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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70
miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a stationary bike and mileage on the roads? |
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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 13:51:37 -0500, David Kerber
wrote: In article , says... I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70 miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a stationary bike and mileage on the roads? No consistent one, because of the difference in resistance. If you keep it cranked up on the stationary, you're probably in pretty good shape; if you have it set low, you won't be in as good of shape. However, conditioning is really a secondary matter. Bike handling skills are more important, and can't be gained on a stationary. Putting a real bike on rollers will help a lot with balance and steering, but the best way IMO is to just get out on a quiet road or bike trail and start riding. Good replies. Since I'm just starting doing both (adding sta. biking), I'll say that if you push it a little on the sta. bike, and you're doing 30 min/session four times a week, that would translate easily to riding about 10 miles on relatively flat ground on a bike trail (trying to separate out the road skillz for the moment). But if you're transitioning to road/trail/outside riding, then you'll get pretty steady improvement, since you have a little bit of a base already. I'm presuming that you've been riding the sta. bike for 3-6 months at this level, are not grossly overweight, etc. (I only mention the 'overweight', b/c that can be a handicap at first if you live in a hilly location. Larger riders do just fine.) Just be sure you've had a MD's check up, and all the other 'yadda, yadda's for doing strenuous exercise - actual biking can be more strenuous - you have to do emergency sprinting, or as the other reply mentioned, if you're 20 miles from home, you can't stop, you have to work through it. It's very hard to 'work through it' on a sta. bike, b/c of the tedium, the constant pedalling (real biking comes in bursts, with lots of little 'rest' periods, even though it can be more strenuous at times). If you're asking how much should you be doing to bike that much on the roads, I don't understand the question. Are you planning to transition, or do you just want to continue the sta. bike but tell your mom that you could ride 10 miles a day, 7 days a week if you wanted. ;-) Finally, I'm not sure you're asking, but if you've never ridden a bike, it might take a week or two to learn to balance on two wheels. That's a whole 'nother discussion. HTH, -B |
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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
David Kerber wrote:
In article , says... I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70 miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a stationary bike and mileage on the roads? However, conditioning is really a secondary matter. Bike handling skills are more important, and can't be gained on a stationary. Putting a real bike on rollers will help a lot with balance and steering, but the best way IMO is to just get out on a quiet road or bike trail and start riding. Emphasis on quiet road. If you live in a city, drive your bike to the outskirts and start on less-traveled state or county roads, or stay close to a home in your suburban neighborhood if you have one. Learn the lessons of driveways, taking the lane (when, how) and stupid driver tricks one at a time. Feel free to start slow and wait years for the skills to develop. -- -- Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall "We should not march into Baghdad. ... Assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerilla war, it could only plunge that part of the world into ever greater instability." George Bush Sr. in his 1998 book "A World Transformed" |
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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
wrote in message
om... I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70 miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a stationary bike and mileage on the roads? I dk about that, since the amount of time I've spent on stationary bikes vs. real riding is minimal. But what I recommend is if you have a bicycling club in your area, to see if they have beginner rides. You'll feel much more confident on those roads when you have others to ride with and learn from. -- Warm Regards, Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com Home of the meditative cyclist: http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm New CD coming out this month! See: http://www.tiferet.net "To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner was you." |
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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
Fri, 20 Feb 2004 16:27:48 -0700,
, Raptor wrote: Feel free to start slow and wait years for the skills to develop. That's driving, silly. Cycling is to start slow and _work_ years to develop the skills. -- zk |
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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 15:27:31 -0500, Badger_South
wrote: Finally, I'm not sure you're asking, but if you've never ridden a bike, it might take a week or two to learn to balance on two wheels. That's a whole 'nother discussion. um, actually, B, it's *this* discussion.... OP has *never* owned a bicycle before, and presumably has never ridden a real one, either. Fitness is one thing, but skill is quite another. And the OP needs skill. Take sculling, for instance. In my boat club at college, there were guys who rowed sweep (two hands on one oar, with at least two rowers ina boat) but had never sculled (hand on each oar) before. It took several weeks of learning on a single scull before they could even begin to start serious training. Until then, it was all they could do not to fall into the water, or steer crooked, or collide with anything, or otherwise come to grief. And these were otherwise young, fit guys. -Luigi "aaaand death for ten! death one!...." |
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Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads
On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 23:00:38 -0500, Luigi de Guzman
wrote: On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 15:27:31 -0500, Badger_South wrote: Finally, I'm not sure you're asking, but if you've never ridden a bike, it might take a week or two to learn to balance on two wheels. That's a whole 'nother discussion. um, actually, B, it's *this* discussion.... OP has *never* owned a bicycle before, and presumably has never ridden a real one, either. Fitness is one thing, but skill is quite another. And the OP needs skill. OK, just finding it hard to believe that someone had never ridden a bike. This is different (?) from never owned a bike...naw, guess not. Gopher it. Take sculling, for instance. In my boat club at college, there were guys who rowed sweep (two hands on one oar, with at least two rowers ina boat) but had never sculled (hand on each oar) before. It took several weeks of learning on a single scull before they could even begin to start serious training. Until then, it was all they could do not to fall into the water, or steer crooked, or collide with anything, or otherwise come to grief. And these were otherwise young, fit guys. And, during the heyday of sea exploration, most of the sailors couldn't swim. ;-p -B -Luigi "aaaand death for ten! death one!...." |
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