t2p

again - this was probably mentioned earlier (in this thread and / or previous threads)

make sure you are properly hydrated

and make sure your cadence is appropriate … you are spinning well …

Mtracer

While Gatorade has some sugar/carbs, you might need more than you can get from that. Though I do like drinking my fuel rather than chewing it while on the bike. You might want to find something to drink that has more carbs than Gatorade. Also, since your rides are currently in the hour long range, eating something before the ride may accomplish most of what you need. Just don't eat a lot as you don't want to be riding and simultaneously trying to digest a large meal. A banana can be a good thing to eat shortly before a ride and many eat them during rides.

Your description of "all of a sudden" is a very typical description of bonking (running out of glycogen/carbs). A true bonk can be debilitating. Like get off the bike and maybe you can still walk. But there are degrees to this. I think you'll find eating some simple carbs (sugar) and backing of the pace a little will help a lot. Then it's just a matter of playing around with what and when you eat to find out what works best for you. We're all different.

BlazingPedals

Methinks there's more going on than simply being out of shape or not eating enough prior.

Fredo76

Yes, mix in some LSD (Long Slow Distance) on occasion.
Doing both types of rides works well.
Maybe stop at home after two laps, have a sandwich, then try a third lap at a leisurely pace, to get a feel for it.
Take your resting pulse every morning for awhile to give you a baseline; then go easy or take a rest on days when it is elevated more than usual.
Next time you hit the wall, try eating or drinking something sugary that you have brought with you. If it cures your exhaustion, you were bonking, otherwise it's your fitness level.
Pay attention to any pain points (feet, hands, butt, neck, back, etc.) and address them.
I think you're doing pretty respectably; just keep it up and your fitness will only increase.

Wildwood 

'Quality saddle time' is my only measure.

cyclezen

There's a rider I see, pass often on one of my loops. Now for well over a year. And every time they are 'pushing' a gear - slow cadence, rocking a bit to get their best 'push' on each pedal stroke.
They never seem to go any faster... Very common for many riders...
Very in-effective way to ride... Riding is both 'cardio' and 'power' - strength, efficiency and endurance in the same motor package.
A tried and True method to reach higher into your potential is to first work on efficiency and cardio, and let strength build alongside...
Most riders, as described above have a hard time with efficiency - when riding with a cadence above 50-60 rpm, they run out of 'gas' quickly and can't maintain that...
For many experienced riders and racers, the 'off-season' is a time to work on keeping strong efficiency - before the very heavy early season training sessions....
SO, if you can't ride for any length of time above a few minutes at cadences above 75 rpm, then I suggest working on that...
Pick a gear which is well below what you may be using now, one you could turn without great effort, at 75+rpm and then ride THAT gear for as long as possible... gear down on any significant uphills... then back to that gear when on flatish terrain...
If you don;t have a cycle computer which has 'cadence', you can put a wrist watch, with a prominant second sweep hand, on your bars. Count one side of pedal strokes for 10 sec or 15 sec and do mental math (10 sec count x 6 or 15 sec count x4) for what that 'cadence' is, get to know what 75, 80 rpm feels like. Make it your ride objective to do the whole ride at that cadence...
When you can do that, and the gear you're using becomes 'easy', then go to the next higher/more difficult gear - and so forth...
Extend the mileage as your rides becomes 'shorter time' for that 12-15 miles...
FORGET the sugar water thing... you DON'T need it... If it's hot or you're thristy, plain water is all you need. FOr even a 1.5 to 2 hr ride, most don;t need any food...
Adding the sugar in that kind of ride will actually slow you down.
You're Gas'd because your body is just not capable of doing the ride - not because it needs more food energy...
Riding as I describe, will slowly bring your physical capabiity close to what you're capable of, garanteed...
maybe try to find, make firends with others at same level, and ride with them, using technique I describe above. Ride will go faster, and so will you !
guaranteed !
Ride On!
Yuri

Biker395 

Good advice here. Forget about speed, and focus on just increasing your saddle time. The speed will come.

As someone else said, everyone has a speed that will ultimately exhaust them in short order. Keep your heart rate down, and focus on just enjoying yourself. The distance and speed will come with time.

pepperbelly

I only rode 6 miles-one lap around the lake. I stopped after one lap for something else.
It looks like the next few days will be windy. I will be out depending on just how windy. 20mph and higher and I will just go to the gym.

Carbonfiberboy 

I rode as kid, lots through college and then I quit and concentrated on career. I didn't pick it back up until I was 50. I'm the engineering type, so right away I wanted numbers, a way to measure progress and results. Right away I bought a cheap bike computer and a heart rate monitor. That was back in the day, when this stuff was simple and cheap. It's another world today, when everything has to be more complicated and thus expensive. Nonetheless, having numbers is still the way to go.

Bike computer and heart rate are now combined and Garmin has rather taken over that market. I've always bought my Garmin computers on ebay and have had very good experiences doing that. Today for you, I'd recommend this Garmin: https://www.ebay.com/itm/196352322785 On ebay, stuff vanishes quickly - it's a high turnover website, so if you want to go this route, buy this thing today.

You'll also need a Garmin speed and cadence sensor kit, which can also be bought on ebay most inexpensively: https://www.ebay.com/itm/204612250050?epid=24033516856

To transmit your HR to your Garmin, you'll need a heart rate strap and transmitter. This is what I use and have found reliable: https://www.amazon.com/Polar-Heart-R...P4N?th=1&psc=1

Get this setup ASAP. It'll make all the difference because then you'll know exactly what's going on with your body and your bike. Knowledge is everything.

t2p

The Stockdale Paradox


.

Richard Cranium

Yes.

Typically, cyclists can develop into more powerful riders by simply riding a variety of terrain. But - you mention always riding around a lake.

My experience suggests that you will improve a lot by simply riding some hills.

Measure yourself everyday if you want. But getting faster isn't about always trying harder - riding faster comes from riding with control and discipline.

In any case paying attention to performance can be interesting and satisfying - hope you continue to satisfy yourself. Just remember - to ride faster - you have rest harder...... :-)

.

Carbonfiberboy 

Agree with the above. Weirdly enough, cycling is all about riding hills. I would say that most folks who come to cycling avoid hills at all costs, well, because hills are obviously hard to ride up. But as Dick says, that's the whole point. When I restarted riding at 50, the first thing I did was attempt to ride the 500 vertical feet up to a local mall, not that I wanted to buy anything, it was just a convenient hill. My HR went through the roof and my legs hurt. Perfect. Took me a couple months of attempts to finally be able to ride the whole way up there, even though it was only 7 miles. So that's what you do. BTW, none of the roads up to that mall have shoulders. And there is a MUP that goes up there too, but I chose to ride on the road because I knew that roads go everywhere and MUPS go basically nowhere. So one might as well get comfortable on the road.

The other thing which bothers new riders are cars. There's a fear of riding on the road, which makes folks drive to some MUP with their bike on the back of the car. My experience of riding for almost 30 years on the road and MUPS is that roads are safer than MUPS. What you do to ride on the road is have a helmet mirror, at least a 200 lumen red flasher on the back and a 200 lumen white flasher on the front, plus wear a highly visible jersey or jacket.. You want a driver to be able to see you a mile away in daylight. MUPS commonly feature dogs on long leashes and families who think a MUP is like their driveway, when really it's more like a freeway. Drivers are much more aware of what's going on than are people on MUPS. One of my riding buddies was badly injured when a runner with earbuds (they all have ear buds now) did a 180 right in front of him. That person would never have done that on a road. That said, do try to choose low traffic roads and notice right turn signals on cars which pass you..

SpedFast

I couldn't agree more!

pepperbelly

The lake trail I ride is not flat. I am constantly changing gears.

pepperbelly

My riding has been put on hold temporarily. I have something going on with my left shiulder.
From 20 years of hard construction work most of my joints are worn but a few days ago I woke up to intense pain on the top of my shoulder bone.
It has eased up a lot but not enough to put pressure on it yet.
I am hoping a tendon just got caught under a bone plate and the pain is from inflammation.
It has been very windy and stormy recently so I’m not missing much.

CAT7RDR

I came from a hiking background before starting to ride again at 50 y/o in 2014.
Challenging hikes gave me a base fitness to start with but I did not get stronger and build endurance until I actively welcomed hills and more hills into my rides.
I think 100 feet per mile elevation gain is still considered a hilly course. Most of my rides now are in the 120 feet per mile of climb category.
If I'm not climbing, the ride is more to just a spin than to gain better fitness. Just my experience if it helps?,

Carbonfiberboy 

Changing gears is not the same as riding hills. Riding hills is like "climbing". You go up a few hundred feet in a continuous ascent. Use Ride with GPS (https://ridewithgps.com/) to lay out a route which climbs 50'/mile. That's a good metric for a bike ride. Gives one just enough impetus for improvement without being onerous. You might want to start with a lower rate, say 30'/mile, but not less than that. Do you have a cycling computer which records distance, average speed, and elevation gain among other things? Having numbers allows accountability, as my sig says . . .

Carbonfiberboy 

There a good chance that this is what's called "impingement". I've had therapy for that which did absolutely nothing. But you're right, a blood vessel and a nerve go under a little bone in your shoulder called the acromion. The space beneath it is the subacromial space. It can get smaller because we humans frequently carry heavy stuff in our hands. Have you ever noticed how children love to play on monkey bars? That's because our ancestors spent a lot of time in the trees and those genes are still with us. So it's really simple: hang from your hands every day. One minute is all it takes, though more is better of course. It takes a good week or so to increase the size of the subacromial space because that involves changing the shape of that bone a little. Doesn't take much to make a difference. There's a book all about this, I forget the title though. Doesn't matter, just hang.

However, if it hurts like the devil when you try to hang, obviously don't, it really is a tendon problem.

pepperbelly

Ah, ok. The trail I ride around the lake has a lot of ups and downs and a couple of decent climbs. It also has a lot of turns and really bad bridges that require a 90* turn to get on them and posts at the entrys to avoid. It is really hard for me to get in a rhythm and just ride.

pepperbelly

I looked that up Friday night. When I figured that was what I was experiencing I just sucked it up and moved my arm and shoulder around. It felt better after and a lot better Saturday and Sunday.
As long as it isn’t something torn where using it would cause damage I can just work through it.

Carbonfiberboy 

Yes, absolutely. I led a group ride today which had a newbie, an old friend of mine who's only been riding on MUPs. We did the first few miles on a MUP and then the next 20 on roads. He had a great time. But uh-oh, now he needs a better bike. He was riding an MTB and almost kept up with us geezers. Anyway, he loved the road riding, unexpectedly. You should really try it. Texas has a reputation for crappy chip seal roads, but the right tires can handle that. You need a safe way to get out of town though.

pepperbelly

That is the problem. Town has grown around us. We have several new neighborhoods nearby which has greatly increased traffic, plus warehouses etc. that have increased 18 wheel truck traffic. All that has made riding locally difficult.

bblair

Going hard on every ride is a prescription for burn out. You need to vary it.

Some days, go as hard as you can for that 12 miles. Other times, take it easy and enjoy the day. You might not be completely exhausted, but you are still gaining fitness and enjoying our sport. Way too much to read here on Zone 2 training, but that will give you an idea. For me, a once a week sufferfest is plenty. Then another couple of days of just loving being outside.

Carbonfiberboy 

Put the bike on your car and drive somewhere. Every Sunday, my wife and I drive about 30 miles to meet up with our riding group, which often rides back up here, within a couple miles of our house. How it is. There has to be a number of bike shops in town. Most bike shops have group rides. They ride somewhere. Find out where.

pepperbelly

I do take my bike to mups. I was answering you about road cycling.
I have been thinking about some rural roads several miles out of town.