Am I riding too much?

Gwaredd
Gwaredd Posts: 251
edited October 2007 in MTB beginners
Hi all. Been riding for a month now, trying to get fit, but need to know if I'm doing more harm than good?

I started off riding about 5 miles every night for a week, then stepped it up to just over 6 miles for the next week, then 8 for the next & now I'm doing just over 10 miles every night except Tuesday, when I go out across the plains with my local bike club. Last night we did 25 miles & I'm cream crakered now. What's the best way to play this? Should I be riding every night, or should I be taking a night off every now & then, letting my body recover? I was thinking about jogging alternate nights instead of riding 7 days a week.

Advice & experience greatly received.

Cheers,

Gwaredd.
Cheers,

Gwaredd

http://www.iamkonki.com/

Comments

  • Mytchett Mike
    Mytchett Mike Posts: 175
    I would think you are better to do less but longer rides and let your body recover in between.

    I used to ride for just over an hour 6 days a week, now I do 3/4 max but go out for around 2/3 hours. I'm probably doing the same tijme on the bike - just differently.

    Distance can be misleading - if I do the more technical stuff I may only do 10 to 15 miles. On firetrack / bridleway I would do 25+.

    Anyway, the "getting out" and "getting back in" stuff is what ads to the total ride time, so less rides give you more time (if that makes sense :roll: )

    Mike
  • fumps
    fumps Posts: 227
    I my opinion it all comes down to how much excercise you did before.

    If you were at the gym everyday before then i suppose your just carrying it on.

    But if you did hardly any excersise before buying the bike, i'd be careful you could do yourself some real damage pushing yourself like that, i usually ride every 2nd day & take 1 day between to rest muscles.
    It's improtant to let your body rest as your muscles need an oppotunity to relax.
    Arrrghhh it's worse than i thought!!!!!
  • stucon
    stucon Posts: 361
    i think you may need take some time out..

    you will end up burning yourself out...

    they say that to gain fitness you should excercise 3 times a week for around 45 mins..

    i would defo do one day on and one day off.. that way you are giving your body chance to recover..
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  • El Capitano
    El Capitano Posts: 6,401
    Try to ride everyother day, but keep the overall distance the same. You need to let your body recover. Once your body has become accustomed to riding regularly, you can revert to riding every day.
    1 2 3 4 (Dead)5 6
  • dave_s
    dave_s Posts: 4,362
    If you commute on your bike like I do (6 miles each way) then I always think it's best to have one day a week where you do no bike riding to allow your body to recover a bit.

    If you feel really tired then listen to your body and give it a rest for a day or so and you'll come back stronger.

    Diet plays a big factor too obviously
    Dave S
  • easyg
    easyg Posts: 266
    Diet is important, thats what I was thinking. In addition to the 'every other day advice' I would say that on the day off you should be eating a lot of protein rich foods, and the obvious 5 fruit and veg as a minimum.

    Omega 3 oil is very important and is found in fish predominantly - tins of mackeral (princes spicy tomatoe is really quite good actually), fresh salmon that sort of thing.

    The fish intake is key for both protein and om. 3 as it will provide your muscles with the extra they need to recover but also gain strength (not size) which in turn will push better stamina as time goes on. Baked beans and a spud is an ideal before ride meal as they are slow energy release, as are bananas which are handy to have with you for mid run snack.
    "If you think straight enough, you can see round corners"
  • grlbiker
    grlbiker Posts: 22
    i agree riding less often and for longer is better.
    What i did when i did running is on weekdays go running for aout 20mins and on weekends go biking!
    hope thats helped
    Vix xx xx
  • Amos
    Amos Posts: 438
    You definetly need some recovery periods built into your exercise program.
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    If you've only started exercise recently then i would suggest take monday and wednesday off. That way you'll have recovery time before and after your club ride, you could then go out on your cycle rides thursday and friday nights. Possibly add one for the weekend as well. Currently it sounds too much, plus the fact that you're asking means it probably is too much!
    Neeermad
    Carbon 456
    456 lefty
    Pompino
    White Inbred

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