Originally Posted by
ucfdad
Just starting to get into riding for fun and fitness. I am 58, 6'1 and 240 and a smoker with high blood pressure. So far in July I have ridden 60 miles in 7 rides. Somedays I can do 12 and some days I am struggling to do 8. When I tell a non cyclist I did 8 miles they are like "wow that is great". When I say I rode 8 to a cyclist, I get a much less positive reaction.
So, when first starting what should be considered a good ride? How much did you ride at the beginning?
Also, would love to hear from anyone who has a success story about lowering blood pressure through riding, need the inspiration.
Please no "quit smoking" comments, I have heard them all and agree with them. Thanks
I agree with the comments that you should be very proud of your performance and not let other people’s comments take away from what you are doing. You and I are fairly similar in age and size. I have been riding for a few years but have not had a good winter program so each spring is a new beginning for me in terms of getting into riding shape and building miles. I created a weekly riding schedule that is based on an approach that I found years ago for getting people prepared for their first marathon. I like it because it puts a lot of variety into the week and it focuses the long mile days on Saturday which is intended to be a “ride to exhaustion” – long distance wise, not speed wise. Here is what I do
Monday – 3 ½ miles – I work on speed for this ride. It is in my neighborhood which has decent hills
Tuesday – 5 ½ miles – Another route in my neighborhood. It is a little less of a speed workout than the Monday ride but faster than my long rides
Wednesday – 7 ½ miles – I leave the neighborhood where there are more rolling hills and change of scenery. I look at my speed at the end of the ride but my focus is doing the distance not pressing for speed. As I progress through the spring/summer then my times naturally improve which is nice but not really my goal. The same goes for my next ride and my ride to exhaustion.
Thursday – Friday – One of the days is a rest day and the other is a 10 ½ mile ride. I prefer Thursday for the rest day but my schedule and attitude tend to dictate which one is the rest day.
Saturday – This is the long ride to exhaustion. As I said I am working on getting good distance at reasonable speed but I will always take distance over speed on this ride. I bring plenty of water and use an energy chew. If the ride gets over 20 miles I will also bring some fruit or other food. This distance is something that you set and increase it every week or two. I am finding that mentally it is easier for me to ride the same distance two weeks in a row and then increase it but I have increased every week with no problem. I tend to increase it by 3 to 4 miles per increase. You could probably do your first long distance ride at 15 miles. You will really see that distance go up through the course of a spring/summer and it will feel great.
Sunday – Rest day – then start the process over again on Monday. Saturday is really the only day that I increase distance but when I get in pretty good shape I tend to increase the weekday rides by 2 miles each.
The idea behind this workout schedule is that Saturday exhausts your muscles and they build up during the periods of rest and low miles during the week. That one day of total exhaustion and then letting them build back up during the week is an effective way to build muscle size and strength. The variety of the distances really helps with the mental side of building miles. It also makes it a lot easier to get out for the next ride as some of them go pretty quickly.
I hope that this helps.