Yes, I also think foam rollers and massages are treating the symptom rather than the problem, which is OK for getting rid of soreness, but not as good as not being sore to begin with. You probably do need to take some recovery days, but I'd also bet that you are consuming a very carb-heavy diet. Fat can slow the digestion process which leads a lot of endurance athletes to avoid it, but this is really only relevant for morning-of a during-ride nutrition. After a ride, your body has plenty of time to digest whatever you put in your stomach before the following days workout. Fats and proteins are both crucial for recovery, so have a steak every now and then. Also, this seems like more of a 41 or Training & nutrition question.

I don't eat all that much. Oatmeal in the morning with a pot of coffee, couple tuna fish sandwiches during the day, and a medium sized plate of whatever I'm eating for dinner. (Usually something like american chop suey or other pasta that I can make a lot of and eat for the whole week.) I'm only doing about 150-200 miles a week and it just feels like my muscles are fatigued in my legs all the time. Not really that holly crap this hurts but just that tired feeling you get. I use hammer recoverite after most workouts and stretch a bit but not to much. (I'm really inflexible) I get about 5-7 hours of sleep a night. I am cutting my food intake a bit because I want to loose weight and with my build I am very prone to gain weight fast. Though I also gain muscle very quickly. Those rollers look pretty sweet and I think I'll prob. end up getting one. Thanks for all the input guys.

I would suggest that you alter your diet ASAP. Have a healthy breakfast every day. The tuna sandwiches are fine for lunch, but you need more protein at dinner. I am also one of those that believe that you cannot be on a weight loss diet and train at a high level at the same time. Adjust your diet appropriately for your training, and the weight will take care of itself.

words from the wise.

the week leading up to my first race, i probably exceeded my weekly caloric intake by 1500kCal but ended up going from 70kg to 68.2kg.
Sounds like you aren't eating enough. Have you seen a nutritionist?

You don't think that gaining weight will hurt my performance? I'm at about 7.5% body fat and I was trying to get to about 5%

why?

AND

how are you gauging that?

I call BS on your numbers.

Forget about the ewang. Race healthy first. The rest will come. If you eat appropriately to your training, you won't gain weight, in fact if you get it right you'll lean out if only from dropping the excess carbs and fats and replacing them with protein.

I have the Tanita scale from REI so from what I've heard it's pretty acurate. That's how I measure my weight and body fat.

they have a margin of error of +/- 5%

and that margin of error isn't necessarily consistent but based on body fluid, when you last ate or exercised, etc.

Plus the athlete setting may not be appropriate for everyone.

I try to weigh myself in the morning before I eat and at the same time every day. As long as it's consistently off by the same amount it's good enough for me. I'm guessing it's pretty accurate though because I went to the rec at my school and paid to have them do it and it was pretty close to what my scale said. (I was curious how accurate the scale was when I got it.) It was only about 1% off.

I had similar issues. I started taking protein with glutamine. I added 2 26g servings of powdered whey protein with glutamine every day and my soreness has been greatly reduced. Even while riding more miles at a similar or higher intensity.

ETA: 26g not 26mg.

If I'm not considered an athlete at almost 200 miles a week plus running then I'm not sure what they consider an athletic workout to be.

Should I do this on top of the recoverite or instead of?

Not eating the correct foods/resting adequately will stunt your training far more than any benefit from dropping your body fat by 2.5%.

I'm not very familiar with Recoverite but from what I see on the Hammer website it's more carb-oriented than the protein I'm taking.

It's probably a better choice if you don't eat a lot. I get enough carbs and calories from food items so I prefer to supplement with items that are lower in these two things. I can generally get 26g of protein per serving with @100 calories and <10g of carbs. Which is significantly less than the recoverite.

But that's just my preference. I think both will work, if you want to play around and see which works better that's an option too.

I use Recoverite only as immediate protein feed back after a hard ride where I might be jeopardizing my muscles by not replenishing ASAP. Would be using more of Whey protein when I am just supplementing on protein as whole and it is okay if it kicks in hours later.

Oh I thought the recoverite gave my muscles the nutrients needed to rebuild. I didn't realize it wasn't enough with food. Guess I'll up my food intake and get some kind of whey protein to help me out. Thanks guys, this has helped me out a lot.

In addition to the things about rest, recovery, nutrition, and foam rollers, you need to take a look at how you're training.

All your rides being the same length, and at the same moderately hard intensity is a recipe for you to first plateau, and then second burn out.

In addition to rest days, you need to vary your training. You definitely need to add intervals to your workouts if you want to improve from here.

Serious question for the OP, are you actually preparing for any races? It just sounds as if you are trying to get to 5% for the sake of low body fat. Nothing wrong with vanity, but unless your goal is to become a model for a Lagerfeld show, 5% seems rather unnecessary.

Yeah I'm on the college team and I'm gonna be racing some of the open races around here. Picked 5% because I'm almost where I want to be as far as cutting fat and figured a 2.5% reduction would be about right. Somewhat arbitrary I know but it helps me loose weight if I'm working towards a goal. Also I was putting in the miles at about the same pace to build a good base and then figured I would start doing intervals etc. Thought it would be a good idea to start out with a solid base first.

how has your time up the local climb changed since losing weight? Do you do well in the collegiate races?

Also, if you are in college, you most likely will have access to a nutritionist. You should consult one and get his/her take on dropping to 5% body fat (if that's actually 5%). Dropping weight is relatively easy in base (daily 400kcal deficit for a 155lb rider is doable). Dropping weight during build is harder as you can cut only so much on days doing threshold and you shouldn't run any deficit when doing VO2max. Dropping weight during racing season, well, that's asking for trouble. YMMV

PS. You should probably also cut the running during racing season (or really, any time after late base), unless you are using the races to prepare for a triathlon.

Well I used to be 195 ibs. Now I'm at about 130-135. I am way faster then I used to be. However that has a lot to do with just losing the extra fat/ muscle I used to have while powerlifting. I could go to a nutritionist but it would cost a lot of money not covered by my insurance that I know of. So I resort to the next best thing. The bike forum lol

I think the bike forum would agree that it's unlikely you're able to maintain such a low body fat % for long without health consequences. Pros do it for specific events where weight to power is king. Depending on the kind of racing you're doing you may be doing yourself more harm than good, and perhaps best case is you're wasting your time and mental energy trying to get so lean.

So you get yourself so sick that your health insurance kicks in? Real smart!