I'm trying to stay motivated to get bike fit.

Im def seeing improvements to my hills, but im still a long way off being as fit as i want to be.

(Treehugger can vouch for when i first started i'd nearly die on the hills, where now i can ride most things but im still on granny ring or close to it and very very slow. )

I often get a bit low and wonder if i'll ever be fit? will I ever be a decent pace on the hills and be able to offroad 50km per ride? 

My aim this summer is to try to bike min twice a week midweek. 20km one ride and shorter the other. then go out every weekend for as long a ride as i can. Hopefully this should be enough to see improvements after a few months?

so inspire me!

tell me how you felt the same as me, but now your really fit!

how did you do it? how long did it take, tips etc 

well i would say have smaller goals...like...I'm gonna ride that hill I cant do...the end of May or I'm gonna ride all the hills in one harder gear.

Dont beat yourself up...nothing wrong with granny ring..I'd be dead in wales without it, its too much for too long even on the shorter 20k rides.

Run...running is such a no faff quick way to get fit and has helped my bike fitness incredibly.  I'm no natural but saw a great difference to my endurance on my last wales trip a coupla weeks ago. I find you have to take yourself out of your comfort zone to improve..if its comfortable its not stretching you.

I do a little bit every day... 5k run, 12 miles off road or gym each one has its merits run is quick and hassel free, bike is a real de stress and masses or fun and the gym is all round fitness. 

Commit to 5 days a week even if its only 30 mins cardio and this routine will become a habit and you'll extend your rides and runs and really feel the benefit.

A week away somewhere during which you cycle every day (or nearly) is good. Well, a week in the Elan Valley/Cambrian Mountains area of Wales worked wonders for me. I managed 255 (hilly) miles over 6 days to help with general strength for Paris-Roubaix (  ) even if it was useless as far as the cobbles are concerned....

(On that note, aside from the cobbles by the Tower of London (that marathon runners get to experience) can anyone suggest any long-ish stretches of cobbles in central London that I can practice on?

Ta.)

But... if you can get away, even for a long weekend, and have a biking blitz hopefully it should motivate you splendidly, as it did me (though maybe worth noting I was on-road and I'm presuming from your post above that you are talking specifically about off-roading).

hi opiumia,

yes sorry i always presume everyone on this site is offroad, sorry.

at the moment if i go away for a weekend i can do 2 days on but then need a rest - but i think you might be right and i should just go through the pain barrier (arse mainly) and try to ride for more days on the trott.

i have a feeling im not pushing myself enough. ie. if up a hill im happy going up but i think i need to push much harder so my legs actually feel .... if you know what i mean.

ruth: i take goals smaller on each ride, im just talking about general goals i guess. i've been riding over a year now and i'd hoped id be fitter byy now and im not

your on!

i'm going to really push myself on the hills tonight. hopefully won't be too much of a wreck half way round

Agree with what Ruthie says!  It needs to hurt for you to improve and running works wonders (providing you don't injure yourself), I'm kind of running more than cycling at the minute as I'm training for a long trail race over Garburn pass but it has helped my endurance and leg strength immensely, I prefer to run offroad and try to run on lots of the tracks and trails I MTB on, the fact you don't get any rests when running really helps your base fitness.

 I also wouldn't be without my granny ring and I've been MTBing a good few years now, on some of the shorter midweek rides we do that I know well I will challenge myself not to use the granny ring but on longer rides or stuff I don't know well I will often use the easier gears to spare my legs.  Its not just about the gear you are in, your cadence makes a difference too.  I have a friend that rides hills in similar gears to me though I will pull away from her easily as my cadence is a lot faster than hers. 

How often do you ride currently?  If you "aim" to do two rides a week in the summer does that mean you are not consistently doing two rides a week at the minute ?  Biking twice a week will help but I found my fitness improved a lot by doing more, consistently.  It used to be all cycling but now I supplement it with running and I do something most days with generally Friday as a complete day off.

 I've also found that if you always ride with people faster than you then you'll always feel unfit!  You tend to get caught up in trying to catch up to them and miss the little improvements in yourself along the way, these little improvements do add up.  I ride with blokes mainly and they are all pretty handy riders so I've gotten used to being off the back all the time but when I first started riding with them I would get to the top of the hill, breathing through every orifice, purple with exertion and ready to keel over whereas they would all be stood around chatting and laughing as if they'd done nothing.  These days most of them will still beat me to the top of the hill but now when I get there I can tell it hurt them just as much (or more as I don't succumb to the testosterone frenzy) as it hurt me - that makes me happy!

hi julbags - thanks for your post. that makes alot of sense and i appreicate your thoughts on the subject.

very interesting point on cadence - id not even heard of that term before a bit of googleing

i've been riding about a year and half ish now, ride most weekends once and midweek only in summer when the nights are light. hence me now wanting to get out twice midweek ( last summer was once a week but not every week)

im alot more into my biking now whereas at first i'd have been tag teaming weekends with either climbing or biking.

im being impatient i know but i really want to be as fit as everyone else so that it won't hold me back as much on doing certain types of rides and going away for weekends.

i think the key now im plateau'ing is for me to push myself harder on local trails now. India - can be my coach  

just ranting and being grumpy, i know its going to take time to get fit and it doesnt come by magic.

Ads I know exactly what you mean, I still think this lot are fast on hills!!!  When I started riding I was so slow on hills.  I went on a peak ride that Mrs NBT organised and I had to walk most of the hills, up and down.  Commuting has made a big difference to me!!!  Also I knew I had to get better at hills so I took my bike out found a hill and rode up and down it, I did it on road but have done it off-road as well.  It hurts and at first I couldn't get to the top of the hill I choose, now I ride it on the way to longer rides.  In fact I now say only Belmont hill to do now, I used to stop about 5 times on the way over.

I write a blog to motivate me, I can look back over my rides and see how much fun it is, I also like it when people comment on my rides.

I think you're worrying too much.

Having been on mtbs for 10 years, I've seen my fitness come and go.

7 years ago I was at the gym 4 days a week, all sorts of training, aerobics classes etc.  This didn't seem to help much.  So I then decided just to cycle and what a difference.  Oh and walking too.

I strongly feel that we are also made differently.  I'm sure if you compared yourself to other women of your age group, you would be extreemly fit.

Also have a look at the food you eat.  Carbo load a bit before longer rides, e.g a  large pasta meal the night before.  

At the moment I have got back into biking after managing only a few rides in the last 12 months.

I just take myself off 3 times a week and do a loop which is an hour long, this includes a mile of just flat stuff, then one or 2 easy climbs, each time i've done these climbs I've pushed myself a little further.  So I am getting out on slightly bigger rides at the weekend and adding on more milage and harder climbs.

But the main thing is to enjoy it.  I realised many years ago, that people don't mind waiting.

Just keep riding and make the most of the dry trails.  :0) 

well everyone what a difference a ride makes.

went out last night and tried my hardest to go faster on teh hills and i was amazed how much better i was!

massive confidence boost for me.

i was wasted at the end. really chuffed with how i did on the hills. i think im through the plateau and starting to see improvements again

trio - your blog is awesome!

mrs nbt - we were talking about you last night, i still havent met you. meet up soon for a ride . 

The other thing is Ads I bet you always ride with the same people who are very fast on hills.  I went out with the guy I started riding with, then I started with riding with Shecycles lot and he stopped for the winter.  To him I was flying up hills, made me see how far I had come.  But when you ride with the same group they get better as you get better!  So it's hard to see how you are doing.  It's good to have a ride where you really push it every so now and again, then when you go back to just riding you'll see little improvements.

Well done ads

I must get my ass into gear and get out riding

Nice blog Trio!   Exactly where do you ride on Winter Hill then, I thought it was all footpath?  I think we are the only mountain bikers in Lancashire who don't venture on to it!  (Doesn't help one of our group is a countryside ranger for Lancashire County Council I suppose).

 Trying to find some new tracks to add to our Rivi loop which I've done to death over the years.

Well yes technically there is a lot of footpath on it.  But you can get onto Winter Hill by concessionary bridleways and when I'm just riding to Rivi I use these.  If you go over the top and down Belmont descent (best descent in the area) it is footpath at the moment but it is one of the ones that is in the process of being upgraded, there is a document on the web with a map showing all the trails that are being upgraded.  I only ride the footpaths in the evening or quiet days during the week, I hate it when you see mountain bikers flying down them on a busy saturday.

Now i should pick your brains julbags, I want to ride to Darwen Tower, my map shows lots of footpaths but I've been told lots of them are now bridleways, can you recommend a good route?

thanks trio & pootle! 

yep i blame you lot for being so fast!

it's great though to help motivate me to join you all! if i was riding with peeps the same as me, i prob wouldnt try so hard to get faster  

Its mainly concessionary bridleway up on the moors, some things are still footpath and some are just best avoided particularly if wet but at the minute everything is quite dry (apart from the knee deep bog I managed to run straight into on Monday, but that's just me not paying attention).  I run a lot round there now and over Great Hill so I've discovered a lot of paths that way and earmarked a few to try on the bike but like you would only venture onto them at quiet times.

Where do you want to start from Trio?  We have a loop we do often which is basically two of our midweek loops joined together, usually starting from Abbey Village - up to the tower, over the top of the moors, drop back down to Tockholes road, then off along Catherine Edge to Belmont, up the road out of Belmont then take the wide cobbly path that pops out at the pigeon tower then a loop round the Rivi area taking in Healey Nab/Pike etc and back again, its about 37 miles all in.  If I map our Abbey Village loop on something like Runstoppable or something you may be able to get an idea where we go and relate it to an OS map?

Will have a look for this doco about the footpaths then...about time they upgraded some of them.