Recovery ride didn't work. Should I try again tomorrow?
 

I'm training for another Century in 5 weeks. Yesterday I did my longest ride with a lot of climbing (67 miles, 4000 feet). Today I did 23 mostly flat miles. I had planned on doing around 45 miles tomorrow but my legs are screaming no way right now! What are my options?

Take a day off. Take a walk. go for a swim.

Put your feet up and rest a day or so.

Mow the lawn. Seriously, do something not bike related but still keeps you moving. A few weeks ago I did a very hard effort in a 2 hr gravel road race with 2,400' of climbing that included pushing and carrying the bike in sand for about 1/4 mile. It took a good 3 to 4 days of recovery for my legs and lower back to return to working form. For me, after rides in which I really dig deep, it takes a few days of easy going to get the juju back in order to go zoom-zoom again.

Must have been in 2005 and I did that long offroad of mine. 14 hours riding and at the end I felt fit so rode the Tandem the 8 miles home---Solo. Next day and I could not sit on a bike so went to the gym to loosen up the muscles. By the time I had walked the 1 mile to the gym I was gone. Had a sit down and a Coffee and crawled home. It was a week before I even looked at the bike- but I did go into work the next day. Had to collect sponsor money.

Today looks like a rest day. Feeling better after a good nights sleep and breakfast than I did at work last night. Tempted to do a ride but 20mph winds in the forecast has restored my sanity. I'll try to get in back to back longer rides later in the week.

I've been having the same trouble with recovery as I get fitter and miles get longer. This year I need to pay much more attention to recovery nutrition. I know the basics. I just need to get on it.

If you can do 67 miles and that much climbing, IMHO, you should be ready for 100. At this point, again, my opinion, there's no need to pile on the miles.... 50-60 miles is plenty. Instead, do intervals and work on your fitness - quality, not quantity. I'll bet you'll be just fine.

When you're 20, there are recovery rides. When you're 50+, you probably need repair more at this stage of your cycling fitness. You can only stress your body so much. It takes the 50+ group longer to effect repair.

"23 mostly flat miles" doesnt seem like an honest recovery ride to me. ymmv.
My recovery rides are about an hour, at maybe 12-15 mph tops.

And foam roller ftw.

Five weeks is a long time. You can already ride 67 with a moderate amount of climbing. There is absolutely no need to push it. One ride per week around 70 miles, plus a couple of shorter but more intense efforts, is going to get you where you need to be. Then in the week before the ride, cut the mileage but maintain the intensity. There is absolutely no need for you to ride on successive days from here on, and maybe some reasons not to.

Take a break?

+1
...but if you must get on that bike, ride in the smallest chainring and no hills. Who says there are no advantages to a triple?

Remember a long distance runner back in the late 70s and 80s named Alberto Salazar? He was an All-American in track (10,000 meters) and cross-country at Oregon. He started running marathons after graduation, and was ranked at or near the top of the world for several years. He won 3 consecutive NYC Marathons, and one Boston Marathon. Denied the chance to win a medal at the 1980 Olympics by the US-led boycott of the Moscow games, he was the odds-on favorite to win the gold in LA in 1984. His regular training regimen back then was 170-200 miles a week. And Wikipedia tells you how the story ended for Salazar:

Salazar's competitive decline is often attributed to a reported blow-out after the 1982 Boston Marathon (his famous "Duel in the Sun" with Dick Beardsley), after which his athletic performance gradually declined to the point at which he could barely jog. Salazar recounts falling into a "more-is-better" mindset which led him to reason that if 120 miles per week yielded a certain level of success, then 180 miles (290 km) or even 200 miles (320 km) would bring even better results. This intense and grueling regimen of such extremely long distances ultimately led to a breakdown of his immune system, and he found himself frequently sick, injured, and otherwise unable to continue training. The downward spiral of his marathon career culminated in his disappointing fifteenth place at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The story of Salazar's 1982 win at the Boston Marathon and his subsequent competitive decline is told in Duel in the Sun, a book by John Brant.

Salazar was in his mid to late 20s at the time.

Take some time off the bike. ;) :thumb: