chong67

I got a question.

I been cycling for 75 miles on mostly FLAT land every Saturday for about half a year now. I still have not get the hang of it. The last 15 miles is always a drag coming back. I thought I would be use to it by now.

Should I ride less but do it 2 or 3 times a week?

Whats your opinion and is there any study on this?

What exercise is better?

Thanks.

wolfchild

You need more time in the saddle if you expect to become better. Add two shorter rides during a week and then do your longer ride on the weekend.

chong67

Right now my front top leg muscle feel stiff and tough. Is this OK? I dont want something to break.

Altimis

75 miles is great! you will get bunch of aerobic power from that.

Its super normal to feel 'draging' at last couple miles because you probably 'bonk' especially you undereating but our body is smart, its will adapting to the loads, its will start to use fat fuel more efficiently later. By the way, you should eat during long riding a bit to avoid bonk.

More or less, its really person's preference, if you feel ok to pull it then do it, just listen to your body.

IMHO, doing 75 miles every weekend is nice, if you can, try to add 1-2 easy recovering 30 mins ride in between Mon to Friday. But listen to your body, if you feel good, go, if not, just stay off bike and be lazy

Sounds like you been mashing high gears all the time, however, if you keep do it and your 'muscle aches' will be soon adapted and gone to workloads.

Its super OK, your legs won't break from this, the workloads on the bike is far easier than the loads you doing with heavy weight legs press & squats.

I used to do it all the time too, I feel aching at first but I just don't care and keep going (not push beyond though, just think I can do it).

Machka 

Ride 100 miles one weekend.

Then do your 75 miles the next weekend.

Are you riding during the week as well?

mcours2006

Shorten your long ride by 15 miles. Add another ride or two during the week of 20-30 miles each.

koolerb

From what I've read more frequent shorter rides are better for your health. 75 miles a week isn't a lot of riding if we're talking road bike, but it is in one ride. That would take me about 4 1/2 hours, a good chunk of time. Add a few 15-25 mile rides to your week. You can still do the 75 on the weekend if you want.

chong67

I been doing 70-75 miles for about 6 months now. I only do one ride, every Sat. The last 15 miles is always a drag for the last 6 months too. No progress means I am doing something wrong?

Usually at a my 35 miles one way ride me and wife go and eat buffet. I eat until full.

After 4 days, I am ready to do it again on Sat.

I am thinking of going back to 50 miles round on Sat , then put in at least a walking/jogging for 5 miles on Wed.

Machka 

OK ... and also cycle on Tuesday and Thursday.

redlude97

regardless of length of ride, this stiffness in your upper leg(quad) isn't normal which points to a fit and/or cadence issue, which is seperate from how long and how often you should be riding

OldTryGuy

DANG, if at the half way point I ate a sandwich like in the picture, I wouldn't be able to pedal one crank revolution. Hook up with a club to help improve.

CliffordK

How about mixing it up a bit.

20x3 one week.
75x1 another week
120x1 another week
Or, perhaps 20x3 and 1x100 in the same week, then take a few days off.

I suppose I always find those last few miles of any ride to be tedious and tiresome, whether it is a long ride or a short ride.

However, if you occasionally ride a 100 mile ride, or a 150 mile ride, then anything less than about 70 or so just seems rather short (but not not completely insignificant).

Virtually all of my miles are commuter miles, which means quite a few short trips (< 20 miles per leg, < 50 miles per RT). But, I also occasionally have much longer "commutes".

caloso

Personally, my legs would feel quite stale if I only rode once a week, no matter how far that one ride was. It seems like you're giving up a lot of the fitness gains by waiting so long between rides.

rubiksoval

Why not just keep your long ride and add in an additional 2-3 days during the week? Even just 30 mins a day can be enough to maintain if you do it hard.

Carbonfiberboy 

IME cycling muscles start to lose tone after 3 days of disuse. 6 days is much too long. Do 20 miles on, say, Tuesday and Thursday. You'll feel much better.

Also, my guess is that you don't have a cycling computer, or at least don't have one which shows cadence. They are quite inexpensive. I've used this one for many years: https://www.amazon.com/CC-CD200-Astr...dp/B000R6QR3Q/

Once you have cadence, work to increase it to 85-90 on the flat, simply by using lower gears.

Also, stretch every day. I use these stretches: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...l#post15372967

gregf83 

No wonder you feel lousy in the last 15 miles. Skip the buffet and have a small snack instead. You'll feel better on the 2nd half of the ride.

It's very difficult to improve riding only once per week. Just add a couple more rides of 1-2 hrs and your weekend ride will get easier.

Daniel4

Being a weekend warrior is quite dangerous. Alan Thicke recently passed away because he played hockey on the weekends and he was generally pretty healthy.

All the responses you have recieved so far advises you to keep riding throughout the week. Make it part of your lifestyle, not just for the weekend. Your heart and your muscles will be accustomed to the riding so it wouldn't be such a drag on the weekend.

You're also being overly ambitious by riding for so long but only at one day a week. Again, by riding more do-able distances during the week, the weekend challenge becomes achievable as well.

noglider 

Yes, if you're not improving, you're doing something wrong. 15 miles is a long way to go while feeling lousy.

I recently read that high intensity intervals can improve endurance, which is pretty nice, because they don't take long. Take a short or medium ride, and do a one minute interval at absolute maximum effort. Rest for a minute or three, and repeat a few times.

I ride to work most days a week. (I'm lucky.) It's 13 miles each way. I've build up strength and endurance on these twice-daily rides by doing only two intervals each ride. On weekends, I can ride 50 miles easily, 100 miles with a little effort.