Long bike ride, feel like a zombie the next day.

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happycauseIride
happycauseIride Posts: 536 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have recently gotten into biking. I love it. I'm usually a walker who dabbles in running. I love getting on the bike and getting off of my normal routes and going father and seeing new things.

Monday night I went on a long ride. It was 90 minutes on gravel roads and it was awesome. If it hadn't started to get dark, I could have gone all night. Now gravel roads around here are very sandy and lots of loose gravel and it is a major challenge on a mountain bike.

I felt great while riding and felt great when I got home, but yesterday I was a complete zombie all day. I got up yesterday morning and went for a short walk to loosen up my legs and that was all I could do. I ate close to maintenance calories yesterday and drank a ton of water and that didn't help. And other than a piece of pie for dessert, all those calories were good calories yesterday. I didn't sugar load myself like I normally would. I just felt like I could fall asleep at any moment, all day long. This is the 3rd time this has happened after these long bike rides.

I am used to long workouts. I can walk 7-8 miles on the weekends at close to a 15 min mile speed and not feel this way. I can run 4-5 mile distances, sometimes longer and not feel this drained. Is this an endurance thing? Will it get better as I get in better shape or is there something else I can do so I'm not a walking zombie the next day?

Replies

  • br3adman
    br3adman Posts: 284 Member
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    Eat more protein before and after long rides. More water as your doing helps!
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    What do you mean by feeling/walking like a zombie? Is it fatigue?

    A 90 minute bike ride can burn a good number of cals - are you eating enough with reasonable macros?
  • AsISmile
    AsISmile Posts: 1,004 Member
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    Did you get enough sleep?
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    hmvanwink wrote: »
    I felt great while riding and felt great when I got home, but yesterday I was a complete zombie all day.

    How much of a deficit were you left with after the ride. What you're describing sounds to me like you haven't adequately refuelled after the ride.

  • maraq
    maraq Posts: 38 Member
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    Make sure you eat a balanced / high quality meal shortly after your ride (at least within an hour) - and depending on how fast/hard you're going you may need to eat a snack during your ride. You need to refuel your glycogen stores after long bouts of exercise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycogen#Glycogen_depletion_and_endurance_exercise
  • happycauseIride
    happycauseIride Posts: 536 Member
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    When I say zombie I mean I felt like I could fall asleep at any moment. Sleepy tired, not fatiqued. I wear Fitbit and I slept like I normally do and I'm rarely tired during the day.

    As far as my calories I have been eating around maintenance for quite some time now. I had chocolate milk after my ride and then went to bed. I started yesterday morning with a protein smoothie and two pieces of toast and ate decent from there.

    Monday was the day of the bike ride and I ate 1850 calories, yesterday I ate 2200. Yesterday I had 120g of protein.
  • happycauseIride
    happycauseIride Posts: 536 Member
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    maraq wrote: »
    Make sure you eat a balanced / high quality meal shortly after your ride (at least within an hour) - and depending on how fast/hard you're going you may need to eat a snack during your ride. You need to refuel your glycogen stores after long bouts of exercise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycogen#Glycogen_depletion_and_endurance_exercise

    This is interesting info. Thanks for sharing that.

  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    hmvanwink wrote: »
    When I say zombie I mean I felt like I could fall asleep at any moment. Sleepy tired, not fatiqued.

    Sound quite common. Even relatively fit people experience this after some bouts of exercise.

    It's the usual thing: eat more carbs, get more sleep, allow adequate rest, make sure you are hydrated. It will probably go away largely but may occur from time to time.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    hmvanwink wrote: »
    When I say zombie I mean I felt like I could fall asleep at any moment. Sleepy tired, not fatiqued. I wear Fitbit and I slept like I normally do and I'm rarely tired during the day.

    Yea, that's pretty normal when doing more than you're accustomed to. At least IME it's normal.
  • jstika
    jstika Posts: 18 Member
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    I think it's a fitness thing. If you're not used to riding that much, even if you feel good at the time, you'll feel it the next day. This happens to me on occasion. I went on a ride yesterday that ended up 10 miles longer than I expected with enough water for 20 miles instead of 37. The last 1/3 of the ride was misery. All I wanted to do was close my eyes and go to sleep.
    Just keep at it, eat enough for and after the ride. It should get better for that next day.

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