So tired afterwards, from mid to longer range rides??

looseleftie

I complete my rides, anywhere ranging from 25-100km, and feel ok all the time.. Sometimes a little tired in the legs, but overall I pull up well.. After ride, make sure I get the fluids and food back into me.. However my mid to late afternoon, I feel like I am falling asleep at work... I eat lunch, don't skip meals, in healthy weight range, and pretty fit..

I am at a loss, I feel so, so tired!! I don't understand.

46yr slim fit male 72kg some background info..

Love any thoughts
Thank you,

milese

Its tiring stuff.

Maybe you need more sleep at night or to get fitter!

peteco

After anything over 60km I frequently need a nap in the afternoon at the weekend. I just put it down to my body saying I lead an active live, and it needs a short rest. I don't need a nap at any other time.

I'm 51, 76kg, slim and reasonably fit.

Pete

kajjal

It could just be age. Not just physical but job / life stresses in middle age will really take it out of you. Easy for someone in their twenties, with a younger stronger body and no responsibility to be fitter and recover alot faster.

Appart from that diet, rest days, good bike setup / maintenance and hydration are the main things. I tend to do one long hilly ride at the weekend and three shorter rides. I used to do more but was running myself down rather than gaining fitness. Just experiment and see what works, listen to your body.

colinsmith123

Try having a recovery week. Easy riding, ie. ride at an RPE of 2-3 for 1/2 of the distance you usually do.

RPE at the end of this article from trainingpeaks:

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/power-training-levels

964cup

Holy thread resurrection, Batman, I know, but I have exactly the same problem, albeit with longer rides. I do about 300km a week and compare reasonably well with my clubmates. 1.86m, 78kg, 250W FTP. But it takes me forever to recover from bigger efforts - case in point, I rode the Chiltern 100 GF on Sunday. 6.5hrs in the saddle, 171km, 2600-ish metres of climbing. Took the day off the bike yesterday and zone 2 bimbled it in today, but I'm completely knackered (to the point of needing an afternoon nap) and my legs are useless. I also find I fade badly in the last part of a long ride, which I can control to some extent by riding to power and ensuring I eat, but I don't have the reserves in the last 20k that many of my clubmates seem to.

So what, you ask? - it was a big ride. Sure, but we're off the Alps as a club in July for five days. I need to find a way to be able to ride effectively on days 2 onwards. I can't ride the Croix de Fer in zone 2 (not if I want to finish in the same week as the rest of the club) and I know my clubmates will be able to bounce out of bed each day and carry on.

I'm already: monitoring my sleep (don't really get enough, and not enough deep sleep, but still > 6.5hrs total and > 1.5hrs deep per night); taking multi-vitamins, magnesium, beta-alanine, glucosamine and protein supplementation; using a foam roller, stretching and doing yoga every night; combining an hour or so's commute cycling every day with about 3-4 hours of high-intensity interval rides (Regent's Park laps) per week and a 3-4 hour Sunday club run; watching my diet to avoid glucose spikes as far as possible.

Running out of ideas and concerned I'm running up against my physiological limits. The one thing I can't do is fit in any meaningful additional training - 10-12 hours a week including commuting is all there is available.

webboo

3 to 4 hours of high intensity intervals, how much of that is interval and how much rest. As that seems a lot of intensity.
I usually get by on two interval sessions a week plus a longer ride in order to do similar to the C hiltern ride.
My interval are 20 secs on 40 secs off X 5 3 sets with 2 or 3 minutes rest between sets or half mile intervals then ride back to the start.
I'm usually done in an hour or so.

964cup

Each interval ride is say 90 mins, three sharp climbs at 450-500w for 30-odd secs each as part of a 15-20 minute 200w average getting to the Park, then 7 (6-7 minute) laps at 180-240-ish watts in chaingang or paceline with 30 sec turns on the front at 300-350w every three minutes or so, plus 300w or so for a minute up from Physicians. Final sprint at say 850-900w for 10 secs, then easy (200w or so) home apart from 300-400w for a couple of minutes up Swains Lane and the final 600-650w 20 second sprint for the cafe. Stravistix NP for the ride will be about 260-280w. Reduce all values except duration by 10-15% for the Saturday before anything big (130k+).

sloppyschleckonds

Maybe concentrate on raising your FTP

964cup

I'm not sure that's the answer. It's been higher (270W) but I recovered no faster.

I have a feeling the problem is to do with metabolism. I have to eat the whole time on rides over about 90 minutes, or I completely run out of legs - to the point where I really can't get over 200W (my peak HR also drops by about 20 bpm - aerobic peak is at 175, absolute peak at 184, but once I've gone through whatever limit it is I'm hitting, I peak at 163 and can't get above it). I feel like once my glycogen reserves are fully depleted I can't metabolise fat efficiently, so I run on ingested carbs only; then it takes me forever (=2-3 days) to rebuild before I have legs under me again. Body fat is about 15% (assuming I'm not an "athlete" according to Tanita, otherwise it's 7.3%, which seems low - I have no bulges, but I'm not ripped either) so I plainly have reserves.

Could be nonsense, but you can see why I don't think FTP is the answer. Possibly it's the opposite, and I should focus on long fasted Z2 rides - although that brings the time problem.

webboo

964Cup wrote:

Each interval ride is say 90 mins, three sharp climbs at 450-500w for 30-odd secs each as part of a 15-20 minute 200w average getting to the Park, then 7 (6-7 minute) laps at 180-240-ish watts in chaingang or paceline with 30 sec turns on the front at 300-350w every three minutes or so, plus 300w or so for a minute up from Physicians. Final sprint at say 850-900w for 10 secs, then easy (200w or so) home apart from 300-400w for a couple of minutes up Swains Lane and the final 600-650w 20 second sprint for the cafe. Stravistix NP for the ride will be about 260-280w. Reduce all values except duration by 10-15% for the Saturday before anything big (130k+).

So you are not doing intervals at all as this is just a chaingang or it sounds a bit like a race. Is this taking that much out of you and when you add in your long weekend ride. Are you over training as that might be reason your heart rate isn't going as high as you expect.
Do you commute, you mention bimbling in. As someone else said try taking some time off.

applemac

Perhaps increase your Protein intake.

Dave_P1

There's a few things going on here and it's hard to work out from the post but are you eating enough on and off the bike. Good quality carbs will go a long way in helping your body perform and recover.

As you have a power meter, what is your TSS score after the rides? Granted it's not the be all and end all but this link may help explain with regards to how you're feeling after a long day in the saddle, check out the TSS numbers at the bottom of the page.

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/arti ... ing-stress

jgsi

I'd like to keep things simple... if a person is feeling under, tired and below par and this continues for a length of time ... you is over doing it mate.
Back it off, stop stressing about cycling training.. look forward to those days in the Alps to enjoy the experience.
Fit a compact and a 11 - 28 sprocket.