Is it normal to lose fitness in 5 months?

miurasv

Just started back cycling after a 5 month lay off due to the weather mainly. I started cycling for fitness in June last year and my normal run is 10 miles which I try and do as fast as I can as I'm not really into cycling long distances. Anyway, when I started I didn't actually time myself but towards the end of my time cycling last year I was doing the 10 miles in about 33-34 mins depending on traffic. Sometimes I'd do it in 32-33 mins and my fastest time was 31mins 40secs (about 19 mph). The terrain is mixed with long straights and quite a few medium and steep hills both up and down.

Since starting back last week my time has been 43 mins the first time and 39.13 (15.3 mph average) today which is a lot slower than my times last year. My question is, is it normal to slip this far back fitness wise in this space of time which has been admittedly sedentary. Thanks in advance.

freehub

If you've not done any cycling, then yes, it is normal.

softlad

miurasv wrote:

My question is, is it normal to slip this far back fitness wise in this space of time which has been admittedly sedentary. Thanks in advance.

Are you joking..? Seriously fella - what were you expecting..??

stonehouse

Sounds perfectly reasonable. My understanding is that you start to lose muscle mass 3 days after a workout, so 5 months would be almost like starting again. Get yourself a turbo trainer so that next winter you can do a bit to help keep yor cardio fitness up. You will still suffer back on the road but it will much shorter lived than if you do nothing at all.

amaferanga

Did you stop cycling when you heard a rumour that a volcano was about to erupt?

Maybe cycling isn't the sport for you if you take almost half a year off because of the weather?

Gav888

Oh yes, as I have found out myself - http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... highlight=

CraigVGTV

amaferanga wrote:

Did you stop cycling when you heard a rumour that a volcano was about to erupt?

Maybe cycling isn't the sport for you if you take almost half a year off because of the weather?

You can always cycle at a gym or on your own spin bike at home.

BG2000

It sort of depends how fit you'd got yourself 5 months ago. Just saying you used to ride 10 miles doesn't tell us much. If you're were doing 10 miles every day, then that's something, as it's consistent riding that builds up your engine, so you would lose a bit if you stopped completely.

But if you were just doing the occasional 10 mile leisure ride (which is perfectly acceptable) then it probably won't make any difference whether you ride a bike or not, in relation to your fitness.

In may case, I used to do a lot of cycling until my son was born 1 year ago. So now I don't do much, and like you, I hardly did a thing during this last winter. But I'm no slower than I was 5 months ago because I was already at my lowest point of fitness back then. But it's all relative. My lowest point of fitness is different to someone elses.

You're doing the right thing though. Timing yourself to cover a distance is a good way of measure fitness, although I'd restrict this to a very quiet road, or enter a local time trial every few weeks and record your times. Keep it consistent. But you'll never get really fit just doing 10 mile rides at a high intensity. You need to do many more miles at a medium intensity to really build up your engine. I guarantee this will make your 10 mile times much quicker.

CXXC

i think the techincal fitness term is "reversability"

Rouge Penguin

CXXC wrote:

i think the techincal fitness term is "reversability"

Lets hope he has some bouncebackability.

Pokerface

You can lose some fitness in 5 days. After 3 weeks you start to seriously deteriorate. After 5 months you go back to being in a completely untrained state. (Relative to where you were of course)>

Variado

After 3 weeks you start to seriously deteriorate.

From the POV of an pretty average leisure roadie doing 2000-2500 miles a year this certainly matches my experience. I had five weeks off the bike last year*, and when I got back on I was very surprised how much my fitness has dropped - my 30-mile lumpy south downs route that had been easy before became a bit of a sufferfest for a while, although fitness seemed to come back fairly quickly.

* hit pothole, roadrash, broke expensive wheel, thought "sod this, cycling's rubbish" for a bit. Then got back on the bike :roll:

ColinJ

I quite often don't ride enough in the winter and consequently lose most of my fitness. It's the main reason why I don't progress from year to year. What I gain from spring to autumn I lose again in the winter. The one winter that I carried on riding regularly led to my best spring and summer ever.

What I have noticed though, is that I can get pretty fit pretty quickly now after 21 years riding over tough Pennine hills.

I went on a 2 week training camp in Spain in March one year having only ridden 50 miles since the end of October. I did about 325 hilly miles the first week which nearly killed me. I had one rest day and then did another 325 hilly miles the second week and I felt like I'd got back about 80% of what I'd lost but it took another few months to gain back the remaining 20%.

dennisn

H*ll, I can become a lard *ss in 5 months. With proper de-training, of course. And enough Mexican food.

jacster

Be patient!
Sometimes a break is a good thing. Don't get too hung up about getting back to where you were..otherwise you risk burnout.
With sound training it will come.

SteveR_100Milers

Doesn't sound like you did much to sart with, so 5 months off after what is a small training period probably means back to square one.

Anonymous

I almost lost fitness due to the fact that Bhima was posting his awesomeness. If a bloke with a ponytail and no IQ can be fit as flip (apparently) then I am just going to give up............

Splottboy

Yes, Reversabilty, one on the "Principles of Training."

As a "general" rule, Aerobic fitness, 30 - 40 days or so.
Strength, 4 - 6 weeks.
Flexibility, 6 - 8 weeks.
Power, 2 - 4 weeks.
Speed, 2 weeks .
Skill, 1 - 2 weeks.

These are all VERY general, and relate to what level of fitness you had prior to stopping, and also at what level you were previously at etc.

They should also return back to "normal" in reverse order, with Skill/Speed being last.

miurasv

Thanks very much for the informative replies, everyone and the excellent links. Seems it's normal for my fitness to have slipped back so much.

Obviously I hadn't been training for very long last year and the distance I travel isn't relatively very far with my main training journey being 10 miles only and sometimes 20 of mixed (hilly and flat) terrain. However I find this is as far as I want to go at this stage and what I did last year must have done quite a bit of good as my times were a lot quicker than now and my resting heart rate had reduced quite a bit too.

If I try and do more I won't keep it up and I suspect that I am getting more benefit in the first 30-40 minutes of training than I would in the last 80-90 minutes if I was riding for 2 hours with diminishing returns setting in???? When I get fitter I may decide to ride/train for longer.

FCE2007

Rouge Penguin wrote:

Lets hope he has some bouncebackability.

What's that on the back of your shoe?

SteveR_100Milers

miurasv wrote:

Thanks very much for the informative replies, everyone and the excellent links. Seems it's normal for my fitness to have slipped back so much.

Obviously I hadn't been training for very long last year and the distance I travel isn't relatively very far with my main training journey being 10 miles only and sometimes 20 of mixed (hilly and flat) terrain. However I find this is as far as I want to go at this stage and what I did last year must have done quite a bit of good as my times were a lot quicker than now and my resting heart rate had reduced quite a bit too.

If I try and do more I won't keep it up and I suspect that I am getting more benefit in the first 30-40 minutes of training than I would in the last 80-90 minutes if I was riding for 2 hours with diminishing returns setting in???? When I get fitter I may decide to ride/train for longer.

At the stage you are at, you would probably gain a lot more by sticking it out for the last 80-90 minutes.

miurasv

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

miurasv wrote:

Thanks very much for the informative replies, everyone and the excellent links. Seems it's normal for my fitness to have slipped back so much.

Obviously I hadn't been training for very long last year and the distance I travel isn't relatively very far with my main training journey being 10 miles only and sometimes 20 of mixed (hilly and flat) terrain. However I find this is as far as I want to go at this stage and what I did last year must have done quite a bit of good as my times were a lot quicker than now and my resting heart rate had reduced quite a bit too.

If I try and do more I won't keep it up and I suspect that I am getting more benefit in the first 30-40 minutes of training than I would in the last 80-90 minutes if I was riding for 2 hours with diminishing returns setting in???? When I get fitter I may decide to ride/train for longer.

At the stage you are at, you would probably gain a lot more by sticking it out for the last 80-90 minutes.

If I thought I could keep it up I'd do it. Are you of the opinion that 10 miles cycling a day taking 35-40 mins won't improve my fitness? I am otherwise sedentary at the moment to be honest.

Variado

Are you of the opinion that 10 miles cycling a day taking 35-40 mins won't improve my fitness? I am otherwise sedentary at the moment to be honest.

Obviously if you're sedentary then something is better than nothing, but I don't think a short thrash is the most effective way to improve your fitness. 10 miles in 35 minutes = 17.1mph, which is relatively quick for someone starting effectively from scratch, and I think it would be more effective going at ~15mph for 60+ minutes.

Riding for 1-2 hours on a bike isn't particularly hard if you're comfortable, and if the last 80-90 minutes are a problem then I suspect you're going at it too fast, rather than too long. I have an officemate who has just done his first 50-miler having started from scratch on the 1st March, ok it took him 7 hours to get round (!) but the weight's dropping off him and he looks far healthier.

miurasv

Variado wrote:

Are you of the opinion that 10 miles cycling a day taking 35-40 mins won't improve my fitness? I am otherwise sedentary at the moment to be honest.

Obviously if you're sedentary then something is better than nothing, but I don't think a short thrash is the most effective way to improve your fitness. 10 miles in 35 minutes = 17.1mph, which is relatively quick for someone starting effectively from scratch, and I think it would be more effective going at ~15mph for 60+ minutes.

Riding for 1-2 hours on a bike isn't particularly hard if you're comfortable, and if the last 80-90 minutes are a problem then I suspect you're going at it too fast, rather than too long. I have an officemate who has just done his first 50-miler having started from scratch on the 1st March, ok it took him 7 hours to get round (!) but the weight's dropping off him and he looks far healthier.

Thanks for your reply. I am doing the cycling purely for health and well being reasons. I do have an interest in bikes too liking them since my Raleigh Chopper and Carlton Corsa days in my youth. I am 46 now and have a 2008 Scott Addict R4. I do want to lose a bit of weight and do some weight training to tone up although I am in quite good shape now but I do want to improve so I think I may start doing a 20 mile journey when I'm a bit fitter.

BG2000

ColinJ wrote:

What I have noticed though, is that I can get pretty fit pretty quickly now after 21 years riding over tough Pennine hills.

I went on a 2 week training camp in Spain in March one year having only ridden 50 miles since the end of October. I did about 325 hilly miles the first week which nearly killed me. I had one rest day and then did another 325 hilly miles the second week and I felt like I'd got back about 80% of what I'd lost but it took another few months to gain back the remaining 20%.

This is interesting, and sounds very familiar to my previous 4 racing seasons ! In 2008 I did nothing for 3 months, then did 3 weeks serious riding in the Alps, and was fitter than I'd ever been when I returned to the UK. So like you, I think I can get racing fitness back really quickly, and I put this down to many years slogging through the Pennines/Peak Distritct !

I just wish I knew what it was like to train properly all winter - I know that's the difference between 1st CAT and my usual smattering of poiints...

SteveR_100Milers

Variado wrote:

Are you of the opinion that 10 miles cycling a day taking 35-40 mins won't improve my fitness? I am otherwise sedentary at the moment to be honest.

Obviously if you're sedentary then something is better than nothing, but I don't think a short thrash is the most effective way to improve your fitness. 10 miles in 35 minutes = 17.1mph, which is relatively quick for someone starting effectively from scratch, and I think it would be more effective going at ~15mph for 60+ minutes.

Riding for 1-2 hours on a bike isn't particularly hard if you're comfortable, and if the last 80-90 minutes are a problem then I suspect you're going at it too fast, rather than too long. I have an officemate who has just done his first 50-miler having started from scratch on the 1st March, ok it took him 7 hours to get round (!) but the weight's dropping off him and he looks far healthier.

what he said.

BeaconRuth

BG2000 wrote:

I just wish I knew what it was like to train properly all winter - I know that's the difference between 1st CAT and my usual smattering of poiints...

It's cold, dark, dangerous if it's icey, slow............

But on the bright side it doesn't half make it wonderful to get out in shorts on a sunny spring day and find you're feeling fit and strong!!

Ruth

Gav888

BeaconRuth wrote:

But on the bright side it doesn't half make it wonderful to get out in shorts on a sunny spring day and find you're feeling fit and strong!!

Ruth

I cannot remember what that feels like, im so sick of being ill now