I feel like [censored]

linck said:

today I rode 25.5 miles @ an average cadence of 86 rpm's and an average speed of 18.6 mph the 20 took me 1:05:54 the total time with the last five being my cool down was 1:27:49. The thing is my inner thighs hurt like I was squeezinmg the saddle, and by the time I got done I felt totally wiped out. Getting heart burn around mile 8 did not help matters. Am I pushing to hard??? I had two hard boiled eggs, a half grape fruit, some melons and grapes in cottage cheese, 1 Dannon yogurt, a cup of OJ, a glass of milk, three hours before I rode. Is that not a good diet?? Oh and for some reason my shoulders have been hurting since I have started cycling. I have to be doing something wrong. There is no way you can ride a century if it feels like this. How do you generally feel after a 20 - 30 mile ride.

tommorrow i am only going ten @ a 70 - 75 cadence to recover good idea or bad

You might like to increase your cadence to about 100rpm, as this will improve your efficiency and increase your power. You don't need to be putting the pressure on full all the time, just keep them pedals spinning. Your legs will soon get used to it.

As for your shoulders, well it's probably your ride position. As you lean forward then your shoulders will be supporting the weight of your head as well as working to tilt it back so you can see where you're going. Raising the height of your bars might help here - I just tend to self massage afterwards. Pain is just weakness leaving the body, after all. ;o)

Just keep pedalling. Those centuries will come in time. Oh, and eat pasta before a big one. The carbs are essential for endurance.

linck said:

today I rode 25.5 miles @ an average cadence of 86 rpm's and an average speed of 18.6 mph the 20 took me 1:05:54 the total time with the last five being my cool down was 1:27:49. The thing is my inner thighs hurt like I was squeezinmg the saddle, and by the time I got done I felt totally wiped out. Getting heart burn around mile 8 did not help matters. Am I pushing to hard??? I had two hard boiled eggs, a half grape fruit, some melons and grapes in cottage cheese, 1 Dannon yogurt, a cup of OJ, a glass of milk, three hours before I rode. Is that not a good diet?? Oh and for some reason my shoulders have been hurting since I have started cycling. I have to be doing something wrong. There is no way you can ride a century if it feels like this. How do you generally feel after a 20 - 30 mile ride.

tommorrow i am only going ten @ a 70 - 75 cadence to recover good idea or bad

The OJ was the cause of the heartburn and maybe the grapefruit also. I don't see any problem with the othe stuff except the fact that you could burp up the eggs. I rode in a citizen race (34 miles) very early in my season and had the thigh thing. After the race I couldn't even bend over, I've never experienced anything like that before. But after riding home (in a truck) for an hour and a half the soreness was mostly gone.

Fast wash out usually come from dehydration. Are you hydrating enough before and during your ride?

pasta before the ride, clif bar during ride and plenty of gatorade/water. I do not eat or drink anything else. I don't drink alcohol, but if you do it helps not to drink the night before a ride. Just my 2 cents.

You rode too soon after eating a large meal. Nothing wrong with the diet, just not enough time to digest it prior to the ride. Prepare by eating good carbs like pasta the night before. Small breakfast like pancakes or waffles with milk in the morning and then wait an hour or two before getting on the bike. Take a clif bar or a piece of fruit (bananas are great) to eat during the ride. Make sure that you are taking enough water or sports drink on your rides. If you can, take two water bottles, one with water for the first half of the ride and one with a sports drink for the second half.

Wheelist is spot on about the riding position. Try to maintain 90 - 100 RPM for your cadence. A fast cadence is preferable to pushing big gears to maintain your speed.

You have been riding what, 1 or 2 months? I know that you are also a runner, but it takes a lot more than 2 months to do a century. Like anything else, you need start small and work up to the really big things. Work on your endurance by spending time in the saddle and you will eventually be able to ride a century or a double century. When you do attempt a century, try to do it as part of an organized ride so that there will be a sag wagon availble.

Just don't give up. Everyone, even Alienator, has a bad ride sometimes. It is a good idea to step back after a bad ride and try to pinpoint what went wrong so that you can correct it before the next ride. A 10 mile recovery ride is probably a good idea but try for a faster cadence.

thanks for the valuable input. I wasn't able to do the recovery ride as there were lighting storms on tue. I'm going to ride another 20 today if this weather lets up. I'll try to pay attention to my position more this time. I read that it takes about an hour to fit for a bike I have a trek 1000sl and it only took the shop guy like ten minutes to fit me. I saw him on a ride the other day and he told me that my hips rock side to side as I ride and to try lower the saddle about 1/8 of an inch. so maybe this will help also. thanks for the input and keep it coming I would like to learn as much as possible. I want to enter my first race in sept.

kdelong said:

You rode too soon after eating a large meal. Nothing wrong with the diet, just not enough time to digest it prior to the ride. Prepare by eating good carbs like pasta the night before. Small breakfast like pancakes or waffles with milk in the morning and then wait an hour or two before getting on the bike. Take a clif bar or a piece of fruit (bananas are great) to eat during the ride. Make sure that you are taking enough water or sports drink on your rides. If you can, take two water bottles, one with water for the first half of the ride and one with a sports drink for the second half.

Wheelist is spot on about the riding position. Try to maintain 90 - 100 RPM for your cadence. A fast cadence is preferable to pushing big gears to maintain your speed.

You have been riding what, 1 or 2 months? I know that you are also a runner, but it takes a lot more than 2 months to do a century. Like anything else, you need start small and work up to the really big things. Work on your endurance by spending time in the saddle and you will eventually be able to ride a century or a double century. When you do attempt a century, try to do it as part of an organized ride so that there will be a sag wagon availble.

Just don't give up. Everyone, even Alienator, has a bad ride sometimes. It is a good idea to step back after a bad ride and try to pinpoint what went wrong so that you can correct it before the next ride. A 10 mile recovery ride is probably a good idea but try for a faster cadence.

linck said:

today I rode 25.5 miles @ an average cadence of 86 rpm's and an average speed of 18.6 mph the 20 took me 1:05:54 the total time with the last five being my cool down was 1:27:49. The thing is my inner thighs hurt like I was squeezinmg the saddle, and by the time I got done I felt totally wiped out. Getting heart burn around mile 8 did not help matters. Am I pushing to hard??? I had two hard boiled eggs, a half grape fruit, some melons and grapes in cottage cheese, 1 Dannon yogurt, a cup of OJ, a glass of milk, three hours before I rode. Is that not a good diet?? Oh and for some reason my shoulders have been hurting since I have started cycling. I have to be doing something wrong. There is no way you can ride a century if it feels like this. How do you generally feel after a 20 - 30 mile ride.

tommorrow i am only going ten @ a 70 - 75 cadence to recover good idea or bad

I can think of a few things.

1) You are glycogen deficient. If you are trying to lose weight and get in shape at the same time then that is not a recipe for performance. Glycogen deficiency can occur over several days of exercise; it's like digging a hole that gets deeper day after day. You might try taking a day off, eating a lot of carbs, then seeing how you perform. Second you should consume some calories post exercise because glycolysis is improved for a short time after exercise.

2) You are exceeding your current fitness' capacity for absorbing the workload you are subjecting your body to. This is a little iffy because I think you mentioned in another post that you are an active runner and twenty miles is nothing. Aside from the distance you might be be going too intensely. One thing you might try is to stop concentrating on your average speed and focus more on just putting in miles, no matter what the speed is. Once a week do an LSD ride that is quite a bit longer than what you do during other days. I usually put in 800 to 1000 miles in the pre-season before starting more intense training.

3) Your cadence sucks. It's natural for new cyclsts to use a low cadence because it feels more natural, but if you use too low of a cadence it's like doing a high rep strength workout. Your muscles will be fried. You should shoot for around 95 - 100 RPM. On easy days instead of lowering your cadence, you should increase it. Put your bike in a low gear and spin. You could use these days to get used to higher cadence.

A well conditioned cyclist has no problem doing an easy century. If your butt is "hardened" and you have done the endurance work then it's just putting time on your bike.

Have you read anything on bicycling performance? There is a great book that was put out by Bicycling Magazine called 1,000 All-time Best Tips. You should be able to find it in your local bookstore or you can order it on-line. It is published by Rodale Press. It is a great resource for the kind of information that you are looking for. It is also something to do when you cannot ride due to storms. Check it out though, it is only about $10.00 and is well worth the investment.