Some day I'll cycle up a hill

Buceph

I've decided to stop being a fatty, so I started going to the gym last week. The trainer there told me what to do after asking me what I wanted to achieve (not being a fatty is my main goal.) I didn't say it at the time but in the future, i.e. by next summer I want to be able to cycle around the place. Maybe even do an event or something.

I don't have a bike and don't have the money for a bike at the moment, and either way I wouldn't go cycling in this winter weather. But with the gym membership I do go on the stationary bike every day. I've been doing what the trainer told me, 20 minutes with my heart rate at 160+ (I usually keep it around 170.) I'm guessing that that's no good for eventually going out on a bike for a long cycle. So I'm wondering if it's possible to train for real cycling on a gym bike?

At the moment I'm using a low but constant resistance (because I have to to manage it), keeping my heart rate around 170 and my RPM at 90-100. After 20 minutes the computer is saying I've cycled close to 9km (if that gives you any idea of what my current level is.) What should I be doing to get ready for going out on a bike? I'd imagine I need to simulate uphills and downhills by varying the resistance. I know I'll have to spend longer on the bike (an hour at least,) but I can just about manage 20 minutes the way I'm doing it now. Does this mean I should have a lower RPM? Should my heart rate be lower for going longer distances?

Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

gibraltar

First thing I would like to say is well done on starting the exercise, I think its good that you have a goal in mind for next year.

I'm sure other people on here can give far better advice about the level you are cycling at so I will not muddy the waters.

One other thing I would say is that if you are a member of a gym already you could try the other equipment available. Doing nothing but cycling in the gym might get boring after awhile, talk to the staff about weights or the cross trainer, vary your routine and it will help keep things fresh.

Good luck.

Buceph

Yeah, I've been doing other stuff as well. The trainer there has been sorting me out with all sorts.

For the past week I've done 20 minutes on the bike and either 20 minutes on the cross trainer or 20 minutes on the rowing machine. I just quite like the bike (it was my favourite when I last exercised eight years ago during my leaving cert.) And they've started me on the weights machines today (and I'm pretty bloody sore because of it.) I'm going to try and increase my cardio only days to 20 minutes on each of the three machines, and on the weights days two 20 minute machine workouts and then the weights circuit.

I was just wondering if I could incorporate something specific to get me ready for proper cycling, i.e. doing an hour or more on the bike, maybe at a lower speed, or if overall fitness should be my goal for the first few months? I'm just not sure how good 20 minutes on a bike going at 170bpm and 100rpm would be for me for when I want to cycle around my house, which is all ups and downs, and where I couldn't get anywhere in 20 minutes.

gibraltar

I would say dont woory about doing aiming for an hour on the bike at this stage, it sounds like you are doing plenty at the moment, just make sure that you dont get too keen.

The last thing you want to do right now is get injured, be very careful of overtraining, stick at the same times for a little while yet. Get to know what your limits are and then set your training around them.

bcmf

You wont replicate a real road experience in a gym with numbers.
Once you get out on the road you encounter a complete different set of variables.
Wind. Road surfaces. Small gradients both uphill and downhill and so on and so on.
Dont worry about numbers just make a realistic aim of when you can get out on the road and take it from there.
View what you you are doing now as devoloping a base.
When you get on the road you can adjust your goals.
The enjoyment factor will spur you on no end.

chakattack

170bpm sounds high for introductory stuff. It sounds like the standard blitz yourself in the gym doing "cardio" routine.

What age are you? How tough does it feel at that heart rate? How tired do you feel after? What's your current fitness apart from the extra weight?

You can replicate the basic requirements of real cycling by building up to 1-2 hrs at a lower more sustainable heart rate - add 5 mins every time, if you have the patience for that it will help you build a base and then you can do speed/strength drills to help with hills, wind and bad surfaces.

Most importantly - beg, borrow or steal a real bike - cycling in a gym is soul destroying.

Buceph

chakattack wrote: »

170bpm sounds high for introductory stuff. It sounds like the standard blitz yourself in the gym doing "cardio" routine.

I was told 160 is the low end of what I should go for with a 40 minute cardio session. And average it out to 165. I just find I've been pushing harder myself and going at 170.

What age are you? How tough does it feel at that heart rate? How tired do you feel after? What's your current fitness apart from the extra weight?

I'm 27 in a few weeks. At that heart rate my breathing is pretty decent. I'm not gasping for air and I could probably hold a slightly broken conversation if I was chatting to someone. I do sweat like a pig during this though. I find it tough going in general, but definitely managable. My muscles feel strained by the end of it, but it's not pain or agony or anything like that, just stretching myself. After the twenty minutes I'd probably stop for three or four minutes, and I'd feel pretty rejuvinated after that rest. I'd still be sweating but my breathing would be fine, the muscles doing the exercise would be a little sore and when I get on the next machine I'd definitely find it tougher than if I had started fresh on that machine (just comparing myself from when I do the bike first or second, or the cross trainer first or second.) My starting heart rate on the second machine would be around the 140 mark (but I'm not certain of that, I may be off by a bit.) My fitness is pretty terrible, a two storey flight of stairs will get my heart rate up and affect my breathing.

You can replicate the basic requirements of real cycling by building up to 1-2 hrs at a lower more sustainable heart rate - add 5 mins every time, if you have the patience for that it will help you build a base and then you can do speed/strength drills to help with hills, wind and bad surfaces.

That's the thing, I wouldn't know in what way to push myself or guage what I'm doing. I've tried asking in the fitness forum about where to read up on this (cardio) but I didn't find anything. The weights today were a lot easier to guage because there were set parameters, e.g. the weight and number of reps and how much more difficult it became on each set. With cardio I've mainly been going by BPM, because that's an internal guage that reflects whether I've slept well the night before, whether I was drinking the night before, whether I had a tough day in work, whether I had eaten a breakfast or just had a coffee, etc. Maybe I should be recording what resistance, speed, RPM, distance, etc. I'm getting on a given day. I guess it's that I don't have an idea of what my body is capable of (or not capable of) and I don't know what I should be aiming for beyond, "get fit." And I know there's a balance between fooling yourself into thinking your doing exercise when you're not even breaking a sweat, to getting a decent workout, to fla'ing yourself out going 100mph but getting nowhere in the long run.

Most importantly - beg, borrow or steal a real bike - cycling in a gym is soul destroying.

Aye, I'm in the honeymoon phase now where I'm not dreading going into the gym because it's new and exotic to me. I know that doesn't last or you could pay for the gym month to month. My brother has a second hand thing (that I haven't seen) that he picked up for eighty quid. I might be able to get that back home and try cycling around my place (or at least up and down a 2km stretch of road.) It's just that the gym is close to where I work and getting time when I'm home and it's bright is tough. It's pretty miserable weather to be outside in and the area all around me is pretty hilly. As in I had trouble cycling here eight years ago when I spent eight hours a day pushing a lawnmower around a golf course.

If I could read up on this kind of stuff I would (at least while I'm still in the exercise honeymoon phase.) I just can't find much that talks about going from extreme fatty to cycling 20/30/40/50kms with ease. (Although I did read about the guy who went from 30 stone to fit by cycling to and from places.)

Michael525

The gym is a good start but i was in a similar position to you about a year ago.

I hit the gym hard after 3 years mostly focusing on cardio over weights etc, i would do 30 mins on the bike with the goal of covering 12km,(not a very high target i know but hey ), last summer i bought a bike and let me tell you its a massive difference!! My bike is pretty basic and is terribly hard to cycle but the difference is astonishing!

The weather at the moment is piss poor so id advise sticking to the gym for the winter months, in the mean time start puting away a few bob for a bike and come next summer you will easily pick up a second hand road bike handy enough.

Id also recommend running, i dreaded it at first but when i got into it i began to love it,i pace myself and do maybe 5km at a time followed by a rest. il just reiterate that im not fit at all, im a pretty heavy smoker, and am few pounds over my ideal weight.

If i can do it anyone can

Best of luck!

Lumen

Don't worry about simulating hills. Gears make hills easy if you have enough of them (gears, that is).

Just focus on time on the bike at a decent but sustainable heart rate, and just remember that when you do actually buy a bike it'll be a million times more fun.

Beasty

You can't replicate the "real bike experience" in the gym, but the type of work you are doing will definitely prepare you very well. Eventually getting out onto the road will, quite literally, be like a breath of fresh air

I spent 6 weeks on a turbo last year after breaking my wrist, but as still able to take up road racing within a couple of weeks of getting back on the bike because of the fitness I had maintained and to some extent gained on the turbo

fixie fox

Buceph wrote: »

I wouldn't go cycling in this winter weather.

Sometimes we can over analyise things. At your stage, I'd suggest you got hold of some kind of bike, somewhere, and just 'go cycling' and enjoy it.
A hat (and helmet), gloves, and plenty of clothes and you will be grand - you'll enjoy being out this very mild weather. Just do whatever distance you can easily enough and at a pace you can enjoy.
Remember, in the long term, you won't keep up an exercise regime unless you enjoy it and can do it regurlarly.

07Lapierre

fixie fox wrote: »

Sometimes we can over analyise things. At your stage, I'd suggest you got hold of some kind of bike, somewhere, and just 'go cycling' and enjoy it.
A hat (and helmet), gloves, and plenty of clothes and you will be grand - you'll enjoy being out this very mild weather. Just do whatever distance you can easily enough and at a pace you can enjoy.
Remember, in the long term, you won't keep up an exercise regime unless you enjoy it and can do it regurlarly.

+1 Cycle to/from the gym?

squeaky crank

Buceph wrote: »

I just can't find much that talks about going from extreme fatty to cycling 20/30/40/50kms with ease.

remember that when you are out on the road there is alot of enforced free wheeling -ie: decending, coming up to lights, slowing down for traffic etc. so a solid non stop session on a turbo trainer or a gym bike is not to be underestimated. It will never compare with a few hours in the hills on a clear morning but it sounds like you might not be too far away from your above goals.

seamus

Buceph wrote: »

I've been doing what the trainer told me, 20 minutes with my heart rate at 160+ (I usually keep it around 170.) I'm guessing that that's no good for eventually going out on a bike for a long cycle.

Every little helps. If 20 minutes is what you're capable of at the moment, then you're taking the first steps towards getting out for longer cycles.

I don't know what I should be aiming for beyond, "get fit."

At this stage you shouldn't be aiming for anything else. Throwing rpm, bpm, kph, resistance, incline, cadence, etc etc etc into your routine this early on makes it complicated and harder to keep track of. Complicated routines are more difficult to maintain and will sap your motivation.

For the moment simply focus on doing the exercise and the improvement in fitness comes naturally. Obviously you have to measure this improvement, but keep it simple. The two simplest measurements are distance and time. If you're doing a fixed distance, just keep track of how long it takes. If you're doing a fixed time, then keep track of the distance. On a gym bike, this basically means picking a particular programme (whether that's flat or hills or whatever, it doesn't really matter) and sticking with that programme.

Already a lot mentioned on this thread, so I can't add much more. Two things though to consider:
You can get a lot further than you think in 20 minutes. If you were to go for a 20 minute walk - 10 minutes out, 10 minutes home, you'd barely get down the road. So a lot people think that you'll get nowhere on a bike in 20 minutes. But go and do it. You'll be genuinely surprised after 10 minutes when you realise just how far you've gone.

However, the easiest way to build up your fitness in any sport is to build it into your day-to-day routine. Most people here will tell you that it's twice as hard to build good bike fitness if you have to specifically go and plan to get out on the bike before or after work. If you cycle as part of your day-to-day activities (i.e. commuting), then 50% of your training is quite literally effortless because you're already getting a base mileage in.

For someone just starting out, the commute can make up 100% of your training regime - you cycle in and out of work, and you don't need to do anything else. It actually feels a little like cheating because you don't have to make any sacrifices to get a good workout every day.

eoglyn

Fair play to you, you describe my exact situation nearly 2 years ago, the same age and all. I began to see some of the health complications of being overweight and decided i had to do something about it before it was too late. Since then i've done more than i ever thought possible at the time- marathons, triathlons, open water swimming - all without being too obsessive - in fact it has improved my social life. The key now is to keep at it and make it part of your lifestyle, Never go back.
Stay at it in the gym as regularly and as long as you can - keeping it up through the winter months to build yourself a base before getting out on the road when the evenings get longer. When you do get on the road, be it on a bike or on foot - set yourself a target event, relatively short and manageable, around may or june, and train for it - you won't regret it and it will motivate you no end - for the event itself and for the next event that you will want to do straight after you complete it. I found using mapmyride.com excellent for tracking all my workouts, in all disciplines, and seeing my progress over an extended period of time, also being able to recognise when i've slacked off a bit - i highly recommend you set up an account.
When you do get a bike - make sure you seek advice here. Mostly that advice will be to get an entry level road bike, or better, with drop handlebars on the btw scheme or second hand - its good advice, listen to it. Before long you will be out on sunday morning spins with your local club dressed head to toe in lycra wondering why you hadn't done this years ago

Buceph

Went into two bike shops thus morning. First guy saw me eying road bikes and very politely informed me I would in no way be comfortable on one. That was ok because he's an ex fatty. He basically said get a cheap mountain bike (€230) and save for getting a decent road bike down the road.

I was up early this morning and yet again it was mild and readily manageable outside so I figure Ill hop on my bike.

ROK ON

Buceph wrote: »

Went into two bike shops thus morning. First guy saw me eying road bikes and very politely informed me I would in no way be comfortable on one. That was ok because he's an ex fatty. He basically said get a cheap mountain bike (€230) and save for getting a decent road bike down the road.

I was up early this morning and yet again it was mild and readily manageable outside so I figure Ill hop on my bike.

I am not exactly slim (weigh 95kgs). I have three road bikes and am comfortable on all of them. Road bikes because of the geometry do take a bit of getting used versus a more upright bike. But you see plenty of fat blokes on road bikes.

You need to decide what type of cycling that you want to do, and then get the best and most comfortable bike that you can afford in that style of bikes. I would not choose a bike simply because one is fat, and then try to fit any type of cycling around that bike.

Go to a different shop. If you want to go MTB'ing then get a MTB. Otherwise get yourself a nice hybrid or road bike with plenty of gearing options.

Buceph

ROK ON wrote: »

Buceph wrote: »

Went into two bike shops thus morning. First guy saw me eying road bikes and very politely informed me I would in no way be comfortable on one. That was ok because he's an ex fatty. He basically said get a cheap mountain bike (€230) and save for getting a decent road bike down the road.

I was up early this morning and yet again it was mild and readily manageable outside so I figure Ill hop on my bike.

I am not exactly slim (weigh 95kgs). I have three road bikes and am comfortable on all of them. Road bikes because of the geometry do take a bit of getting used versus a more upright bike. But you see plenty of fat blokes on road bikes.

You need to decide what type of cycling that you want to do, and then get the best and most comfortable bike that you can afford in that style of bikes. I would not choose a bike simply because one is fat

You're not exactly slim 95kg pales in comparison to my Pre-christmas 137kg. Although another shop I was in literally said 'ignore yer man, he's full of ****." And the mtb guy said he was only cycling for two years but what he said made sense to me. So Im a bit unsure.