New to Road Cycling need advice

[dolcengabbana]

Hi
Just joined up and have read lots of extremely useful information but as with anything new I like to get into well informed.

I have just purchased and been fitted out on a Giant Alliance TCR W, unlike in the US here in Australia the colour is different so mine is brushed black and pink.

I have never used a road bike previously so today I took it for its first spin around my suburb to get my confidence up with the cleats; I have thrown myself in the deep end completely. I find the shoes I got some carbon fibre specialized ones to be super comfortable and surprisingly easy to clip in and out of when I come to a stop and take off.

I love the bike I love the shoes, I got a decent pair of Knicks with padding and have order a pair that all the women in the shops suggested as the best made by specialized. I got a good pair of gloves have a good helmet so seem to be set.

I love cycling but I think I had pushed my mountain bike on our local roads to the point that I was working three times as hard as my partner on his road bike (actually it’s a hand cycle he is a paraplegic) and finding it difficult to keep up as his fitness improved. So here I am all set up my partner has a broken leg se he won't be joining my for a little while or until we are sure that no further damage will be sustained by jumping into the hand cycle whilst his bones are healing. So what I would love advice on is starting off, how often should I start riding, how long as in time or distance I have good strength and reasonable endurance levels, 10-15kms are no problem I think. I am more daunted by riding on the road with all the traffic so I have picked routes where the traffic is minimal in the beginning until my confidence picks up. I would like to lose a few pounds so am looking for a good cycling program to aid/assist with this goal, I have tried to search the net for some training plans for people new to riding with little success or maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

Anyway enough from me, TIA for any advice.
DG.

[Reesha]

Hi and welcome Dolce :)

My first bike ride on my road bike was very similar to what you laid out. It was 12 miles (~19 km) roundtrip and on a nice, generally flat road with a wide shoulder and fairly limited traffic. It was perfect for getting used to the bike geometry and everything!

Do you have any specifically designated bike paths? Bike paths typically seem to be flatter and they are often protected from traffic. That might be another good way to get used to the bike.

[txred9876]

no advice really since I am still new myself.....but I wanted to say NICE BIKE!

Tina

[Reesha]

As far as weight loss goes... when I first started road biking, once I was comfortable in the saddle, I forced myself to tackle hills that I didn't really want to. Makes for great interval training if there are hills in a sequence. Alternately you can sprint hard for a minute and rest for 2 or 3 and do that. Make sure you properly fuel for your ride before and get some good carbs in and then immediately post-ride (within 30 minutes) have a carb/protein rich snack. It worked wonders for me last fall and back in Summer 07 when I rode about five days a week.

The hills WILL get easier every time and you'll feel really good about that. I promise!

[TrekTheKaty]

PRETTY, Dolce. Welcome :D If I keep seeing all these pics of pretty Giants, I may have to try one.

Just start slow. Try not to add more than 10% each ride--it's easy to get addicted. Be sure to take at least one rest day a week to let your body recover. There's not a lot of info out there for beginning cyclists, but there are a few good books--Every woman's guide to cycling by Yeager?

I was terrified of learning to ride on the road--learn hand signals and to "take" your lane (www.bicyclesafe.com). If you ride a regular route, the cars should get used to seeing you (at least that's what I've found in my area).

Bike riding makes me ravenous, so try to make smart food choices if you are trying to lose weight--Veggies, lean proteins and carbs (rice is perfect). Don't forget to hydrate!

[nolemom]

I would check at the LBS to see if there are any organized rides for beginners (we have 1 a month) or at least see if there are routes that are already mapped out in the area. I was lucky enough to find a bike group with multiple levels of ability. I live in an area with a lot of retirees so my first ride partners were in their late sixties. They could drop me at anytime but had a tremendous amount of patience with me. They continue to be my biggest cheerleaders. I found that if I added about 10% a week in mileage it went smoothly. Good luck - I have lost 25 pounds since last September and I am sure you will find cycling an excellent way to drop a few pounds.

[dolcengabbana]

Hi thanks for all the lovely replies.

Where I live (Far North Queensland right at the Great Barrier Reef) we have really have no specific riding paths, well we have one but it is only 3km in length and so flat and perfect it would be too easy on this bike I think to even use it once. It runs next to a great pedestrian path that winds from one end of the esplanade to the other.

Thanks for the reference to some books I will have a search for some and have a read.

The bike - Its really lovely to ride, I thought it would be so much harder or perhaps in my mind I had built it up to be because I thought the transition from a mountain bike to it would be so much harder but it just felt so right to me. Unfortunately being such a small and transient town with loads of tourist and short time stayers our local community isn't huge and the LBS seem to be running only training rides for those that can tackle the longer rides all at fairly moderate paces nothing for beginners or a training day to help get you started when I asked they said nothing of the sort is run up here.

Hydration I live in a warm tropical place our temp at the moment is sitting at 27 degrees Celsius and where in the middle of winter and at our lest humid time and the humidity is at 80% today too conversion wise the temp is F - 81ish and in summer I will be looking at temps of 35 Celsius of 95F and humidity of 88-100%. How much fluid should I be in taking with that in mind is their some rule of thumb that I should be working with?

Thanks so much for all the advice I spent hours last night reading through so much information I can wait to get into it more.

We laid out a good training plan to ride from one of beach suburbs to another one north of us and another ride south to another beach in total around 15 - 20km's each to begin with.

Thanks again. DG

[pinkbikes]

Hi DG from another Qlder! Very nice looking new bike you got yourself - no wonder you are enjoying it.

I understand your concerns with the riding on the roads with the traffic - especially in smalltown FNQ where the roads aren't always the best. Sometimes it's just hard to find a decent (and connected enough) stretch of road with a good shoulder to get a ride of decent length.

And that is your best bet, take a drive around and see where the best wide roads are with a decent shoulder to ride on and then try to join them up into some kind of loop, which you may need to ride twice or more once you get your distance up.

I think that travelling in a pack does give you are few more options because as a pack you can "take the road" a little more and have a bit more visible presence than a lone or pair of riders. This allows you to use the yuckier roads with a bit more safety. So in the end you might want to work yourself up to being able to go on the shop rides to take advantage of the group protection?

Perhaps you could talk to somebody at the LBS who runs the group rides and see what routes they take? That way you can ride part or all of them yourself in preparation, or even just get some ideas about some good routes to use? They will also be able to advise which are the safest sections or where you need to take extra care.

Just remember, it is easy for us to feel intimidated and slow and wonder if we could keep up with group rides. I even looked in awe at some of the posts on this site about going on group rides and thought - wow, I'd never be able to do that! But then eventually somebody would post their average speed for one of these rides and I'd be surprised to find that I regularly average those speeds on my rides. We under-sell ourselves all the time.

So work on your distances to increase them gradually (like everybody was saying, at maybe 10% at a time) until you are making the sort of distances required. Then start working individual sections of your rides to increase your strength, speed and stamina. Before you know it you will be able to go on a few group rides. Going on them increases your "cycling friends" network and gives you other options for riding outside of the group rides that may be really beneficial for you.

Btw I hear you on the hydration issues. Even down here in the big smokier part of Qld it is still hot and humid for much of the summer. I have also been mountain biking in addition to my roadie riding and have adapted a few useful mtb habits to road biking. In particular the bandanna or buff under helmet to prevent sweat in the eyes, and the use of a camelbak (so NOT the done thing for roadies) when I go out for a really long ride.

I am shocking about drinking enough on the roadie - and I only have one bottle cage because that is all that will fit in my small frame - only took one bottle this morning and didn't even come close to drinking it while I was out for an hour and a half!:( But I always leave a full bottle of gatorade made up in the fridge before I go and force myself to drink it as soon as I get back.

I find I am a lot more careful about drinking if I have a camelbak on - usually get through1.5 - 2litres on a long hot ride.

If you guys are ever down BrisVegas way with bike(s) in tow, give us a yell and we'll take you out for a nice cruisy ride - was just beautiful along the beach at Sandgate this morning!:D

[cylegoddess]

If you want to lose weight, when you come off and feel like your going to eat the whole contents of fridge - dont reach for carb laden stuff like bread or rice, or cookies.
Cut up( my fav post snack ) some carrots and green apples or make a dish of fresh crudites with some low cal dip, or celery with sundried tomatoes in em.
Youll feel at first that you want to eat loads( and sadly, exercise has been said to make women fatter, for this!!) but I found that you can teach yourself not to scarf stuff down, in time. If your riding 4 hours, go for it! But under two hours, dont add any more calories than you would normally eat ( or 'rewards').

Happy riding!!;)

[Reesha]

Hmmm... I just read a velonews article saying that you should have a pile of carbs immediately following long rides to replenish your muscular glycogen stores. I wonder if I can find the article. Maybe that only applies to really long/really hard training rides?

Ahhh... it is for hard and/or long rides:

http://www.velonews.com/article/89146/monique-ryan-the-right-nutrient-mix-is-key-to-recovering

[dolcengabbana]

Pinkbikes - Thanks for the welcome. Our roads are shocking here in Cairns, we have very little or no cycle paths, the roads have little or rarely have a decent shoulder to ride on so its a matter of being confident enough to share our roads witht he motorist and trust that I can do it.

I generally ride with my partner and he is in the hand cycle so i hang off his right rear wheel so cars and trucks clear me they are clearing him as well as he is so much lower to the ground harder for them to see him. I will eventually ride with a group I think but to start i just want to get confidence in riding on it its so fast compared to my mountain bike and responsive i give it a little and were gone and the gears I am tryining to come to terms with... I think we have set some realistic riding goals and your siggestions are wonderful. Thanks. Fortunately riding with my man means that we are actually really quiet similar in strengths my legs are powerful his arms are too our fitness level on our bikes are similar so training together is no problem.
Hydration worries me, I have one cage on another on order but i have a decent camelback and i think up here i will need it. That would be great to ride with you if we brought our bikes down south unfortunately the likely hood of that is very remote as the handcycle is a monster in size it just isn't feasible. But thanks. x

Cyclegoddess - Thanks for the tip about suitable food after a ride. When i hike i usually go pretty hard i do a quiete a rough terrain hike thats 11km very hilly all steep ridges in about 1hr 45mins, afterwards i am exhausted sweating madly and my legs usually have the shakes after the last leg of the hike. The last thing i feel like doing after a hard workout is eating. Does anyone else notice that, should i force myself to for recovery purposes? Anyway some great tips and i just love raw fruit and vegies so that shouldn't be too hard for me to adapt to. Thanks.

[OakLeaf]

Yes, force yourself to eat. It doesn't have to be a lot - a couple-three hundred calories within 15-30 minutes of your workout. Your recovery snack should include a bit of protein, so fruit alone isn't the best (vegetables alone would be fine, if you have the stomach for 200 calories of vegetables right after a workout).

Replenishing your muscle glycogen stores when they're primed for it not only sets you up for a faster, more complete recovery; it helps avoid the ravenousness that can last for two or three days after a long, hard workout when you don't re-fuel immediately.

I just posted a link to a Q&A about sports nutrition in the Nutrition subforum.