I have been cycling for about 2 months now after having not done any exercise in about 13 years. Slowly I've gotten a better seat that's more comfortable and learned more about cycling. I have been exercising more and now been running/walking and cycling. I got a HR strap to train to as well as my perceived effort.
I did 9 miles on my bike and while it was challenging it felt great. I then got sick and and have been unable to cycle due to being sick/work/kids. Well last week I treated myself to a new Garmin watch after my Samsung Gear S3 Frontier stopped working.
I decided to try a Garmin training plan for my cycling as I'm already following the None to Run as I wanted something structured. I made my goal to ride 20 miles and set my timeframe goal. Now I feel like my goal is stop conservative as it's almost 6months to train 20 miles when just last month I was able to ride 9.
by Emergency-Ad-2935
2 Comments
Assuming you aren’t trying to ride at super speed or with a ton of climbing, yeah, that’s a very conservative plan. Don’t overdo it, but if you start slowly upping the miles and you should be able to comfortably ride 20 long before six months.
I would think it’s too conservative, yes. Getting from 9 to 20 miles is going to be more about adapting your body to being on the bike for longer than anything else I would imagine, especially if your 20 mile route is relatively flat. What about the 9 miles felt challenging? Was it the muscles in your legs? Was it hard from a heart rate/breathing perspective? If it was the muscles in your legs, I would guess that by cycling regularly (every day or other day) for another month and you could probably go out and do 20 miles at an easy pace.