New to Cycling

trackstar4883 said:

I am new to cycling. I just bought my first road bike a Cannondale Sypnase Sport. I use to be a sprinter back in college on the track and field team. I believe training is the same bulid a base with miles and sprint workouts. Does this also apply to cycling?
My final concern is I am 6'0" and approximately weight 220 lbs with less than 12 percent body fat. Do I have too much muscle and weight too much for cycling and/or possibly racing.
Any advice would be great.

Thanks

It shouldn't be a problem. I'm about 200 lbs and with accessories, add at least 25lbs, I get to carry the extra water for the kids, I ride a Fuji Newest and havent had any problems. A friend of mine is 6 3", 270lbs at 8% body fat, he's a personal trainer and competes in strong man competitions, he has destroyed 3 bikes, bent frames-forks-wheeles etc.

trackstar4883 said:

I am new to cycling. I just bought my first road bike a Cannondale Sypnase Sport. I use to be a sprinter back in college on the track and field team. I believe training is the same bulid a base with miles and sprint workouts. Does this also apply to cycling?
My final concern is I am 6'0" and approximately weight 220 lbs with less than 12 percent body fat. Do I have too much muscle and weight too much for cycling and/or possibly racing.
Any advice would be great.

Thanks

First of all you are correct about the training. Build up your endurance a little first just by getting out and logging miles. While you are doing this you will want to get to know your bike, develop a 90 - 100 RPM cadence, and make sure that you spin the pedals rather than pump them. Also concentrate on keeping your back straight and keep your knees and elbows in. After you are comfortable with all of this, you get to do interval training where you sprint for a specified distance, say a mile, and then you recover for the same distance. You can also put in step intervals where you sprint for one mile, recover for a mile, sprint 1.5 miles, recover for a mile, sprint for 2 miles, recover for a mile, etc. You might also want to check out the traing section of the forum for more advice. Bicycling Magazine also has a book out called 1000 All-Time Best Tips that has some great advise about training and setting a training schedule. Anothe great resource would be to join aa local bicycling club. They will help you train and it will give you someone to train with.

I am 6'-0" at approximately 230 lbs with less than 15% body fat. The only thing that I have to watch out for is that my wheels have at least 24 spokes. At my weight the ride on 16 spoke wheels tends to get a little squirrely.