Cycling

robbieb

Hi all,

Have finally bought a bike to cycle daily from Dun Laoghaire to City Centre. Trying to lose the beer belly.

Does anyone know 1) if this will work and 2) one of my mates told me you can get some type of sweat suit ( or cling film !) and it helps drain all the sweat out of you fro rapid weight loss - is this true?

Any comments appreciated ( the nice ones anyway )

Newaglish

Hi Robbieb,

I recently started cycling to work and I find it really helps my fitness. I started in an effort to save time at the gym (combined my 30 minute commute + 30 minute cardio) and I really enjoy it.

As regards the sweat suit, that will only help you lose water , which will come straight back once you have a drink - which you'll need after cycling in from Dun Laoghaire!

What I will say though is that you can do all the cycling in the world but you're not going to get rid of the beer belly without getting rid of what causes it - your diet. You don't having to live off aduki beans and spinach for the rest of your life, but it would be worth cutting out processed foods (switch everything white ie. bread, pasta, rice to brown) eat more fruit/vegetables, maybe porridge for brekkie or some eggs/brown bread (or my patented porridge & fruit smoothie) and cut down on that beer-belly causing beer!

Having said that, you may know all this already as you didn't actually mention diet at all, so apologies if i'm stating the bleeding obvious.

MagicMarker

robbieb wrote: »

Hi all,

Have finally bought a bike to cycle daily from Dun Laoghaire to City Centre. Trying to lose the beer belly.

Does anyone know 1) if this will work and 2) one of my mates told me you can get some type of sweat suit ( or cling film !) and it helps drain all the sweat out of you fro rapid weight loss - is this true?

Any comments appreciated ( the nice ones anyway )

Woah! That's quite the commute!!

Have you cycled much before?

Before you actually start the commute to work i recommend just a test run to see how you get on. Cycling outside is a lot different and harder than in the gym (if you go to the gym that is). So try not to jump in at the deep end, cycling is damn hard! When on an incline and against the wind, you'll wish a car would come along and put you out of your misery haha;)

Back to your question, yes it will help a lot. But you need to get your diet in order too. Why don't you post up what a normal days food intake consists of and the guys around here will be able to give you a bit of advice there too.

Macseamusa

I used to live in cabinteely and would cycle into blackrock to play football with my friends (about 2 years ago when i was much fitter than i am now) and even that cycle was tough, then sometimes we would go into town from the football. Cycling from town back to dun laoghaire took me ages and was very hard, let alone cabinteely, when driving or on a bus you dont notice the inclines as much.

Like MagicMarker said, you should do a test run first without a bag or things you would need for work. Also if you still intend to do it, dont wear your work clothes while cycling, fairly obvious thing to say, but you are gonna be very sweaty.
you will also have to be cautious of cars, cos they are bastards and seem to like knock cyclists over for fun.

RuggieBear

Macseamusa wrote: »

you will also have to be cautious of cars, cos they are bastards and seem to like knock cyclists over for fun.

and watch out for joggers and roller bladers....they will be out to get you.

cormie

Dun Laoghaire to the City Centre should take you about 40 minutes, it's quite flat, just take the coast road, out past blackrock, merrion, RDS etc.

Can you tell me what bike you got? If you got a Mountain bike I advise you to go back and swap it for a road bike while you still can if you haven't used it yet.

Get the thin wheels and the slick tyres, you'll fly along.

RE the beer belly, I used to be quite a bit overweight, not beer, but a combination of an underactive thyroid, lack of exercise and ignorance towards diet, the latter being the key because for a period of about 14 months or so, after I had the thyroid sorted, I cycled about 100 miles each week (that's the exercise sorted) but still never got rid of the tummy. I was eating white rolls and the likes.

Now I'm a lot more knowledgeable about nutrition and have started cycling again (just got a new road bike last week:D) I've gone from Dun-L to the city and back 3 times in the past week and I feel so much better and so will you However this time, I'm confident I'll get to my desired weight as I've a much better diet.

You should get sorted out for the bike though, get the proper gear. Winter is upon us so get a BREATHABLE rain jacket, water proof gloves etc and bring a complete change of clothes (hopefully your place of work has a shower?). Get replacement tubes, a pump, proper lights and a little alan key/tool set and practice changing tyres/tubes. Get a puncture repair kit but don't rely on this at the side of the road, leave it till you get home and fix up the tube you burst. Always have at least one spare tube with you.

If there's no chance of changing your bike for a road one, at least get slicks. I went from mountain bike type tyres to slicks and it knocked about 25% of my commute time off

BossArky

Cycling to work is an excellent form of exercise. You will be making use of standard commuting "nothing" time.

Start of slowly and just make sure you take it safely, finding the best route. After a while, build up the speed. Keep track of the times and routes you do. Eventually you can race against your own times. No better feeling than doing a personal best

Do you have any colleagues that live around the same area? Race them to work!

cormie

I live in Dun-L, I'll race ya for the laugh sometime :P

Glowing

... and don't dream of getting on the bike without a high-vis jacket - you can pick up cool high-vis rain jackets here:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Cat=cycle&ProdID=5360020526&N=Endura%20Gridlock%20Jacket

matrixroyal

Cycling for your commute is a great idea for many of the reasons given above.
But if you are looking to get rid of a belly ( excess fat ) , well I would not be pinning my hopes just on this.

Firstly I would make it interesting on the bike by :

- varying the intensity, sprint for 30 seconds, rest, repeat
- race everyone you see, if you see a guy a few hundred yards ahead, chase him, then when you get by him, imagine he is up your ar*&
- cycle the odd day with ankle weights strapped on

I did it all summer from Meath ( have it down to about an hour ) and while my legs got stronger and I enjoyed it, I can't say that it had any effect on the Bodyfat.
After a while I decided to change tack a bit and instead of 5 days on the bike, I changed it to 3 days on the bike and 2 days of weights. Now I am starting to notice a difference in my bodyfat, along with getting cleverer about diet from reading this forum and stickies.

Dirk Gently

matrixroyal wrote: »

After a while I decided to change tack a bit and instead of 5 days on the bike, I changed it to 3 days on the bike and 2 days of weights. Now I am starting to notice a difference in my bodyfat, along with getting cleverer about diet from reading this forum and stickies.

I've started to do this too. I alternate between cycling and weights each day. I was concentrating on upper body (shoulders / chest / arms) and letting the cycling take care of my legs but have started to squat now too.

Has anyone squated specifically to get more power while cycling and how did they find it helped (or didn't help if that's the case). I've noticed a general soreness in my tighs (not enough to put me off) while cycling now but am getting up hills a lot easier. I haven't taken a scientific approach and am basically using trial and error to get the right combo.

robbieb

Newaglish wrote: »

Hi Robbieb,

What I will say though is that you can do all the cycling in the world but you're not going to get rid of the beer belly without getting rid of what causes it - your diet. You don't having to live off aduki beans and spinach for the rest of your life, but it would be worth cutting out processed foods (switch everything white ie. bread, pasta, rice to brown) eat more fruit/vegetables, maybe porridge for brekkie or some eggs/brown bread (or my patented porridge & fruit smoothie) and cut down on that beer-belly causing beer!

Having said that, you may know all this already as you didn't actually mention diet at all, so apologies if i'm stating the bleeding obvious.

Thanks to all for the comments. Re the above though, my diet is appalling, always has been. Fast food, chocolate, crisps, sweets etc and probably 1-2 beers a day - please don't' judge me though, I have feck all willpower! I tell myself I live healthy with my one apple a day!
I cant seem to change diet with any success, and I used to train in wrestling 3-4 times a week and got away with it. Due to injury, I havent trained in a year and with two young kids at home cannot get into a regular pattern at the gym and the belly is getting rounder. My age doesnt help either, 33 = middle age spread. I'm getting pissed off with the smart comments re the belly and thought this would be something I could try.
I suppose cycling cant do any harm, but obviously I wont get the results I expected without the diet change.

MagicMarker

You'd be amazed what exercise can do to the mind. After your cycles you'll be sweating like a pig, you're legs are burning and in a strange way you'll feel great. You'll probably not want to ruin that effort by stuffing yourself with ****e!!

That's how it works for me anyway, on a training day i don't want to ruin what i've done with junk. It's on my days off that may not be the best for me:(

robbieb

cormie wrote: »

Dun Laoghaire to the City Centre should take you about 40 minutes, it's quite flat, just take the coast road, out past blackrock, merrion, RDS etc.

Can you tell me what bike you got? If you got a Mountain bike I advise you to go back and swap it for a road bike while you still can if you haven't used it yet.

Get the thin wheels and the slick tyres, you'll fly along.

I got some hybrid bike in Mikes Bikes, apparently a cross between a racer and a mountain bike, and the fella in the shop said it's " ideal for a commute " - and he wouldn't lie to me would he?

cormie

Best way to improve your diet is to just not buy the **** when you're doing your shopping. If you don't buy healthy for yourself, at least do it for your kids, it's a tough world in a chubby kids body (speaking from experience:p). You need a change of lifestyle, cycling is a step in the right direction, just take it one step at a time:) Goo luck!

cormie

I got some hybrid bike in Mikes Bikes, apparently a cross between a racer and a mountain bike, and the fella in the shop said it's " ideal for a commute " - and he wouldn't lie to me would he?

That should be fine, you should go in and get them to replace the tyres with slicks though.

Something like these:


Instead of what's probably on them now?:

BossArky

I would recommend slicks too, amazing the speed difference when the resistance is less.

Think about getting a set of aerobars (scroll down the page for image) if you get serious about speed records. You don't need to have a racing bike for these - I use aerobars on a standard mountain bike. I find that when I am hunched over on aerobars I can put alot more power through the pedals. On a modest hill I can still manage to stay in top gear at 30kmph+, whereas if I was upright I'd loose the ability to apply such pressure. Keep your arms and abs tense when in the superman position. You'll also get a great buzz seeing the ground whooshing by just below your face.

A word of warning: do not attempt to corner at high speeds on slicks even if there is just a tiny bit of moisture on the road. You'll end up either in a ditch, wall or bonnet of someones car. Slicks have absolutely no grip (obviously). I keep two sets of tires, slicks for racing, plus semi slicks for rain or muddy conditions.

You also may want to invest in a speedometer to keep track of your times, distances for individual trips and month / year overall, average speeds, max speeds, etc.

Macha

I used to cycle from Ranelagh to Clontarf for work.

Make sure you don't have a heavy bike because you will be cursing it after a few days. Racers have higher pressure tyres so you'll feel the bumps in the road more but it's worth it for the increased speed.

If you find that you're getting a lot of flats, invest in some kevlar tyres. They're about €25 each - the couriers use them.

Make sure you buy some wet gear for days when it's pouring rain - you can get some cheap in Great Outdoors off Grafton St.

I second the warning about going around corners at speed!

Get a good lock - Oxford are 1 of only 2 companies that will insure your bike & pay for it if it's stolen (within the 1st year)

http://www.oxprod.com/index.php?pg=3&action=dept&id=12&pid=0&p=

And please, please obey road signs etc. It's hard enough to get treated with respect by drivers as it is.

And on that note, feel free to whack the side of any car that cuts you off or puts you in any sort of position of danger. The Irish driver is pathetically unaware of the cyclist. You're just educating them.

rubadub

robbieb wrote: »

I got some hybrid bike in Mikes Bikes, apparently a cross between a racer and a mountain bike, and the fella in the shop said it's " ideal for a commute " - and he wouldn't lie to me would he?

That is the most suitable in my mind. The roads are not that great on that route. I cannot go as fast on a racer as on my hybrid as the roads and "flimsiness/uncomfortableness" of a road bike is the limiting factor.

Give yourself plenty of time and you will get really fast with practice. I can go fom DL to town in under 20mins now.

Hope you have a decent lock in town.