New to Road Cycling need advice

[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.