stamina

"sittingduck" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

john krivaska said:

how can i build stamina, both mental and physical. also i cant get my

head

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

round steep descents any ideas?

Practice.

Ride with friends.

You'll be too afraid to stop if tired, or to not make that steep descent,
for fear they'll rag on you.

john krivaska said:

how can i build stamina, both mental and physical. also i cant get my
head round steep descents any ideas?

Everyones body is different. but I'll tell you what I have done / been
doing:

1. If you're heavy, lose the weight! Not only does fat cause you to breath
heavier, it makes you hotter, and is a major cause of cancer and diabetes.

2. Spin, ride, or run every day, no excuses! You need to do a minimum of
30 minutes hard workout. That means that you'll set your spinner at a high
resistance and pedal fast! You'll notice a change within the second week.
Exercise will build your physical and mental stamina more than anything
else. You'll also get some muscle from it 🙂.

3. Build your muscles by exercising and eating protein enriched foods.

4. Learn correct breathing techniques. It helps get Oxygen into the
muscles.

5. Commit yourself to the task. There are days I don't want to workout,
but I force myself to do it. You have to want it!

6. Get a personal trainer. It's an expensive option, but they can give you
some great advice. Make sure they are certified.

I don't know what you mean about your steep descents problem.

"Ride-A-Lot" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I don't know what you mean about your steep descents problem.

I took it as fear.

john krivaska said:

how can i build stamina, both mental and physical.

For the physical part, it depends on how serious you want to get about it.
If you just want to be in good enough shape for good rides, then ride. If
you want to be able to deal with longer rides, take longer rides. If you
want to be able to race, a helluva lot of riding will do the trick. Some
say that very specific training programs can help to make you more
race-ready, but those aren't really needed just for general riding.

Quoted message said:

also i cant get my head round steep descents any ideas?

Well, that's the mental part. It comes from practice, and repeated
successful attempts. And all it takes is one extremely unsuccessful
attempt to negate all of that!

--
-BB-
To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)

john krivaska said:

how can i build stamina, both mental and physical.

Start slowly and keep a steady pace. It almost feels too slow to start
with, but you'll find you can ride for longer. Then, it's just a case of
riding / training more and more.

Quoted message said:

also i cant get my head round steep descents any ideas?

Lower the saddle and just practice on progressively steeper and steeper
stuff, preferably with friends. You'd be amazed at the angle you're
actually capable of riding down - most people don't even come close.

Ride-A-Lot said:

2. Spin, ride, or run every day, no excuses!

I disagree. The body needs time to rest, it's as important as the exercise
itself.

bomba said:

Ride-A-Lot said:

2. Spin, ride, or run every day, no excuses!

I disagree. The body needs time to rest, it's as important as the
exercise itself.

Again, it depends on the individual. I get enough rest sitting at my desk
all day long.

"Ride-A-Lot" <mitchell@[nospam]schnauzers.ws> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I disagree. The body needs time to rest, it's as important as the
exercise itself.

Again, it depends on the individual. I get enough rest sitting at my desk
all day long.

bomba's right - no ifs, ands or buts.

You can do what you want, but this poor krivaska fellow shouldn't ride
himself into the ground on your say so. I'm sure if your trainer is
certified, he'll agree.

bomba said:

Ride-A-Lot said:

2. Spin, ride, or run every day, no excuses!

I disagree. The body needs time to rest, it's as important as the exercise
itself.

bomba is right, you need to rest when your body tells you to. The tricky
part is knowing when you are really tired and need the rest, and when
you're mentally tired, perhaps from other day-to-day things, and should
just get out and ride.
Because of the way you asked the question, I would assume that you are
just starting out, not some experience rider who wants to get over some
100 mile threshold. I think this is a pretty safe assumption 🙂
So, at this point just ride, have fun, work as hard as you want on any
given day. At the level many of us are at, riding at any level of
exertion will help, the more the better.
You may find that motivation is really the issue, you just can't seem to
get out as often as you should. Find riding partners, try solo rides,
ride the favorite trail in the opposite direction, ride with your kids,
buy a new bike part ...

At the beginning level, you have to be having fun, because if it is not
fun, you won't go do it again. As you progress, you'll continue to have
fun, but fun may become redefined; "I want to make that climb in under
40 minutes", "I want to enter a local race", "I want to make it to this
area that I have never been to" ... you get the idea.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado
(remove ".nospam" to reply)

bomba said:

john krivaska said:

how can i build stamina, both mental and physical.

Start slowly and keep a steady pace. It almost feels too slow to start
with, but you'll find you can ride for longer. Then, it's just a case
of riding / training more and more.

Quoted message said:

also i cant get my head round steep descents any ideas?

Lower the saddle and just practice on progressively steeper and
steeper stuff, preferably with friends. You'd be amazed at the angle
you're actually capable of riding down - most people don't even come
close.

i've got some descending tips here:

--
me and my bike:
www.specialtyoutdoors.com/penny/biking/ridetips.asp

john krivaska said:

how can i build stamina, both mental and physical. also i cant get my head
round steep descents any ideas?

There's lots of good advice in this thread already about getting in
shape physically. One piece of advice I haven't seen is get a physical
check-up from your doctor. If you're in way bad shape, they may help,
esp. if you're real fat (he said bluntly).
As for your head. Go ride with people who do steep descents well.
Seeing somebody ride down something you *know* is unridable is enlightening.
Plus go to www.petefagerlin.com for some videos of people riding
unrideable terrain.
Watch and learn Grasshopper.

Cheers,
Shawn

"john krivaska" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:HEdjc.164$xs3.155@newsfe1-win...

Quoted message said:

how can i build stamina, both mental and physical. also i cant get my head
round steep descents any ideas?

If you can afford it get a coach:
Personalized for you and your goals.
Usually a coach will have you log your week. This is a great motivator,
knowing you have to tell someone what you really did can make you get off
your ass and do it...

If you can not afford a coach get Joe Friel's book
The_Mountain_Biker's_Training_Bible. This will fill the gap until you get
serious and then get a coach.

I rode for a long time for fun... and it was fun but never moved up to the
next level. I joined a team that has a coach who sets weekly schedules for
each of us. Huge improvement in motivation (see above) and results. Some
people refer to it as the coaching effect, just having to report your weekly
activity can be a huge motivator depending on your pesonality. Before
coaching my rides were never structured. Now there are days you ride hard,
days you ride easy and days you don't ride (very few) but a good coach can
set up a plan based on your goals.

What ever you decide to do good luck. By you asking questions and seeking
knowledge means your are on the right path (pun intended)...

As far as downhilling... that's tough. You need to get in the mind set that
it's not if you are going to crash but when. I don't have the book near me
but John Howard (I think) wrote a book call Dirt! which gave some technique
pointers for example when going down don't put your arm out but roll (save's
the shoulds/AC/Collar bone). How I improved my downhill was to first ride
behind a friend who was faster than me. Have them slow down so you can see
the lines and body position they use. Soon I was following at full speed
then trying to beat him... after many crashes.

Cheers,

-p

"john krivaska" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<HEdjc.164$xs3.155@newsfe1-win>...

Quoted message said:

how can i build stamina, both mental and physical. also i cant get my head
round steep descents any ideas?

Not that you need more advice from strangers, but hey, why not? I
recommend you join a group or club or shop ride that rides regularly
at least once a week, and hopefully they'll be better and stronger
than you so that you get pushed to work harder than you might if you
were on your own, or riding with others of your same caliber. And
you'll see how good riders handle the steep descents, they might spot
you, or at least give you some tips.

Then, in off days on your own time, practice nice long, slow climbs,
and alternate now and then with intervals, or relatively short sprints
followed by short rest, sprint, etc, until you're begging to die.

Allow time for rest and recovery after "hard" rides, even a full day
or two if your body says you need it.

Caveat: I break all the hrm rules every ride, since I push myself
into the red zone nearly every time. But it works for me. ymmmv.

paladin

Ride-A-Lot said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

2. Spin, ride, or run every day, no excuses!

I disagree. The body needs time to rest, it's as important as the
exercise itself.

Again, it depends on the individual. I get enough rest sitting at my desk
all day long.

I would say that it depends on the individual's level of fitness and
probably more importantly, the intensity of their workouts. It is
certainly possible to use 'desk time' for recovery after short or low
intensity workouts, however, after long rides / runs I would advocate at
least a day's rest. Even professional athletes do not train every day.

More importantly, the one thing I would never advise someone just
starting out on a fitness regime to do, is to train every day.

--
a.m-b FAQ: http://www.j-harris.net/bike/ambfaq.htm

a.bmx FAQ: http://www.t-online.de/~jharris/bmx_faq.htm

On 2004-04-27, bomba penned:

Quoted message said:

Ride-A-Lot said:

Quoted message said:

> 2. Spin, ride, or run every day, no excuses!

I disagree. The body needs time to rest, it's as important as the
exercise itself.

Again, it depends on the individual. I get enough rest sitting at my
desk all day long.

I would say that it depends on the individual's level of fitness and
probably more importantly, the intensity of their workouts. It is
certainly possible to use 'desk time' for recovery after short or low
intensity workouts, however, after long rides / runs I would advocate
at least a day's rest. Even professional athletes do not train every
day.

This reminds me of an experience I had. Feel free to disregard ...

Anyway, one college summer, I was determined to make up for the lack of
martial arts practice I'd had during the school year. My instructor
generally recommended three classes a week, but had many time slots
available. I took to attending both the teenage and adult TKD classes
every day, plus hapkido three times a week. A total of something like
15 hours a week of intense martial training. Let's just say I was
dragging. I wasn't seeing the kind of improvement I'd expected;
instead, I was tired and slow.

Finally, my instructor came to me and told me that I really needed to
ease up. I snapped at him (good sign that I was overtired; this is not
something you do) and said in a snotty, accusative tone that "Olympic
athletes train every day." And here's what he told me: Yes, they train
every day, but they alternate their training so that they still allow
their bodies to recuperate. These classes, though, they're designed for
people who train three hours a week. We don't alternate our schedule
that way. You're going to hurt yourself if you keep this up.

Anyway, I eased up a bit -- not three hours a week, but not 15, either
-- and it really did help.

Doing the exact same thing every day can be really hard on your body.

Quoted message said:

More importantly, the one thing I would never advise someone just
starting out on a fitness regime to do, is to train every day.

Depends on what you call training. Pushing yourself to the breaking
point every day isn't a good idea, but you can stretch thoroughly (2+
minutes per stretch), take a brisk walk, do calisthenics ... play
frisbee with some friends ...

I think it's healthy to be active every day; working to exhaustion every
day is another matter.

--
monique

"Monique Y. Mudama" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

On 2004-04-27, a penned:

Quoted message said:

Ride-A-Lot said:

>> 2. Spin, ride, or run every day, no excuses! My instructor

generally recommended three classes a week, but had many time slots
available. I took to attending both the teenage and TKD classes
every day, plus hapkido three times a week.

Now that's too much!

Hey, "slightly" off-topic, but I have authentic World Taedwondo
Federation banners from World Championships that I'm finally ready to
sell, for years 1975,(first, Seoul) 1977, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, and
1988 Seoul Olympiad. And a few others I'm still looking in boxes for.

The '75 and '77 are especially very rare. So if you know any of your
fighting buddies that are seriously into the WTF and might want these,
please send them my way. c bro 77 at yahoo.com thanks.

paladin

On 2004-04-29, Paladin penned:

Quoted message said:

"Monique Y. Mudama" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

On 2004-04-27, a penned:

Quoted message said:

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:23:05 -0400, Ride-A-Lot wrote:

>>> 2. Spin, ride, or run every day, no excuses! My instructor

generally recommended three classes a week, but had many time slots
available. I took to attending both the teenage and TKD
classes every day, plus hapkido three times a week.

Now that's too much!

So I found out.

Quoted message said:

Hey, "slightly" off-topic, but I have authentic World Taedwondo
Federation banners from World Championships that I'm finally ready to
sell, for years 1975,(first, Seoul) 1977, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, and
1988 Seoul Olympiad. And a few others I'm still looking in boxes for.

The '75 and '77 are especially very rare. So if you know any of your
fighting buddies that are seriously into the WTF and might want these,
please send them my way. c bro 77 at yahoo.com thanks.

Those sound pretty cool. I can't think of anyone offhand, but I'll keep
this message on file just in case.

--
monique