So now what?

[tygab]

Hi all,

I just found this board yesterday and now have a feeling I'll be here a lot.

So, I just finished the big event I'd motivated and at times willed myself to do last weekend. Quick recap: I went from never having cycled at all back in April to completing a long distance fundraising ride (2 day ride @ approx 80 miles/day).

Now that it is over I have questions... like:
-how long should I rest/recover in terms of riding? A week? Several weeks?
I did ride twice this week, one 15 mile flat and one 12 mile mixed flat and gentle hills. Legs felt pretty tired M-W, but are starting to feel more normal as the week goes on. But I definitely don't want to be stressing if I am still recovering.

-When I do resume, what should my long ride(s) be? 1/2 of what I did? more?

-Where can I learn how to improve my technique and abilities now that I have the basics down?

-Do any of you cross train? Is this helpful?

and last of all,
-What should my next goal be? I am thinking a century now?

Basically any pointers or insight would be very helpful. I want to have something to look forward to and push toward, but I am not sure what this should be right now.

[RoadRaven]

OK... I have been waiting for some of the other gals to chime in... I don't do long distance rides as a goal, so I can't really offer advice.

Though I can make some generic suggestions for you, tygab

In terms of rest - don't stay off the bike completely - do what is called "active recovery"... that is, ride, but at a lower heart-rate or speed or power output - however you measure your ride.
(You don't need a piece of machinery like a heart rate monitor to do this is you haven't got one... you know when you push your body hard and when you don't. Active recovery should feel like a comfortable ride with your heart rate elevated just a little... not the thumping that happens when exerting yourself intensely.)

So your next question - "when do I resume?" - is actually, "when do I start increasing my intensity again?"

And that depends. What are your goals? What are you training for?

Another enduro/long distance ride? Then I am guessing you should be riding those distances, though not at race pace, interspersed with shorter rides (Metric riders... help me out here please?)

If your goal is shorter races - 20 km or 40km (12-25 miles) then do some intense rides at this distance (to build your anaerobic threshold). Include some intervals to improve aspects of racing like sprints. But also do some longer rides at a lower/recovery rate to build your aerobic base.

Remember to rest well after rides... I have 1-2 rest days a week, and after an intense ride (like yesterdays race) I will do a slower longer ride to help disperse the toxins that can build up in a race and ease the muscles (thats what I will do today). Tomorrow is a rest day - no ride at all. I will ride Tues, Wed and Thurs and on Friday I will have no ride at all in preparation for my Saturday race.

Only you can decide your goals... if you like riding the longer distances, then some of those long events might be your goal...

Good luck, and hopefully someone else will chip in soon with some long distance suggestions

[Geonz]

I go by how I feel. Cycling doesn't pound your body like running does so it doesn't take as long to recover. And, it depends on how hard you pushed hyourself on that long-distance ride.
My body tells me when I want to go fast again after a long ride. It usually takes a couple of days or a week... but sometimes I'm amazed, and then I realize that well, I'd been doing a lot of miles before the "long" ride so really it wasn't that much more, and a couple of "recovery" days were more like a taper adn I really wanted to go out and go long with the muscles I'd built. (I seem to be designed for the long, not-too-fast stuff... YES, i'm thinking brevets though I"m not sure what that would entail financially and it would require *conscious* planning, not just "ride a lot" which is my usual training plan ). With the two week-long tours I was on, by the end I could have just kept going and building on that 60-miles-a-day thing.
Mainly, I didn't/don't want to lose that fitness. I just couldn't believe that, holey COW, I had a trained athlete's body. (Where on earth did it come from???) I LIKE it. I can do a conference all day... and then still want to go out at night. So... I keep riding :-)

[Tuckervill]

So if you can do 80 miles each day for 2 days, what's stopping you from doing a century? Wouldn't take but a couple of weeks to build up to that kind of mileage, would it?

Karen

[tygab]

So if you can do 80 miles each day for 2 days, what's stopping you from doing a century? Wouldn't take but a couple of weeks to build up to that kind of mileage, would it?

Karen

That is what I am thinking, a century should be pretty achievable. But the wildcard (I guess) is how long it will take me to feel like I am training versus recovering. Right now I feel like I am recovering still. I went for a relatively short distance today (30 mi, rolling hills) and felt pretty tuckered out by the end - which seems to tell me I need to take it easy for a while longer yet. I will not ride tomorrow (Sunday). So I am hoping by the middle of this coming week I am feeling more like my old self in terms of energy.

At the end of day 1 of the ride, I felt pretty confident I could have gone another 20 miles to have it be a century - so if I can get to that point again I think that's pretty reasonable. End of day 2, well, I think I was ready to be off the bike...

There's a century in about a month's time that I'd like to do (I could always do the 62 mi ride if I am not feeling ready)... hopefully this is doable. I guess it boils down to it is hard to rest! But I know I should and that long term it is better for me. On the other hand, I worry that resting will cause me to lose the gains I've made...