How much is too much training?

Spaniard

I did a long ride on sunday - 110 miles at around 19mph with a bunch of friends. My legs felt shot on monday, but I didn't want to miss my Monday interval session and so went out and did this as usual. Needless to say I really struggled. However, I knew that today was going to be a rest day and so I thought I'd have time to recover before tomorrow's chaingang. Now my legs are in far worse shape than usual for this time of the week. i understand the principles of overload and adaption - do you think I should miss the chaingang and get more recovery?

giropaul

If I recall correctly you were asking some time back about road racing - several of us advised you to race more.

As a vet(?) and a 4th cat you'll never really race more than 50 miles - 2 hours or so. The chaingang is useful; as long as you don't treat it as a race. Turn off when you feel you've done enough. If you're racing enough you will only need a chaingang in weeks you haven't raced mid-week. Beware the Thursday chain gang - it's the grave of many weekend race ambitions.

However, unless you're a 1st/Elite you really don't need 110 miles, and it will just have the effect you're describing. In winter, for miles, fine, but in the season you don't need to ride more than you race (2hrs).

So yes - miss tomorrow's chaingang and go for an hour's spin in the sunshine would be my advice.

danlikesbikes

giropaul wrote:

If I recall correctly you were asking some time back about road racing - several of us advised you to race more.

As a vet(?) and a 4th cat you'll never really race more than 50 miles - 2 hours or so. The chaingang is useful; as long as you don't treat it as a race. Turn off when you feel you've done enough. If you're racing enough you will only need a chaingang in weeks you haven't raced mid-week. Beware the Thursday chain gang - it's the grave of many weekend race ambitions.

However, unless you're a 1st/Elite you really don't need 110 miles, and it will just have the effect you're describing. In winter, for miles, fine, but in the season you don't need to ride more than you race (2hrs).

So yes - miss tomorrow's chaingang and go for an hour's spin in the sunshine would be my advice.

+1 very sound advice - your training needs to be specific to you racing, I gave up doing 4 - 5 hour rides as my racing (for try and duathlons) only amounted to 1 hour. That isn't to say I don't get on the club run and enjoy myself for the miles but I don't really consider it training in fact for me its more of a steady-ish recovery session.

Spaniard

Thanks. The 110 mile ride was a charity event, not a regular thing.
I have entered half a dozen more races based on previous advice and really don't want to lose any form in the run up to these. The interval session I do on a Monday plus the Chaingang rides have really helped to increase my fitness and I was reluctant to drop them. However, I think my mistake was pushing myself to stay with the fast group on the 110 mile ride.

Alex_Simmons/RST

Too much training is training that doesn't lead to the desired improvement in performance in the context of when such performance improvement is desired.

So what you describe could very well be:
- too much training (e.g. if going well the next day is the desired goal) or
- just right (e.g. if going well at some later date is desired) or
- not enough (e.g.it's insufficient to prepare you for the goals/demands you are aiming for).

And to work out which, one needs to know an awful lot more about you than a few snippets in a forum post.

Herbsman

45 hours a week