Rides for overweight unfit people?

It is shameful to be an "overweight unfit old cyclist"?

Did you mean 'is it'? :)

The last work in that label

Clivean slip?

This subtle
http://www.meetup.com/Association-of-Tubby-Bas-ards-on-Bikes-ATBB/

Association of Tubby Bas*ards on Bikes (ATBB)

Funny you should know about that lot. :)

http://www.lfgss.com/thread15770.html

Oliver, I am a fat and unfit old man with numb fingers and appalling typing skills.

We know, Clive. Perhaps you should go on a typing course for fat, unfit, sausage-fingered old men. :)

Oliver, I am a fat and unfit old man with numb fingers and appalling typing skills.

+1

.

A monthly "fat club ride" sounds like a good idea more often than that might be a bit much ;-)

How about the "Fat Nodders Tea Party"? Or is that taking it too far?

Assumes overweight = unfit

this

mdcc, got any good links to sessions that you like / recommend?

Nobody in their right mind would take advice from me, I'm old, fat, and slow.

Having said that, I had a good start to the season after including a workout based on a structure developed by Gordon Wright for Stuart Dangerfield
http://www.abcc.co.uk/Articles/wright1.html

Obviously, my version had fewer repetitions at considerably lower absolute power numbers compared with Dangermouse, but the principal is the same; sprints first, then Kilos, then Pursuits. It's a horrible session, but it seems to work.

I like these - http://www.thesufferfest.com/

The stupidity of watching people actually cycle whilst I cycle indoors makes me laugh.

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php/248-Clydesdales-Athenas-(200-lb-91-kg)

ask around on the Clyde and Athena forum.... Most are from the US, but a few European folks chime in about rides occasionally.

I think tester and dmczone need to realise that interval training is an advanced fitness technique, not something for the unfit and seriously overweight.

I disagree. The fat and unfit can do intervals. They can't do them at the intensity a trained athlete does, but if anything they seem to provide even greater benefits for the untrained than they do for trained athletes, in terms of increase in capacity per unit of training time.

Much higher likelihood of injury

Any evidence for this? Most people can't work hard enough on a bike to hurt themselves, but cycling noobs can and do suffer all sorts of minor aches and pains from long sessions because they are not yet adapted to cycling.

Is much tougher and likely to discourage the unfit.

Is a half hour interval session incorporating 5 or 6 reps really tougher than the 2 hour slow ride which would be needed to achieve the same effects? For an athlete, probably, since trained cyclists will do extreme intensity in a short session, but regard a slow 2 hour ride as no exercise at all. For the fat and unfit, the situation may be reversed.

But my suggestion of HIIT was about attacking the 'fat' and 'unfit' problems as efficiently as possible. If the aim is to enjoy cycling with slow weight loss and fitness improvement as a more or less unintended consequence, a different regime is called for.

Cycling is not a great way to lose weight. I rode 950 miles in 9 days and lost only 1lb a day on average.

Cycling is a good way to increase fitness and is a great incentive to adopt a healthier lifestyle and diet that will allow for loss of weight.

One reason that I started cycling was that I didn't see fat cyclists on the road. Now there is at least one. But I am motivated to lose weight to improve my cycling and having lost 9lbs I finally (I hope) have passed the point of inertia on weight loss.

Oh and as someone told me, it is better to be fat and fit than thin and unfit

and another thing is that I really love cycling which motivates me to be a better cyclist.

Intervals are shit for overweight, unfit people unless perhaps they were previously fit or trained.

Why? Because intervals are horrible, un-fun, sweat and puke inducing shitfights on a bike.
(I just did some, not even particularly hard ones)

Go for a ride in the country ffs. Just don't stop at too many pubs. Job done.

This thread has turned into a whole debate about what is or is not best for those overweight and unfit (and for people who've already mentioned it, dan etc, it is entirely possible to be overweight and fit). When what I really wanted to find out was whether or not there were rides that catered for such riders. Not 'oh come on the Dunwich Dynamo, pack a banana, you'll be fine' withstanding such kind but possibly misguided attempts at inclusion from already fit (in comparison) riders.

But there does seem to be a smallish group of people in a similar situation who'd be interested in doing regular rides. It might be worth putting a separate thread up or joining the one on the Ladies forum, but if I do start a group it won't be called anything like Fatties Against Gravity (much to Will's continued and deserved displeasure).

To those who think they're overweight and doubt the mileages they're capable of doing: If I listened to you, I'd never have done the London-Cumbria tour.

This is all.

To those who think they're overweight and doubt the mileages they're capable of doing: If I listened to you, I'd never have done the London-Cumbria tour.

This is all.

That's great Ed, well done you, but are you roughly 5 stone overweight or perhaps a little less?

I was 91kg, now 70kg.

When you did the ride?

Point being, people have got to stop underestimating themselves, they're capable of so much more, overweight or not.

Tmight be worth putting a separate thread up or joining the one on the Ladies forum, but if I do start a group it won't be called anything like Fatties Against Gravity (much to Will's continued and deserved displeasure).

Not at all: FAG sounds like just the sort of group I would lend my support to.