quadripper

last weekend i did a bike ride, 50 mi with 4600 ft gain, starting elevation ~6000 ft and peak ~8800 ft.
4 hrs, finished the ride, felt a little stiff the next day but no big deal.

This weekend I did a hike over two days, 3700 ft gain, 2700 ft on saturday, 1000 ft on sunday, then the 3700 descent.
My legs are trashed! everything is stiff, no thought of a bike ride for at least two days.

is this normal? ive been riding ~90-100 mi/week the past two months, and i wouldve thought all my bike riding wouldve kept my legs in tip top shape and such a hike would be a breeze. seems not to have been....

chasm54

Cycling uses the leg muscles in a completely different way from hiking or running. It's an open chain movement, concentric as opposed to eccentric contractions of the quads. Cyclists who take up running in winter, for example, sometimes find that their quads are so stiff that for a few days they have to come down stairs backwards.

prathmann

Sounds very normal. If I go hiking at least every week or two then I rarely experience excessive soreness after a strenuous hike. But if it's been a month or more since the last time I hiked then I can count on a couple days of soreness and it doesn't matter that I've been riding my bike hundreds of miles per week. Muscles are used differently in the two activities. An obvious difference is that when hiking down hill you need to use your legs to decelerate while when biking (except brakeless fixed gear) you either coast or use the brakes.

But though my legs are very sore after the first longer hike after a layoff, the soreness isn't usually too bad if I then go on a bike ride. The bike ride doesn't eliminate the soreness, but it usually doesn't make it feel any worse either.

JGM411

ditto what the first two respondents mentioned. The same goes for me, when I am away from my archery bow. Drawing back that bow utilizes different muscle groups and it takes a few days to get those muscles feeling good again.

Machka 

As above ... it's normal.

It's partly why I like to do a bit of both.

I've also started doing regular stair climbing, and despite the fact that I cycle, walk, and hike ... at first those stairs were killers. The muscles are being used a somewhat different way.

sprince

Bike rides are not body weight supporting exercise, don't know how you would get sore unless you did sprint drills for 2 hours. Hiking not only has to support your full body weight and whatever you are hauling along for the ride, but it also stresses all the stabilizing lower leg muscles that are never used when riding your bike. Going downhill you might have to momentarily resist 2-3 times your body weight. Best way to get rid of the soreness is go for an easy bike ride, then go for a walk later in the day.

quadripper

Thanks for the feedback everyone. makes sense, makes me feel better about the soreness.
I'll aim to do a recovery spin. cheers

Carbonfiberboy 

Sunday we did a hard 3 hour group tandem ride. Fine. Monday we did 8 miles and 3700' hiking. Two days later my quads are still so sore that it hurts to touch them. This was our 3rd weekend of doing this, gradually increasing the hiking difficulty. We start a 10-day backpack in 8 days. I think we did it about right, not having hiking much all summer.