dnewma04

Hi all,

I just recently turned 40 year old and decided I need to work on getting myself more fit (I reached 278 at one point over the winter, but i'm currently under 260. I've struggled with a shoulder injury for years and a knee that has prevented me from most running attempts I've tried. I decided that biking might be the way to go. I've had a mountain bike that I've used sparingly for a few years, mainly to tote my daughter around to the local park in a trailer when she was little, but never really took much longer than a 5-6 mile ride at any time in the prior 15 years. This spring, I brought my old Gary Fisher Montare from the mid 90s to the LBS for a tuneup, new saddle, pedals, tires, tubes and a few other things. Around the time that I picked up the Fisher, my coworker offered me a 60cm Trek 2000SL from 2001.

I took a few short rides in late may, then got kicked into gear on June 7th when I took a 20 mile ride. Since then, I've put 250+ miles on the various bikes and I've been really enjoying it. 3 days a week, I've been riding to work, which is a 32 mile round trip and I've been gradually building up my pace. Today, I average 14mph on the mountain bike today over the first 16 miles.

On Saturday, I'm seriously considering a ride that will be over 40 miles round trip.

Wish me luck. Nice to be on this site.

skijor

We'll done Sir. Is there a bike club in your area? Or perhaps some meetup.com type group rides?

10 Wheels

Hey dnewma,

Welcome to Bike Forums from Texas.

Keep it fun and you will have many happy miles.

dnewma04

I live a couple of miles from a great park for cycling. There is a 6 mile loop of roads with loads of bicyclists. I haven't found any local groups, at least none with much of an internet presence. I feel like I'm a little slow for that at this point, anyway. Besides, at this point, I kind of like the solitude to unwind on the way home and plan my day on the way in.

10 Wheels

Took me 6 months to be fast enough to stay with a group.

After that that I was waiting on them to catch up.

Lacumo

Welcome to BF and back to cycling and good luck with the weight loss efforts!