Today is my first real day of biking to get in shape, how much is too much?

Question

I am six foot and weigh 165 lbs. I am going to start biking several miles 4 to 5 times a week--what's a reasonable goal for beginners? 5 miles? 10 miles? Or just as much as I feel like I can do?

Also, would it be ill-advised to bike these miles everyday?

Answer 1

When you first start biking, you will have to adjust to many aspects of it. Your legs will become stronger, you will learn how to shift for hills, and your butt will get used to being in the saddle.

I would pick a reasonable goal, like doing the entire length of a bike path, out and back, for like 25miles or something like that, and slowly work up to that. Say you want to do that route in an hour and a half, bike as far as you can in 45 minutes and turn around. Once you achieve your goal, start trying to bike with groups, on longer routes, and more varied routes.

You can use websites like bikely.com and routeslip.com to get a good idea of mileage for a particular route.

Don't  bike every day, I would aim to bike 4 or 5 days a week to start with, and maybe work up to 6 days a week, but its  important to rest.

Answer 2

Congratulations on getting started!  That's really great!

There are a couple schools of thought on how to go about getting in shape.  Unfortunately, you don't mention how old you are.  Age and recovery time are closely related and you really need to take into account your age when deciding how to go about your conditioning program.

Old school thought says body slam yourself into condition.  If you goal is to ride 20 miles per day - just do it.  Whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger!  (Back in the dear, dead, days of my youth, this is the way we got into shape for football.)  Of course, you will probably wish you were dead prior to getting stronger!  If you are under 30, are in reasonably good shape, and enjoy a good manly sort of challenge, go for it.  Expect your bottom to be bruised and sore, your back to hurt, your knees to ache, and your muscles to feel on fire.

On the other hand, there is the modern school.  It says to ease yourself into conditioning program.  The goal is to avoid injury by gradually increasing activity on a weekly basis.  Most folks recommend increasing your miles by about 10% per week.  If you are over 30 or are not in particulaly good condition already, I absolutely recommend this approach.  Furthermore, for the first few weeks, I recommend you ride no more than every other day.  By easing into your program and building in recovery time, you allow your body to gradually adjust to increased exercise and have plenty of time to recover and strengthen.

So, for the first two weeks, I suggest you ride 5 miles every other day.  Ride at a pace that would allow you to easily converse with another person if you had company.  Even if you feel great and can go much further - don't.  Even though you may be tempted, don't ride everyday.  Exercise tears your muscles apart.  In rebuilding and recovering, you get stronger.  If you don't give them the chance to recover, you'll delay the rebuilding process.

After your first ride, your butt will be bruised and tender and your legs will be stiff and sore.  After several rides this will no longer be a problem.

After the first two weeks, you can add another mile per day to your rides, but I'd recommend against riding each day.

If you want to begin riding each day in your 3rd week, go for it.  Keep track of your weekly mileage and only allow it to increase gradually.  Furthermore, be sure to build some recovery time into your program.

After a month, or so, I'd recommend adding a long ride to your weekly program.

After a few months, begin adding some more intense rides to your program, as well.  The purpose of intense rides is to build muscle strength.  Intense rides will wear you out, so only do one or two per week.  After an intense ride, either skip a day entirely or take a very, very slow ride the next day.

Hope you have a lot of fun and get in great shape.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

the conventional wisdom is not to increase your weekly miles by more than 10-15% each week.  Also, your first 3 months are all "base fitness"... don't get fancy with workouts like intervals until you've got your base miles in.

As to how much to ride, your hard days (for me, that's 50miles or more) should be followed by an easy day where you don't raise your heart rate and only ride 25-50% of the miles you did the day before, and keeping your heart rate in a very comfortable zone.

You can easily work up to 150-250 miles per week by the end of summer (and to do this you may find yourself, like me, getting up at 5am to ride before work/family/school get in the way).

Answer 4

i bike quite a lot also so maybe just bike until you feel like stopping and take a break then return...trust me youll know when to stop

Answer 5

Just work up to your goal.  Start by going until you start to feel you are 1/2 done and turn around.  If you feel you need more then do a little more.  Every day go a little more  but not a bunch.  Just try to get a little further each week.  Once you get so far you will feel that you can add more at a time but starting off just do a few more feet every day.  As long as you are not over doing it then everyday is fine.  If you are pushing yourself then every other day will be good.  The thing is to keep your heart rate up just a bit and about a 30 minute ride is good to start.  Just take it easy and flat to start off.

rd

Answer 6

just take it one small step at a time, i would say bike 5 miles 4-5 times a week for one week, then around 7 miles 4-5 times a week and keep building up from there