Comments on: What Are Your Best Beginner Cycling Tips?

By: Karissa

Karissa — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:58:15 +0000

Mary,
I have been very out of shape several times in my life. I find that 6 weeks to 2 months is a good time to see a noticeable difference in my cardiac endurance. When I get winded to the point where I feel I cannot breath, cannot endure any more, and want to go ahead and quit I remind myself that it’s ok to just cut back a little or even stop long enough to catch my breath and bring my heart rate down before continuing on just a little bit further. I give myself flexible goals and then go for them. Sometimes it’s 5 minutes longer than the last or sometimes it’s more. But if you listen to your body as well as push yourself you can see an improvement.

Hope that helps.

By: AB

AB — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:41:55 +0000

I see a lot of people say buddy system. As a new rider sometimes you may feel more confident alone for a few rides to feel yourself out on a new bike and relish any embarassing moments in solitude. And if any of you are like me (which I’m sure there are), prefer to ride alone but are worried about animals or attackers, then your buddy system may just need to be a large can of pepper spray shoved in the netting of your camelback.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:34:02 +0000

I am very, very overweight but in good health otherwise. I’ve just started to ride a bike again. My issue is I can only endure about a 15-20 min ride (or about a 1.5-2 mile distance) but I do go almost everyday. What I experience is labored breathing, and a feeling I’m not going to make it back to home. How far should the seat be raised…should be legs be fully extended on the down stroke? I have been doing this for about a month and can’t seem to make any progress. Any and all suggestions will be gratefully appreciated

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:38:33 +0000

Excellent advice. Particularly “Dee”! Excellent plan for getting started. My wife is an experienced cyclist, I have been wanting to get into riding for sometime now. It seems though she is an awesome cyclist that she gets “the cart before the horse” so to speak when it comes to training me. She tends to get impatient with me and frustrated to the point of saying “just forget it, take it at your own pace, I have to RIDE, I’ll meet you back @ the start”. So in spite of that I am trying to do some research on my own to find out the best way to get started as to not form bad habits etc. Dee – Your info was VERY helpful to me. Thank you for taking the time to put that out there for all of the folks out here like me.

Ryan

By: Dawn

Dawn — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:07:11 +0000

I just started bike riding this morning. What a great morning as well; temps were in the mid 50’s. I have a couple questions. Does cycling help your glutes? and what is a good distance to start off with when just beginning? I couldn’t beleive how great i felt afterwords!
Thanks!