Anyone Cycle?

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Tammijay
Tammijay Posts: 2
in Fitness and Exercise
Me and my husband have really gotten into cycling. Its such a great way to lose those calories, and you don't kill yourself! Anyone else? I would love to hear what you do.

We typically go 10-15 miles every night, and then up to 60 miles on the weekends. The pounds are really coming off.
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Replies

  • MrGonzo05
    MrGonzo05 Posts: 1,120 Member
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    Cycling is an awesome way to do cardio, love it! I do 20-30+ mile rides on the weekend, 10-20 mile rides on weekdays.
  • kateblue72
    kateblue72 Posts: 113
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    Hello, just getting more into it (I mean I have a fairly new bike, and now it's actually getting ridden! ....
    I was a runner, but had knee surgery at the end of last summer ... now no more running for me. Used to be so easy, just to go out the front door. But ... if this is what will help strengthen me - I'll do it.
    Was in the pool much of the winter and I am now trying to get into the saddle for at least an hour, 4-5 times per week. Feeling stronger. Thinking I need to set some goals, kinda like the marathon I never got to run:sad: Have you got any suggestions? My rides (distances) are getting longer. Thinking this weekend I may tackle 2 or more hours on Sat or Sunday and see how that goes. Have been buying cycle magazines for motivation. And as a co-worker said to me .... I will certainly see more on my rides than my runs - oh the distances we can cover! :smile:
  • gagnedb
    gagnedb Posts: 2
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    I am a cyclist and will say that what I love about it is the fact that you can see so much more! I am not sure where you live; but, I suggest looking for some local bike clubs. They usually map out rides and post the routes, start location and start time online. I find this is the easiest way to get the miles in and also have fun!
  • gagnedb
    gagnedb Posts: 2
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    While I love cycling, I don't find that it is a very efficient form of exercise :) What you are you doing that is giving you so much success? I would love to hear your secrets!
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    Yup, I've been commuting to work (15+ miles each way) off and on since 2008 on my hybrid (Specialized Sirrus). I recently decided to force my exercise levels up by signing up for the Trek Across Maine (a 3-day, 180-mile bike ride for the American Lung Association). The bike is now in having its drive train replaced - apparently the last 2,000+ miles of hilly terrain have pretty much trashed everything but the wheels, the frame, and the handlebars. ;)

    I have little time for leisure cycling, but I love commuting on the bicycle. Well, except for the traffic. But that's not bad here in Maine for the most part.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    While I love cycling, I don't find that it is a very efficient form of exercise :) What you are you doing that is giving you so much success? I would love to hear your secrets!

    Personally, the pounds just melt off me when I cycle and I can pretty much eat what I want. But the secrets aren't all that secret - the trick is long distances, keeping my heart rate high all the time, and attacking hills like a knight attacks dragons (meaning the dragon wins and your legs are on fire!). But I commute on mine, and I am usually on a schedule. No breaks, no brakes (except as necessary to follow road rules, of course!), get the hill before the hill gets you!

    Oh, and - just a word to the wise - lose the roadie if your goal is primarily to lose weight - efficient bikes are not your calorie-burning friends. They're fun for covering distance, but there's too little resistance to them. Find a durable hybrid. Mine is a 2007 Specialized Sirrus which was $550 new, I got it in 2008 on clearance for $350 because the bike shop was trying to get rid of them to make room for the '08s. I've added a rear rack for cargo and polycarbonate fenders because I ride in the rain a lot. My top average speed in light-hilly terrain after a 1,500-mile summer is about 17MPH.

    The local cycling clubs usually tear by me with more than a few derisive snorts and a couple of insults, but I'm burning calories faster than they are. Of course, I'm also usually carrying a pannier bag or two on the racks with clothes, my laptop, and a few other necessities I need at work.

    Road bikes are great for long distances, don't get me wrong - there's a $5000 carbon-fiber beauty at the local bike shop that I lust after mightily. But you'll keep your heartrate higher if you find something with a heavier frame and a T-Bar handlebar, then put smooth road tires on it (I use puncture-resistant Armadillos, no flats in 1500 miles, and I ride on glass because the breakdown lanes and bike paths here are full of it).

    If you really want a workout, get a crappy Wal-Mart junkbike. I can assure you that you'll break a sweat keeping those things at 15MPH, at least until it falls apart at 800 miles. :)
  • kateblue72
    kateblue72 Posts: 113
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    Some excellent ideas! I live in a small town, so not many ride groups that aren't more of a beginner level. More guys and hormones into racing or steep and deep. BUT .... Some women at work are talking about setting up a ride night! So looking into swapping my mountain bike for a hybrid, as I don't do trees as much as I've gotten older, and with my knee surgery last year I am now a bit chicken! Have also been reading about Century training .... yes, not so much race/road biking, but getting in the distances for a good work out. And I have set a goal .... I am planning to sign up for a 76km ( a lot of uphills) road/trail ride this fall. Wish me luck! smile:
  • Maisy1emma2
    Maisy1emma2 Posts: 6
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    Yes!!! I'm a very avid cycler these days and I love it! I was very into outdoor sports in my 20's and 30's but then some injuries made me have to slow down and give up some things (like running) and I got fat. I used to mountain bike but two summers ago my close friends started getting into road biking so I bought I bike and joined them. I lost about twenty pounds in two years without dieting at all, and am just now trying to lose twenty more with dieting and exercise. I find that as long as I don't eat back all the calories I've burned, I really do lose weight and gain muscle. My legs and butt are looking better and better!

    I live in a hyper-athletic town (Bend, OR) and there are lots of riding events here and all over Oregon during the summer. Since it finally stopped being winter here, I usually ride between 12-25 miles, two to three evenings a week, and am doing two fairly long rides of 40-50 miles on the weekends. A good friend of mine is training for the Ragbrai (the ride across Iowa) so I volunteered to be her training partner. We are both doing our first century on a supported ride in about three weeks. We did a few 70-80 mile rides last year so even though we haven't done a really long ride yet, I think we'll finish the century. We also ride with a group of very athletic other ladies and are trying to increase our speed in order to keep up with them. I've just started doing some interval and speed training to try to get my average ride speed up to 15mph. I want to be able to do a century in less than eight hours rather than twelve! LOL.

    I've been under loads of stress lately with financial stuff and looking for job and I really think riding is the only thing keeping me sane! And helping me lose twenty more pounds.

    Thanks for posting about cycling and I hope I hear more from folks that are out there on the roads and trails seeing the world on two wheels!
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    Some excellent ideas! I live in a small town, so not many ride groups that aren't more of a beginner level. More guys and hormones into racing or steep and deep. BUT .... Some women at work are talking about setting up a ride night! So looking into swapping my mountain bike for a hybrid, as I don't do trees as much as I've gotten older, and with my knee surgery last year I am now a bit chicken! Have also been reading about Century training .... yes, not so much race/road biking, but getting in the distances for a good work out. And I have set a goal .... I am planning to sign up for a 76km ( a lot of uphills) road/trail ride this fall. Wish me luck! smile:

    A great number of groups will run more than one ride - there's a fast ride for the Lance crowd, and a "no drop" ride for the more casual set. You might want to check with your local club and see if they organize any casual rides. It's a great way to get used to riding on the road if you haven't done it a lot. Bike shops also routinely organize rides.

    A few road items you will absolutely need:
    - A mirror.
    - A good, comfortable helmet and bright-colored jersey.

    And a few things you'll probably want if you want to go distances:
    - A "trunk" with a tire repair kit and a frame pump (a lot of local cycle shops have free or very cheap clinics on tire repair - if you're going to get something with road tires you want to attend one of those clinics and learn how to change/patch a tube, it's a little more involved than a mountain bike!).
    - Two cages for water bottles.
    - A cycle computer.
    - Cycle shorts
    - "Clipless" pedals (they allow you to pedal using more techniques, helping with muscle fatigue and hill climbing).

    I'd strongly encourage a visit to a reputable local bike shop. They can guide you to the bike that is right for you, and get it adjusted perfectly for you.
  • supermoo2
    supermoo2 Posts: 77
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    Hubby and I both cycle to commute to work - a round trip of 10 miles each day. It's a great way to get the exercise we need each day without taking any extra time out of our day. In fact, if we commute using public transport it takes 15-30 mins more each way - that's an extra 30-60 minutes out of our day that we could be doing other things.

    If we cycle on the weekend we will do a ride of 40-50 miles round trip.
  • Temporalia
    Temporalia Posts: 1,151 Member
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    I cycle to commute to work, it's around 10 miles round trip each day. It's a great workout, I find that it wakes my body up in the morning and relaxes my mind at night. If you eat properly, you should lose the weight, in my case, I can't eat what I want and I was able to do whole summers of commute without losing much weight :grumble: this summer is different :bigsmile:
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,473 Member
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    I LOVE IT! I GO 7 days a week now! FEELS GREAT!
  • DiannaMoorer
    DiannaMoorer Posts: 783 Member
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    I bike a little. To the gym and back or to the park where I like to run (3 miles there and back). And sometimes I'll go out and ride with my daughter for about 10 to 15 miles.
  • siobhan478
    siobhan478 Posts: 21 Member
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    I love cycling, and I've found that it really helps with weight loss, I did 10 miles this morning. We've had a really horrid winter and we've only just had out first couple of days of weather where it's nice to be out on the bike, so I'll be riding 4 or 5 times a week again now. I don't have a great bike, just a mountain bike type and I ride it around local green lanes, tracks and river banks. I love being out in the fresh air though, beats a stuffy gym and a stationary bike any day.
  • slay0r
    slay0r Posts: 669 Member
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    Some excellent ideas! I live in a small town, so not many ride groups that aren't more of a beginner level. More guys and hormones into racing or steep and deep. BUT .... Some women at work are talking about setting up a ride night! So looking into swapping my mountain bike for a hybrid, as I don't do trees as much as I've gotten older, and with my knee surgery last year I am now a bit chicken! Have also been reading about Century training .... yes, not so much race/road biking, but getting in the distances for a good work out. And I have set a goal .... I am planning to sign up for a 76km ( a lot of uphills) road/trail ride this fall. Wish me luck! smile:

    A great number of groups will run more than one ride - there's a fast ride for the Lance crowd, and a "no drop" ride for the more casual set. You might want to check with your local club and see if they organize any casual rides. It's a great way to get used to riding on the road if you haven't done it a lot. Bike shops also routinely organize rides.

    A few road items you will absolutely need:
    - A mirror.
    - A good, comfortable helmet and bright-colored jersey.

    And a few things you'll probably want if you want to go distances:
    - A "trunk" with a tire repair kit and a frame pump (a lot of local cycle shops have free or very cheap clinics on tire repair - if you're going to get something with road tires you want to attend one of those clinics and learn how to change/patch a tube, it's a little more involved than a mountain bike!).
    - Two cages for water bottles.
    - A cycle computer.
    - Cycle shorts
    - "Clipless" pedals (they allow you to pedal using more techniques, helping with muscle fatigue and hill climbing).

    I'd strongly encourage a visit to a reputable local bike shop. They can guide you to the bike that is right for you, and get it adjusted perfectly for you.

    A mirror? What kind of mirror?!
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    Options
    A mirror? What kind of mirror?!

    Rear-view mirror to see the cars coming up on you. It's an incredibly valuable tool if you ride on the road a lot.

    I use one of the ones that attaches to the handlebars on my hybrid. I've tried the type that attaches to your helmet but I wear glasses and I can never seem to get the buggers to work properly.
  • slay0r
    slay0r Posts: 669 Member
    Options
    A mirror? What kind of mirror?!

    Rear-view mirror to see the cars coming up on you. It's an incredibly valuable tool if you ride on the road a lot.

    I use one of the ones that attaches to the handlebars on my hybrid. I've tried the type that attaches to your helmet but I wear glasses and I can never seem to get the buggers to work properly.

    What the. I wouldn't even consider having a mirror I'd have an accident every 5 minutes. The amount of cars that go close to me is unreal so if I was looking behind me to check up on them I'd crash! Maybe I just cycle more dangerous routes but you need your full eyes on the road infront not behind at all times. Never ever seen a cyclist with a rear view mirror, will have to keep my eyes out now!
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    What the. I wouldn't even consider having a mirror I'd have an accident every 5 minutes. The amount of cars that go close to me is unreal so if I was looking behind me to check up on them I'd crash! Maybe I just cycle more dangerous routes but you need your full eyes on the road infront not behind at all times. Never ever seen a cyclist with a rear view mirror, will have to keep my eyes out now!

    To each their own - I ride on a lot of roads with broken-up breakdown lanes. I try to avoid them by going "left of white" where I can, but I need to check to see if traffic is clear first because pulling out into traffic is a very bad idea. I prefer to ride "right of white" and stay out of the way as much as practical, but I need information to decide whether to ride through the broken bits ahead or if I can nip out around them.

    Many of the roads I ride are also very curvy, so riding "left of white", while legal in my state, is dangerously stupid. A car coming around a corner at the speed limit 45MPH uphill is not going to be able to blind-pass me when I'm going 10MPH 30 feet in front of them. I may have right-of-way, but that doesn't change the laws of physics.
  • FrankSuggs
    FrankSuggs Posts: 2
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    Look for the Steady Eye B short arm mirror on ECrater. A friend of mine in Florida hand makes them from stainless steel. He rides a bike as his main mode of transportation so these things are important to him. The arm is shorter than normal mirrors so you don't get as much "bounce" as a longer arm mirror. I am on my second one. The only reason I have a second is because I left my helmet hanging from the bike rack and drove off. End of story. I will buy another if I lose this one.

    I only ride my mountain bike on park trails, both dirt and paved, not on the road.

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  • kateblue72
    kateblue72 Posts: 113
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    Some excellent ideas from all! Great to hear from more cyclers as I leave my running days behind and venture into this new 'sport'.. I actually managed an evening course at the local bike store last week, where I learned how to change a tire, get the right tools and know how to do pre- and post trip inspections on things like the chain, gears and who knew ... tire pressure! Those numbers on the tire acutually have some meaning! And the 'old' press on the tire, sit on the seat to see if it needs more air just doesn't work. Felt much more empowered and I am also now riding ... literally on air!:happy:

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