Taking ages to recover

Anonymous

Hi.

Well on a saturday or sunday every week I usually do between an 80 and 115 miles bike ride, now after this my legs ache quite abit, like saturday I did 106miles and after my legs where all stiff and aching, so I thought I will take sunday easy and not do any riding that day, so got to monday, my legs where still abit aching but though I would try a recovery ride, I did about 30 miles that day not pushing hard. Now it is Tuesday and my legs are not so bad but still ache in parts, I cycle to college and back every day this week but I dont push hard.

Is it normal for my legs to take ages to recover? Its abit annoying I want to be able to push harder but dare not at the moment in case I stop my legs from recovering in time for sunday when I will be going out on a club run 100+ miles.

Doom

willhub wrote:

Hi.

Well on a saturday or sunday every week I usually do between an 80 and 115 miles bike ride, now after this my legs ache quite abit, like saturday I did 106miles and after my legs where all stiff and aching, so I thought I will take sunday easy and not do any riding that day, so got to monday, my legs where still abit aching but though I would try a recovery ride, I did about 30 miles that day not pushing hard. Now it is Tuesday and my legs are not so bad but still ache in parts, I cycle to college and back every day this week but I dont push hard.

Is it normal for my legs to take ages to recover? Its abit annoying I want to be able to push harder but dare not at the moment in case I stop my legs from recovering in time for sunday when I will be going out on a club run 100+ miles.

Don't know your specifics but I would suggest your diet is probably insufficient for the mileage your doing. Both on and off the bike feeding is vital if you plan back to back hard training sessions.

Other things that might help is stretching after hard rides but mainly not hammering a ride right up to your door but rather having the last 5min of the ride very easy pace allowing your legs to 'cool down'.

Doobz

on a long ride like that you have to ride the next day to release the lactic acid from your muscles. I prefer to go for a ride with the folks or even chuck my bike on the rollers and get the pedals turning over for 30 - 40 mins even if its only at 14mph.

I had the same issue a few weeks back when I did a long 80mile ride after work and the next day had to take the kids to Chester zoo so could not ride at all. When I got on the bike 2 days after the 80 miler my legs were feeling very weird indeed. It took 5 days of riding shorter 20 - 30mile routes at max 70% HR to get my legs back to feeling as they should..

Lactic Acid = Muscle Poison

I will try and dig out an article that I read to make it more specific..

Hope this helps
adiós
Doobz

Mettan

willhub wrote:

Hi.

Well on a saturday or sunday every week I usually do between an 80 and 115 miles bike ride, now after this my legs ache quite abit, like saturday I did 106miles and after my legs where all stiff and aching

That's not suprising - 100 miles is still a big ride for many. Personally, I'd try and have between 1-4 days off the bike before such a big ride - and yes, after a 100, your legs might need 3 - 4 days or more to "fully" recover. You won't get the best out of your Club-run if your tired, so why not have Friday and Saturday off and then enjoy the Club-run on fresh-er legs.

Toks

Doobz wrote:

on a long ride like that you have to ride the next day to release the lactic acid from your muscles. I prefer to go for a ride with the folks or even chuck my bike on the rollers and get the pedals turning over for 30 - 40 mins even if its only at 14mph.

I had the same issue a few weeks back when I did a long 80mile ride after work and the next day had to take the kids to Chester zoo so could not ride at all. When I got on the bike 2 days after the 80 miler my legs were feeling very weird indeed. It took 5 days of riding shorter 20 - 30mile routes at max 70% HR to get my legs back to feeling as they should..

Lactic Acid = Muscle Poison

I will try and dig out an article that I read to make it more specific..

Hope this helps
adiós
Doobz

Oh deary me :roll: someone needs to do a bit of reading re lactic acid. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/healt ... 16run.html
Also, all the excess 'lactic acid' would've have cleared from your legs within an hour or two of you stopping your ride.

Doobz

lVery Interesting read Toks but I think I will stick with my view on lactic build-up rather then the NY-times and a few scientists who chopped and shocked some frogs LOL -

The article I was referring to is part of the CTS (Carmichael Training system) designed for athletes not frogs?

At the end of the day doing a recovery ride is proven to reduce muscle soreness caused by muscle stress and lactic build-up in the majority of riders - Just because the Newspaper says its not true doesn't mean it is.

adiós
Doobz

Cajun

I'm not medically trained, but I think that only riding once a week and then doing that kind of milage in one day, is not the best for your legs...if you did 30-40 miles, two to three times during the week, then did your long weekend ride, your legs wouldn't suffer as bad.
Recovery: http://www.cptips.com/recvry.htm
Lactic Acid: http://www.cptips.com/bscphys.htm
Home: http://www.cptips.com/toc.htm#table

My personal method is to take 1 tspn of Baking Soda with a package of Electrolyte Stamina, when arriving home. It works for me
http://www.traceminerals.com/products/elstpwrpak.html

Alex_Simmons/RST

Toks wrote:

Doobz wrote:

on a long ride like that you have to ride the next day to release the lactic acid from your muscles. I prefer to go for a ride with the folks or even chuck my bike on the rollers and get the pedals turning over for 30 - 40 mins even if its only at 14mph.

I had the same issue a few weeks back when I did a long 80mile ride after work and the next day had to take the kids to Chester zoo so could not ride at all. When I got on the bike 2 days after the 80 miler my legs were feeling very weird indeed. It took 5 days of riding shorter 20 - 30mile routes at max 70% HR to get my legs back to feeling as they should..

Lactic Acid = Muscle Poison

I will try and dig out an article that I read to make it more specific..

Hope this helps
adiós
Doobz

Oh deary me :roll: someone needs to do a bit of reading re lactic acid. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/healt ... 16run.html
Also, all the excess 'lactic acid' would've have cleared from your legs within an hour or two of you stopping your ride.

Correct. And in the blood it is lactate, not lactic acid.

There is scientific evidence to show that very light riding immediately after a bout of high intensity riding helps to increase the rate at which blood lactate is dispersed. But most of it is gone well within 60 minutes of ceasing exercise at intensity.

Blood lactate is far from being a poison. In fact it is a useful form of fuel, which is resynthesised into glycogen for ongoing energy production needs.

It just has a crap PR manager

Alex_Simmons/RST

willhub wrote:

Hi.

Well on a saturday or sunday every week I usually do between an 80 and 115 miles bike ride, now after this my legs ache quite abit, like saturday I did 106miles and after my legs where all stiff and aching, so I thought I will take sunday easy and not do any riding that day, so got to monday, my legs where still abit aching but though I would try a recovery ride, I did about 30 miles that day not pushing hard. Now it is Tuesday and my legs are not so bad but still ache in parts, I cycle to college and back every day this week but I dont push hard.

Is it normal for my legs to take ages to recover? Its abit annoying I want to be able to push harder but dare not at the moment in case I stop my legs from recovering in time for sunday when I will be going out on a club run 100+ miles.

Your ability to recover is to a large extent dicated by how much of this sort of volume/intensity you have been doing over the past several months and how quickly you have ramped up to this volume/intensity.

"The more you do, the more you can do"

Also, as aerobic endurance fitness improves, so does your ability to recover.

If you have to keep resting and not training simply to make the next weekend ride, then eventually fitness will decline as well.

Alex_Simmons/RST

Doobz wrote:

lVery Interesting read Toks but I think I will stick with my view on lactic build-up rather then the NY-times and a few scientists who chopped and shocked some frogs LOL -

The article I was referring to is part of the CTS (Carmichael Training system) designed for athletes not frogs?

At the end of the day doing a recovery ride is proven to reduce muscle soreness caused by muscle stress and lactic build-up in the majority of riders - Just because the Newspaper says its not true doesn't mean it is.

adiós
Doobz

Then perhaps you should try a decent exercise physiology textbook or scientific studies on cyclists involving measurements of blood lactate concentration before, during and after exercise. Or go on believing a lactic acid myth, and BTW the world is flat too... :roll:

Toks

Doobz wrote:

lVery Interesting read Toks but I think I will stick with my view on lactic build-up rather then the NY-times and a few scientists who chopped and shocked some frogs LOL -

The article I was referring to is part of the CTS (Carmichael Training system) designed for athletes not frogs?

At the end of the day doing a recovery ride is proven to reduce muscle soreness caused by muscle stress and lactic build-up in the majority of riders - Just because the Newspaper says its not true doesn't mean it is.

adiós
Doobz

Oh bless you! I I used to believe carrying a heavy ruck sac on my back while riding up hills would make me faster cause I a mate told me so. I just got tendinitis in my left knee and didn't get faster. And i thought riding really slowly all winter would make me faster cause 1st cat rider told me too. That didn't work either.

You're either into 'evidenced based training' or 'belief based training'. You keep believing mate, personally i like to cut to the chase so scientific evidence does it for me everytime. Ask Alex or Ric

Doobz

thanks guys I will have to have a read of that geeky stuff sometime


adios
Doobz

don_don

I'm no expert willhub, but I'd strongly recommend using a protein recovery drink (SIS Rego or similar) immediately after a big ride and maybe also before you go to bed that night. I think a lot of us don't get enough protein for the body to recover properly after a big day out. Your muscles are then left 'gasping' for protein which ends up being 'pinched' from other parts of the body (afaik, having read about it in a mag somewhere!).

I've been using USN protein drinks (from local health store, cheaper in large tubs) for some time and they definitely seem to help me recover from a hard ride. The night-time drink seems to help me sleep a bit better too! I only use the stuff after a ride, not every day.

Hope this helps, no-one else seems to have mentioned it.