Training & Nutrition - legs feel like they're working all the time...is this normal?

Hi

this might be a silly question but when I'm out on group rides my legs will get a mild burning sensation when I'm trying to keep up with the faster guys who aren't even really pushing the pace for them

I still get dropped but they wait further up the trial and we all re-group.

this year I'm in a lot better shape than previous years but is this muscle working soreness just something that is par for the course or does it get better as ones fitness improves.

I tend to back off when the soreness starts but should I just continue to push and my body will adapt?

am I correct to assume that everyone has this mild soreness but just pushes through it?

Fit riders can ride a lot faster than less fit riders without taxing their bodies. You are just being pushed by this group you are riding with. I bet that most of them feel fine. There are all sorts of levels of performance.

Everyone has their performance maximum. It takes harder and harder training to approach it. And the gains come slower and slower. Really strong riders are a combination of training and freakish talent.

I am a new rider and no expert.

We did a 50 mile ride earlier this year over Spivey Gap here in NE TN. It was a 1700 foot climb on both sides. While doing the return on the back side, my legs started screaming bloody murder they ached so bad. It was like fire and it was the same for my friend who was riding with me. We just ground up the hill and through the pain which eventually started to subside. Mind you this was 2 months into riding for me.

I still have a hard time forcing myself past those points, but sometimes it just takes ignoring the pain to improve. Like Pat said, it gets harder and harder to make those gains.

Although called quackery by some and not something that I've tried, Sportlegs may help.

that will go away gradually

keep at it. hammer till they burn and you can't keep up

come back next time and you might make it 1 more mile

repeat


it never really gets easier you just go faster and further

Ahhhh . . . Riders in really good shape, with thousands of miles/year in their legs, can climb hill after hill in pain. Your pain subsided because you eased off, which is fine. I figure if my legs start hurting after the first hour of hard riding, I'm way out of shape. They shouldn't get really bad until 3-4 hours. If I get back to the parking lot after a 4-hour ride and I'm still walking OK, I know I could have gone harder.

No, you don't just push through it. It gets worse and worse until eventually you cramp or you ease off. When it gets bad, most folks ease off whether they want to or not. You just can't put out the watts when your legs are trashed. The deal is that you are trying to reach a conditioning level when the other guys' legs are trashed at the same time yours are, or preferable sooner than yours. That's how you win. When you start getting in shape, you can hang on the back on the hills, catch up on the descents and flats, and maybe still be there on the last climb.

Try riding more. Not harder, just more volume. It's hard to keep up with stronger riders, but that's how you get stronger!

Perhaps you are experiencing an age related decline in your recovery after a riding. You may be overtraining. Unlike other posters, I suggest that you schedule cross-training or rest between your big rides. Eventually you will improve over time.

Ah, spikedog brings up a point. Are your legs often sore when you ride, not just the pain that accumulates after a couple thousand feet of climbing hard? If so, it may be that you aren't getting enough protein to repair the damage after each ride. If so, try taking 60g of whey protein/day in 4 ea. 15g doses, one after the ride, and one when you go to bed.

You get the burning when you are close to your lactic threshold - it's from the lactic acid accumulating in your muscles.

There are differing philosophies about training, but both Friel and Carmichael suggest that spending a lot of time at LT will compromise your improvement. Most riders spend too much time riding "kindof hard".

The generall guideline is to spend the bulk of your time a fair bit below LT, and then do specific workouts designed on improving LT and anaerobic power.

I am a new rider and no expert.

We did a 50 mile ride earlier this year over Spivey Gap here in NE TN. It was a 1700 foot climb on both sides. While doing the return on the back side, my legs started screaming bloody murder they ached so bad. It was like fire and it was the same for my friend who was riding with me. We just ground up the hill and through the pain which eventually started to subside. Mind you this was 2 months into riding for me.

I still have a hard time forcing myself past those points, but sometimes it just takes ignoring the pain to improve. Like Pat said, it gets harder and harder to make those gains.

Although called quackery by some and not something that I've tried, Sportlegs may help.

By the way, everything I've observed is the pill you mentioned lurks around forums to promote. They use testimonials by schills or psuedo name respondents who have no other record of participation and the only "scientific study" was a poor quality, non-peer reviewed poster by a student. I was given free samples at a bike conference with the suggestion, "just try it yourself". Being careful about what I eat, I did a google research and found garbage, deliberately misleading promotion like phony testimonials in forum posts by new participants with 1 or 2 posts. Offensive! This ain't news either.

Ahhhh . . . Riders in really good shape, with thousands of miles/year in their legs, can climb hill after hill in pain. Your pain subsided because you eased off, which is fine. I figure if my legs start hurting after the first hour of hard riding, I'm way out of shape. They shouldn't get really bad until 3-4 hours. If I get back to the parking lot after a 4-hour ride and I'm still walking OK, I know I could have gone harder.

On aspect of improved performance is learning how to suffer better ;)

When you are starting out, you will feel the burn as you go harder on the bike. As my friend eloquently puts it, that means that you're doing it right. :)

When I started out, I had sore legs ALL of the time. It didn't matter what I was doing, as my legs would be sore from whatever it was. I don't have that problem anymore, except when I do hard intervals; my legs usually get stiff then.