Recovery, how long, how difficult can it be????

[oldgreyandslow]

I've upped the milkes a bit recently, not much, going from 130 to 150 or so miles a week, mainly by trying to get a longer ride in on a Sunday. Mostly I tend to ride 4 to 5 days a week.

I've recently found that my hamstrings and quads feel pretty sore after a ride and it takes a few days for this to subside.

I do a fair stretch after a ride and at various other times during the week, I try to get some protein in as soon as I get back from a ride too, but I'm surprised at how long this soreness hangs around and recovery takes longer than it used to.

No doubt it's age related too, but is this common, are there other things I can do to reduce it?

 

[Nebulous]

I think age and individual factors do come into recovery. I did a big ride on Saturday with one of my clubmates. Our confined TT was last night (Tuesday) my legs were still a bit weary so I manned the turn. I certainly couldn't have done myself justice racing it. My clubmate got a PB for our confined course. What would have been too much for me was obvously just right for him.

A lot of people seem to go for 3 hard weeks followed by an easier one for recovery. That might be worth a try.

 

[400bhp]

Bike fit needed.

No, really. If your hamstrings and quads are hurting it could be your seat is too far back.

Doing that many miles a week, then it's well worth spending time and money on being as comfortable as possible.

 

[Garz]

Bike fit needed.

Doing that many miles a week, then it's well worth spending time and money on being as comfortable as possible.

Sound advice!

 

[oldgreyandslow]

Bike fit needed.

No, really. If your hamstrings and quads are hurting it could be your seat is too far back.

Doing that many miles a week, then it's well worth spending time and money on being as comfortable as possible.

Bike fit done already, although there was a bit of confusion on the seat fore/aft position with what I thought were conflicting measurements. The saddle distance behind the BB didn't seem to be related to the saddle nose to handlebar centres, so I have used the latter, if I went for the saddle to BB distance the saddle would be way too far back.

 

[400bhp]

Sorry, your post is a little unclear as to who did the bike fit? You or a pro? From my experience of a bike fit 3 months ago - don't believe you should be suffering any tight quads/hamstrings? Perhaps others with similar experiences can comment.

 

[Rob3rt]

Bike fit done already, although there was a bit of confusion on the seat fore/aft position with what I thought were conflicting measurements. The saddle distance behind the BB didn't seem to be related to the saddle nose to handlebar centres, so I have used the latter, if I went for the saddle to BB distance the saddle would be way too far back.

Forgive me if I am misunderstanding, but as Nige says, you post is a little unclear, based on my understanding, which may be wrong, I would make the following comments.

1) The saddle nose position is irrelevant (unless you are forced to adhere to UCI regulations). The saddle should be set based on how you sit on it. Some people will sit further forward or further back on the same saddle, so setting it up based on a feature such as the nose is poor practice.

2) The saddle position is set with reference to the bottom bracket only, relationship to handlebars is taken into account only by how you sit on the saddle, absolute measurement is redundant.

3) By all means measure things based on features afterwards so you have a record in case something happens and you want to replicate the fit with little fuss.

 

[oldgreyandslow]

Forgive me if I am misunderstanding, but as Nige says, you post is a little unclear, based on my understanding, which may be wrong, I would make the following comments.

1) The saddle nose position is irrelevant (unless you are forced to adhere to UCI regulations). The saddle should be set based on how you sit on it. Some people will sit further forward or further back on the same saddle, so setting it up based on a feature such as the nose is poor practice.

2) The saddle position is set with reference to the bottom bracket only, relationship to handlebars is taken into account only by how you sit on the saddle, absolute measurement is redundant.

3) By all means measure things based on features afterwards so you have a record in case something happens and you want to replicate the fit with little fuss.

Sorry I should clarify this a bit.

I got a bike fit done at Windymilla, near Franham. The set up was done on their fiting bike/machine and the measurements replicated on my own bike by the fitter. I then received an e-mail with the settings on a drawing and this is where the confusion began.

The measurements on the e-mail showed a BB to saddle nose dimension of 100mm and a saddle nose to centre of handlebar dimension of 585mm. I tried to use these same measurements on my winter bike and found that the 100mm seat to BB measurement was impossible to achieve and then measured it on the bike I took with me to the fitting and found the 100mm measurement to be wrong, it was more like 70mm and the 585mm from saddle nose to centre of the bars was spot on.

Does this now make some sense?

 

[ayceejay]

Which is more recent - the bike fit or upping the miles, in other words which one has caused your problem? Presumably this soreness would have occurred at your lower mileage if it was totally related to bike fit, no? Does this soreness occur after EVERY ride or just the longer Sunday one? If you can pin point it thus I am guessing that it is just a question of your body adapting.

 

[Rob3rt]

Did they use your bars and saddle when doing the bike fit? I don't really know how these fits go down. I have always done everything myself other than a basic bike shop fit when buying a bike. I do however do my own fit quite elaborately with video camera's and brightly coloured stickers adhered to particular points of interest to make it east to join them up with lines in paint later

 

[oldgreyandslow]

Which is more recent - the bike fit or upping the miles, in other words which one has caused your problem? Presumably this soreness would have occurred at your lower mileage if it was totally related to bike fit, no? Does this soreness occur after EVERY ride or just the longer Sunday one? If you can pin point it thus I am guessing that it is just a question of your body adapting.

Upping the miles is more recent but I have been upping things quite slowly I haven't gone from 50 milkes a week to 150 miles. The soreness did/does occur at lower mileage but at a much lower level, I guess it is just a case of adapting and I'm looking for a miracle.

Did they use your bars and saddle when doing the bike fit? I don't really know how these fits go down. I have always done everything myself other than a basic bike shop fit when buying a bike. I do however do my own fit quite elaborately with video camera's and brightly coloured stickers adhered to particular points of interest to make it east to join them up with lines in paint later

No the saddle and bars were theirs, they did video everything and the report was quite detailed in terms of limb angles. extensions etc.

 

[Rob3rt]

The issue could be that, once you move onto your saddle, you park yourself in a different position on your saddle, to the one they provided.

 

[VamP]

Feelings of fatigue are quite subjective, and not always 'truthful'. Sometimes I think I am really sore, but then produce good numbers, other times I feel okay, but the numbers are poor. Having access to an objective way of measuring your performance obviously helps.

The whole point of training is to push our bodies into over reach, if it's not hurting, it's probably not training.*

*Disclaimer: O fcourse I don't mean hurting in the injured sense, but in the fatigued sense.

 

[e-rider]

[QUOTE 2477672, member: 30090"]What about having a warm bath and the massaging your legs?

Worked for me when I done the lejog, used deep heat as well for an added zing.[/quote]
an ice bath would be much more effective

 

[VamP]

an ice bath would be much more effective

How 'much' more?