when are my legs going to quit hurting?

What does a hill have to do with it? You can ride recovery on hills. You ride only as fast as you need in order to stay upright (3 miles an hour maybe) and ride as slow as you can the rest of the time. So what if you don't get warmed up riding to work. You will do more damage if you push. At 8-10 miles, I wouldn't expect to be warmed up until I rode up to the office door.

If you want to ride with the club and do intense rides both Saturday and Sun, and push at their pace, you have to ride recovery the rest of the time. Mimi, even very experienced and very strong, fit riders cannot ride 7 days a week at intensity. You are too new to this effort level to push this hard, and I'm only saying it because I'm no spring chicken either, it's going to take longer to get strong and fit. Recovery is even more important for us. We just don't spring back like we used it.

If you don't want your legs to hurt quit abusing them day in and day out.

SadieKate,
thank you. I will try that tomorrow.

PS I was not keeping up on the club ride saturday. I was last, and we eventually limped home because there was no way I could even keep up with the 73 year old!

Good, Mimi. If you have more club hammer rides planned for this weekend, try it all week. You've been going at this for a number of weeks, so take it easy the rest of this work week. Part of the work of training is to know when not to do any work.

To make it fun, when it is safe see how slow you can go. Bill and I practice slow races for mtbiking. Last person over the line wins. It has vastly improved our balance and ability to track stand, all without really trying.

Adding a PS to repond to your PS - you may have been going too hard for too many weeks. See how slowly you can commute this week. Low, low effort. Besides, there are plenty of 73 years that can smoke many of us. You'd be amazed.

Oh, I've met a few of those 73 year olds. I just mentioned him because after the first 30 minutes, he was the only club member I could see ahead of me until Raleighdon slowed down (for me)
THose dudes (and gals) are long in the tooth but man, can they ride.

I will inform Raleighdon that on our way to work in the morning i am going to be even pokeyer. and sunday is the Tandem rally, where things will definitely be more relaxed.

I have ridden almost every day for more than 3 weeks and my legs were hurting all the time. Some days I am pushing VERY hard, other days I take it easy. I did 3-4 really hard-for-me rides a couple of weeks ago and then dh got sick so I did recovery rides for the next 3 days in a row, then I took a day off the bike. MY legs FINALLY started to feel a bit better. Also, started making sure I took the cal-mag before I rode and did way more stretching. All that helped I think. Now when I do a hard fast ride, or a climbing ride, I take easy for the next couple of days. (Easy for me means 20-30km with little if any climbing, HR not over 140.)

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Originally Posted by mimitabby

I will inform Raleighdon that on our way to work in the morning i am going to be even pokeyer. and sunday is the Tandem rally, where things will definitely be more relaxed.

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Cool! So when it is safe call a slow race!

I usually take a rest day off my bike when my legs get really sore from a huge effort ride.

I am going through the same thing. I think age, uh, has something to do with it. I feel like I have one or two good fast days every two week at this point. I have been riding for almost seven years...
I didn't ride for a week because last Tuesday I felt sick from alllergies during my commute. Took Wed. off. Did an intense yoga class and weights on Thursday. Rested Friday. Saturday, it rained, did another hard yoga class, with a 10 minute cardio warm up. Sunday i went on a 3.5 mile hike (easy).
Rested yeterday. This morning my legs still felt like lead. Two weeks ago I got to work in 56 minutes. Today was 59.20.
I always take one full day off, sometimes two. I ride with a slow friend once a week. Try to stretch every day and do yoga and weights twice a week. I feel like a wimp compared to others. My mileage isn't even that high!

Robyn, you are taking the same approach I am. It's easy (well, relatively)
to get high mileage when the only thing you do is bicycle. But when you lift weights, walk, jog, stairstep, etc at the same time, well, there is less time to ride the bike.
I am sure you are right that age is a factor.
I read that a 60 year old woman can only build 1/2 as much muscle as a 20 something. so we have to work harder to get where we get to.

I can't take too many days off this month since it's ride to work month but i made a conscious effort this morning to slow down and played waltzes in my head instead of Marchs today.

going home i will be alone so it will be even easier to be pokey

Recovery, recovery, recovery.

Cross train swimming and only pull with your arms...get your cardio without using your leg muscles.

And, I cannot overstate how much an awesome massage therapist can do for legs that have become habitually knotted up, etc. It can take awhile to find the right one, but when you do...I find that even one massage every 6 weeks or so does wonders for putting me back together.

I have been thinking about a massage! :D

I am all for the massage...
It's not my choice per se, to cross train, but I know I have to, so 1) I don't burn out (I've been through this before with aerobics) and 2) trying to keep my osteopoeinia at bay. Plus, I do like some of the other activities I do, but I am not addicted to them. Once we hit a stretch of decent weather, I ride 4, sometimes 5 times a week. Usually 2 are longer or harder rides and one is a recovery ride. The other 2 might be just a normal 15-20 mile loop I do alone when i don't have a lot of time. Sometimes I mtb in the summer and fall. Talk about muscles hurting.
OK, just got home from my commute, going to stretch!

LOL Mimi... sorry to tell you this... but if you STOP riding your legs will hurt!
Afraid its a "catch 22" :p

Progress report: still commuting, but being more relaxed about it. not entirely; like when i heard a car coming too close, i instinctively put the gas on;
and then when i got to the last block going home (6% incline) i somehow ended up in 3rd gear so i stood and went VERY VERY slowly and did not fall over..

legs feel better today too.