I presume most of you that do long distance riding ride several days in a row. How do you do it and avoid being sore?

I normally ride 200-250 miles/week. That consists of one long ride on sunday (80-110 miles) and a few 40 mile rides during the week. My problem is that if I ride more than 2-3 days in a row, my legs feel very tired and sore. This has been the same for years now. I sleep well, enough for me, eat well, etc. Most times I am under in the drinking department during the rides, but certainly make up for it afterwards. I have tried eating more, drinking more, tights for recovery, etc without any real difference. I would love to be able to increase my riding to several days in a row, so I can maximize riding during trips out of town. Kind of sad to go on a 6 day trip and having to take a day or two off, which I see it as wasted time.

So, any suggestions on how to achieve feeling fresh the day after a ride? day after day?

Standing to pedal helps me stretch my legs and back.

Well, I would take care of this problem first. You should not get to the point where you are drinking because you feel thirsty, then try to make up for it after the ride. You need to be hydrating well in advance of your ride, then consistently during your ride.

Also, what is your stretching regimen?

What effort level are your rides? Easy? Hard? Mixed? You may be putting in too much effort and not enough recovery. One thing to avoid like the plague is riding "hard" (80-90% max) all the time. It's not hard enough to give max results, and too hard to allow for the necessary recovery.

SP
Bend, OR

I think you may be hitting the nail here. I don't "train" per say as I don't race. I ride because I like it and also as a form of exercise. However, I do like to improve and get as good as possible without turning the rides into chores or scheduled training.

As far as riding everyday on a trip, its normal to have days with sore legs, you just have to keep pedaling. For me it happens every 5 days or so but I can push through and they'll feel better the next day or quite often, they'll feel sore starting out but loosen up and feel much better after 50-70 miles.

Ride less?

Ah, a day off the bike is wasted time. That's a mental thing, but they can be the hardest to fix.

In the physical world, riding easier would be the thing. Ride each day at a 1200k pace.

You can also try the chemical fix: more protein. Take 60g of whey protein each day in 4 ea. 15g doses, with meals. Sometimes that's all it is.

Me, I didn't ride today because my legs hurt like the devil. I'm going to bed to get a good night's rest.

I assume people have different paces, but what would a normal 1200k pace be, say as a % of normal century pace?

I do it all with HR and I put a limit on it. Somewhere around 80% of MHR or 85% of LTHR should be close. Around 70% of MHR for cruise. That's just me. Everyone's different, especially in their ability to recover. I don't have a limit in my century pace. I go as hard as I can.

STRETCH, get plenty of water, electrolytes, and protein. On recovery days I break out the beach cruiser and go for a nice slow ride. When I am on my road bike I end up gong fast whether or not I intended to go slow, thus the beach cruiser.

Your "soreness" might not be related to cycling. You may be genetically disposed to inflammation and are aggravating your condition through your diet. (drinking)

If you really want to test whether you can alter this situation get a bottle of vitamin D and bottle of fish oil and try mega supplementation for a few days while avoiding red meats and alcohol.

If there is any chance for you at all, this would be one way to "test." Unfortunately, in reality, you would have to try this for ate least 30 days to give the diet change a full test.

I find that when I'm feeling fatigued, this is most often the issue. Too many days at too high an effort, often in conjunction with poor sleep (due to sore muscles).