Cycling advice for beginners 🚴
Are you a beginner and want to cycle for long hours and distances over the next few months ? Then this post is for you. It's been 5 months since I started cycling and now I am really enjoying. It gives me a sense of joy and satisfaction every time I come home after a ride. So how did I start ? Did I start with large distances from the beginning itself ? What bike do I use ? I'll get to all these question further. Keep reading.
How should one start and advance ?
Initially keep your rides shorter both in terms of distance and time. For a beginner you should start with 3 to 4 kilometres or 2-3 miles daily for about 20 mins. You can follow this schedule for a 3 weeks taking rides every alternate day. You can read my blog about tracking your activities using strava here. This should make you ready for taking longer rides of more 10 kilometres twice or thrice a week. After the initial three weeks you can start taking longer rides. A distance of 10 kilometres seems about all right. This can be continued for a month or two. Initially when you begin writing a distance of 10 kilometres plus you need to keep in mind that you may feel exhausted at first and also that the speed of your biking would be less. But as days pass your average speed would proportionally increase and you will start feeling less tired. Once you are comfortable with riding a distance of 10 kilometres plus which will probably take a month or 2 then you can start riding for much longer distances that exceed 15 kilometres. This is a tried and tested way not only by me but most of the riders for most of the riders who are beginners.
Trail types, saddle height, sitting posture
Correct Cycling Posture
If you are planning to ride on city roads that are plain and do not have steep elevations your speed could easily range between 15 to 25 kilometres/hour on average and the above-mentioned distances are safe. However, if you are planning to ride in hilly areas or roads that have much steeper slopes then you might wanna consider lowering your distance by a kilometre because you would be putting more effort while you are climbing upstream.
Take note that the height of your saddle should be enough so that your legs are completely stretched while paddling to avoid any knee joint pain.
You should sit up straight and your back should be leaning slightly forward but straight.
Diet and Clothing for rides
Every vehicle needs fuel. For a cycle the fuel is the rider's energy. It's important that you eat something at least half an hour before every ride and keep your body fuelled to push those paddles. Also don't forget to carry candies and a water bottle when you are going for longer rides than usual. You can have boiled eggs, milk and so on half an hour before the ride. If you are a vegetarian you can have milk with oats which will start releasing energy on your ride.
For clothing, it depends on the whether. It doesn't hurt to carry an extra piece of clothing just in case the weather becomes cold. Prefer wearing full sleeves if your riding on city streets,
That's it for this blog . You can follow me on Strava - Tejas Mandre