C25K- by bike? Advice needed for a newbie please!

[Jess93]

Hello there! I'm Jess93, and I'm new around here.

I've just graduated from C25K (running), and really enjoyed it. Although I can't manage a full 5k in 30 minutes, as promised I've gone from being unable to run to managing about 4.5k in the 30 minutes- which for me is a stupendous achievement.

So here's my question- I've recently acquired access to a stationary bike (I don't have an actual bike), but haven't been on a bike in almost a decade. I like the C25K program, so I was wondering if I could do it by bike?

My current thinking is just to pick 3 resistance settings on the bike controls for warm-up/cool down, 'walking' and 'running' and try to maintain a constant leg-movement-speed. Is this correct? I know the distances won't match up, but I can't think of any other way to do this.

All advice, thoughts and opinions very gratefully received!

[Flossie22 Graduate]

Hmmm . . . Is there a similar podcast programme for cycling? Have you already had a look? If not, I would have thought as long as you warm up and cool down and gradually build up your time in between and maybe your resistance, it should be fine. But do take it easy, slow and steady is probably the same motto you should apply to your cycling. I've been on a 15 mile cycle outdoors with my elder son last summer, up and down hills, having gone from 1-2 miles, or maybe 5 miles max before, and fortunately for me, it was fine. I think your idea sounds great! Good luck with your "indoor" cycling.

[Jess93 in reply to Flossie22]

I had a quick look but couldn't find anything, and I really like having Laura telling me what I should be doing when (if only because I'm not very good at clock-watching). I just don't know if following the same timings would be too much or too little for a newbie, that's all.

[Flossie22 Graduate in reply to Jess93]

Listen to your body. Try it first with Laura, and see how it goes. Are there any cycling apps like running ones (runsocial.com) you could download and somehow watch while you cycle? Or perhaps you could just download runsocial.com, it's a free app. Just a thought.

[Jess93 in reply to Flossie22]

I'll have a look and see what I can find- for C25K I had to download the podcasts onto an ancient mp3 player, as it was all I had!

Thank you so much for the advice- I really appreciate it!

[Flossie22 Graduate in reply to Jess93]

You're welcome 😊

[Realfoodieclub Graduate]

We had one gentleman who was using oxygen and he did the whole program on the stationary cycle, he said it was great for building up his stamina in a controlled way. I think he might of repeated a couple of weeks so that's always an option if you don't feel up to any of the increases and then just like the running go at a pace that is comfortable to you.