CarstenDoc

Hi everyone.
Not sure why, but to be 54 yo is great! and bicycling makes it even greater - and surely is healthy too, and allows for nice purchasing in bicycle stuff clothing included:-)
xx
Carstn

MickeyMaguire

Hi Carsten. Welcome to the forum. Cycling is great for fun and fitness. I am fifty-six years old and starting riding bicycles at age four. I plan to ride until I die. That said, I want to ride at least another forty years.

DnvrFox

Welcome!

74 years old here, finding that the body does not last forever - still do 20-30 mile rides (like yesterday).

Enjoy.

linnefaulk

Welcome, Carsten.

qcpmsame 

Welcome aboard the 50+ and to BF. New guys have to buy a round for everyone, and post pictures of their bicycles for us to ogle. Glad to have you here, now get ready for a warning to schedule your colonoscopy, its how we roll here.

Bill

Rapido

Great choice, yes! Do you know about randonneuring?

davidwendel21

Hi folks, I am 69 and trying to get back into biking. Purchased a Giant Talon 27.5 medium bike and have been having trouble getting started. When I was a kid I rode a bike all the time, but as I grew into adulthood I kind of let myself go and now find myself at 245 lbs. at 5'9". Doc said I need to take about 80 lbs off and recommended I get into something I enjoy for exercise. I have tried walking on a treadmill and it is OK but gets pretty boring after awhile. What I am experiencing on the bike is that I have lost the flexibility and strength to keep myself balanced. Also, after a short ride on the grass doing figure eights my legs start burning. I told the bike dealer that I would like to have the seat a little lower because I was used to riding an old heavyweight single speed. He did cut the seat post down 2 inches for me and that helped some with the balance. He told me for the maximum benefit for my legs that I would want to raise the seat back up slowly to the 2 inches he had cut off. I can walk 30 to 45 minutes on the treadmill at 1 to 2 levels of elevation and at 3.2 to 3.5 mph. But I am wondering if I am using different muscle groups on the bicycling? Any suggestions from you folks as to how it would be best for me to proceed? I don't want to give up the cycling since I would love the rides out on all the new bike paths we have here in Des Moines.

Wileyrat

Welcome Carstn davidwendel21!

David, you might get more responses if you start a new thread, but the short answer is sounds like to me you're using muscles that have forgotten what bike riding is all about and you just need to give yourself a chance to get used to riding again. Start out at short distances and work your way up. You'll be surprised at how quickly you'll get better.

FWIW, I lost close to what your doc says you need to lose over a two yr period and it took six months of walking before I even got back on a bike.

DnvrFox

Bicycling uses different muscles than walking than swimming - or at least uses muscles in different ways.

For me, walking outdoors is 10x's more fun than on a treadmill - someplace where there is nature or a river or something similar.

While the exercise is GREAT, the only way to really lose weight is permanent diet changes. Exercise really uses very few calories, but it does build muscle strength, which will use a few more calories, and make one feel a lot better. I.e., for most folks a mile on a bike burns between 45-70 calores, depending. Therefore, one would have to ride about 70 miles to consume 3500 KCal to use up a pound from their body, and one would likely be so hungry as to consume about that much after the ride. So, diet changes must be combined with exercise.

There is an absolutely great and supportive sub-forum on this web site called the Clydesdale forum with lots and lots of folks in your situation, and ideas and suggestions about accomplishing your goal. At 201 lbs, I still qualify (200 lbs is the cutoff). Go there and ask for help - folks do it all the time. There are folks there who have lost 100's of lbs.

John E

Welcome, Carsten and David. Bicycling has always been my favorite sport, although I do supplement it with weight training, as Denver does, having heard too many stories of 40-year-old bicyclists with 20-year-old cardio systems but 60-year-old skeletal systems.

Dirt Road

Hi, @CarstenDoc - 55 is pretty grand, too. How about a picture of your ride?

Hi, @davidwendel21 - don't lose heart. Your legs burning is probably lactic acid from muscle "combustion." It's good stuff. It tells you're alive. Make those figure eights a little bit bigger over the next week and you'll get your sea legs quickly enough.

Wileyrat

Another proponent of strength training here.

I think in the calorie counting race, the one thing that gets overlooked is even though changing ones eating habits is extremely important, if you can go out and do your physical activity during the time of day you're most prone to reach for the refrigerator handle (for me, right after work), that's calories you're not putting in.

If you go out and burn 500 calories riding AND saved yourself from eating 500 plus in that time frame, that's the double whammy.

davidwendel21

Thanks everyone for your good advice! My wife has just started Weight Watchers so we are going to start watching our diets. Now I just need to get some more leg strength! I will keep on with the cycling until I get my skills back!! I'll also check out the Clydesdales blog! Thanks again to all of you!

RideMyWheel

I'll tell you what else is fun--finding bargain tools on eBay.

I have one rolling toolbox full of carpentry tools, and another strictly for automotive.

Now I have an excuse to start a third collection, just for my bike(s). Oh yeah, that's another problem. Search the string "N+1" and you'll see what I mean.

Welcome.