Petrified

So, I'm dating a guy who wants to do the Century with some of his friends. I'd ride the 35 with another woman, which sounds reasonable...but I've never done anything remotely like this in my life, and never thought I could. I'm excited by the thought of expanding my ideas of what I'm capable of, but at the same time I don't want to attempt something way out of my league that's going to make me miserable. I have just less than a month to "train", if you can call it that. Am I insane to do anything over the 15?

I ride periodically, on my one-speed, vintage Schwinn...usually a 5-8 mile ride with one long, gradual, killer hill (I couldn't get up it for awhile with my one-speed, but now I can do it...though extremely slowly) and some smaller ones. I'm borrowing a friend's racing bike to train and do the ride with (so I have to learn about gears, too!).

My biggest concern (other than my basic out of shape-ness) is that I'm pretty sensitive to heat/sun...My head will sometimes feel all clogged when I have to exert myself, with pressure in my ears, and I'll get a headache. I'm hoping that's just a sign that I'm not hydrating enough, and not that I'm hopelessly out of shape. A good sign is that the last time I rode (8 miles), I brought water and a snackbar with me, and I felt like I could keep on going a lot longer. I didn't feel any muscle soreness when I got home or the day after. I have mild asthma, so sometimes my throat constricts a little on really hard hills, but then it let's up when I relax.

I just have no idea how 35 miles feels, and if your average, non-athletic, pasty white, mildly asthmatic girl can do it without training for months ahead of time. Is it possible? Any advice or encouragement would be great!

Hi there Notsportygirl,
You can do it! Just take your time and work up to the 35 miles. Riding a road bike will be much different then the one-speed vintage that you currently ride! I have major allergies and out here in California I am always in need of an inhaler! I just take my time and stop when I need to, to catch my breath. 35 miles is not that bad! If you average 10 miles an hour it should only take you about 3.5 hours.

Melody

Thanks so much for the support. I guess that having always had asthma, and being really petite, I have always assumed I just couldn't do certain things...but maybe that's just not the case. Must go ride now...

I think Melody is right that you'll feel REALLY different on the road bike vs. a 1 speed. If you can do hills on a 1 speed, I bet you're in better shape than you think.

In addition to proper training and adequate food and water during the ride, I'd highly recommend having bike shorts for the 35 miler if you don't have them already. That's a long time in the saddle!

Go for it!

Hey there Notsportygirl,
I felt the same way about my first 50 mile ride. It was way more miles than I had ever attempted. Despite rain for half of the ride, my daughter and I completed the whole 50 (hilly) miles. We stoped a lot, were close to the last ones back but we did the entire ride and had a great time. We just kept repeating it's not a race! :D I have asthma, and take my inhaler with me if my lung are feeling at all tight. So far so good!

I'm with drplasma64. If you can do a nasty hill with one speed you should have no problem with a road bike and shifting gears is easy to learn. Road bikes just rock! I don't know who made the suggestion to me to just go and "try" a road bike. One trip around the parking lot was all it took to hook me. And padded shorts are a must!

And talk about being non-sporting!? My daughter has always been challenged when it comes to sports and exercise. Her goal, which she met, was to make it through high school without having to take a PE class. As a former high school jock, I cringed at her attitude! :eek: She does b*tch and whine alot on longer rides but she does them. So I would say pack along the ol' inhaler, ride as many miles as you can between now and the "ride" and GO FOR IT! :D BikerHen

Your physical description does not worry me... what worries me is that you aren't thinking that you can do it.

Look, half of our physical abilities comes from what goes on between our ears. The other half is what kind of shape we are in, and the training we put into our goals.

You have a month. That is plenty of time to get ready for 35 miles. Ride 3-4 days a week. Start small, maybe 10 miles a day... go from there.

Remember, you can stop and rest... during your training month and when you go to ride your 35 miles.

Once you get a "training schedule" mapped out... sit down and tell yourself that you are strong and that you can do it. When you are riding and you feel tired... set a goal (I will ride for 5 more minutes) and reach it. Also tell yourself, "I have strong thighs, I can do this!".

Have a positive attitude about your physical abilities... and train for your goal. With proper planning and mind set, you can achieve your goal!

Never come to this forum to get talked out of Anything bike-related.

Corollary: If you wonder aloud here if you can do something you WILL be told that you can, should, and that we want a full report when you are done. (I know...)

Back to the problem at hand. If you are really worried about your sun/heat tolerance, talk to your physician. More than likely you'll be told to use sunscreen, drink lots and have fun. But it's nice to have a doc's input sometimes.

You need someone like me along, I bought a road bike this past March-someone came up and asked if I wanted to do RAGBRAI (485 miles over 7 days)-sure why not! What was I thinking anyways, long story short I made it-
did some training, not enough, main thing is just like the little engine going up the hill "I Think I Can-I Can"
Be Strong :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MomOnBike

Never come to this forum to get talked out of Anything bike-related.

Corollary: If you wonder aloud here if you can do something you WILL be told that you can, should, and that we want a full report when you are done. (I know...)

---

ain't THAT the truth!!! :D :D

and i'm gonna go one further.. "I" think you could even do a longer ride than 35 if you put your mind to it! so 35? ya... no problem.. GO FOR IT!!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by notsportygirl

Thanks so much for the support. I guess that having always had asthma, and being really petite, I have always assumed I just couldn't do certain things...but maybe that's just not the case. Must go ride now...

---

NSG ~ You can do it.

I was a gym drop out. Hated it, hated all sports! I also have had asthma all my life and was always tiny, weak, and pasty as a little girl. I like dolls and books. I hated sports! Well, I kinda liked gymnastics but wasn't very good. I hated any sport that involved a ball, which is like, most of them, right? My parents were very unathletic brainiacs so never encouraged me to develop any athleticism at all, just to hit the books. Just as soon as I didn't have to take gym, I stopped taking it.

However, my darling husband was into road riding. He bought me my first bike, back in the late '80s. I didn't warm up to it very fast. I rode off and on for years, but never very seriously, and I never stuck with it for long enough to make it a life-long habit.

Fast forward to 2002. I was in my early 40s and wanted to get back into shape. I finally got a decent road bike and got back into riding again. Since then, I've done five centuries (100 mile rides), numerous metric centuries (62.5-mile rides), and a nine-day, 565-mile, self-supported loaded tour of upstate NY last fall. I know how to ride in a paceline. I am an active member of a bike club. I'm on the girlbike.com test team. I have FOUR bikes in my stable. But best of all, I am an ATHLETE, for the first time in my pasty, asthmatic, sports-hating life! :D

You can do it. You just have to believe in yourself. You can be whoever you want to be, I'm living proof. :)

Emily

Emily,

That's hilarious. You do sound like you were a lot like me. How encouraging. Wow...and now you're an athlete and have a "stable" of bikes. So maybe my pale, soft and curvy, bookish, slightly asthmatic, 5' tall self can sneak up on a little athleticism, too...

Thanks,

Miranda

RE: brainiacs and bicycling.

DH is a bicycle commuter and the computer dude at his place of employment. He comments that he just THINKS better on those days he rides (most). Or to put it another way, he feels the bike makes him smart and the car makes him dumb.

And wasn't it the ancient Greeks who believed that a person should have both a fit body and a fit mind? (You just can't go wrong quoting the ancient Greeks...)

and we've hooked another one! :D actually Miranda not only do I think you can do - I'm betting you will and it won't be enough!! You'll also realize it isn't the miles anymore it's the time.....miles are just numbers! I did my first 35 miles on a "comfort" bike with big tires and heavy as an ox so I KNOW you can do it. It sounds like quite a few of us are asthmatic - including me. I just make sure I take my meds and if my asthma starts to bother me I just slow my pace down until I can get my breathing back in control!!

Good luck and we want to hear a full report!!


PS: welcome to the board!! if you get a chance there's a thread under the open titled "getting to know you"! Gives you a chance to meet us and tell us something more about you!

So, Miranda, what'll it take to get you to change your login name? Or at least add a big winking smilie to it? Because I really think that once you get out there and start logging the miles, you're going to find that you're a lot sportier than you ever suspected you were!

I'm another one who managed to think of myself as a total spaz for a lot of my life -- not only did I get picked last for every team; not only did I duck and cover every time a ball came at me in gym class; I thought for years that I was so physically messed up that I couldn't even ride a bike, thanks to having given up my faithful high school vintage roadie for a very cheap and ill-fitting knee-bashing one-ton mountain bike at around the time they first got really popular.

When I hit my 30s (and an unrelated career crisis), I took up fencing and really found my inner jock for the first time ever; when I started to get serious about beating a bunch of fast, aggressive, 20-year-old guys, I realized that my aerobic fitness was crap. Since running made my knees scream, I took another look at bikes, and found that with a lighter and properly-fitted bike, I haven't had a single twinge that wasn't related to falling off. :rolleyes:

I promise you, you're going to be able to do your 35 miles and then some. If you can handle the big city on your old one-speed Schwinn, you're already a better athlete than you realize. You just need to believe it.

Thanks so much for the support. It's made a huge difference. I've found that I actually am getting pissed off when something comes up in the evening to keep me from riding...that's new for me. I'm determined to get in a longer ride this week-end, even if it is "Hot as Hades".

Yes, I think I'll change my login name if I do the 35 miles and I'm not completely hating life while I'm doing it. That would mean I've transformed into "Newlysporty".

(And btw, this forum is keeping me sane during a mind-numbingly boring week of temping, where I have absolutely nothing to do but obsessively learn about cycling and read the news.)

So...I picked up my friend's bike yesterday (my loaner replacement for the vintage Schwinn). She can't tell me much about it, because she never rode it much. I haven't had a chance to ride it yet, because I still have to adjust the seat for me. This is what it is: Dolce Sport, Specialized A1 Max...I think that's what it said on it. It seems blissfully light and bouncy, and the handlebars are really padded. My friend complained that it mushed her girl parts painfully, though, because you have to lean forward so much with a racing bike. That's one of the reasons she never got into riding. I'm hoping I can adjust the seat to avoid too much painful "mushing" up front...right? It does have that ergonomic cut-out seat, but she was talking more about, well, the clitoris area.

What's really intimidating about this bike is that there are no numbers on the gears. There are just tiny little levers that barely come out of the handlebars. Now, I know it's been a long time since I've been on a 10 speed, but didn't they used to have numbers to mark what gear you were shifting to? And why would you get rid of those numbers, making it more mysterious? How am I ever going to learn how to shift this thing? How can you see what gear you're shifting to?

Also, these pedals don't have clips, but they do have the little straps that go around your shoe. Are there any little tricks to managing these?

Obviously, I just need to take this bike out to a safe place and get to know it, but any tips you guys can give me ahead of time would be great. Besides, I won't have anything else to do all day...

Thanks!