mission

am hoping SHED will see this....SHED do you know anything about the Al Qudra cycling track? Would someone like me (a novice rider) be able to cycle on that track?

Millhouse

I used to go there. It's ok for a beginner. Don't start at the beginning. Drive to the end of the road where the cafe is (and bike hire) and go from there.

Pongo

It is suitable for beginners, however the car park(s) will be very busy early on Friday and Saturday.

commander

you can also go to the autodrome on a Wednesday i recall...

TheShed

Correct Commander. Autodrome on Wed evening from 6-9 if I recall. That's about a 3.5km circuit and is actually good fun with every ability possible in attendance.

Al Qudra is a purpose built cycle track which is effectively split into two parts. The stick and the loop. Coming from Arabian ranches, the first car park is the start of the stick which is 18km up to the cafe, have a cup of tea and some cake and then 18km back down to your car. The loop (starts at the cafe) is 49.4k. All the way round and I would suggest that you get a few more miles on your legs before attempting this as 50k is further than you think with a couple of good hills in the middle. For the very adventurous, there are two extensions to the loop of 20k and 28k which brings the whole circuit, stick, loop and extensions to about 125km. I've done it once and could barely drive the car home.

Friday and Saturday mornings 530 to 830 it's very busy and there are some very big groups riding at high speed which can be daunting to beginnners.

On the stick, there are two or three points where you could safely stop and turn around if it's getting too much.

Hope it helps and don't be afraid to ask for more help/advice. .

TheShed

Forgot to say, all of the tracks are BI-directional so nothing to stop you parking at the cafe and riding down and up the stick (in case you want to hire a bike from there). Gets super busy on weekends so call and reserve a bike by Monday or Tuesday.

mission

Thanks SHED and the others.....I have never been to this Al Qudra cycling track.
I'm going for the first time tomorrow (fri - 6pm) and have reserved a bike to hire from the bike shop....hopefully the dudes in the shop will fill me in on the track distance and what would be suitable for me to do distance wise.
I would go to the Autodrome as well, but I currently don't have a bike....I'm just testing the waters by using tracks where I know I can conveniently hire a bike, without having to transport one in my car.
Thanks SHED for all your in put (very much appreciated) and I know I will probably ask you more stuff as I get more into this cycling malarkey

KJinDoha

The Al Qudra track sounds great.

I hope to check it out some time

Pongo

The track (loop 48km) isn't lit, sunset at 5.45pm tomorrow. How far are you intending to go? Its bi-directional though so you don't have to go all the way around. Or did you mean 6am?

TheShed

Just on my way there now actually

mission

PONGO i meant 6pm....i did the 10km track from the bike shop to the mosque and back and so in total did 20km....which took me just under an hr.
It did start to get fairly dark and so for next week i've booked for 5pm.

mission

SHED - i did the track you suggested from the bike shop to the mosque and back. I struggled a little coz i couldn't work out how the damn gears worked lol
I've booked for next week but changed the timing to 5pm so it's still day light by the time i'm done.
The distance i can manage (20km) and i am sure i can go further (would ideally like to go up to around 30km). My legs are actually fine, but it's my wrist and my palms that start to get very painful....is that normal?
SHED i also wanted to ask you is there a difference between cycling on those 'thin/slim' tyres and the slightly 'thicker/wider' tyres?
When i booked the bike to cycle on the Nad Al Sheba track a couple of weeks ago, i was given a bike with 'thicker/wider' tyres and last night i was given a bike with the slim tyres and so i was just curious to know if there is a difference in performance between the two types of tyres - or is it just a preference thing?

Pongo

TheShed

Hi Mission, first of all well done for what you are achieving so far. 20km for a beginner is not insignificant.

Smaller, thinner tyres will generally roll easier and are thus faster than thicker wheel.

It's normal for certain body parts to ache at the start as the muscles begin to grow but if the hands and wrists are constant,y painful there are three immediate things to look at. If it's soreness on the palm, maybe buy some cycling gloves as it could be friction from the handlebar grips.

Keeping your hands in one position with the wrist bent will cause pain in the tarsal ligaments so try to move your hands around a bit to keep the blood flowing and occasionally take one hand off and shake it around a bit. Search the Interweb for cycling wrist pain and you'll get a fuller description of the condition.

Finally, it could be that the bike is not set up for you and you have too much weight on your arms rather than your derrier which would be fixed when you get your own bike and have it fitted, but next time you're out mention it to the bike shops guys and they should be able to raise the bars or drop the saddle; 😃Either of these to adjustments should move your weight around,

Hope the above helps, but please do persevere. Seems like your catching the cycling bug and will be racing round the 50k loop with us soon . Good luck and keep going.

mission

Many thanks SHED, very much appreciate your feedback.
Re the wrist/palm pain - the wrists actually aren't so bad (coz I do bounce fit during the week we do a lot of exercises using the wrists and so my wrists have definitely gotten stronger), I suspect because my hands aren't use to gripping something for almost an hr, the wrists just need to get use to the positioning.
The palms of my hands are the killer. The first time I cycled around the Nad Al Sheba track it was agony (they became very red) and even the next day there were fairly sore.
This time around, they were painful but the soreness wasn't there the next day and so hopefully palms are also getting a little stronger. But I will definitely make sure the weight distribution between backside and hands is a little more even, as you have suggested - that would have never occurred to me and so thank you for that tip
I'm booked for next fri at 5pm and my bounce fit trainer is also going to join me and so hopefully having someone else to cycle around with will help me focus off the pain