45
The short answer is: not that difficult. The long answer requires some explanation.
The equations of motion for a rider on a bicycle are well-understood if not always well-known. The power needed to propel a bicycle on firm flat ground (as on a velodrome) varies approximately with the cube of speed. Thus, to double your speed, you would need to increase ...
41
First, different people have different optimum cadence. So that's one thing that explains different cadence between different cyclists.
Second, to travel at any given speed requires a certain amount of power. You can get more power by pushing harder at the same cadence, or you can pedal faster at the same level of force (or you can pedal harder and faster....
40
First thing first: Barbie should NEVER suffer a penalty because of Ken's preferences or athletic level. It is up to Ken to solve by himself the problem of making Barbie enjoy the ride. Leaving her alone is not fine, unless she explicitly, truly says it is.
One possibility could be to add weight to Ken's bike, or maybe Ken could choose, among his many bikes, ...
29
A fit person can do 50km without too much difficulty, though they'll probably be sore from the effort if they don't cycle much, just because cycling uses different muscles to, say, running. It wouldn't be easy, but it wouldn't be too hard.
It sounds like you're not very fit. If you were determined, you could probably make it around 50km but I doubt it ...
27
Regular aerobic exercise is definitely of value for preparing for a big ride. Spin is a good preparation in conjunction with some outdoor rides, but it is not a substitute for riding your bike on the road.
The feel of the bike, the balance, the momentum, and the environmental and traffic factors will have an effect on your fitness as well, some of which ...
26
If Ken is training that hard, he should have rest days with easy rides. Barbie should join him on a rest day easy ride, preferably the day after the hardest ride he does all week. Ken should also realize that allowing Barbie to set the pace ensures that he will not be over training.
As heltonbiker has mentioned in his comment, this can also be done on the ...
26
More than likely it is normal and frankly your legs probably aren't used to it. 17 miles is a long way for a beginner so I would pat yourself on the back for that.
You may also benefit from a proper fit from a bike shop. As a lot of beginners either have their seat too high or too low which can limit your power and actually cause you to tire quicker, ...
23
Focussing on the "training harder" aspect of your question:
A simple way for training hard while keeping your speed comparatively low would be to increase your cadence.
The easiest approach: Try switching a gear or two lower than you normally feel comfortable with, meaning you will have to pedal faster to keep the same speed.
One of the advantages of ...
22
You could probably add training wheels, but not a crank. There simply isn't anywhere on the frame for cranks to go. Also, adding training wheels to a balance bike is kind of defeating the purpose of a balance bike. It's meant to be an alternative to training wheels that allows the child to learn to steer into falls and "scoot" around and eventually learn ...
21
The correct answer is both. You should do a long ride, around 80% of your goal distance 4 days before your actual ride, and then rest off the bike for 3 days.
That gives your body a wake up call that serious exercise is coming, and then a rest period to build up for it.
This answer has some explanation about why, but the only real debate is in the timing ...
19
Your question is simple but a full answer is complex. The simplest answer is to point to Part 2 (especially chapter 4) of Wilson and Papadopoulos (2004), or the recent review by Debraux et al. (2011), or the paper by Martin et al. (1998). However, even these papers do not cover approaches that take better advantage of the data available from modern bicycle ...
19
If you want to play nice, this ride is going to be quite gentle and sociable for you. That means it could be a good fit for a recovery ride. Read up on recovery riding, but you should find it’s recommended to have a nice steady ride where you keep your heart rate down low (like zone 2), and if you get it too elevated, even by a little bit you spoil the whole ...
18
This happens during nesting season. These birds get aggressive and try to protect their territory near the nest. They should stop this behavior when nesting season is over.
One main suggestion I've seen seem to be to look them in the eyes. Also, you might try to put wire ties or ribbons in your helmet facing up and back to deter the attacks.
However, ...
18
In addition to the answer by @Nate, I also commend you for putting in 17 miles after a 24 miles ride. Don't beat yourself up over struggling a little.
Be sure you allow plenty of recovery time. You do not get fit exercising, you get fit recovering from exercise. If you do not allow time to fully recover, you will struggle to get fitter. Two days after a ...
18
No, not possible.
If you want to go the other way, buy a 12 inch bike and then remove the chain/pedals/bottom bracket/bearings and degrease it. Store the parts so they don't rust. Optionally put something over the ends of the BB tube to protect the threads, even some duct tape would help.
When the kid is old enough, refit all the transmission parts.
...
17
I would suggest that if Ken and Barbie want to continue biking together that Ken should learn that not every bike ride has to be about getting a work out or training. I mean, what happens when little sister Kelly visits and wants to go for a bike ride with them? Is Ken going to just leave them in the dust? Alternatively if Ken really insists on trying to ...
17
Advice in book Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald goes something like this, paraphrased:
Yes, training without carbohydrates will train your body to use stored fat better. But your capacity to train will go down (not enough fuel!), and net result will be less improvement.
It references this study, which compares two groups of athletes on hi-carb and low-carb ...
17
Honestly? 6 days is a bit late to do anything significant. You should probably do ~5-15 mile rides for the next 4 days, and have at most a short 2 mile ride on day 5, and then you've got your event.
Try and do your rides on similar terrain/roads if possible. Ideally you'd do pieces of the real road - they always feel "shorter" on subsequent trips.
Don'...
16
Unless you are riding big hills, weight makes surprisingly little difference. Even on hills, you may be surprised how little effect it has.
You want to increase rolling resistance so you slow down when you stop putting in power. Fat knobbly MTB tires at low pressure slow me down more than enough on the road.... Those old school bottle dynamos work a treat....
15
The OP needs to cover 150km on flat surface within 12 hours. It's the average speed of 12.5 km/h.
Even if we are more realistic and allow for one hour break every 2h15', we end up with four stages of less than 38km each to be ridden at the average of less than 17km/h.
If we put some challenge into the event and, let's say, set on the average speed (excluding ...
14
Breathe however you need to in order to get oxygen in. This goes for your mouth, nose or a combination of both.
Riders warming up on their trainers have cotton in their noses that contains something like vapor rub that helps open up the nasal passages. They don't have it in their noses during the race itself.
13
The "pure" answer to the question as asked is probably as others have said, climb as much as possible. But perhaps a better answer is to admit that cycling is awesome for aerobic fitness and leg strength but not as great on the upper body.
Obviously, cross-training is an option, but even if you are 100% committed to your bike, you can probably get ...
13
TCX and FIT are designed for fitness activities, so they can contain more fitness data than GPX.
eg TCX or FIT supports laps (splits). So your device could record a new lap whenever you press the lap button, or automatically after a set distance, eg every 1km. Also they support pauses, if you want to stop the activity at one point, then start again later. ...
13
Riding 50 miles (80km) in a day is a fairly modest goal. Doing it three days in a row is only slightly more ambitious. As a fit (as you will be when you do it) person to ride 80km, you could expect to take 3 to 3.5 hours if you rode hard, and 4 hours if you took it easy.
The difference is how you will feel the next day. For the actual ride, plan on taking ...
13
I'm in the do it this year camp.
In comments you say you can currently ride probably a painful 60 (miles).
In general, a conservative plan is to extend your ride distances by 10% per week. But it's important to realize that marathon and iron man athletes do not train by running a marathon each week. The aim of their training is to build deep core fitness ...
13
It's probably not a great idea. Start with a shorter route and see how you do. Pick a flat route without hills. Make sure you have a bail out and a way to get home (public transport, a friend, Uber etc.).
You probably should get a bike shop to have a look over your bike for any issues, you don't want to get stranded by something going wrong or have any ...
12
What is the fastest possible way for you to stop?
For me, it's pulling hard on the front brake, with my rear end well behind the seat. Ideally my rear wheel will be a couple inches off the ground the whole time. Actually achieving this is virtually impossible, but it should be the goal.
The braking technique you should use is a "light" version of whatever ...
11
VO2 Max refers to the maximum volume of oxygen that an individual can use at maximum levels of intense aerobic exercise. It is usually reported as as milliliters of oxygen used in one minute per kilogram of body weight, though sometimes you see liters of oxygen per minute with no adjustment for body weight. The former measurement is more useful in exercise ...
11
If they're ambitious, they could try out a tandem, so that Ken can do more of the work while still riding at the same pace as Barbie. Just remember that this can potentially cause unhappiness in its own ways, if they don't work together well!
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
