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Some days you got it and....
 

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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6884
Location: Maine

6/25/17 4:52 PM

Some days you got it and....

I rode like total sh*t today...:)

Often I go out and don't feel great and then feel better as the ride goes on, and end up feeling great. Today was just the opposite, I felt pretty well at the start, and had to fight to get home. I think I was just tired, have been traveling and did some hills in the Sugarloaf area Thursday, and I think it just caught up with me. Nothing to do with the leg, it felt fine.

In a way it's encouraging that it was so awful, as I figure it must be a really bad day and not a general weakness (though my shape is not outstanding).

So just another aspect of this wacky cycling game. Like a really bad day in the Tour, I tell myself. :)

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

6/25/17 5:06 PM

I did a hilly ride with a 25 year old 165lb kid Thurs.

I have no business doing that. Having said that, it was a poor feeling start and a great end. He rode 20 miles to my house. we did some steep hills for 20 miles, then he rode 20 mile home. Home being downhill than flat all the way. But his last 5 mile to get to me was a 500ft 1.2 mile hill.

Ahh, to be young again. But I am taking him on a long hilly logging road this week. He has little off road experience or prowess. Which I am hoping will be adequate handycap for my fat ars.

Dan, maybe you just did not recover from your Thurs ride. I did 2 hilly ride last week, and almost happy about the 100 degree 3 day heat wave. I have fair excuse to recover for a few extra days. Although I did a few early easy 45 minute spins Fri-Sat. ;) Very easy...


Last edited by Sparky on 6/25/17 5:11 PM; edited 1 time in total

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sanrensho
Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 835
Location: North Vancouver

6/25/17 5:07 PM

I can honestly say I've never had a great day on a ride that started with bad legs. So I'm jealous.

The best I can say is that I've never regretted going on a ride, even if I wasn't motivated in the first place.

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

6/25/17 5:14 PM

"I can say is that I've never regretted going on a ride, even if I wasn't motivated in the first place."


I sure can't say that. About once otta 25 rides I turn and come home after a few miles. But more times don't of course. Hoping for the rolling turning into the 'good day', usually works. At the end of the year it is more rides in anyway...

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Marc N.
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 457
Location: Israel

6/26/17 1:34 AM

That`s interesting

Once i`m out, I almost never turn around after a few miles. I will somehow manage to go my minimum which is 28 - 30 km. While very rare, if i do turn around before that, it is within a minute or two...I don`t even have the umph to convince myself that I can do this.

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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH

6/26/17 5:13 AM

If I really feel bad when I first hit the road...

...I take it easy for a few flat-ish miles to see if my legs come around. If not, I back off the pace and turn it into a recovery ride on flat roads and/or the local rail trail. "Big wheels keep on turnin'..."

I find that I need at least two days of recovery between strenuous rides. With training, I can build up to riding every day, but I don't seem to be able to sustain that for long. Oddly, when we've done week-long trips, I tend to get start off slowly, then get stronger as the week progresses. Perhaps the real issue is that I don't ride consistently enough here at home.

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greglepore
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1724
Location: SE Pa, USA

6/26/17 7:12 AM

Its an aging thing, I think. Last year, I rode pretty much 6 days a week, usually for 35 miles or so with a couple 50ish thrown in, and often at just below a tempo pace. When with a fast group, however, I'd get blown off the faster guys pretty quick, and never really was on. My ftp stayed really steady from early season to late.

This year, I'm riding much less. Like Bryan, often a couple days off between hard efforts. More shortish rides but at intensity. My ftp has steadily climbed to levels actually above my injury in 2010, and I feel great. Just need some time off now and again, it works wonders.

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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC

6/26/17 12:28 PM


quote:
Once i`m out, I almost never turn around after a few miles.

Same here.

Though that has to do with I ALWAYS feel like crap the first 1-2 miles of ANY ride that's not a "recovery" ride.

It seems I need a lot more warm-up than others. So in a group ride, I was always struggling to keep up even with a group I routinely ride with comfortably. And even when I ride by myself, I huff and puff up the slightest incline till about mile 3 or so. Then I got my "wind" and can cruise along & "float" up the hills with ease.

So if I turn around the first couple miles when my legs felt like lead? I would never get any ride in!

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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6884
Location: Maine

6/26/17 5:02 PM

Warming up and bad patches

I think that how you feel at different points of a ride is a pretty interesting subject.

I have always needed to warm up. Even when I was younger, I used to say I need to be on the bike 45 minutes before I feel like riding. When I did fast group rides, I hated it when people took off hard at the beginning.

Even more interesting to me are "bad patches" during long, hard rides. During an extreme ride, like D2R2, or last year when I was hanging on with the lead Jens Voigt groupat the Dempsey Challenge, I will sometimes hit a period where I feel absolutely awful, and feel like I cannot finish or at least will have to drop off the group. But if I just hang on sometimes my legs will come back and I will feel great by the end. When this happens I can tell within one pedal stroke and it is an exhilarating feeling. I know not why this happens.

Cycling is an interesting sport.

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

6/26/17 5:13 PM

Few days off during the heat, went out,, Felt MEH. Managed 25 miles, @ 73^ I just wasn't turning back. Whole week low 70s, I won't be turning back this week. ;)

Just to be clear, the turn back events probably happen a few times a year. And sometimes it is in January when you need to cover your face or it falls off when the wind chill rises after you hit 18-20...

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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH

6/27/17 5:21 AM

In-ride recovery

Last's year's Italy trip was an eye-opener for me. After 40+ years of riding I learned that I can actually recover from dehydration and bonking in the middle of a ride. After a tough morning where I didn't eat or drink enough, I bonked on the long, steep, hot climb into Volterra and struggled just to get to the top. After a hefty lunch and three bottles of water, I recovered and had one my strongest afternoons of the week. I'd never done that before and I've been more conscious of hydration and eating on rides since then.

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KerryIrons
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 3234
Location: Midland, MI

6/27/17 1:11 PM

In the know


quote:
Like a really bad day in the Tour


Us insiders call this a "jour sans" which translates to "a day without" :)

I have experienced "ride revivals" but only by recovering from a bonk. If I'm well-fed and hydrated and start dragging during a ride I pretty much know I'm not coming back and will just have to tough it out to get home.

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daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield

6/27/17 2:12 PM

I only took water on a longer ride a few years ago. It was a rolling tempo ride, summer but not boiling. On the return leg I was pretty listless and I stopped in a country store where a bottle of "Big Red" caught my eye. It was clear pink, awful, like cotton candy. About ten miles later I felt great.

The best warm up example of mine, and all the examples you guys absolutely hold true, was I helped set up the gates for the corners in a local crit. I drove to my Mom's and told the missus not to wake me up until 11:00. She woke me up on time and about a half hour later I was on the starting line, just woke up, no warm up. There were a couple of rabbits and for the first fifteen minutes I was dying, begging the barrage to stop, justifying dropping out. Finally they gave up for a minute, I got to relax, the capillaries opened up and everything was great. I led out a teammate to his first win. Not bad for a couple of months after back surgery.

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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6884
Location: Maine

6/27/17 2:34 PM

Rabbits etc

I have some skinny climber friends who love to take off at the start. I'd say "you don't need to warm up because you don't have any muscles."

Kerry, "jour sans" is an elegant term which I haven't heard. I just say "I suck."

When I have had a dramatic in-ride recovery I tend to think it is more than recovering from a bonk, but hard to say. These are rides where I ate and drank well (at least I thought so), but on the other hand they were quite difficult so maybe I just burned through everything. Though I have also improved going up Mt. Washington which is not really a bonk scenario I don't think.

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