Do you ride every day?

[sjbraun]

I'm reaching the end of a foolish experiment wherein I plan to ride for 30 consecutive days. Today is day 25 and my legs are starting to to complain.
My riding has consisted of fixed commuting 5 days per week, (a 15 mile round trip,) and longer rides of 35-65 miles on the weekends.
Up until yesterday, my legs were a little wooden feeling, but during the night my hamstrings started to ache. While I've certainly improved my mileage totals, it seems like every ride is becoming a recovery ride, not that there's anything wrong with easy rides, its just that my legs seem to only go one speed.
The experiment might end tomorrow, depending on how I feel after today's planned 40 mile ride.
Do any of you ride everyday? How much recovery time do you plan each week?

Steve

[Climb01742]

i do something 6 days a week. depending on the season, it's some combo of riding, gym and running. once you get past a certain age (30ish?) i think your body (not to mention your mind) just can't handle continuous workouts and needs a day off every week or so. there are times in the summer, when the weather is so good, i will skip my day off, but by day 10 or so, my body just begs for relief.

[Steve in SLO]

Between work (24-72 hour shifts), kids and projects, I usually ride 2-5x per week with occasional weeks with no riding. This week, for instance, I start with a 48h shift, followed by a 2 day trip to Universal Studios for my son's BD, then a 72 hour shift, so nothing possible fo 7 days. My rides are usually capped by time constraints to under 1.5-2h, so on a good week I can get in 180 miles. On a bad week, zero.

[sjbraun]

So you think the fact that I'll be 55 next months has something to do with how I feel?
What a concept!

Steve-the body is 55, the mind, not so much :beer:

[jpw]

So you think the fact that I'll be 55 next months has something to do with how I feel?
What a concept!

Steve-the body is 55, the mind, not so much :beer:

No!

55, it's just a number. Ride on, everyday - the body works on the 24 hour cycle.

[whforrest]

Forget about the age for a second...............are you stretching and doing yoga. I would bet that the muscle aches would cease..............(not talking about normal soreness from work load)

and no matter what age, your body needs recovery...........i guess it would depend on the intensity over the weekend rides too.............

[dogdriver]

Listen to thy body. A cool goal, but not worth injuring yourself over. Since you're so close to 30, maybe a short day on a different bike (the neighbor's beach cruiser, etc)?

[norcalbiker]

Age do have a lot to do with it. Mentally and physically. Your body, your muscle and especially your mind do need rest and recovery time to tmie. One thing you want to do is get burned out mentally and physically. Even a professional athletes do take some day off time to time.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . to overtraining. There's a reason every ride now is turning into a "recovery" ride.

When I ride (or work out) too much I can always tell when I've gone too far when I start to feel what I call "flat." I can still ride or lift weights, but I can't quite get up to my normal speed/weights and I feel like I'm grinding it out. I'm doing it, but I'm not having the fun or the sense of well-being that I'm used to having. At that point, to me it becomes counter productive.

Different people can tolerate different things, and you may tolerate this one experiment fairly well. But I strongly suggest you do some Google research on overtraining symptoms and watch out for them.

BBD

[rugbysecondrow]

Like Steve said, trying to squeeze in little kids, work, travel etc. I am pretty happy if I get two good rides in a week, really lucky if I ride every other day.

I work out 6 days a week, mixing in strength training, running, core and stretching. I mix up the muscle groups enough where I don't feel the overtraining burn, but I notice if I do back to back to back days with 35 miles of riding, the third ride I feel like I am riding in sand. I just don't train to ride that much since I am so rarely able to.

As an aside, I plan ahead a day of rest, go out to lunch with friends, happy hour and maybe something not so healthy for dinner. This is normally Thursday for me so I have a good recovery day before the weekend.

My goals are different though. I train to stay in Sprint Triathlon shape year round. I can ramp up and for longer distances, play a pick up game of basketball or softball, a day of hiking...I want to be fit enough to enjoy life. My goal might be different though, so take what I say measured against my goals as they might not be line with yours.



Best of luck.

[BryanE]

I am 55 also and do two days on and one day off.
That's the best I can do and remain fresh.
Bryan

[regularguy412]

I just turned 50 last October. As I recall, the longest consecutive streak I rode last year was 22 days in a row. Not every ride was 'hard' or 'long'. I purposely put in some 15 mile recovery days -- usually on Mondays. Don't ride 30 days in a row, just because you think you have to. As others have said, listen to your body. If it rebels, take a day, or three, off.

Remember, it's not necessarily the 'work' (riding) aspect alone that helps you improve. It's also the rest/recovery time AFTER the work that does it. Your body has to have time to adapt.

Congrats on getting this far!

Mike in AR:beer:

[rePhil]

Same age. I commute year round 5 days, unless the forecast is horrible, then ride Saturday and no riding on Sunday (unless it's with a grandchild) I have summers off and generally will ride 3-4 times, 35 miles or so. For me, the mental rest does me good.
Sometimes I take a "National Suckers day" Those that have read Kimmage will know.

[Seramount]

I'll be 58 next month (dammit). a typical week is 4-5 rides of 25-30 miles each, a couple of 2000-yard swim sessions, and yoga 4 times per week to keep the flex going.

at this stage of life, chronic soreness (mostly knees) is just SOP. so a couple of days of rest is pretty mandatory, even if the brain says I need to do something.

[93legendti]

Everyone is different and diet is probably crucial.
Here's e-richie's take:

70 minutes a day. minimum.
no more than 3 days off per month...atmo.

[Steve in SLO]

Originally Posted by e-RICHIE
70 minutes a day. minimum.
no more than 3 days off per month...atmo.

Is that riding or computer time? :p

[rugbysecondrow]

Originally Posted by e-RICHIE
70 minutes a day. minimum.
no more than 3 days off per month...atmo.

:p

Sure he was talking about cycling? :banana:

[Ray]

There was a time I rode almost every day between commuting to work and riding as often as I could after work and on weekends. But cycling got less fun with that routine. Now, having passed 50, I rarely ride more than two days in a row and generally ride 3-4 days a week in season. Usually about 30-45 miles per ride. Fewer and shorter rides in the winter. This way I stay fresh and recovered enough to enjoy it. On a rare occasion I'll ride every day for a week, generally associated with a tour or similar. And I'm fine when I do, but I wouldn't be if I maintained that routine all the time. I'd be hurting and I'd grow to hate riding. You don't need to ride that much to be healthy - its probably counter-productive even.

-Ray

[dd74]

Does one have to absolutely be off the bike to have a recovery day? What about slow, easy spins?

[kgreene10]

I used to ride everyday. Now I have a coach and he tells me to take one and often two days off per week. When he says to take the day off, he specifies "a day without physical activity" which seems a little extreme (the Sabbath?), but I think he means no easy spins. I've been on his schedule for three months now and my power has increased markedly while my HR has fallen. It's awesome to finally make some real progress.

The general principles include 1) hard days are hard, easy days are easy -- no mixing, and 2) some hard days are during the week and some easy/short days are on the weekend.

[dd74]

kgreene10 - cool. Thanks for the input. What does "HR" mean, btw?

[r_mutt]

since i'm training for racing, i usually ride 6 days a week. the 7th day (mon) is a gym day. i'll go 4 weeks at that pace, then take a week off where i'll spin daily for an hour at recovery, and start it all over.

[boneman]

I ride 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the last 11 years and coming on fast to 58 in age. I log between 8,000-10,000km a year although no longer racing, I like to go hard and fast. Age definitely has an effect at least for me. If I do two fast 100k days back to back, the next day will just be 30k in a 39/19 or even a day off. I also do stretching and mat pilates every day and this helps a bit but if your legs are tired, take a day or two off.

I've been traveling a lot this year, usually one or two week trips with flight times of 7-8 hours each way. Two week layoffs are not great for me but five days off the bike is not a bad thing if it's once a month.

My biggest issue is not the daily riding but finding time for more than 6 hours of sleep a night and that includes weekends.

I'm reaching the end of a foolish experiment wherein I plan to ride for 30 consecutive days. Today is day 25 and my legs are starting to to complain.
My riding has consisted of fixed commuting 5 days per week, (a 15 mile round trip,) and longer rides of 35-65 miles on the weekends.
Up until yesterday, my legs were a little wooden feeling, but during the night my hamstrings started to ache. While I've certainly improved my mileage totals, it seems like every ride is becoming a recovery ride, not that there's anything wrong with easy rides, its just that my legs seem to only go one speed.
The experiment might end tomorrow, depending on how I feel after today's planned 40 mile ride.
Do any of you ride everyday? How much recovery time do you plan each week?

Steve

[hookookadoo]

I'm in the same camp with Steve in Slo and RugbySecondRow. Between work, kids, in-laws, social stuff, etc. Riding unfortunately is what I get to do when all my other commitments are done. That makes for a sporadic riding schedule. :mad:

[207 cm]

53 in a couple months and back riding/training 7 days a week.

Three vital things:

Structured workouts.

Stretching.

Leg massage.

[Ralph]

I'm 68, long retired and most weeks ride about 5 times. If I feel tired in middle of week, I take Wednesday or Thursday off from riding, but not from being active in something. If I go hard (for me) and long on Sunday, I take Monday off. I usually take Saturday off to do yard work. I just ride all I can without hurting, and listen to my body.

However....I do think just a tad of pain goes with the territory. At my age, if I just sat around when I ache or hurt somewhere, I would never get anything done. Gotta keep moving. I'm on no medications (us seniors like to say that).

[kgreene10]

kgreene10 - cool. Thanks for the input. What does "HR" mean, btw?

Sorry about that. HR=heart rate.

[jlwdm]

The first question is why do you ride?

Fun
Health
Lose weight
Race
Centuries
Stress
Etc

If you want to get faster and/or race you have to do more intense days and rest days. As Joe Friel always says the top riders ride more in zones 1 and 2 then the average rider. The top riders also train more times with more intensity. The average rider has a tendency to go out and ride the same general pace every day.

If you have time and have fun riding every day - why not do it.

I ride because it is fun and also to relieve some stress. This year I have ridden in more colder weather, in nasty wind and mostly at night.

Although in mid to late February I rode one day in 11 since then I have ridden 36 of the last 38 days - too much for a 62 year old. But I have been losing some weight so I am sticking with it.

Soon I will start riding with more intensity some days and do more recovery days. I have a good base. Yesterday I rode 75 miles and today I rode a 16 mile recovery ride before work.

Jeff