Strength Issues?

All of a sudden I can't ride for any more than 3-4 miles before being totally wiped out on both my mountain bike and my Madone. My thighs start burning and aching after about 5 minutes. By mile 3 I'm out of oxygen. This started last week and into this week. My saddle no longer seems to fit as yesterday I discovered chaffing and I had only done 3 miles. I have a Brooks B17 Narrow.

Before I was doing 6-10 miles without any problems except my arms/shoulders hurting and figured it was just lack of upper body strength. Now my upper body is fine but my legs are a mess.

My body just wants to sleep it off. I didn't even get up today until 2pm.

I haven't fallen off in two weeks which is a wonderful thing.

Just a rough patch in cycling or is something up?

Have you pumped your tires?

Or is one of your brakes sticking? Just asking. If it's rubbing on your rims and you don't notice, it gets really tough to keep going.

See if you can track you nutrition... has anything changed in the last week?

Sometimes your body just demands a break from the bike. When this happens to me I do stair climbing, swimming, running, and/or weight lifting.

I think your body is telling you, you need a break. You didn't say how often during the week you ride. So just on a guess, you may be pushing yourself too much.
Try not riding for a couple of days, let your body recharge then try again but do it easy and work your way back up to 6-10 miles.
As for arms/shoulders hurting and the seat bothering you makes me wonder if you were professionally fit on your bike. In the end back off a bit and see what happens.

This happens to me sometimes too, even when I've taken a break from riding. There are usually a couple of things that fix it for me.

1) Staying well hydrated. My muscles always hurt more and get way more tired if I'm behing on fluid intake.
2) Eat on the bike. If I'm feeling tired early in the ride, I go ahead and eat (I always bring food even if I don't think I'll need it). Wash down with plenty of water. I usually find within 5 minutes, I'm fine.
3) Keep riding. Sometimes it just takes longer for your muscles to warm up. Last weekend I thought I was going to die by mile 8 of my 28 mile ride. But I just decided to push it and keep going. I'm glad I did, because the pain went away on its own and I finished the ride in record time and felt great.

I don't know if any of these are medically sound, but they sure help me.

I felt exactly like that once!

Turned out I was pregnant.

I went back over my riding today and realized a couple of things.

I changed from cycling shoes to my Reebok Reezig shoes last week. That added another inch to my height. I can't use the cycling shoes since I don't handle clippless pedals. I'm stuck if I have to walk up a hill with cycling shoes so I switched out.

I don't know if the weight of the shoes make a difference, but they aren't light.

Someone (probably my son) messed with my saddle position. Grrr. I fixed that today.

I was trying to improve my cadence up from 80 to 90 one day and instead of coasting I was spinning on the way down. I get the theory of cadence, but my body doesn't.

I must be REALLY stiff in the mornings. I went out tonight around 7pm and did 4 miles with ease. It was getting dark so I went in.

One day I changed my route and did more hills in the same mileage..about 4.

Going up/down the streets for 4-6 miles is far easier than the above route.


And no. LOL. I'm not pregnant.

I'll get all of this figured out someday. And I almost have 100 miles on my Madone.

+1 on getting yourself hydrated, and +1 ontracking your food, in terms of % of fat, carbohydrate and protein. Ideally the ratio of protein to carbohydrate is about 1 to 4 for a reasonably active person. I also find that the more I ride, the more miles and the longer distance it takes me to warm up properly and get settled in for the ride. These days I am down to about 8 miles and or 30 minutes before I am really capable of doing any hills, intervals or pushing myself.

I als take a day or two off when I experience a day of the living dead moment.

Congrats on breaking a century on the Madone when it happens.

marni