Small steps add up big time!

BlisterLamb

I've been cycling for about 6 years. I do metric century rides during the spring, summer and fall months. During the winter, I hibernate. I hate cold, wind, and snow. By February, I'm grumpy, puffy and a little stir crazy. Even after riding for 6 years, I am terrible at hills. My quads burn, I end up pedaling in that little tiny clown gear, and its hard to get to the top. I get a little better each year, but its annoying after 6 years, not to just stroke right up.

So, at the end of February, I was experiencing my usual end of winter madness, and having not ridden in months, with a 65 mile ride coming up in April, I set a goal of biking 300 miles in March. The problem is, my daughter lives with me and I quit my job to take care of my grandkids. My biking time is limited to early in the morning between 5:00 and 8:00 AM, and weekends. In order to do the 300 miles, I needed to ride daily. But its dark at that hour in March. I hit on the idea of biking around the marina. It used to be a big hole in the ground from a quarry. They filled it with water and landscaped it. It has a wide, concrete sidewalk, and more importantly, lights, all the way around it. Its 1.7 miles around. So I went every morning. Around and around and around. For 300 miles.

There are about 3 places on the loop where the path inclines. Its not even a hill, really. Just a sharp incline for several yards. I hit them over and over, every day, keeping up my speed and pedaling hard. At the end of March, after making a couple hundred laps around that thing, I did a road ride one weekend and was stunned when I climbed a 3 mile hill with no burning in my quads and without even dropping down into my smallest gears. Hitting those little inclines, over and over, every morning, determined to maintain my speed and not change gears, had made a huge difference in my hill climbing legs! I would have said that those little inclines were not enough to make any kind of difference, but I guess it all adds up.

I also ended up doing a 73 mile ride in April instead of the 60 that I was expecting. I found on that ride that I was riding in a harder gear that kept my speed up and I added about 3mph to my average speed.

So if you only have a little time, or can only do a small amount of exercise, it's always better than nothing and apparently, it DOES make a difference. So get out there and do it. Every day.

sheleen302

Excellent post! Thanks for the reminder!

BlisterLamb

Glad YOU liked it anyway

Liz_Mfp

bump

Liz_Mfp

it all adds up.

So if you only have a little time, or can only do a small amount of exercise, it's always better than nothing and apparently, it DOES make a difference.

+1
:-)