aod43254

I'm fairly new to cycling and I'm looking for tips to increase my fitness so I can get into better shape and maybe attempt to ride the Virginia Capital Trail (a ~52 mile trail from Williamsburg/Jamestown to Richmond) by the end of the year.

superdex

ride a little bit this week. next week ride a little bit more. the week after that, ride a little bit more. then take a few days off. repeat.

Altimis

End of the this year? plenty of time! when I am newbie, I can do 60 miles in maybe 5-6 months, I do ride a lot though.

All you need is "energy" to do it, eat and hydrate as well as recovery. Don't skim any of them.

You should able to ride 50 miles without problem! keep riding is your goal, more ride, more aerobic power you gain.

Carbonfiberboy 

See hill, ride up it. While it's the impression of "civilians" that bicycles should be ridden on the flat, actually cycling is all about riding hills. Nothing gets you in shape like hills.

Daniel4

Ditch the car. Keep your transit pass ready in case of emergencies. Bike everywhere. Don’t make training your focus or it’ll turn into a chore. Make cycling a part of your day every day. Bike to your friend’s place. Bike to the gym. Bike to the coffee shop. Bike to buy groceries.

snidely

+1 to just enjoying your rides. The more you enjoy it, the more you will do it. That fitness improvement will come along with the fun.

DrRobert

Two of my bike rules:

1. If you want to ride longer, start riding longer.
2. If you want to ride faster, start riding faster.

For a ride that long you will need to study up on nutrition and hydration.

Seriously, how often can you ride? If its only once a week, your progress will be slow.

Set *reasonable* goals. Do one long ride per week. Try to ride at least 2 other times. The other rides focus on riding a bit faster to help your fitness. Try to increase your mileage by 10-15% each week.

Your first ride may be only be 5 miles but you will be surprised where you are after a couple months!

ferdinand56

Agree with @snidely and @DrRobert!

My personal advice would be:
Set reasonable short-term goals like I'll do 10 miles tomorrow and then start again with a new challenge (12 miles for instance) the day after tomorrow and so on...

chong67

Yes, just keep on doing it.

I use to get leg cramp when I first started. Now I dont get it anymore.

digibud

52 by the end of the year should be easy if you don't have any significant problem holding you back. Gaining fitness, in general, is about stressing the body. If a 50mi day is your goal simply start riding longer and longer, but be sure you're also pushing yourself in terms of speed here and there. While you do need to get your butt and legs used to riding distance, your aerobic ability will be enhanced by stretches of high effort. A book titled "The First 20 Minutes" explains how important short bursts of intense effort can be. There are a lot of training web sites that will go into more depth but in essence you need to 1) increase your distance regularly to gain the ability to ride distance and 2) stress your body with sub-intense and very-intense efforts regularly. I typically do some high intensity runs of 1-2minute followed by 2minute cooldowns toward the end of a ride. Doing it early on simply wipes you out.

bobwysiwyg

.. says the guy from a state with some hills.

JBerman

My advice for tackling a milestone or goal like a long ride, is acknowledging it IS something you can and will do. Long rides are as much mental as they are physical. 3 weeks into road cycling as an adult I did a century (I have an old thread about it somewhere). A few weeks after that I did a 200k (135 miles). Everyone said I was crazy but I knew I could do it. Positive attitude goes a long way. My longest ride prior to that was like 37 miles. I finished in 6 hours 24 minutes on the century. Not crazy fast but again, was a beginner. I was riding daily with a little time off here and there. I highly suggest finding a group to ride with. Helps tremoundously. If you want to do 52 miles, try 5 now, 10 next week, 15 the following week, etc.. This is very very realistic and you'd be on target in just over 2 months. If you can already do X miles just incrementally add more distance each ride/week.

caloso

Nice! We visited relatives in Jamestown last year. That trail looks great.