How quickly do you "lose it"

[Justinslow]

By this I mean how quickly do you become out of shape or not bike fit when you don't get out as often as you want?
For example if I'm looking to get up to 50 mile rides is it enough to get out once a week or am I almost going back to the start in body terms -is the break between rides too long? Cheers, justin.

 

[RuthP]

I guess it depends how fit you are in general, and what other activities you are doing during the week.

I got up to 50 mile rides only riding once, or occasionally twice a week. It probably took a couple of months before I felt confident I could do that sort of distance. But, I also have two horses to ride and muck out, and two dogs to walk, so general level of fitness was OK in the first place.

 

[Ganymede]

I think you can only try and see. I don't follow this pattern myself as I'm a regular short-distance rider (sort of commuting, domestic transport etc up to about 10 miles round trip generally, 3 - 5 times a week) but I am working up to longer rides in fits and starts. I think purely the experience of being on the bike for nearly 20 miles instead of 10, about once every couple of weeks, is working for me so far and I am contemplating a 30-miler at the weekend without any more build-up than that (which I expect to hurt a bit, while the 20-milers don't, I just get tired and hungry!).

I feel a bit rubbish if I've had a week with no short rides as cycling does so much for my well-being, but I think there are plenty of weekend cyclists out there who manage pretty well.

 

[snorri]

Depends on so many things, age, general fitness, other forms of exercise, speed/time you wish to achieve on your 50 miler.

 

[Rob3rt]

By this I mean how quickly do you become out of shape or not bike fit when you don't get out as often as you want?
For example if I'm looking to get up to 50 mile rides is it enough to get out once a week or am I almost going back to the start in body terms -is the break between rides too long? Cheers, justin.

In terms of endurance, you will "lose it" very slowly, if you decrease your training load, however in terms of top end, you will piss it away pretty sharpish. In fact within about 48 hours your performance will begin to decline, this is why racers will train the day before or even on the day of a race, with some low volume but high intensity efforts to maintain.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Depends if you are 'just popping out, it'll be 50 miles' or are looking to 'hammer that 50 again today' the former it probably won't be an issue the latter you'll want more bike time for. I had a number of weeks off after an injury at the start of 2013 and it took me maybe a week to be back in to the swing of my daily commute and another to be comfortable with it all again.

 

[sleaver]

I don't know about 'top end' stuff, but your general fitness doesn't normally start to decrease for about two weeks. You'll notice that I said 'normally' though because as above it does depend on so many different things.

As an example, two weeks before a marathon I had a pain in my foot so rather than risk the marathon, I rested it and didn't run again until the marathon itself. With two weeks off, I didn't really notice any decrease in fitness but then I had been running 3 times a week (bar a couple of weeks for an ankle injury) for four months.

 

[Markymark]

Depends on many factors but my best advice is don;t see as getting on the bike as a big deal. Next time you want to go to the shops - go by bike. May only be a mile round trip. Visit friends...do the same. Any short journeys can be done by bike. Soon, getting on it wo';t seem anything other than normal. These miles then soon add up. You may even start going the long way round and doing even more miles.

 

[Justinslow]

Thanks for all the replies, what I'm trying to avoid is " peaks and troughs" to try to get to a point where I can do a long ride and not feel stiff or have an aching neck, but family life and children means that I cannot get out as often as I would like. My neck issue is a result of body position with my head angled up looking where I'm going and is probably like walking around for a couple of hours constantly looking up at the sky. I get this issue if I do a long ride on my sports motorcycle and I haven't ridden for a while, as the body position is somewhat similar
I suppose what I'm trying to achieve is enough ride time so that my body gets used to the position and hurts as little as possible.

 

[Crackle]

Small family and work were the end of my 'fit' period. If I had to do it again I would urge myself to make time for me and develop a routine I could keep up. I did eventually manage it but I was unfit and overweight when I did and it took a while to come back and not at the level I left it.

I would urge you to think about what you can manage and how you can fit it in if it's important. Be realistic though. I ended up running at lunch in work, it didn't help with adaptation on the bike but it gave me a semblance of base fitness.

 

[Hacienda71]

I suspect that for most people riding once a week would keep you on a plateau. If you want to improve then you would need to train/ride more regularly than this.

 

[Justinslow]

Quite. In fact if you set off one morning with a friend, cycle gently for a couple of hours, stop for half an hour for coffee and cake, cycle gently for another couple of hours, stop for lunch, then cycle gently home with a tea stop along the way, you'll probably have done about 50 miles without noticing it (and your neck probably won't ache much either). Most people who do a bit of cycling can do this. What's more difficult is blasting round a 50-mile 'circuit' against time pressure, self-imposed or not. That and the pre-ride anxiety of not knowing if your 'preparation' has been effective enough.

I think you're right, last night I went out with a mate and we chatted along the way - took it easy had one stop and completed 34 miles. It was a great ride, but I did 37 miles on Saturday so I'm thinking the lack of a decent time break between the two rides contributed to my neck ache, I'm trying not to leave too much of a gap between rides so that I get bike fit (hence my original question) on the plus side my legs don't ache anywhere near like they did after Saturdays ride. Maybe I'm just expecting too much too soon and maybe doing too much too soon! The neck/shoulders issue will hopefully subside over time (and maybe look up with my eyes rather than my head)

 

[vickster]

Quite. In fact if you set off one morning with a friend, cycle gently for a couple of hours, stop for half an hour for coffee and cake, cycle gently for another couple of hours, stop for lunch, then cycle gently home with a tea stop along the way, you'll probably have done about 50 miles without noticing it (and your neck probably won't ache much either). Most people who do a bit of cycling can do this. What's more difficult is blasting round a 50-mile 'circuit' against time pressure, self-imposed or not. That and the pre-ride anxiety of not knowing if your 'preparation' has been effective enough.

Sounds like the rides I and @jefmcg enjoy

If your bike is set up right and you don't have some anatomical issue or injury to neck, it shouldn't really ache too much if you break often. Are you stretching etc after the cycling, and how is your general posture?

 

[Justinslow]

Sounds like the rides I and @jefmcg enjoy

If your bike is set up right and you don't have some anatomical issue or injury to neck, it shouldn't really ache too much if you break often. Are you stretching etc after the cycling, and how is your general posture?

I stretch a lot through my job as a self employed gardener, a few years ago I suffered a lot with lower back pain which was attributed to stiff legs and general lack of suppleness ( back doing all the work when bending over) one of the preventative exercises is lots of stretching! So yeah I stretch anyway, and now esp after riding. I'm 12 st 2 and just under 6 ft using a 55 cm frame, when comparing myself to my mate we have similar riding positions. But reducing the stretch to the bars could be of benefit as User13710 says, but I've covered 170 miles since 17 august when I got the bike having done very little before this, so maybe I've just been hitting it a bit hard.

 

[bpsmith]

I read somewhere a while back, and somebody else told me the same recently, that you lose your edged after only 3 days.

Clearly, this is more aimed at top level fitness people, but that's why a lot of people only have a max of 2 rest days when training apparently.