Recovery from Riding

I am struggling a bit with recovery from a longer ride (for me).

I am a newbie rider. I have only been at this for about a month. My past two rides were 23 miles and 28 miles. I am struggling with recovery after my rides. I feel good while I am riding and actually feel like I could ride longer. I come home normally tired. The next day is a waste for me. I am really tired. Not body ache tired, but I need to sleep tired. Is this normal when you are a newbie?

I am diabetic and I struggle a bit with lows for the rest of the day after I ride. However, this isn't unusual for me to have lows in the daytime and I don't feel that exhaustion unless it is a debilitating low.

Anyone else struggle with next day recovery? Does this get better over time?

maybe take this to the diabetic thread someone started? (you?) Maybe you're dehydrated? It takes me a day or three (depending on the intensity of the ride) to get rehydrated. I drink NUUN (no sugar), water, and a whole lot of other stuff until i find myself feeling normal again.

Dehydration huh? I am a bit of a camel when I ride. I will try hydrating better tomorrow when I ride.

I am the one that started the "Diabetic" thread. I am not sure this has anything to do with diabetes, so I didn't put it in that thread.

Thanks for the suggestion. I never thought about dehydratation.

IMO, it has almost nothing to do with diabetes and everything to do with nutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte balance.

It takes some time to figure those things out, even without diabetes. Everyone is different. I would start with the what/how much/how often of eating and drink, factoring in your unique circumstances, and go from there....

is..."it depends."

Do you have an athletic background or are you basically getting off the couch? How fast are you going? Any idea what your heart rate is during your rides?

Well done you. It took me months, nearly a year infact, to reach those distances. That I'm no spring chicken and have lung disease my have been a factor; I still struggle to recover from long rides. Maybe you should consider gradually building up to those distances.

You need to make sure you're hydrating and eating enough carbs and protein. Very important. Before I ride (25-30 miles like you...) I eat a bar that is high in carbs and protein. Then follow up about 15 minutes before I ride with a gel pack. I also drink a bottle of water before I go to (16 ounces). You need to make sure you get the water in. Then about 15 miles in I take a break and eat another gel pack with half a bar of some sort. Again, taking in carbs and calories. Also drink a decent amount of water. You don't want to wait until you're thirsty as it's too late then. Your body is already dehydrated. Finally, when finished, eat protein. Eat some tuna, fish or chicken or protein bar. I even eat the turkey jerky as that's high in protein too. Protein shakes will work too. You need to give your muscles the protein to recover. The rest of the day I drink lots of water and eat a healthy lunch and dinner. Eating right is important and of course being diabetic you need to really watch your sugars. Good luck!

Another vote for checking out your hydration, nutrition, general "fueling." here is why I do for my forty mile rides (I seem to have plateaued at fifty miles ... But I have only been riding since April - yes, I have been a member here much longer):

Two hours out from ride I start drinking as much water as I can stand. I also fix myself a cheese and egg sandwich on toast. I stop drinking heavily an hour before the ride. Go potty before your ride. ;)

During the ride I have one bottle half Gatorade and half water OR an endurance specific shake. Other bottle is only water. I drink from both every ten to 15 minutes.

Post ride I drink a recovery shake and make sure I eat some sort of protein within two hours of completing the ride. Beer and homemade tacos are a favorite of mine.


If I were you I would keep your mileage at this level and start figuring out what works for you. I can tell you now that I fuel/drink/eat less now for my standard twenty mile rides than what I used to need when twenty miles was my long rides. Once I am able to get past my fifty mile hump I wonder if it will change my needs for the forty miles rides but at the moment I just haven't had time to put the mileage down that I need (if I don't I have knee issues when I try to jump my mileage too much).

I initially pushed beyond my limits when I was riding and recovery was tough. Like you I was wiped out the next day. I backed off slowly worked up to rides of 25 to 35 miles. I don't know how old you are, if you are younger you can push harder, or what kind of fitness base you have. But I had to back off. Now I have no problem at all doing a 25 mile ride and having energy to spare, feel fine and ready to ride the next day. I was able to do a 37 mile ride a week ago, my longest for me ever, and ride 9 miles the next day. I've been at this since spring. I started with next to no fitness as well as being overweight. It took me five months to get to riding 25 miles.

Zippinalong, that is a lot of food for a 25 mile ride. I agree that hydration and eating, especially protein make a huge difference, but I might add that eating real food (of whatever type you can do before/after a ride) is a lot better. Sometimes people wonder why they are gaining weight when they ride a lot; those bars and gels add up and have a lot of sugar. I use bars as a snack during a ride, but generally only use Shot Blocks (like gel) when i am seriously tired or on a ride longer than 50 miles.

Crankin: I agree about the sugar which is why I'm careful that the bars and gels I eat are not real high sugar :)
Besides considering I'm burning about 1000 calories it's not much of a concern. I've actually lost weight since starting to bike. I watch what I eat pretty well too.
Everyone is different in terms of their metabolism so what works for me of course may not work for other people.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

Zippinalong, that is a lot of food for a 25 mile ride. I agree that hydration and eating, especially protein make a huge difference, but I might add that eating real food (of whatever type you can do before/after a ride) is a lot better. Sometimes people wonder why they are gaining weight when they ride a lot; those bars and gels add up and have a lot of sugar. I use bars as a snack during a ride, but generally only use Shot Blocks (like gel) when i am seriously tired or on a ride longer than 50 miles.

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+1 on real food. Even protein bars that are home made are better nutritionally and taste-wise. Energy bars made with dried fruit are great. Protein bars can be made with whey protein. I just don't like ingesting something that has a shelf life longer than Mick Jagger.

I thought that sounded like a lot of food too for a 25-35 mile ride. I'll typically just ride it without stopping. But like you, a 50+ mile ride requires a stop for fuel. I do carry cytomax in a water bottle for electrolytes & fast energy if I'm doing a 25+ mile ride. So maybe that isn't "real food" but I haven't been able to duplicate it in terms of results.

My hunger tends to vary on rides, depending on the mileage, intensity, time spent on the bike, and even the weather. Sometimes, I can end up being very hungry and taking in more calories, on a shorter (30-50 miles) but more intense ride. Then there are days such as today, where we did just over 100 miles (at a more casual pace) and all I had for food on the entire ride was 1 mini Luna bar (80 cal) at stop 1, and then a PB & honey sandwich (210 cal) and 1/2 banana (50 cal) at stop 2...and I was perfectly fine. I don't think fueling for endurance activities is an exact science. I think it's a lot of trial & error to figure out what works for you.

How are you calculating the number of calories you are burning? HR monitors and Garmins often over estimate by a lot.
Of course, you might be * a lot* younger than me, and most people are bigger than me, so they burn more calories. But, at 5 foot 1 inch and 106 pounds, I don't count on burning more than 300-400 calories an hour, doing hilly riding at an average of 14-16. For me, I make sure I've eaten/hydrated right before a ride and I use only Nuun (electrolytes) in my water bottle, plus one bottle of plain water. I take the Nuun tabs with me, if I need to refill. I think i've used the lower cal Accelerade once this season and have bought 1-2 G2O drinks en route. If it's 25 or under, I don't need to eat. Above that, one bar suffices for 50 miles, with sometimes a Shot Block near the end. I have to eat a lot right when I'm done, though. If I do a metric, I might add in a banana,or another bar, preferably, real food. The one century I did, I ate every hour, small amounts. I brought my own whole wheat bagels and soy nut butter, along with the bars.
Weather does affect all of this. I eat more when it's cold.

nscrbug: Exactly. It may seem like I'm eating a lot, but then if I don't eat something on my break I start getting hungry on the way back and start to feel lethargic. This is what works for me. I used to just eat one bar and do a 30 mile ride but then I found myself flagging and hungry half-way back. Like anything else, you keep making adjustments until you find what works for you.