How many consecutive days???

sinker59

So outside of MFP LeTour challenge, how many days in a row do you normally ride? Yesterday was my 5th day in a row (4 road/1 trail) which is VERY rare for me. Even though my legs felt a little achy when I mounted up yesterday I ended up feeling great and having a really strong ride. I had a conflict tonight and another tomorrow, so I'm forced to miss two days in a row. I KNOW I need the rest/recovery, especially as an older cyclist (my mirror says 35, my driver's license says 55), but I feel surprisingly strong.

TheBigYin

normally - at least while in a "training" phase (as opposed to early season gentle base building) - I'll try and ride somewhere close to this

Monday - short active recovery ride (say 30km)
Tuesday - rest day (off the bike completely)
Wednesday - 40k Tempo with occasional Threshold on Hills
Thursday - 50-60k Tempo
Friday - 30-40k endurance on flat / Threshold on Hills
Saturday - rest day (maybe a "fun ride", or a pootle to the local pub) generally off the bike
Sunday - long duration ride, 4+hours alternating endurance/tempo as the terrain necessitates

Obviously, real life and real weather sometimes intervenes, but Sunday's "long one" is pretty much sacrosanct - bad weather and I have an extra cup of MTFU and get the Gabba and Nanoflexes on and do it anyway. It's character Building. Anything else, I move around, trying where possible to get a balance of endurance and hill-work in, whilst not riding more than 3 days without at least a very gentle day. I find 5 days is pretty much as long as I can go while "training" without grinding myself into a halt - however, I found from the last "Giro Challenge" that I can pretty much ride 6-on, 1 off for a month at a time, providing I keep the hill-repeats and long rides at threshold out of the program.

I'm the wrong side of 50, and I take MUCH longer to recover from any high-exertion rides - especially the ones with large amounts of climbing, presumably because of the muscle damage/repair cycle being way slower than it was in my 20's/30's

cloggsy71

Normally 4 days 'on', 1 day 'off', I have set myself a target on Strava of riding 200km/week.

For the Giro Challenge I was doing 6 'on', 1 off (rest days co-incide with Tour rest days...)

I'd like to ride all the days the pro's ride for the TDF Challenge, but this may prove to be impossible as there are several 'things' coming up which will mean me taking a day out...

I'm not happy about it, but sometimes 'life' gets in the way :grumble:

Jakess1971

Very much a suck it and see approach as the British weather plays it's part and I tend to just listen to my body rather then have a set structure, I'm not big on structure and like the freedom to ride as I like, usually have one or two days off the bike a week but push the endurance a bit more on challenges or when trying to hit a target. Currently finding that 300km over three days in whatever combination means I ideally need a 1-2 day rest, however for the TDF challenge I've changed that to low impact riding and then seeing if I can push it again the day after, the TDF 10 days consecutive is a real test for sure.

TheBigYin

good to see replies from 3 veterans of the Giro Challenge - 1 stage out of a combined 63 missed - still - you can tell the extra rest day did him some good if you compare the overall distances....:laugh:

KitTheRoadie

I normally commute 5 days a week and then have the weekend off, or sometimes ride on a Sunday for an Audax or leisure ride with my bro.

Currently I'm on day 11 because of the challenge; and although I'm off tomorrow because it's my sons birthday I'm going to try my best to get a few km's in at some point.

Unfortunately the rest days in the TdF don't coincide with my commuting so unless I force myself a day off sometime over this weekend; I'm not sure when I'm going to get a break! :sad: Just going to take it easy, not strain myself and take it as it comes....

Jakess1971

good to see replies from 3 veterans of the Giro Challenge - 1 stage out of a combined 63 missed - still - you can tell the extra rest day did him some good if you compare the overall distances....:laugh:

lol it's true rest is just as important as training, I might do better with a team of nutritionists and a couple of rub downs a day behind me, alas that's just not on the cards!

sinker59

Thanks for the great replies; lots of good info!

Spatialized

I too am a commuter so it's usually at least 5 in a row, during the challenges it's 6 or more. The nice thing is I can adjust my commute for when I'm feeling poorly, it's a base 5 miles door-to-door but I usually add miles based on how I feel so when I feel like crap I go straight there and back, slowly. (slower than normal). I did notice during the Classics challenge on the days I rode 6 or 7 straight I needed that rest time, lack of drive/ambition, poor attitude snappy with family and just get get up and go, signs of pushing myself too hard.