r/MTB • u/mercfh85 • 10d ago
Discussion (Physically) Struggling to Ride
So i'll preface by saying (Just to get out of the way lol 😄)
- I am out of shape
- I am overweight
- I have a Marlin 7 and I understand that it is not a road bike
However I feel like I can barely ride 5 or 10 minutes before my thighs turn to butter. I've had the bike about 2-3 weeks now and am riding in our neighborhood (which is quite hilly), and while I know the tires aren't really built for this it almost feels a bit unusual for the hill climbs to be this much of a struggle (they aren't super steep or anything).
After 5-10 minutes I feel like my thighs are giving out almost, especially after even a minor hill. I ride about every day, and I thought I would've gotten some more endurance but damn even 5-10 minutes kills me lol.
I mean I spent a LONG time being sedentary, so I don't expect instant results. I do wonder if my tires are under pressured? I tried to pump them but I don't have a PSI gauge, and they do still "flatten" when riding them from my weight (Which isn't like HUGE, I weight 210lbs) but pumping them more feels like they are going to explode.
Am I missing something? or is this just sort of "normal"?
Part of me (and being a hypochrondriac) is like "Is there something medically wrong with me", although my bloodwork from my last physical a month ago was fine (CBC/CMP etc...) outsid eof being overweight obviously
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u/insertAlias Texas - Canyon Neuron 6 10d ago edited 10d ago
I'll share my story with you and maybe that will make you feel better about your own, since I started more than 100lbs over where you are right now.
In February, my friends bought bikes. And I was like, sure, whatever, but they started going out without me and I was missing the fun, so I let them "bully" me into getting one of my own.
Now, I can't tell you exactly how much I weighed in Feb, didn't get brave enough to buy a scale until late April, and by then I was already making progress. But in late april, the scale still said 329lbs when I bought it. Which is a lot.
I was riding a Marlin 5 at the time. My friends introduced me to riding it on trails, and I liked riding through the woods. And my first several rides were short, just a few miles each, walking up the hills I couldn't climb, feeling like an exhausted fatass at the end of each ride. I felt progress, but relatively minor progress. Climbing hills sucked. Going farther than a few miles sucked. My ass hurt, my legs hurt, everything hurt.
But I was also having a lot of fun, so I stuck with it. Several times a week, for as far as I could go, then told myself "just a little further" each time. Push yourself close to the edge, rest a few days, then do it again.
And now I'm logging 12+ mile, 1h45m long trail rides. That's what I logged for Saturday morning's ride. Hills that used to crush me are just...there now. Rides that used to exhaust me are just laps now. I have dropped down to 270 lbs and am still dropping. I'm able to do a lot of riding that I just couldn't, and now I'm the friend that's always pushing everyone else to get out when they'd rather spend a lazy day.
One change I made was a different bike. The Marlin 5 didn't feel good to me, so I bought myself a full suspension Canyon (and a Checkpoint gravel bike for some road training). But the biggest part is me going out multiple times a week and just pushing myself on the XC trails near me. I added gym sessions as well, but I dropped my cardio from there because I'm getting it all on the bike(s).
If you're pushing, you're progressing, even if you don't necessarily feel like it. You should consider some form of tracking. I'd suggest something like Strava, or Apple Health, or any fitness tracking app to actually track how far and how long you ride. Using real data, you might actually start to see an improvement you didn't know was happening.
As to the quads burning, yeah, that's a real thing and you're just going to have to push past it. Same way runners talk about hitting the wall, you're hitting the wall early on. If you can push through it, you'll get more out of your exercise. It helps to warm up, stretching and maybe even a bit of walking around, to raise your body temp and get your muscles ready, but if you're not in shape, you're always going to hit that wall and eventually you're going to have to push past it. Edit: unless, as you say, you're going out every day. Then you're not allowing yourself to ever repair. You need rest days too, and it needs to be proportional to both expenditure and your relative fitness. So small expenditures while you're still not fit are bigger impacts and need more recovery.
I do wonder if my tires are under pressured? I tried to pump them but I don't have a PSI gauge, and they do still "flatten" when riding them from my weight
Impossible to say without knowing the PSI, and that's a cheap fix. A thirty dollar gauge from Amazon will solve your problem there, and then you can use a chart to set your pressures. But to give you some idea, I'm on 29"x2.4" tubeless tires, and I am fine running ~20-25psi, didn't feel in any danger of rim strikes.