Devsar

Hi everyone
I recently got laid off from work so I randomly decided to bike across Ontario. I've never biked more than 15km in a day before and in the last 2 days I've gone about 200km.

I was wondering what I can do to help my legs recover. I'm taking a day off right now, maybe another day if I need too.
I want to bike as much as possible with as few days off as possible.
What is the best way to do this?
Advice for helping my legs recover?

I'm 24 and in decent shape of that matters.

I apologize if this question has been asked before. I'm using very slow WiFi at a camp site so I just thought I would ask instead of spending forever searching the forum.

Any help would be appreciated.

10 Wheels

Sometimes you just need to REST for a day.

pdlamb

It'll go easier if you think of your first week as building up. Back off, try 50-60 km daily rides and increase daily mileage (kilometerage?) slowly.

Try gentle stretching when you get off the bike.

Make sure you're getting adequate fluids and salt.

Reload ASAP. Have a meal, or at least a snack, as soon as you can after you stop riding.

Have a great trip!

Snicklefritz

Eat before you get hungry and drink before you get thirsty. Back when I was doing long rides of 100-200 miles, I would try to consume at least 200 calories per hour. That number will likely be different for you based on your individual physiology, etc.

A good recovery meal will also help. If you are going to be riding as much as you say, then proper nutrition and hydration is critical.

LGHT

I want to first say some don’t take supplements or don’t believe in them, but I found they are a huge help and I can really tell the difference when I skip them on long hard rides. I have intentionally not taken them to see how I feel and perform and it’s a big difference for me. Also I came up with the list based on continued soreness week after week. (see this post Sore, Sore and still Sore is this normal? ) My suggestions are just my opinion on what has helped me and what I have learned by reading a lot online. I’ll also include references to sites that indicate what supplements they suggest and why. Just to be clear my doctor is aware of the supplements I’m taking and has given me the green light and actually help me understand what supplements “may help” and which ones he supports.

My local loop has about 2500’ of incline over 32 miles but 80% of the incline happens in the first 14 miles. What has helped open up the legs and release lactate acid after a climb was spinning with a cadence at 100-120 for a minute or so. I also spin with a high cadence for the last half mile of the ride. I can now do this loop twice a week without getting sore and my goal is to do 2 loops per ride twice a week for a total 128 miles and 10,000’ of incline each week. Because I’m focused on climbing more than miles my leg soreness always seemed to be an issue from day 1.

A few hours before the ride I load up on carbs in the form of maltodextrin. Then just before a ride I take a small amount of creatine, whey protein isolate, Beta alanine, and branch chain amino acids. If I plan on doing a longer ride or a ride with more than 4000’ I also ride with a bottle of maltodextrin and Dextrose in addition to my normal water. Once the ride is over I immediately make a recover shake that contains casin protein, creatine and Glutamine and maltodextrin. I also usually eat a good solid meal with a good amount of carbs about an hour after the ride and after hydrating. Then before bed I take Magnesium and fish oils which help muscle fatigue, soreness, and are anti-inflamatory. The next day I take more whey protein isolate and a small amount of creatine. I also already take a multi-vitamin daily, but if you’re not you should take one the day after the ride.

Immediately after my recovery shake I use a small wooden hand roller and message out my legs where they usually get sore. I also spend about 5 minutes of stretching. Not too much, but enough to release any built up acid. If I really push myself hard I also add in a hot / cold hydrotherapy that night. It’s easier for me to jump in the Jacuzzi and soak for 10 minutes and then immediately go from the Jacuzzi to the cold pool for 5 minutes. However you can do this in the shower by just letting the hot water run over your legs and turn off the hot so you get really cold water after 5 minutes. I do this 3-4 times. If I’m really sore I do this again the next day and also use my hand roller to message my legs and stretch several times throughout the day. I also take more creatine and protein as needed, but usually I can recover in 2-3 days when in the past it would be a week or more. On day 2 after the long ride even if I’m still sore I try and spin at a high cadence with little to no incline for at least 10 miles which is known as “active recovery”.

As far as the weight loss I've dropped about 25-30 lbs in that time, but to be honest I don't think a lot was a result of riding, but more of just eating cleaner, not as much, and not eating after 7:00pm nightly.

sources:

CYCLING PERFORMANCE TIPS -
https://www.bikeradar.com/us/gear/art...lements-34616/
https://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-r...-and-hot-water
https://www.bikeradar.com/us/gear/art...d-rides-23620/
https://roadbikeaction.com/features/r...aster-recovery
maltodextrin

Drew Eckhardt 

Add 10% to your distance each week. 15km daily / 105 weekly, 16.5 daily / 115.5 weekly, 18.2 daily / 127.1 weekly....

Ride slower. Half the effort produces a quarter of the fatigue so you can go farther.

Skipping riding every other day and combining is close enough. 30km, 0, 30km, etc.

Normally people work up to longer distances. When you're riding 200km/week including 120km of hard riding, a 700km week long tour at a more moderate pace is very comfortable.

work4bike

Recovery, at least in my experience, is not so much about rest days (although they are important), but equally, if not a little more important are recovery rides. However, my problem (I believe many of us suffer from this problem) is that once I get on the bike "I get into it", i.e. I get pumped after a couple miles and I hit it too hard; I do this day after day, despite feeling weak and knowing I need to take it easy and eventually I get that all too familiar feeling of being over-trained -- the living in a fog feeling, not good.

One thing I do is eat a lot of peanuts on my rides when I want to do a recovery ride, because if I go too fast I end up sucking bits of peanuts down the wrong pipe and that hurts, so it forces me to ride around with a moderate HR so I can just breath thru my nose. And bits of peanuts stay in your mouth for a long time, so it's not like you have to always be stuffing your face, especially that red paper-like covering, that stuff is easy to inhale.

One word of caution: I recently was doing this and got a little complacent and sucked down a very big clump of chewed up peanuts and it hurt really bad in my chest and when I looked down at my HR monitor I noticed that my HR dropped from ~140 to 75 BPM, that was alarming and probably worried me more than the pain, so much so that I pulled off on a side street (away from traffic) to recover a little, but then my HR started to slowly climb back up and I got back on the road. That was a scary feeling.

P.S. When I sucked down that clump of peanuts I was around 140 BPM, not a high heart rate for me, but enough where I start breathing a little thru my mouth. I do wonder if the effects would be worse if I was really hammering it with a HR north of 170...

LGHT

Great tip, I often find riding slow and with a HR of 140 or low extremely boring and as a result I'm guilty of pushing too hard. Sounds like a great way to force yourself to slow down when you need to.

berner

Joe Friel - How to Recover Lots of good info on recovery from hard exercise all over the web. The recovery process is an important part of training.