Do you ride every day?

ianbz

Hi all, I commute 20 miles Monday to Friday. Saturdays I've started to go 30 to 50 miles pending how I feel. On a Sunday I sometimes go out for a 20 miler but occasionally find that my legs are dead. Is this fuelling? I have porridge prior to any ride. Or too much mileage? Or not enough rest!!!?

sigorman85

Nope to cold lately and bit dangerous on the back road

stueys

Think your body will soon adapt to something you to continually or frequently so unlikely to be frequency of riding. Having said that its always not a bad idea to have a day off, cumulative training stress joins all the other stresses that we put on our bodies. Why not try a weekend off to see if it helps. I doubt it's fuelling for 20 miles.

antfly

You need a day off occasionally, it's on your rest days that you get fitter.

Jim C

Take a day off every week. Will do U good. Part of any training plan

danowat

antfly wrote:

You need a day off occasionally, it's on your rest days that you get fitter.

Not strictly true, active recovery days can have the same benifit, I reckon I have about 1 day a month off the bike.

antfly

It's debateable, especially if you are tired.

hstiles

I commute 25-30 miles Mon to Fri, pootle round on the bike Saturday to take my son to cycling club then try and get a fast 50 miler in on Sunday. Having Saturday as a 'rest' day makes a huge difference IMO.

Gabbo

Invest in decent sleep and you might not need that extra day or two to recover... so I have found!

Mikey23

I pretty much listen to my body and I've developed this over years of road running. Trained throughout January but in the last couple of weeks I have given myself a couple of days off. I needed it and felt better for it

simon_masterson

“Training is bad for you! Training followed by rest and proper nutrition is good for you and will make you better prepared for the event you are training for.” - Graeme Obree

At the moment I don't, but there have been times when I have; generally because I have had places to go at the weekend that I have needed to cycle to, after a week of commuting every day on the bike. Good nutrition, stretching, massage and so on can help, but there is no substitute for proper rest. 10 miles or less each way doesn't necessitate a day off the bike, but I'm not that keen on carrying a week's worth of work clothes and whatnot on the bike anyway.

neeb

If you want to improve you should take plenty rest days but push yourself harder on the days you do ride. On the longer time scale, if you are actually training, you will get better results if you do it in blocks - a couple of weeks of really intense stuff most days followed by a week of just 2 or 3 gentle rides. If you listen to your body you can make your rest days and gentler weeks coincide with when you need rest for other reasons. E.g. if you have a slight cold or feel run down, that's a good time to go easier or take some time off.

Grill

If I was only do 20 miles I'd ride everyday. I usually ride 6, but go to 7 when the weather is nice.

SeeFarr

I only commute 2 miles each way to work but if the weathers really bad I just hop on the bus (wife has the motor). Normally get some proper rides in on my days off (weather permitting of coarse) as I have 3 days off a week.

neeb

Yup, on second thoughts OP, 20 miles is not very much, but if you are doing that every day your body will be adapted to that distance. That's why when you go out on Saturday and do 50 miles you feel it in your legs the next day when you try to do your normal 20 again.

It all depends on why you are riding and what your goals are of course, but you'd probably be better off trying to do a couple of 30 or 40 milers and a fast 20 miler during the week and taking a couple of days off, and doing longer rides at the weekend (60 miles or more). When I do 20 miles I usually do it at a normalised power of about 100% of FTP, which basically means about as fast as I possibly can - there's no way I could do that 7 days a week though.

iPete

When you don't ride the weekend do you feel fresh and fast on Monday, yes? More of this.

I have a 20 miles each way 5 days a week, if I want to do a Sunday ride, have to take Sat off. Although if it was 10 each way, it then depends on how hard that 10 was done. If you cruise it now and then you could probably ride 7 days but all depends on what you want to achieve.

diy

If you have HR and cadence sensor, have a look at the data its possible that your commutes are at a going to work pace and your weekends are at a faster pace. Also its very cold at the moment and that has a really bad effect on performance in general.

I was out riding with mates on the weekend and we stopped half way for coffee and sat in the cafe like some OAPs with emphysema, coughing our guts up due to the cold air burn.

ianbz

Thanks very much for all the advice. I'll try a few of the posts and see how it goes!

pride4ever

I ride everyday to work and back but I wouldnt want to ride seriously everyday...i'd get bored.