Gerry221

Over the last year, I have done a lot of miles. Just started cycling last June. I must have done 3000 miles. From doing nothing to that and losing 4 and a half stone, I feel tired and sore.

Is it worth having a week off? Or will it be a bad idea?

I am a total noivice cyclist. Just doing what I think is right....

Thanks in advance.

ill.clyde

Not sure I would take a whole week off ... but definitely listen to your body.

If you're tired and sore, ride but ride at a much slower pace, with a much lower effort.

I get twitchy if I take more than three days off ... though I know sometimes it's unavoidable.

Milton Keynes

It's OK to have a rest day here and there. You won't lose any conditioning by taking a day off every week. I don't know about a whole week, but I've had rainy weeks which kept me off the bike most days but my conditioning didn't seem to suffer much.

But the thing about recovery days is, you actually need them once in a while so your muscles can recover and rebuild. Either take a day off the bike, or do a "recovery ride" where you just get on and ride at a very slow, easy pace. Keeps your muscles conditioned but doesn't overwork them.

Just make sure you don't take too much time off the bike, because you might be liable to putting all the weight you lost back on. I made the mistake of not getting on my trainer last winter and I gained 10 pounds by spring.

jsigone

take a week off, but nothing more. Longer your break is, longer it takes to get back in the groove.

GrainBrain

Sounds like me, I hammerd it from May till August, got a cold and just really reduced my mileage. Feeling better now, starting to itch for high mileage again.

Try taking some long walks. Or, try a different style of riding - I've been hitting the mtb more in August, doing some gravel and exploring.

talphie

Gerry221

Cheers guys...

I did a 37 miler on Saturday morning and just felt totally exhausted. this lead me to thinking about taking a few days off. I have a 70 mile run organised for Sunday. So I am going out tonight to do a few easy miles. Same on Friday evening. Might do a few easy miles on Saturday too.

Legs feeling a lot better after a few days out the saddle....but desperate to get back in it!!!







This cycling malarkey is addictive!

jsigone

eat a bit more cals on the rest days leading up to the long ride, not a whole hell allot, just a couple hundred extra cals, and protein/meats help with the muscle recovery but red meats takes a day to digest. Carbs for me gives me energy so if I cut to hard back on them or not eat a decent breakfast my lunch rides are exhausted but overall speed is only down a bit.

everyone diet is different, mine isn't all that great anyways.....

Clyde1820

As others have suggested: listen closely to what your body is telling you.

Of course, that hardly means you should be exercise-less for a week, month or whatever. You can certainly de-emphasize your longer, harder exercise in favor of lighter, briefer, easier exercising. And you can continue with stretching, lighter floor work (ie, calisthenics and similar activities).

You can also consider doing other exercises than your typical focus (cross training). Needn't be stiff, hard, long-duration sessions. Most folks can get quite a lot of benefit from sessions that are of much shorter duration, much lower intensity, so long as they involve the muscles well, so long as they ensure the recovery is as effective as possible.

Keep your fluids and nutrition up, to aid recovery. Keep your stretching and related lighter-intensity exercising up, to aid recovery, to ease muscle soreness, to improve blood flow.

Consider things like: walking, light hiking, swimming for enjoyment (ie, in a pond or lake), light cycling on trails or around town, simple floor routines (ie, yoga or bodyweight exercising with TRX or similar). Focus on range of motion, correct form, stretching instead of strengthening. It'll help, but won't much risk your overall fitness level. Might be a good time to consider a handful of good, deep-tissue, whole-body massages.

"Tired" and "sore" are two indicators that your recovery isn't keeping up with your intensity of exercising. A bit of a break (or ratcheting down intensity) is probably warranted. A week or two is not going to kill your fitness level. Particularly if you continue doing moderate stretching and light workouts to keep yourself limber and feeling good.


* Long-time runner, modest cyclist. Have been where you are, many times, with running. And easing back on the high-pressure, high-intensity, long-duration workouts has helped, whenever the body was craving a bit more space in which to recover. Works almost every time, assuming the problem isn't a specific illness, and assuming I keep up with the basics, with nutrition.

jimincalif

If you've got a good fitness base, a week off once-in-a-while won't make much difference. Taking weeks off consistently is not good. For me, I seem to feel best if I ride 4x per week. I can get away with 3x, but over time I think I lose a bit. On the flip side, if I ride 4-5 days without a break I will start to feel run down.

The other issue with taking time off is getting out of the habit. My breaks tend to occur when I'm traveling, which isn't all that often. But this doesn't disrupt my home habit, which is to ride 3 - 4x per week.

rgconner

Consider doing some "recovery rides". Under 20 miles, at or under Zone 2 HR training...

You do use a HR device don't you? That is your best indicator of over extending yourself, and the best tool for getting back on track.

For example, my rested (3 days off the bike) resting HR is around 50. If my morning HR is more than 55, it means I have significant fatigue building up. If I hit 60, it means I really need a rest day, possibly two.

Here is a rather simple explanation of it:

Pacing by Numbers: Using Your Heart Rate To Stay Inside the Energy Envelope | CFIDS & Fibromyalgia Self-Help

indyfabz

Take as much time as you feel you need. Back in '01 I had an insane month. Two back to back centuries two weekends in a row. A relatively casual trail ride of about 40 miles the third Saturday and then another century the next day. The following weekend I did a two-day, 150 mile charity ride. I felt like that guy in the "Time to make the donuts" commercial. Alarm went off early the following Sunday morning. I turned it off, thought about things for a minute and went right back to bed.

brawlo

Bmach