u/Aggressive-Loss5148

I feel like the only poor cyclist on earth. I ride a cheap bike from and bike shorts from Amazon and Meijer. I see folks on reddit making jokes about shitty bikes and I'm just like 😬. I'm not into cycling in a serious way like I was running but it's different because the main focus on gear in terms of running is the shoes and I was able to get some decent ones for under $200. Anyways shout-out to the working class cyclists out there ✊

I decided to get into cycling after being a runner for the past couple of years. Last year at this time I was running 40-49 miles a week, 10-13 miles 4x a week. I had some issues with injuries and ended up hurting my back around December and after finally getting up to 40 miles again in February of this year, I developed shin splints the beginning of April and had to take time off again. Finally said fuck it and decided to get a bike, there are a ton of trails around here close to my house and I figured it'd be easier on my body anyway.

I wanted to kind of do a comparable workout to a 10 mile run so googled "what's the cycling equivalent to a 10 mile run" (I know it's more complicated than that fwiw) 30 miles was the answer. Perfect, there's a trail near my house, I'll take that north for 15 miles and come back.

Well I forgot to EAT this morning. Was cruising along having a good time until about 2 hours in and then i started feeling the lactic acid buildup in my thighs. Took a 10 minute break, drank some water, kept it going. 30 minutes later my thighs were completely fucking fried. I could not go on and had to stop at a bench for 10 minutes just massaging my legs and trying to make the pain stop or at least subside a bit. Anyways to wrap up the story I shuffled my way into a gas station and grabbed an energy gel. Took 10 ish minutes to kick in (couldn't even ride at that point, was pushing my bike, hobbling along). And was able to finish the ride out strong(ish).

That was my first time ever using a gel, I had never used them at all for running. Couldn't believe how well it worked. I still felt kinda shaky but I was able to actually get some speed going and get home.

Took me 3:53. Next time I will be sure to eat and hopefully it won't take me so goddamn long. I just read another post about a guy who did like 50 miles in less time than it took me to do 30. I plan on doing these rides at least 4 times a week so we'll see how long it takes for my stamina to improve. I got home and my fiancee had made me a PBJ and a protein drink. Tasted so damn good 😩

Edit: please don't be mean to me I'm stupid and fragile

Also I don't like the way women's bikes look so would be getting a mens bike. I had a 26 inch from Walmart from a few years ago and the frame felt kinda small for me.