Rest days?

Winded

I'm not sure if my first post should be in training or beginners. Sorry if it's in the wrong place.

I'm quite new to cycling as an adult; I'm 44 and 107kg so not quite the average roadie build, perhaps a few thousand miles will trim me down to size.

My weekend rides are quite short; about 30 miles at the moment & only around 16mph on average but I usually feel I have a fair bit left in the tank afterwards and I get out most weekends now. I also commute on a bike (on most days) the round trip is 11 miles; I've been cycling to work since October.

I want to enter a few sportives in mid/late summer (probably to shorter options in most events) but am not really sure how to train because any training plan I can find includes rest days and on most of my rest days I do 11 miles - I can go slowly but it is still stretching the notion of "rest"

I want to know what I can do while still commuting and not injure myself, the main options for extra training are building up the weekend miles to 50 or 60, adding a second longer ride on a weeknight and/or adding a spin class for speedwork. If I did any or all of these things should I have a lot of rest built into my week? Should I just get on with it and MTFU?

imposter2.0

I would disregard the training plans at this stage. Just keep riding. Your body will tell you if/when it's time to rest, or take it easier.

SBezza

Rest when you need it, your body will tell you soon enough if you need rest. As for injury, providing your bike fit is good, the chances of having an injury through cycling is pretty low, unless you have a habit of crashing of course. Even the 11 miles done at a very easy pace can be rest, it is just active rest, stick it in the small chainring and just spin along listening to the birds.

If you are going to increase mileage, do it is smallish steps and within what you think are your capabilities. I personally think the 10% rule some mention is pointless as some may quite happily increase mileage/hours by more than this, others may struggle. I would think you can probably do a 50/60 mile ride now, it isn't much different to a 30 mile ride in all honesty, just make sure you keep hydrated and have a little bit of food with you. You might have to lower the intensity at first, but soon you will be doing it at a similar effort to the 30 miler.

I would forget the spin class, unless you like the social side, far better to actually get out on your own bike and do a workout IMO. If you watch your diet, the weight will come off and you will get faster as you get fitter, and the mileage will not be a problem. If you want to get longer rides in, try a cycling club as well, most will have a variety of club runs of varying distances and you will gain alot from them.

16mm

Rest days are for people so driven to train that taking a day off must be mandated by a coach.
Many people would just listen to their body, and take it easy now an then.
You can expect to be pretty knackered before needing a rest day.
Rest days can include light exercise, so i'd guess commuting slowly would be ideal for any days you don't do longer rides.

How about making one weekend ride 30 miles but slightly quicker, and the other the same speed but longer.
Listen to your body, and gradually increase.

You'll find the ability to ride further, and faster to be useful.

daxplusplus

Maybe I'm misreading this but if you get to the end of a ride and feel like there's still quite a bit left in the tank than I reckon you could either go a whole lot further than your currently riding or you could ride the distance you are doing a lot quicker

You'll never need a rest day if your not pushing yourself and it sounds like your not doing that.

Rest days (active or otherwise) will then become bloody obvious if you listen to your body. For instance, you'll feel tired (knackered) before you even set off on ride*, there will be no power in your legs when you go to power up a hill, and/or your legs will be sore a lot of the time*.

Well ..that's what it's like for me anyway when I over extend myself. It's usually due to a combination of extra miles over and above the norm, more hills than usual or maybe trying to get one too many KOMs on Strava. Sometimes it's something as simple as just consistently strong head winds making the normal mileage that much harder. It seems to take time to build up to the point of over doing it and needing rest days .. how long all depends on so many variables but you'll know it when it happens.

* although I find that simply feeling tired\sore before a ride can sometimes be a bit of a red herring .. sometimes I'll get onto the bike and I'm fine - there's no issues.