Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - I have not been riding: Is it good to rest or not?

After riding 10 to 15 days per month for 500 to 600 miles, I'm now off the bike due to winter weather.

Are there fitness benefits to the off-season? Or, am I going to be recovering from a setback in fitness when better weather allows cycling again?

Benefits? No, it's a disaster! You bet, big-time setback. Well, maybe that's a little strong . . . But only a little.

My experience is that after three days, every day you take off requires three days to get back to where you were. Not that precise, really, but something like that. One year I took November through January completely off and it was the end of July before I felt like myself again.

OTOH, it doesn't take that much to keep your system alive. Winter is a great time to get in some serious hours on the rollers, do a little weight training, hit the Stepmill, take a spin class, all the stuff that, in the season, would just take away from your serious riding time.

Chicago, there must be snow? Get out the XC skis and go out and run! Or skate-ski. Don't ski? XC gear is not expensive like Alpine. It's quick to get the basics and then takes forever to get really good, so it's not boring, and it's easy on the joints like biking.

Twenty-five years ago it was common for racers to take the winter off of the bike. You'd ride easy a couple of days a week, maybe, but mostly you did other stuff like speed skating, nordic skiing, jogging, whatever. This supposedly allowed the body to recover from the demands of the racing season. (Ancient Italian Knowledge...)

I personally think it was more of a rest for the mind than the body, and today's racers don't go nearly to that extreme. Whether that's resulted in better performance is open to question.

I think the important topic with recreational riders is what you enjoy doing. Personally, I enjoy winter activities when winter arrives, and don't worry any more about harming my bike riding than I worry in summertime about the bike harming my mountaineering, or whatever. I'm neither going to win the Tour de France nor solo Everest without oxygen. But I still get full enjoyment out of both sports.

Generally you can not "store" fitness for very long. So if you quit all activities and simply do nothing for a long period of time you can expect to be weaker and less "fit" or ready to pick up riding again.

My own experience suggests that even the best athletes will begin to "de-train" in as little as three consecutive days of inactivity.

For everyday people, walking two or three miles a day will do wonders. If there is snow on the ground -all the better.......

In my early days of cycling, I used to take the winters off completely ... put the bicycle away in October and dig it out again in April. And every year it was like starting all over again. I don't recommend doing that.

If you aren't riding your bicycle outside, are you at least keeping active in other ways? Are you attending a spinning class once or twice a week? Are you going to the gym to lift weights? Are you participating in winter sports like cross-country skiing, skating, etc.?

It's not a bad idea to back off a bit now and then to allow yourself to rest, but don't back off to the point of being a couch potato.


I'm really struggling with my fitness level now. After hardly cycling at all from the beginning of June till mid-September (winter), and only walking about 2 km a day during that time ... and then spending 2 weeks in hospital in August hardly doing any activity ... I'm finding it really difficult to get back up where I was in May.

I don't even want to think where I have to start after 6 months and counting. It'll be as if I never rode. Some people talk about muscle memory, but I've forgotten what muscle used to look like.

As for OP's question though. In my experience, three days off the bike is no biggie; in fact it can be thoroughly beneficial after a big event or training period.

Generally you want to periodize -- peak then back off some. Some cross training in winter is great too. Cross-country skiing and/or skating is perfect

post on bikeforums less.
ride more.
rest when appropriate.
eat cookies.

I don't even want to think where I have to start after 6 months and counting. It'll be as if I never rode. Some people talk about muscle memory, but I've forgotten what muscle used to look like.


I made an observation when I was off the bicycle for three months with a burnt-to-the-bone foot in 2001/2002 (November 2001 - February 2002), and when I was off the bicycle this past winter because of the DVT.

As I said before, in my early years of cycling, I was riding about 1500 km outside during the "season", and then I'd take several months off the bicycle during the winter. I'd try to be somewhat active in other ways during the "off" months ... walking now and then, cross-country skiing now and then, spending some time in the gym riding the stat bikes and weightlifting. (In fact, as I look at my records, I rode roughly about 1000 km a year inside, using the computers on the stat bikes to come up with that total) But each April when I started riding outside again, it was like starting all over again from scratch.

However, when I burnt my foot on Nov 1, 2001, I'd done almost 9000 km of riding that year, including multiple centuries, and a SR series. I'd also done approx. 9000 km of riding in each of the two years prior including lots of long distance stuff. So when I got back on the bicycle again in February 2002, it wasn't so much muscle memory ... I think that was pretty much gone because I had to go to physio to learn to walk again ... but it was experience. I knew how to pace myself. I knew what to eat on a ride, and when. So I wasn't dealing with a lot of the stuff which riders who are new to long distances were dealing with. I just had to build up my muscle strength. I also noticed that my cardio was pretty good. My legs were giving out on me long before my lungs and heart were. So, although I had taken a huge leap backward, it wasn't like starting from scratch like it had been in the early years.

Now this time ... I've got the experience, but I'm trying to build up the muscle strength AND my cardio. Unfortunately DVT messes with the cardio. But I think it was experience that got me through the 100K I did in November ... and experience and sheer determination that got me through the (11-hour) century I rode a couple weeks later.

So when you get back on the bicycle again, you'll at least have your experience as a cyclist to get you going. :)

So when you get back on the bicycle again, you'll at least have your experience as a cyclist to get you going. :)

I'm going to have to rely on that 40-odd years of being physiologically/psychologically "wired" to cycling as my physio puts it.

Still, this is getting to be as long as I was off the bike after radiation treatment, in 2003. I came back as 98 lbs of skin and bone. My second fight with cancer and resultant surgery in 2007 (3 weeks before first qualifier for PBP) only had me out of the saddle for 2 weeks.

If anything, I have previous experience getting on the bike with nothing going for me but willpower.

All the best with your recovery.

physical fitness issues aside, the other thing to keep in mind with winter riding, especially for those of us who live in cold and snowy climes is that it is excellent for mental conditioning. A wet and cold 1000k or 1200k is a lot easier to bear when you're used to getting rained on throughout the 'off-season'.

I've found that after a layoff, my muscles remember how to do everything, it's just they don't want to work so hard to do it.