Originally Posted by
Steamer
I take two days off the bike before a big ride. Although I probably would be ok with just one.
However, I am never overtrained (have the opposite problem), so I don't enter into that 2 day period with any significant accumulated fatigue.
Three weeks ago (3/8 and 3/15) I got crazy and rode a 400K on two consecutive Saturdays. The first had approximately 6800 feet of climbing, and the second was almost flat. I did a pretty hard 28 mile ride on the Wednesday before each ride, and took 2 full days off before each 400K. I felt great and had good legs for both rides, and I'm in my mid-60's. Rest up for a couple of days and you'll be eager to ride and shouldn't have any problems.