anyone from Louisiana?

I am new to biking and would like to hook up with some more experienced riders willing to help a newbie. I joined the local bike club but they don't seem too interested in helping out, if you can't ride as fast or as long at them then you are out of luck. Looking for someone in southwest LA or Southeast Texas. I have been reading as much as I can about biking but I know it is better to have OJT or in this on bike training. Heck, just got a used bike with the straps, took my first ride and yep, forgot my feet were strapped in and ended up eating concrete. Anyway, I don't live in a big town so there aren't many people who seem willing to help. I teach school so am looking forward to summer so I can get a lot of riding in but I don't know the first thing about training etc. etc. My goal is to on day do the hotter than hell ride in Texas.

Tracey

Ok so maybe I am alone in SW Louisiana. Can anybody give me advice about how far I need to ride etc to build up endurance etc. etc. Do I need to ride with groups even if they are way too fast for me? I don't really know pace line etiquette etc. so I definitely don't want to cause any accidents and get experienced bikers mad at me. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't live near you hun so I"m not much help there. and Someone will post what you need for training. What I CAN help you with is: I ride alone! I do all my riding, running, hiking alone and Love it! There are several clubs here in town but I just haven't seemed to have the motivation to try out any of them. Because so many women here have had such wonderful, positive things to say about group and/or club rides - I may try one of the clubs this weekend (if Snow doesn't take me MTB'ng!!!) but I really do enjoy my time on the bike so we'll see. I'm sure someone will suggest riding with people that are better than you once in awhile to help you build up, so maybe the club ride in your area could be used as a gage to how well you're doing! Whatever, have fun and ride!.....it's more than a lot of people are doing!!

Hi Tracy... from a Texan living in New England. Not sure if there are any "cajuns gals" here, there are some grrls in Texas, but maybe not in your neighborhood.

Anyway, first ride as much as you can. Ride for you. Ride safely.

You can develope on your own, but I know sometimes riding with others can add to the fun. As to training, you've made a good first start: you're riding, you're researching and you have a long term goal. That's all great stuff!

The HH100 festival starts Aug 25 this year... that's 18 weeks. Technically speaking you could train AND ride it this year IF you want to. And that's from no base milage. I have some old training stuff laying around I'd be happy to email you or post here.

If you want to "stretch it out" a bit more and shoot for a different year, that's cool too.

First though, what's your fitness level? Do you do other sports and just re-started cycling or is this the "chosen" sport?

As to fitness level... what's your longest ride so far? Miles/Time in the saddle?

Can you ride your bike to school or is it too far for current fitness?

waiting to hear...

spazzdog who trained a lot by herself :)