1st club run in 4 weeks........fitness levels plummeted !!

Raffles

Over the course of the last 4 weeks I have been too busy to do any cycling and the weather has been pretty grim, Im off work today so I met up with the club for an outing and how my stamina and endurance have dropped alarmed me :shock: Hills I usually breezed up were an effort and I got dropped left right and center :oops:

Is a 4 week hiatus and then into a club ride normally going to result in a fair degree of fitness to claw back ?

navrig

Keep at it. Fitness will come back fairly quickly.

stueys

I find my fitness drops after about 7-10 days. On the positive side it takes no more than a couple of rides to bounce right back though I've suspect four weeks off might need a bit more.

chrisaonabike

Don't know about 4 weeks, but after my two weeks off in November, I was rubbish to start with for a couple of rides, I wouldn't have wanted to do anything hard to start with. It's come back quite quickly, though, much to my relief.

ShutUpLegs

Depends how fit you are to start with

Gabbo

A fair degree? Yes, quite possibly. Fitness and strength tends to subside quite quickly, but it also depends on what level you were previously at. If you rode twice a week, then regaining your once had levels of fitness shouldn't be too difficult. If you were of a high standard and cycled 6-7 times per week then yes, you'll be spending many hours in the saddle to return to full fitness.

I've been cycling regularly without any major pause for the past 5 months now. However, I've not done a long decent hilly ride for about a month now and can feel a loss in my levels of strength and endurance.

I'd just advise you to get in the base miles. Don't over complicate things

Crispyapp

4 weeks off is nothing. If you ride pretty much all yr give or take a little really bad weather and I'm talking stupidly heavy rain, snow or ice then a break is as good as riding. Everyone should take a break to maintain your drive for riding the bike, let your muscles recoup and just general well being. I wouldn't beat yourself up about it, after a week or so of pushing yourself again I and getting dropped you will find your fitness returns and you will probably be stronger than you was before the break as your body is refreshed. Enjoy Xmas and keep at it.

Crispyapp

Gabbo wrote:

A fair degree? Yes, quite possibly. Fitness and strength tends to subside quite quickly, but it also depends on what level you were previously at. If you rode twice a week, then regaining your once had levels of fitness shouldn't be too difficult. If you were of a high standard and cycled 6-7 times per week then yes, you'll be spending many hours in the saddle to return to full fitness.

I've been cycling regularly without any major pause for the past 5 months now. However, I've not done a long decent hilly ride for about a month now and can feel a loss in my levels of strength and endurance.

I'd just advise you to get in the base miles. Don't over complicate things

Sorry but your wrong, if you ride 6/7 times a week your muscles are more developed and therefore take less effort to regain strength after your break. I used to race as a 2nd cat in my 20's and every yr I took off around 2 months where I never touched the bike after the season and I never had any real problems regaining fitness. Yes I wasn't where I was at before but I cant say I struggled as such and I rode everyday. I commuted to work daily 30 mile round trip, then Tuesdays and Thursdays was chain gang 50 mile round trip sat was an easy spin in the morning and raced almost every Sunday.

Mikey23

Couple of weeks for fitness levels to start to drop... If you are reasonably fit you should make it up quite quickly

Gabbo

I wouldn't necessarily say I'm wrong, otherwise top level athletes wouldnt even train half as hard as they do. They clearly ride for 5hrs a day just to maintain their levels of fitness and strength. The reasons as to why inured athetes tend to return to full fitness quickly is because they are kept active by their physios and fitness development coaches immediately after injury (depending on severity, of course). I work with professional footballers and have seen some resigned to crutches. The amount of muscle wastage that tends to occur is incredible and yes, can take a good while to regain. Thats just what I have witnessed, working at a pro football club. I would suspect that injured cyclists who cant cycle or walk would use a tens machine to maintain the muscular mass they have. Muscle strength, however, varies between individuals. Some are able to regain strength far quicker than others. Genetics plays a huge part. I would still expect any athelete who has gone over a month inactive to have a few troubles returning to full fitness within a few rides.

TakeTurns

Longest I've had off the bike in the recent year has been 12 days, didn't notice much, it was somewhat a good time off because I'd been over training. Recently I've had a heavy cold which has taken 8 days to get over. Did my first ride today, 80miles, felt like a piece of cake. I wasn't noticeably slower, wouldn't be able to tell anyway because I'm in Majorca.

:P :P

rsands

i have been off for what feels like a lifetime due to mild tendonitis and bursitus in the knee. Rollers are keeping me active for a small bit of activity every so often but my fitness has definately dropped. Hopefully I can pick up though as want to race this season. injury though is looking like it will get in the way mind.

physio mentioned should take around a month or work to get back to some decent strength in muscles and race fitness

de_sisti

You're lucky! In mid September I had a hip resurfacing joint operation which resulted in 12 weeks off.
I felt slow on my first ride back. The numbers didn't lie (a 28 mile route ridden several times throughout
the year showed that I was nearly 25 minutes slower than typical ((mode?)) time.

I have no illusions about rushing to acquire the fitness I had pre-op (I don't race), so will build up slowly
and ultimately reap the benefits.

simon_masterson

Professional (and non-professional for that matter!) riders who have nasty crashes can have much longer off than that, and pretty long end-of-season rest periods are normal; depending on who your coach is I would assume.

I can't tell you the science of it, but a break does not turn you back into a non-cyclist. My fitness is not nearly as good now as it was earlier in the year when I was commuting circa 18 miles each way, but it's not gone.

Raffles

Mikey23 wrote:

Couple of weeks for fitness levels to start to drop... If you are reasonably fit you should make it up quite quickly

Was out on the disastrous Xmas Eve in the opening post for 40 miles , but met up with the club today for 45 miles and it was much better , hopefully the fitness tank is being restocked. On the 1st ride back I wore my thermal cannondale longsleeve jersey and I think I was getting cooked as it really wasnt that cold. Today I wore a light teeshirt and a regular non thermal longsleeve jersey over it, no overheating and sufferring to speak of.

islwyn

Im about to do this... and after Christmas too... cannot wait... oh god.

styxd

How can you not manage to ride your bike for 4 weeks?