Doug Newman - Birder

Hi all. Thanks for the advice and help. I’ve best kept plodding away at base rides on my mountain bike and one decent serious hill a week. took the Bianchi Out this evening. 20km ride in under 1 hour. More importantly didn’t hate every minute of it. Actually enjoyed it and even powers up a short hill standing up at the 19km mark. taken 6 weeks of a basic indoor strength training routine with light 5kg dumbbells twice a week and list of riding as well as very brisk walking to get aerobics up and keep the muscles loose. keep going I guess. ????

That’s part of the strength / endurance issue. Up a hill... stand up time is about 30 seconds then the legs burn. Not the light burn you get riding up a hill.... full sit down and stop standing burn.

Thanks ???? will try that.

Thanks Eddy. Will keep persevering. All I want is to get up this Everest of a 380m stretch of 63m of elevation without needing to walk on a road bike in any gear. that’s my Mount Everest right now. when I come out of my gate on my road bike and see that my soul leaves my body ????????

So stick to the MTB for now and forget about the road bike?

Thanks Eddy. So the cradle road on the bianci with the leg strength I have would be just about undoable except for flats and down hills. I Will be able to do it on my mtb using the 20t in the front for most of the ride and not have an issue with keeping that up for 2 plus hours. I’m just not sure how I get the strength up without pushing hard. That’s the bit I’m trying to fix. Not speed but zero strength at all.

My main problem is even on a 39 chainring no ride is in zone 2 for me now. i can manage northcliff hill and keep in zone 2 on a 36 km ride but most of the time I’m running on 20/18 (20t n the front MTB chainring) and 18t on the back casette. i can’t do a zone 2 on 39/24 On a flat for more than 10 minutes but usually less as the quads start burning quite unpleasantly almost immediately. so what I’m lacking is any strength at all. Keeping heart rate at 125 for 3 hours is easy. But I need 20t on the front to manage that. so how do I get strength to be able to use 39? That’s what seems to be very very slow progress unless I start doing serious leg days in the gym? So around Roodepoort (Hendrik Potgieter) ive managed to progress from 20/32 when I started to 20/18 for Slight up hill Sections of undulating roads in 5 weeks. But at that rate of progression 39/24 (easiest road bike gear I have) is probably 2 years away ????

So I’m making progress on the mountain bike but that’s easy. rode 36km on Saturday including you the water tower side of northcliff hill. Average speed for the total... 13,3 km/h. definitely haven’t had Covid. my problem is if I take the weeks by which on the mountain bike I make progress and the teeth ratios.. to reach being able to do northcliff hill in 39/24 I’ll get there in about 2 years an 9 months. so what I’m basically trying now is out of sheer frustration, I’ve found a 10% gradient 200m slope in the area. I’m hitting it flat out hard in 54 / 18 and beating the crap out of my legs trying to sprint up 10% gradient In that gearing. I go over and over and over again and don’t stop till I’ve pushed so hard I vomit. if I can walk without stiffness and limping for the next 2 days then I know I haven’t pushed hard enough. basically I’m demanding my body be able to do a 45 km/h sprint up 10% gradient for 200m in 54/18 and And pushing my body every three days until it totally fails. that’s the only way I can see it that it will take less than 3 years to get the bianci up northcliff is the beat my body into total brutal submission an approach that might work? im saying this as that was how our rugby teacher was at school. On fitness day.. the ticket to go home was vomiting on the field. And even if your parents were waiting to fetch you and you were the last one there.. you were it allowed to leave the rugby field until you vomited. also planing on doing gym specially focused on legs and my goal is to be able to get to leg press 600kg

P.s. I google gear ratios and it appears 11/24 53/39 was a fairly regular setup used by Lance Armstrong. considering I haven’t touched a bike for about 5 years and the last time was light mountain biking only... it’s a pretty heavy way to start. As someone said though.. it’s not a bad way to go if I can defat this thing. I’ll get better legs for the higher ratios. It will just take longer to master from a fitness level

Thanks guys. Encouraging sentiments ???? Will persevere. ????????????

Thanks ???? when I realized the gearing on that bike I kind of knew why I’m battling ????

Hey all. maybe you can offer me some advice. Many years ago I used to cycle a lot and in high school a group of us used to race to the top of northcliff hill and back with no major issues. ive spent the last 2 months trying to get back into it. i started the first month very light. Riding a mint isn’t bike slowly round nether farms in Joburg. first ride was 8k which I did in an hour. next week... 12 km in an hour and 15 minutes. then 22 km in 2 hours 18 minutes. harldy blistering over twisty stuff. In between that I’ve been doing a very light strength routine twice a week of lunges, to planks etc with no weights to increase my basic fitness parallel to that is walk once a day for 4 km at a casual pace In doing the 4km in 45 minutes i then for a second hand road bike an old Bianchi weighing in at 9.8kg nothing like the 15kg of my mountain bike but not a carbon racer either the problem is despite riding short distances daily (I’m talking 10km and less) for three week... Outside my gate is a short 5% gradient hill of 250 meters in length my performance even in the easiest gear possible to n the road bike is basically going backwards i have absolutely no health issues. Fairly good lungs etc. last annual Health check I’m fine but I’m now at the point after the first easy month and then 3-4 weeks is riding the road bike short distances once a day, that my maximum speed up the 250m 5% gradient is about 7 km/h and my heart rate is reaching 155 with the effort it takes to even get the bike moving. Once up that incline the roads around the suburb are so flat that the maximum incline is 1% but after that 250m hill my legs are burning so much with an almost lactic acidosis feeling burn that right now may maximum distance on the bike is about 7km turning back with completely weak and useless leave after about 1.5 km you know I’m physically capable of cycling as I did Hartebeespoort dam and back in 5 hours a bit 7 years ago I n a mountain bike how do you get beyond complete and utter beginner fitness when a 15km flat unfailing ride I did a week ago which dam near killed me as it is... leaves you so drained you can’t even do 4km any ideas how a completely unfit cyclists can get to break the magical 15km mark which right now seems like running the comrades ???? riding doesn’t seem to be the answer as if 15km is so draining I can’t see how riding 3km a day will get me anywhere age 50, height 172 and weight 81 kg so I’m not exactly old and morbidly obese. just out of shape and can’t seem get get the legs moving again at all unless I keep my average speed below about 12 km/h The other problem might be the Bianchi beautiful but uncle but it’s using the old 9x2 campagnolo vloce group set so my largest rear sprocket is 24 teeth. Compared to the giant I had years ago with an 11/34 cassette... And with an 53/39 crankset maybe the Bianchi is just a bit to savage for a beginner ????