed to get up the steep fire road hill without pushing at the back of Swinley, needed a rest at the top but it's not that hard

Base miles with GMBN https://youtu.be/MzYpRYxuPoc

You could also go to the gym 3x per week and do weights to increase strength, if you're just starting then something like stronglifts 5x5 will see you on the way to a much stronger core and legs.

MattyB85

Thanks TallPaul_S, much appreciated... yeah that hill on the fire road is killer! I got halfway then was overtaken by a child which threw my concentration so I came to a halt.

I'll give the long rides a go, I don't do well with the gym as I tend to get bored quickly. I much prefer to be on the move getting fit rather than repetitions of set workouts.

The Rookie

Try and get time for a 25-35minute local ride once or twice a week even on road, ride hard enough to get breathing heavily and a bit sweaty, you'll soon notice a big improvement in fitness as a result.

Nice bike to come back with, a member of my club has one, decent value especially considering its a big brand!

MattyB85

The Rookie wrote:

Nice bike to come back with, a member of my club has one, decent value especially considering its a big brand!

Cheers! Yeah I like it. It's fun and light... I've got a feeling there will come a day when I need to upgrade the SR Suntour Raidon forks but they'll do for me for now.

Thanks for the advice too.

fudgey

Unfortunately the only way to get fitter and faster is to ride more.
Its all about the seat time, so dont expect overnight changes.
Oh, and it doesnt get easier, you just go faster lol.

For example, i changed jobs last year and now have an hours lunch break at work. I take my bike in and ride for 45mins ish most days. I was doing 13ish miles in that time, but i litereally go as hard as i can, im now doing 15.5 miles and knocking out 20mph av speed - this is on a road bike obviously but my fitness has noticeably improved in the last few months.
Going to a hilly part of spain for 3 weeks in august helped too, killing myself getting up some monster hills has worked wonders.
I have lost about a stone since July too so just under 12st now.

It will come, but takes time.

Uber_Pod

I've found that you can get your breath back much quicker than you can recover from jelly legs.
So I'm trying to use lower gears and pedal faster on the climbs. I probably get out of breath quicker, but my legs can keep going better afterwards.
Other than that, pretty much what everyone else said.

MattyB85

Nice one, thanks guys.

I'll be getting some more time in the saddle and got myself on a diet so hopefully I won't have so much weight to lug around

.blitz

There aren't really any short cuts or quick fixes you have to look at the big picture.

To begin with your cardiovascular will improve, you'll loose some subcutaneous fat and your aerobic capacity will be better. You'll feel good but it's also a potentially risky phase because your heart/lungs will be capable of overstressing your musculoskeletal system and injuries are common. Your joints and tendons take much longer to build up and eventually if you keep training your bones will also change and become stronger. The longer it takes for you to build fitness like this the easier it will be to maintain.

On the bike, set yourself achievable goals. You can climb a hill in 10 minutes - aim for 9:50, then 9:40 etc. You can ride 10 miles - aim for 10.5, 11, 12 etc. Ride hard from one canal bridge to the next then cruise to the next one, and repeat. Get a sports watch - being able to see gains that you aren't necessarily aware of (heart rate, recovery rate) is a great motivator.

Diet - where to begin? It has to be a permanent lifestyle change. Avoid processed foods and moderate alcohol - it is toxic after all. No use sinking a couple of pints after a ride because you've earned it all you're doing is putting yourself back to where you were before the ride. And yes I am great fun at parties. Pulses, vegetables, steak, chicken and fish will improve your digestive system and help shift some of that visceral fat we've all been accumulating since we were children. Bread, milk, sugar - just say no.

HTH and good luck

poah

MattyB85 wrote:

Was at Swinley yesterday (most local trail) and did a 12 mile mixture of Blue and Red trails for the first time in a LONG time. Sorry if I held anyone up!! It was my first proper ride in about 15 years and took plenty of rest breaks just to get through it.
Cheers,
Matt

without sounding like a dick, what were you expecting?

There are two parts to fitness: cardiovascular and muscle. They go hand in hand.

You want to increase both your sprinting and endurance muscles. A mixture of general slow riding and powering up hills combined with basic leg squats and wall sits will make a difference. These exercises will improve both muscle and cardio fitness.

If you want to loose weight then low intensity exercise is what you want. If you start going into medium/high intensity they body will switch from fatty acid oxidation to glucose for energy metabolism.

The other thing to remember is eating and drinking when exercising. Without proper fuel you will become exhausted quicker.

keef66

Diet for weight loss, exercise for fitness. But I think you already know that since you mention both, and doing them at the same time can be doubly beneficial.

The only way I've ever been able to shed weight and keep it off is by 5:2 eating. YMMV, but it requires no thinking or calorie counting, so I find I'm able to stick to it, and it's become a permanent state of affairs for me.

If you want to maximise the return on your midweek time on the bike, find a hill near you and just ride up and down it repeatedly. Don't worry about intensity of training or zones; if you only have 45 minutes to ride, ride as hard as you can for the entire time, or maybe 2 x 15 minute intervals with 5 mins warmup / recovery / warm down

It can be dispiriting finding out just how unfit you've become. I cycled all the time from the age of 8 till 28, at which point job / wife / house / kids and a bike thief intervened. Aged 40 and with 2 boys riding bikes I decided I needed one. Bought a cheap, heavy, knobbly tyred MTB / hybrid for £50. JESUS CHRIST! those first few rides came as a real shock. But a wake up call. I started going further and longer, and slowly regained a bit of cardio fitness and endurance, and remembered why I loved cycling. 10 years later at 50 I decided to treat myself to a proper road bike. For some reason I found this even harder work (higher gearing? being over-ambitious?) so I went through the whole thing again, only the improvements came even more gradually. But now at 60 I'm probably as fit as I was at 25. Undoubtedly slower, my eyesight is shocking, and random parts of me seize up or start aching for no apparent reason, but probably fitter and healthier than 95% of my contemporaries.

So at 32 you have time and youth on your side. If you push yourself a bit and stick at it you should see quite rapid improvements. And if you are able to drop the excess weight you'll certainly feel the benefit when climbing.

I'm only 5'6" and from my heaviest I managed to shift 18 pounds. That alone made a huge difference to my climbing ability. Stands to reason; that would be like me having 8 bags of sugar in my jersey pockets :shock:

MattyB85

POAH wrote:

without sounding like a dick, what were you expecting?

I totally expected to be beaten on my first go, just not as beaten as I was.

MattyB85

Thanks for the suggestions guys, it's appreciated. I'm carrying on with the diet and trying to stay as 'active' as possible. Hopefully I'll be dropping a few KG's in the not so distant future and climbing better around the trail.

haydenm

If you are after some encouragement, I notice that the first thing that happens after not riding for a while is that I struggle to deal with the high heart rate so well. You'll hopefully get used to it after a few rides, and you'll see your fitness get better over time

poah

MattyB85 wrote:

POAH wrote:

without sounding like a dick, what were you expecting?

I totally expected to be beaten on my first go, just not as beaten as I was.

I went out for the first time in a month a week or so back and I was fucked.

RichardSmart

I would suggest a combination of diet and exercise - try to avoid fatty foods and ride your bike as often as you can. Also, stay away from sweets, cakes, full-sugar fizzy juice and pints of lager/cider - if you want to drink alcohol, try vodka/gin/whisky/whiskey/rum wit diet mixers. As you build-up more muscle, and start to use it, you will naturally start to lose weight as long as you don't eat enough to supply your body with more carbohydrate than you need. If you can get past the stage where your body is burning carbohydrate and instead moves to burning fat, you will start to lose fat. Even if you don't actually lose any weight, you should certainly get slimmer, as muscle is (something like) twice as dense as fat.

Also, maybe join a gym and work on building-up muscle everywhere, not just your legs - go for a lot of reps at a (fairly) light weight, which will build-up your muscles more rapidly than fewer reps at a higher load. (High reps with lower weights increases the size of your muscles, while low reps with a higher load builds strength).

Good luck with getting into shape - leg us know how you get on.

JGTR

I eat rubbish, drink a bit and have the occasional fag or 2. Just ride my bike, keeps me more than fit enough for Swinley, Wales etc.

Just mix it up, longer distances with shorter/faster rides. Turbo trainer helps, 20 min interval training now and then works wonders.

RichardSmart

For eating and drinking before cycling, if you are going cycling first-thing in the morning, I would recommend eating something like porridge - it's full of complex carbohydrates and, if you make it with water (personally I prefer to make it with milk, but that has more fat in it), you should be burning fat off in no time.

http://www.dummies.com/health/exercise/ ... t-burning/ tells you all about the subject - good luck with achieving your goals...

fudgey

Food is all in the mind.

I have ridden countless times with nothing, including a very hilly 60 miles first thing with no breakfast in 30degree heat. I didnt die but got through a couple of bottles of water.

And on the flipside i have a mate that insists he eats every hour, gets a bit annoying having to stop often.

But in saying that, i guess if you are just getting back into it then you may fatigue quicker?
Most people can do 90 mins of moderate exercise on their glycogen stores so if riding longer maybe eat summut.

Like most on here, im no expert but only offer my own personal experiences.

MattyB85

So I'm getting better. Slowly but surely. Was at QECP yesterday for a few hours and made it round most of the trails 'on bike' rather than 'on foot'. Still walked the bike a bit but a massive difference in around a month. Big confidence boost- even when I overdid it on a tall berm and went over the top!

Climbs are certainly getting easier the more I'm doing. I've found a big hill near me that I'm sessioning at every opportunity

Thanks guys for all your advice

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I was at least 90Kg ~18 months ago, I'm now ~74Kg if last night's weighing is to be believed. I cut back snacks from excessive to moderation, which isn't easy in the winter months, as a SAD sufferer I get massive carb cravings even if I've just had a huge dinner including desert.

I also began cycling for fitness in January this year, initially on the Voodoo, but in May I treated myself to the Cube. I still use the Voodoo to train, especially now in the wet and cool winter, doing road hill reps, typically ~1000-2000 feet of climbing up roads around Witt's Hill in Bitterne, including Dell Road that hits ~20%. I usually tackle a string of cat4s in the South Downs on the Cube, but sometimes I ride the Voodoo instead.

Plenty climb quicker than me, but my times are improving and I'm feeling much fitter than I've been for years.