Fat beginner recovery

robthehungrymonkey

Although never really into cycling I used to be pretty fit, playing football, rugby, tennis all more than once a week. And then lived in Ski resorts excercising a lot. Since then i've been injured and stopped all the competitive sports and resulted in putting on loads of weight.

Am now cycling (which i'm thoroughly enjoying).

I've set myself some hugely optimistic weight loss and cycling distance goals, but what is holding me back is my damn quads!

At first when I got back on the bike, it was my lungs etc holding me back (almost feeling faint when i got back from a ride). But now, I have the enthusiasm (which has been missing for the past few years), and i don't get out of breathe, but even after rest days my legs often just feel tired before i get to the end of my lane.

I have relatively big powerful quads, and if they feel fine at the beginning, they normally cope fine throughout the ride. It's purely that they don't recover very quickly.

Anything I can do to help the recovery? Is it worth applying deep heat or anything to stimulate the blood flow?

McBain_v1

Sounds like a basic stamina short fall if you ask me.
Deat Heat will certainly stimulate blood flow and possibly flush away some lactic acid, but you need to be getting more miles in your legs 8)

robthehungrymonkey

McBain_v1 wrote:

Sounds like a basic stamina short fall if you ask me.
Deat Heat will certainly stimulate blood flow and possibly flush away some lactic acid, but you need to be getting more miles in your legs 8)

No magical ways to aid recovery to get the increased mileage then?!

It's frustrating, that I can't increase the mileage as quickly as I want to.

twoodhead

Not sure if this old link about diet might help you on your way?

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/health/article/nutrition-injury-beating-foods-17256

robthehungrymonkey

twoodhead wrote:

Not sure if this old link about diet might help you on your way?

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/health/article/nutrition-injury-beating-foods-17256

That is interesting, I might add vit C supplements to my diet.

Thanks,

fuzzynavel

robthehungrymonkey wrote:

twoodhead wrote:

Not sure if this old link about diet might help you on your way?

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/health/article/nutrition-injury-beating-foods-17256

That is interesting, I might add vit C supplements to my diet.

Thanks,

Maybe your muscles are fatigued because of your diet. Do you take on plenty of carbs and protein after your ride to aid recovery?

robthehungrymonkey

Carbs aren't an issue! I think that's the main reason i put on loads of weight when I stopped excercising so regularly, loads of pasta, potatoes and bread. I wouldn't have thought protein would be too bad either, but that's not as clear cut.

nmcgann

Just ride - you need to build cycling-specific leg strength and it takes a while.

It can help if you keep your cadence up to reduce the stress on your leg muscles.

Neil