How are all us newbies doing?

I have a friend who is riding with me, pushing me a little and teaching me how to ride with a group. I have seen my average speed on a 10 mile ride go from about 10mph to about 13.5 mph in about a month. I have also increased my time in the saddle to about 1.25 hours at a time. This weekend, we're doing a 30 mile ride and she wants to complete it in less than 2 hours. (she's been riding 5+ years, I've been riding 2 months!)

I didn't realize how far I had come until I started writing it down! I am keeping my journal at bikejournal.com. I like that site.

Every day, I try to ride some, even if it is only 5 miles. I try to get on the bike and ride, sprint some one day, climb some the other. I am trying to build up my endurance first, then work on the speed thing. I haven't worked out with weights (I did 3 days a week before starting cycling) in over a month. I'll have to say, I felt stronger when I did that. I am thinking of reincorporating resistance training at least 2 times a week.

Anyone else want to share progress?

I just started riding about a month ago. I also have a friend who has been very good about showing me the ropes. Group ride season is over now, but I look forward to learning that next year. I haven't been keeping track of my speeds or distances, but I can tell I've improved a lot already. He is working on teaching me stuff like steep downhill, riding over/between/through difficult terrain like rocks, sand, streams, etc. and I am having SO much fun. There are certain hills that I used to have to walk up that I now ride entirely :D and hills that I can ride (skid, actually) down that used to make me want to cry. We usually ride at the places where mt bike races are held (he races during the season) and he will ride me through the courses. We normally go for about 2 hours. My first time on the bike I was beat after about a mile! On my own time I work on speed and endurance.

I think this whole website is just awesome, and I love knowing there are other women out there who love riding too. Ever read the "mens"-style mt bike message boards? I won't name names, but all they do is brag and trash on each other. I don't even bother reading them anymore. Women cyclists kick butt!

c'mon, my newbie sisters... post!!!

i feel like i've been sharing my story with EVERYONE-- but just in case there are a couple people in nepal who don't know everything about me yet, here it is again...

i first considered taking up biking in june, when there was cycling promotion here in the big smoke for 'bike week'. i realized i was spending 3 hours or so a day in transit, which meant excercising cut into my free time. so a couple days later i went to skiis and biikes with the intention of just looking and left with a bike and a bunch of gear. yikes!! biking home on city streets kinda scared the bejesus out of me, but the next morning i steeled my courage and remembered my bike week info and biked into work the next morning. i almost died. various parts of me hurt throughout the day, first my legs, then my back, then my lungs... i waited until the next evening to go back home. since then it's been fabulous!!! i went away for a week in july and dreamed about biking...
my strength, endurance, cardiovascular etc has improved greatly since then, though a 'doorprize ' and a flip over the handlebars -- to avoid hitting a @#$% who turned right in front of me -- has impeded things a bit. but i'm slowly getting my confidence back... i hope to work up to centuries next year (metric to start ;) ) and we'll see how it goes. see you on the road!!:D

Hi there

I just started cycling about 6 weeks ago and have noticed a huge improvement in my time out, endurance,speeds and getting better at controlling my bike. I'm only at about an avg. of 10 mph now but that's alot better than when I first started. Here in Arizona we can ride year round so I won't have to deal with weather issues as much as most of you riders, that would stink. My problem will be the heat in the summer, which I have a hard time dealing with as it is usually 90-100 degrees at 8 am. Anyway, I try to get out at least 3 times a week. I too look forward to my first century one day. Haven't ridden with a group yet and hopefully will meet that challenge within the next few weeks, as there is a gal here the heads various distance rides every Sat. morning from a local park. I will check that out and get some group experience that way.

Happy riding
mtnsnowsnake

What a great forum! I love seeing all the enthusiastic women on this site.
I guess I'm really not a newbie anymore. I started dabbling in mtn biking about 2 yrs ago. My husband is an avid fanatic of mtn biking. So I started riding a few times during the summers with another beginner friend of mine. Last year my husband decided to get back into racing so we traveled around NM hitting some races. He raced, I cheered. But mostly I sat around bored while he raced. I noticed that there weren't very many women racers at the races. So this year I decided that I would try my hand at racing. Originally I had planned to race one race because that gave me a target - a training goal so to speak. Besides, I figured I could at least be out riding my bike during these races rather than twiddling my thumbs! So off to the first race we went. I didn't do too shabby. 4th of 8 in the beginner women's category. :D
Thus began my racing season. I raced a total of 8 times this year. During some races I questioned my sanity and why anyone in their right mind would even think pain like that was a good idea. :confused: But always after the race was over I thought "That was fun!":D The people we met at the races were great and we always had a really good time. Plus, I won my share of schwag!:cool: The best part about this season was that my husband and I won the point series for our categories so we now have matching champions jerseys! The next coolest thing was that my husband decided that I was finally worthy enough to get a full suspesion bike. I was so excited that we went out the next day and brought home a new Trek Fuel WSD. I love my bike!!
Anyway, I guess to make a long story less long....at the beginning of the year I had problems getting around a 9 mile foothills loop in town. It took me about 1hr 20min and there was plenty of stuff that I had issues with. Now at the end of the season I can crank through that same loop at about 1hr 3min and be able to ride about 95% of it! Plus I've lost about 15lbs just by riding my bike a couple times a week and throwing in a weekly spin class! :D It really helps that my husband has been really a great motivator in terms of just getting out and riding and then improving on my technical abilities. He always told me to focus on the fitness and the technical will come and he was right. Now I'm riding trails that I wouldn't have even considered at the beginning of the year. I'm still no great mtn biker but I'm vastly better than I used to be! :p I tease my husband and tell him he's my idol. His sister and I call him the Billy Goat because he's such a good rider and he can climb practically anything. It really is amazing to watch.
Well, I hope that this post motivates some of you new riders out there. The real trick to all this is to just love it and do it as much as you can.
Now get out there and ride you bike!

Go for it girl!!
I am more into the distance riding (I can't even believe I am writing this!)
I started with walking daily last April and did my first century ride this past September.
Did an 80 mile ride in October and now work to squeeze in 40 mile rides before the weather gets too bad.

Go for it.
Drink steadily - if you haven't purchased a camelbak water bottle system, now is the time to reward yourself.
Also be sure to eat frequently so you don't bonk.

I always carry an extra powerbar or two with me - my camelbakmodel was specially designed for women - it's a shorter water bottle system and has a couple of really cool zipper compartments for stashing power bars and cell phones - you can also clip on a little light to raise your visibility factor for cars etc.

Keep going!!! :D

To Vinnysmom-

What kind of Camelback do you have? It sounds great!

Hi all, i'ts been a while since I've written. Life has just been so busy and as many of you know this time of year with the holidays approaching can be chaotic. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know how I'm doing. I recently purchased my first pair of clips (Shimano) and tried them out for the first time on a 10 mile ride today. OMG, they are wonderful. I had no problem getting the clipping in and out technique down and I couldn't believe how easy it was to cycle. I didn't even fall once with them! I don't know why I waited so long to try these, I guess I was somewhat intimidated by them at first but for those of you newbies considering a clipless system, DO IT! My legs did not hurt after the ride and my husband said he had to work extra hard to keep up with me! YES! Anyway, today was the first time I'd been out in weeks just because of being extremely busy lately. I must make time to ride more. LOVE IT> Well, hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season.

lynn

I've been going out for morning rides before work about 3 mornings per week. I've been doing about 10 miles each time, but this past Friday was the first ride out on my new Romulus (woo-woo) and I did a 15 mile ride to celebrate. A morning ride is the only time I can get any time in on the bike during the week - I work too late into the evening (and the trainer is sooo boring). Lucky for me, I can generally start work a bit later than most, around 10 am - the boss likes to quip "yeah, we have flexible hours, you can work your 80 hours/wk whenever you want". ( Joke's on him, I only work about a 60 hr week :p )

I didn't think I would like riding in the morning before work, but I'm really enjoying it. The paved bike path near where I live gets me off the road for the most part, away from the crazed 'late to drop junior off at school and get to work in time' crowd, and it has mile markers so I can get a rough idea of my average speed. I can do 12 mph without too much effort and I right now I'm trying to take it up to 15 mph for 3-4 mile streches. The area I'm riding right now is fairly flat, but as I gain some speed and stamina I'll add some hilly-er sections into the mix. It'll be nice when the sun starts coming up earlier, so I can get out earlier and lengthen my time out some - I'm really not up to riding before dawn.

I'm thinking of buying a cyclocomputer to keep track of my avg. speed and miles travelled - anyone have any suggestions? I'm perusing old posts here and checking out product reviews, but if you have one that your happy with, please share!

Happy holidays, - Jo.

Early morning rides are the best! Watching the sun come up is such an awesome way to start the day. In Tucson, the sun doesn't rise until 7:20 or so - and I have to be at work at 8:00 - or thereabouts. So, morning rides are out until March. I'm jealous!

I just bought a Specialized Elite cyclometer. I wanted one with cadence. This one also has an interval timer and an option to record your time & average speed while you're actually moving (e.g., the cyclometer doesn't record when the wheel isn't moving) or record all the time (moving or not). It's a nice cyclometer. Your speed shows continuously and your cadence ( or whatever you want) is secondary. I really recommend cadence to beginners because you can get into the habit of spinning rather than mashing gears when you can see how fast you're turning your legs.

I wish that this one showed the time continuously, but my LBS only had this one with cadence and I have no patience to wait for a special order. I have a heart rate monitor that will give me the time - or I can push the buttons on the cyclometer. Oh, life is so hard!:p