Beginner- When to start

Dashano

Apart from a brief three of weeks last September when I got my Specialized Allez, I have not cycled for about 15 years (since my teens). I was on a "bit of a roll" last year until I had to go work abroad for a few months and was getting out about three times a week. The midweek cycles would be about 15K and the weekend cycles were from 25 - 40K. It is the one exercise that I have enjoyed and wanted to keep up.
I get back home on March 1st and was wondering when is a good time to get back out on the road after the winter and what advice anybody could give me for starting back in the saddle so to speak?

Beasty

Get out as soon as you can. Do a few shortish spins and build from there. Get yourself comfortable in the saddle - maybe 30 mins to an hour to start with. Then build up time and/or speed. If you don't have the appetite (or lights) for night time riding you will clearly get more opportunity to get out on an evening when the clocks change at the end of March. In the meantime get out when you can and get used to riding perhaps a couple of times a week and again build up frequency

You will almost certainly improve quickest by setting yourself some targets, again based on distance and/or speed. If you can, commute to work - try and improve your commuting times or find yourself a local circuit you can time yourself on

If you really want to get into cycling, think about joining a local club, and head aloing to some of their spins. Failing that see if you can find some like-minded individuals to go out for spins with

Captain Havoc

I train beginners in Kilkenny. My very unscientific process begins a week or two after the clocks change. There are usually more mature people in the group. The first week or two, we go over drills and then we hit the road. The goal is to have them comfortably doing 100km by the August bank-holiday weekend and hopefully a few will go on to complete the Seám Kelly 160 at the end of August.

We start with a 20km cycle, I recommend that the training spin would be their main spin of the week but I won't complain if they get out over the weekend. I recommend that the main spin is about 33% - 50% of their cycling for the week. So if the first spin is 20km, they could also do 2 x 10km spins during the week.

The increase per week is about 5km, a large part of this is due to the length of the evening (our spins start at 7pm). It does give us a good opportunity to increase our pace though. In the beginning our pace is usually sub 25kph but by the summer solstice, last year I had the group at 30kph over 70kms, I was blessed with a good group though. Don't suddenly go from 25kms to 50kms, this isn't particularly good.

If you're looking to participate in an event, you should be cycling the the length of the event over the course of the week. If you plan on doing a 100km event, you should be doing 100km over the week and be able to do 70km. If you set yourself a goal it will keep you motivated.

I recommend joining a cycling club, if they have suitable beginners spins. We here in Kilkenny have a short spin every Sunday morning which is specifically aimed at new people.

Dashano

Hi Folks. I plan to start soon after I get back in March. maybe start with about a 20K cycle two evenings a week and a 40K cycle at weekends for the first couple of weeks and then maybe increase it by about 5-10K per week.
There is a local club but most of the outings are on Sunday mornings which do not really suit. I will try to keep up this plan for the first couple of months and then see about joining the club. Thanks for your help.