Originally Posted by
spinconn
Do long distance touring cyclists take substantially more rest days than a fitness or road cyclist?
Please tell me, how frequent do "fitness" or "road" cyclists take rest days?
I have toured with a friend that seemed to need rest days rather often. I do not.
The solo tours I have done, I can only remember one rest day, that day was after a 14 hour day that really burned me out. That rest day was really needed.
My last tour, I kept track. This tour was rainier and windier than most of my other trips. Below in chronological order.
5 days riding
1 day too windy
1 day riding
1 day too windy
6 days riding
1 day off for rain, followed by 1 day off for wind
6 days riding,
2 days off for rain,
3 days riding
3 days sightseeing. I was a bit ahead of schedule for my flight home, so looked for a scenic campground to take some time off.
3 days riding.
Summary, total, 33 days, riding 24 days, weather stoppage 6 days, ahead of schedule combined with sightseeing, 3 days.
This does not count air travel and related logistics days at start or end of a trip.
Originally Posted by
spinconn
Great comments guys, and informative, but they deal with why you do not want to ride without taking days off. But how about needing to (other than for weather, sickness, etc). From a strictly physical standpoint do you not need a day a week to recover your muscles or is that not an issue going slowly in lower gears?
As I noted above, I had one rest day that I can remember after a 14 hour day in the saddle. And that is all.
That said, I have toured with a friend that needed frequent rest days. So, everyone is quite different.
I suspect that ACA would give you a good number of how many off days they schedule for a multi-month tour if you asked them, they probably know what is most commonly needed.