Recovery time advice pls?

[Slaav]

So two weeks off the bike and way behind with the training schedule. Need to make up some time and training somwhere.

(Don't forget I am new to this lark after 25yrs+ out of the saddle...)

Did 20 miles 2 weeks agon on the Sunday and then went down with the lurgy.... did the same ride yesterday, Friday - knocked 15 mins off the time so pleased with that - now going for a 30 mile target tomorrow. Still relatively flat.

So, what sort of recovery time should I be looking at between my 'longer' rides? Guess I need to get many more in (6 weeks to go to a 200 mile weekend).

Question is how much, how often and what recovery really? Most I would go for is probably a 40 miler with hills; 2 wk goal on that one.

Recovery though? Legs feel very dead today and although looking forward to 30 mile tomorrow, is that enough 'rest' between rides? (Obviously different for an experienced or club rider)

Thanks for any advice and pointers....

[b2hbm]

You're going to get lots of different answers to that one !

When I started riding again I tended to do shorter rides, typically an hour but as hard as I could go. 2 days on/rest/3 days on/rest to make up the week. If I felt the "dead legs" on a day I'd just go out and potter along in a low gear without pushing. There is a theory about active recovery where your muscles recover quicker under a light load because the blood flows around and they get light use and that worked for me.

Push up your target mileages by all means, but my take would be that you recover quicker from shorter rides so you'd still build up your weekly mileages and overall stamina. As you might guess, I'm not a fan of the long Sunday bash and then spending the next 3 days hobbling around like a geriatric !

[Slaav]

Thanks for that. I can see how that would work.

Unfortunately my diary/lifestyle means that I am in practice limited to weekends (inc Fri) for longer rides. I have been riding hard home in London on Boris Bikes - gradually trying to cut my time each spin. Only a max of 25 mins though - suppose I could change bikes and do a few circuits of Regents Park to lengthen that...

Not far, but dont want to go 4 days without riding or the long one will kill me I imagine.

I guess there will be many theories but it may well boil down to what works best for each of us. Would be nice to have a theoretical training plan mapped out and then tweak it rather than just bumble along...

Any other thoughts?

[okgo]

I don't have rest days due to it being commuting, but if I have done a long ride I'll take it easy the next day to work and spin a higher cadence than usual.

Stretching after the ride is very helpful, it's made my legs not feel like lead after a 300 mile week.

[yellowjack]

okgo said:

Stretching after the ride is very helpful, it's made my legs not feel like lead after a 300 mile week.

+1 on this. Get some good advice on warming down and stretching, especially for the legs. I know that it works, because I suffer SOOOOOO much more if I neglect the post ride stretches my physio showed me. Don't forget to give the arms and upper body some attention too - all that time absorbing road vibration through wrists/elbows/shoulders can take it's toll too.

[B1G GK]

Stretch stretch and stretch abit more after a long ride.
Try and do 2 long rides 1 day after another, if your doing a 200 mile wkend it may give you a clue how your legs will feel on day 2, and the 3rd day if your doing a 3er.
Other than that if youve got heavy legs just go at a slower pace or gear dependant on your mood.

If you can try and get somekind of program, I kinda had 1 last year for my training, of course it was work dependant etc with me working shifts at the time and being away from home so there would sometimes be gaps between days, I used this both on and off road.

Day 1 - Long ride
Day 2 - Easy amble
Day 3 - Sprint
Day 4 - Medium milage
Day 5 - Long ride
Day 6 - Sprint

[Slaav]

B1G GK said:

Stretch stretch and stretch abit more after a long ride.
Try and do 2 long rides 1 day after another, if your doing a 200 mile wkend it may give you a clue how your legs will feel on day 2, and the 3rd day if your doing a 3er.
Other than that if youve got heavy legs just go at a slower pace or gear dependant on your mood.

If you can try and get somekind of program, I kinda had 1 last year for my training, of course it was work dependant etc with me working shifts at the time and being away from home so there would sometimes be gaps between days, I used this both on and off road.

Day 1 - Long ride
Day 2 - Easy amble
Day 3 - Sprint
Day 4 - Medium milage
Day 5 - Long ride
Day 6 - Sprint

I must say I like the look of this. Plenty of saddle time which should enable me to 'man up' and not complain all the time about the saddle. Also has plenty of variety and as such, should help with teh dreaded HILLS!

Will try and give this a go in one form or other for two weeks and maybe slip a rest day in there as I am a fat bast4rd

Thanks again for tips etc

[Gargamel]

I guess it is kind of obvious but, there are really on two controllables here, power and weight. I ran a marathon two years ago, I was 12st 7 lbs when I ran. I am now a smudge under 14 stone. (still look amazing though;) )



Therefore I could get around an 8% improvement in my cycling by losing a stone, higher power to weight, less drag, need less muscle power, less weight on your wrists etc.



Saddle time is important, but food portion control, and limiting yourself to around 2000 calories a day for those six weeks will give you a substantial boost. Especially over 200 miles.

[Slaav]

A very fair point.

I got into some banter with someone about weight and the merits of carbon frames etc. I pointed out that missing a few pies would save me £1K or so on the weight of the bike! Took his legs away slightly....

Losing weight now and thinking of not resting today but going for an easy warm up and then a HILL!!!!

[okgo]

Id like to see what a kilo off the bike eqautes to in terms of bodyweight, its not like for like that's for sure.

[Slaav]

okgo said:

Id like to see what a kilo off the bike eqautes to in terms of bodyweight, its not like for like that's for sure.

At 18St when bought the bike; I would hope to lose more than the bike weighs before the big ride in 6 weeks.....

And having ridden 30m yesterday, I didnt leave enough recovery to try something stupid today. Wandered off with a view to having a light loosener over 8-10 miles nice and easy.

Instead, turned left out of the drive instead of right... BIG mistake as through the village has a couple of steep hills and then 5 mins later; mother of all short and very steep hills! Bl00dy killer..... Probably only a couple of hundred yards long at most but very steep.

OUCH!