Rest after a hard ride

amaferanga

In short, I'm knackered and I don't know why.

I've been training to race this year so most of my rides have been under 2 hours, with a couple of longer rides each month up to about 90 miles. Last weekend I rode the Richmond 5 Dales sportive - a bit under 100 miles with some tough hills (Fleet Moss and Park Rash in particular). I rode well and though I was tired at the finish I did finish strongly.

I rested the following day (Sunday), then on Monday went out for an easy-ish couple of hours. I didn't feel 100% and my legs were heavy so had a rest day Tuesday. Thought I was okay on Wednesday so did 4x4 VO2max intervals and then a few steady miles. Tired, but not overly tired.

Then yesterday I went out with the aim of doing one of my standard 2 hour loops with 3 long ascents that I do threshold intervals up. The first one is right at the start of the ride - did that at about 10-15 Watts less than my best, so wasn't worried. But after it my legs were dead and I couldn't get my HR up at all. Normally on the loop my average HR would be about 140 bpm and normalized power about 260-280 Watts. Last night my average HR was 119 bpm and normalized power was 220 Watts. I just had nothing in my legs and my HR would not come up. After an hour I felt more like I'd just ridden for several hours and even felt a bit like I was bonking (had eaten and drank plenty through the day though). I could barely ride at FTP even for a few seconds.

So I'm definitely resting up today and probably tomorrow as well, but I'm trying to work out WTF is going on. I did a long, hard ride, but rested up both before it (I had 2 full days off last week, which I hardly ever do) and after it. My Long Term Stress (CTL) and stress balance are 'normal' and I haven't suddenly increased the volume. I feel okay at the moment so no signs of a virus (yet).

Got my first BC race next Tuesday, but if I feel like I do now I'll be lucky to hold the bunch for a couple of laps :?

SBezza

You might be surprised of how long it may take to recover from the sportive, especially if you rode it hard. Then again 3 easy days should probably have been OK. Perhaps you are coming down with something. Perhaps the Monday you should have perhaps done a hour at a very easy pace, ie recovery ride.

I have days when I try and do a 2 hour tempo ride, and my legs feel like crap, might just be one of those days.

vorsprung

I had 2 full days off last week, which I hardly ever do

I know I ride different sorts of events to you and train completely differently but I would guess it's just one of those things. I've had patches like you describe. I would take a whole WEEK off, but like I say, I'm not you.

Might be lack of rest or might be a virus

Sometimes the long term over doing it can catch up with you. Or it might be that the longer ride at the weekend used up more schzam than you thought.

Don't worry about it, just take a couple of days off the bike completely, have a very short full intensity session on monday and see how the race goes.

softlad

as above - you might find you can ride harder after a couple of full days OFF the bike. I will always take a day off after a particularly hard or long ride and I usually have around two/three rest days per week. Your weekly mileage might drop, but the quality of your training will probably go up - you can't train hard if you are still feeling the effects of the day before.

Thick Tester

Sounds like a vitamin defecit... 4 bottles of Duvel will sort it out......
At breakfast too..

vorsprung

Thick Tester wrote:

Sounds like a vitamin defecit... 4 bottles of Duvel will sort it out......
At breakfast too..

He doesn't do 24 hour MTB racing

Pokerface

You haven't rested enough. Pretty simple really. Going from a normal sub-2 hour training ride to a hilly sportive takes more than one full day to recover completely from. Even an 'easy' ride will still be putting stress on your legs.

But the good news is - you should be back to normal very shortly!

amaferanga

I'm gonna rest a couple days then and see how I go. I did have a full day off the bike then an easy-ish day and based on previous experience that is enough. But then I did ride hard on the sportive and hills like Fleet Moss and Park Rash are never painless. I was still surprised at how weak I was yesterday though. I climb several flights of stairs several times a day at work and can usually tell how fresh I am from that. Yesterday climbing the stairs felt like I'd had a hard ride recently, but nothing to suggest I was going to die on the ride like I did.

Thick tester - I think I'll give the Duvel a miss (I prefer Leffe Brune anyway), but what makes you say it sounds like a vitamin deficit?

amaferanga

Pokerface wrote:

You haven't rested enough. Pretty simple really. Going from a normal sub-2 hour training ride to a hilly sportive takes more than one full day to recover completely from. Even an 'easy' ride will still be putting stress on your legs.

But the good news is - you should be back to normal very shortly!

You're probably right, but I have been doing longer hilly rides in the Peaks every couple of weeks. Not balls out like the sportive though....

shockedsoshocked

Just to add, a few lads who race did that sportive last year, and it completely ruined them for the rest of the season.

amaferanga

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Just to add, a few lads who race did that sportive last year, and it completely ruined them for the rest of the season.

Huh? How? :?

zingbot

If you are so worried about power output and all that 'stuff' you should definitely be taking your resting heart rate each day. As soon as you wake up is the best time to do this I have been told....

You can really make some informed decisions about illness prevention, recovery length etc if you make this part of your routine. You will be surprised. If you have a cold or something on the horizon or have not rested enough, your heart will let you know.

zingbot

forgot to add, that 10 beats above normal resting hr means you should probably skip a couple of days.

Back when I was serious we used to have all sorts of charts to track many things such as quality of sleep, mood that day, length of sleep, energy level during day etc etc etc. .....

Hope it helps!

shockedsoshocked

amaferanga wrote:

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Just to add, a few lads who race did that sportive last year, and it completely ruined them for the rest of the season.

Huh? How? :?

Basically they'd kept themselves "in form" through the season, keeping up the top end with racing and not going mental. That ride seemed to tip them over the edge. They had a couple of weeks of feeling terrible and were chasing form for the rest of the season!