Recovery time from hard rides?

freehub

Well I did that Ryedale rumble a while ago, and I did not do bad on it to say I was no where near my the form I was on on the Thursday before the event....

Anyway, after that day, I rested for 3 full days, my legs felt fully recovered, I felt good, so I got on the bike, did 20 miles, and tbh, I was struggling, I felt low on performance for some reason, despite still doing a good pace, but I should have found it easier. I rested for a day, then was struggling to decide if I should do the club run on Saturday, in the end I did, 120 miles, just under 19mph.

On this club run, I was slower than normal up the hills, and felt quite tired after despite not pushing as hard on the flats. It took a good talk to myself to get me out on this.

Today I did 33 miles, whilst I was doing a good pace, I felt lower on performance than normal despite being properly recovered, I also had to stop half way to eat something cause I started feeling weak and shaking.

Now I'm struggling to think what could be causing this, I've took more than enough rest, and it's at a time of year my performance should be going up, but as of late, I've being finding it hard to bother to ride the bike.

Anyone any idea what could be causing this, I'm not even ill and I am well recovered, I intend on doing a 50 mile loop tomoz that I use as a benchmark for my performance and the wind is returning to normal, although I'm not proper wanting to go on the bike like usual.

It all seemed to go downhill when I crashed and wrote my CAAD9 off and now using this winter bike but it's running smoothly and the position is quite good so I'm struggling to understand why I am slower on the bike at the moment.

I'm averaging around 19mph for rides at the moment, not thrashing it, just a good effort, but that's crap compared to what I was doing, and the conditions ain't changed much, always had strong wind except it's being coming from the north/east instead of south/west.

Anyone had anything similar? Doing my head in it is, on Saturday I got beaten up hills by someone I'd usually be quite abit ahead of.

Could the Ryedale Rumble have had a longer effect on me even still effecting my performance when I felt recovered? It was the hardest ride I've done where I've literally done it all solo.

Garz

A real taxing ride may have exhausted your reserves a lot. However I do understand that its frustrating taking rest and not recovering as you think you should.

I think its a case of personal tinkering Will. What makes one guy recover wont necessarily make you recover.

The weather, nutrition and mentality can all effect the performance of a ride too. Maybe your trying too much too fast instead of building up mileage with a lot easier going pace.

Your last thread covered this somewhat but thanks for sharing that its still occurring. Seems like you may have to change your routines to find a formula that works. Good luck.

amaferanga

I had a similar experience after doing the Richmond 5 Dales sportive. I just rested more and road easy for a few days then got back to normal.

andy162

I too did the Ryedale Rumble. I too felt abit sh1t on the day ( 'twas the booze!) Did ok & got round in 7hrs. I rested completely Monday & Tuesday. I rode to work & back Wednesday ( about 1hr each way). On Thursday I felt ok & won a local road race. I went for it on my own at 6 miles to go & held onto a 45 second gap. Nothing Friday, Saturday was the bonkers training ride that happens out our way. Sunday was a 65m ride into the Wolds, a bit windy & a bit lumpy but did 20mph average on my own.

I bet I'm about 20yrs or do older than Will, I would've thought your recovery would be pretty rapid? There are several explanations why you're not feeling yourself...perhaps it is all upstairs?? Your confidence may well have taken a knock after your crash. Maybe you have a virus or underlying health issue? My mate was flying last year, we went to Mallorca to train in Feb & all was well. He gets into March & he's getting dropped, always tired, takes an age to recover & lacks power. Turns out his thyroid was underactive. He's on pills now & is 80% to his old self. My guess though is dead simple...I reckon you've simply done to much. This is maybe your bodies way of telling you to ease up? Have a week (or two) off the bike, it'll not do you any harm & then see how you feel.

Andy.

oldwelshman

Too many excessively long hard rides from what I read in this and previous posts, may not be a direct result of the one ride you did but accumulation of all of them.

phreak

Does sound like an accumulation of fatigue, although I must say I'd be pretty happy with a 19mph average over 120 miles

Thick Tester

Learn to sit on your hands......
It's the only way

freehub

Thanks for the advice.

But I can't see how it may be doing too much because, the Thursday before the Ryedale rumble, I did around 60 miles at 20mph average, 35 miles of that was a loop from someone's house and back, I was on the front all the way round and we did nearly 23mph average, it was on the night of a TT which I decided not to do, so I did this loop at only slightly under TT pace, so on that day, I was basically on quite good form (for me).

Then I rested for 2 days, did the Ryedale Rumble on stomach problems, acid reflux and all, feeling sick and dizzy resulting in me not getting enough food down me, now sorted with these tablets I've being given. Then as I said took 3 days off, went out, felt good until I got on the bike, and noticed, my speed was down, and I suspect, if I had a power meter, my power was down. The only thing that has changed in that week as I said is the wind direction, unusually weird direction for this place.

I'm going on a ride today, if I feel good, I'll do a good pace, but if I find I feel like I am under performing, gonna take it steady.

amaferanga

Why do you always feel the need to mention your average speed?

freehub

amaferanga wrote:

Why do you always feel the need to mention your average speed?

You got a problem with it?

amaferanga

Yeah. You sound like Bhima.

freehub

No I don't sound like him in the slightest, you're all unsure if Bhima is telling the truth, with me, you are all sure I am telling the truth.

amaferanga

Really?

Anyway, why do you always feel the need to mention what speed you're doing?

freehub

Wow you're making a mountain out of a mole hill.

amaferanga

Not really. I'm just asking a simple question. I'm genuinely interested as to why you do it. But if you don't feel like telling me I won't lose any sleep over it.

SBezza

Perhaps your legs are just tired from having 3 days off the bike. Some of us not matter how much training they do, will still ride a bike most days, albeit at a very slow recovery pace. The legs (or any other muscle for that matter) can feel pretty much dead, if you do hard efforts and then nothing at all for a few days.

Also you need a decent diet for optimal recovery, with a good mix of carbs, proteins and fats, ideally from natural sources.

Do do seem to be either full on, or off the bike completely, unlikely to get the best recovery from that I would have thought. Also average speed is not a good indicator, wind speed can change, wind direction can change, so this can have a big effect.

You mention you did the sportive on stomach troubles, do you think this might be a reason, the body is trying to repair the muscle damage from the riding, whilst fighting a body problem. Also if the problem was due to you not eating enough prior to the sportive, then this will have a major impact on recovery, you need to eat to recover properly.

ride_whenever

checked your RHR compared to normal, it sounds like classic overtraining symptoms to me.

Jeff Jones

Sounds normal to me. I took about six weeks to get over the 12hr TT. As in get back to the same power outputs that I was doing before it.

I felt fine within about a week, but lost fitness b/c I had five days off the bike. Since then I've been building back up.

I found similar after last year's Dave Llloyd Mega Challenge. It was a tough 9hrs + an extra hour to ride to the station and took two weeks to get over that.

After big events, I find a day off is good but then I have to ride to keep the legs going and stop losing any fitness. Intensity is dependent on how I feel.

rick_chasey

HGH?

How do the pros recover from big efforts? Say, a big effort in Flanders, followed a week later by a similarly big one in Roubaix?


I can't imagine they'd be losing out on some Watts because they went mega deep a week ago? Surely?

grantus

But he's not a pro :?:

19mph for 120 miles is a hard ride in anyone's book, 20mph on your own, etc., etc.

Listen to your body. I overdid it at the start of the season - went out on a run and felt like crap - persevered instead of going home and ended up sick for two weeks and didn't get back to my pre-sickness fitness for another 2-3 weeks. That was 5 weeks of the early part of the season wasted. Have learned my lesson now. Fell like crap = go home straight away.

freehub

The 120 miles at 19mph should not have being too hard for me, but I was no where near on par with myself before the Ryedale Rumble, that was 111 miles of hills at just over 16mph avg literally none stop, something that I've not really done before, but that distance is something I've lost count on how many times I've done.

Anyway I've gone out today and done around 65 miles all together, had to turn back first time got a puncture and thought screw these Open Corsas, went out the second time on the training tyres and felt good, although the wind had picked up a hell of alot and was not gusting

I did 51 miles at a good pace for me and it's amazing what a hardish ride can do, it's made me feel better, I feel I want to ride my bike again and not only that my legs are feeling good. I did 30 odd miles at a steadier pace yesterday, and my legs seized up. Today the harder 51 miles and my legs are already feeling good, recovering much quicker from a harder ride.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/44961405

I also did 5 miles warm down very slow.

Anyway gonna take some days off now cause my calf muscles are getting worse, on the other thread they reckoned it comes be DOMS or whatever it's called, seems it is but I might need to rest it.

I am abit slower still though, could just be this bike, I've never really liked it since I got the CAAD9, feels like a boneshaker cutting through treacle compared to the CAAD9.

Maybe I've done a bad thing riding through this period of feeling not good, as in, I've prolonged it, but I am feeling better at the moment.

Infact, I am happy I seem to have improved, earlier this year I did the similar route (less ascent and shorter at 46 miles, also less wind, better conditions), and I got an average of 21.2, now I thought I did 21.5, I know average speeds don't mean much, but today, I did 51 miles with an average of 21.4, in worse conditions by far, ALOT more wind, and I've beaten my PB despite being on a crap bike

redddraggon

Stats whore

freehub

Bumping this.

Being out today, did 82 miles with what BikeHike reckoned was 4700ft but what Garmin reckons is 4300ft, and well, I was knackered on the hills, I did 181 miles on Sunday not all on my own, so I could say I'm not recovered from that, but I have being noticing recently I am crap at climbing, I'm usually a good climber, but on Sunday I got beat up a hill by someone I should have being a good 20 odd meters in front of.

So I'm sure if I take a whole week off, the cycle will start again and I will feel cack and the downward trend will start again. So I want to do some steady riding, maybe around 40 miles? Should I be pushing on the pedals at all or going at a good pace, sort of 130-140bpm?

I think I'm going to have to skip this Saturdays ride and do something shorter and steadier untill I recover from this weird up and down and consistently crap performance on hills.

shockedsoshocked

How much do you eat when actually riding? Recovery starts on the bike!

freehub

How does recovery start on the bike?

I ate 2 snickers and had 2 750ml bottles of Orange juice. I never really felt any more hungry, I had a proper Torq energy bar with me but wanted to save that for maybe a sportive or massively hard ride if one springs up sometime.

I don't think my hill performance was good from the start, before I went I had chicken pasta bake and I thought that'd have enough energy in it, but I just want not feeling strong from the get go, I guess I was doing ok when the road started going up at first, but by the end I was doing 10mph on 5% gradients and just abit frustrated.

For weeks and weeks I don't remember a ride where I think I've felt proper strong, the last ride I felt proper strong was August the 5th.

Garz

freehub wrote:

For weeks and weeks I don't remember a ride where I think I've felt proper strong, the last ride I felt proper strong was August the 5th.

Stop over-training and rest.

Murr X

freehub wrote:

I did 181 miles on Sunday not all on my own, so I could say I'm not recovered from that

181 miles is one heck of a distance and will amongst other things likely drive down testosterone levels for some time hindering future training amongst other things.

You may well enjoy long distances but sooner or later that sort of mileage can catch up with you and cause problems. It is entirely your choice on what you do however this sort of exercise can occasionally be addictive but is not beneficial to health or performance.


Murr X

freehub

I'll rest, but I worry taking a week off is gonna be as bad as doing too much on the bike, since last time I took a week off I felt crap. Unless steady rides around 130-140bpm are ok in a "rest" week?

Garz

Agree with Murr, that distance is fine occasionally but not too often. I would be drained for few days from that it's a great distance to cover at them speeds.

What's your average weekly distance and frequency of rides?

There does seem to be a danger of falling foul to the stat side of things, no use pumping out high averages etc if your going to be ill and miss days in the saddle eventually.

freehub

Well last week I did 360 miles, happens to all have an average of 19.2 according to the Garmin.

Usually I do 200-250 average a week and have being since I first started cycling, average weekly distance, on my own is around 50-60 miles, try to get in a couple thousand ft of climbing in those rides now, then I might go out do 35 miles and another maybe 25-30. Then at the weekend the club ride on Saturday is between 110 miles and 140 usually with 2 proper long rides a year (165 and 175 allthough I made the 165 181 this year)

Apart from that I rest, I reckon I have more rest than alot of people. I'm getting around 10-12 hours of sleep a day atm too, I'd like to sleep less but my body does not like waking up after 8.

Tbh I'd really like a week off the bike, but I don't like coming back to it and finding my performance to be lower, I'd rather it be higher after a week of rest. This is what is making me avoid taking a week off, and that I'd probably actually get so bored.

Garz

Interesting.

What do you eat for your recovery foods?

I would cut out the hilly rides for a bit and throw in a couple of low intensity leg spinners aimed after your tougher rides. This should keep you from stiff/sore legs and maintain some of that fitness enough to allow proper resting.