So here I am. I have a nice bike which is far more capable than what I require or deserve to ride and no clue as to the best method to work my way into riding. I live at Park beach in Tassie and have plenty of options for riding routes so last July, when I started out, I opted on doing short sprints as hard as I could as a way of building up. Essentially the course was 12Ks and I did that 18 times over a number of weeks and steadily improved my time to just under 23 minutes. Unfortunately, I had a major interruption come my way which completely railroaded my riding plan... temporarily. Having got past this speed bump I found it hard to get going again as I was in the last stage of a uni degree which I completed last month. So back to the start. Except my 12K course has a nasty little hill and I did not feel up to the challenge so I have selected a different route as a means of "getting back on the bike". Even shorter, 8 Ks and I did that today in 16:45. So my strategy is to do these short blasts where I go as hard as I can in order to build a level of fitness where I can then arrive at a starting point. Ultimately I would like to join in a ride here in Tassie that covers about 50Ks and then proceed to the next phase.
I realise that my method is most likely unorthodox and that is due to my lack of knowledge. I like it because it is a bit of a challenge. Essentially, when I leave my door my goal is to get back with a better set of numbers each time I go out. I also realise that the distance I am riding would barely represent a warm up to most of you here... for me though, when I get back to the start, I am hammered... mind you, I go as hard as I can.
And for the record, I am male, 55, 73 kg, 5'8". Here is the Strava entry from my ride today http://app.strava.com/activities/67679075. So the purpose of this post is to seek advice on the best way to proceed in order to join a group riding 50Ks. At the moment I would be left behind... at the coffee shop
