I've started lifting recently for strength and to build a little bit of muscle. I ride to work and for all of the errands that I possibly can, but I'm worried about it interfering with recovery. How easy should I take it after lifting?

I think that's one which is hard for other people to answer. You just have to listen to your body. I would think it's pretty well adapted to your cycling habits so I don't think you'd have to curtail your riding, just don't go crazy the day after a leg workout.

If your find yourself just getting more and more sore and exhausted, it's a signal to ease up.

If you worked your legs, just spin fast & easy for the first few hours. A lot of people "do cardio" right after with no problem.

Excellent question. Personally, I don't count errands or commute miles towards my fitness goals. They are normalized as part of my baseline. Presently I can alternate my M/W/F commute days with Tu/Th/Sat weight lifting and calisthenics workouts but during the winter I have to commute on weight training days and do. I do 10 sets of ab work every weekday so I am doing those even on commute days. I figure that a pure bodybuilder training hard for competition or maximum mass might not want to follow such a regimen but us ordinary folk can, and must, have a more pragmatic approach. Train as hard as you can, complete your commutes with reasonable dispatch and let the chips fall where they may. FWIW.

H

Riding home from the gym can go pretty slow some evenings, but pumping blood aerobically through the body is good for recovery.

I weight-lift for general fitness, endurance rather than bulk, and believe it makes me quicker/stronger on my bike because of it. I don't race, just commute and tour.

Listen to your body, and take the ride home at whatever pace is comfortable. Think of it as a recovery ride.

Parking is difficult by my gym, and it's close enough ( 2 or 3 mi ) that it's silly to drive anyway. I do this often, and it's never been a problem.

You'll be fine.

What I've found funny is that if I go for a long ride the day after an upper body workout (especially a chest, shoulders, and triceps day), it can get harder to hold up my body than to pedal.

I lift 3x/week and commute to work 22 miles each way 4 days/week. I don't ride after leg day. That being said, I think people are afraid of "overtraining", and that fear is overblown. If you are in decent shape, the cardio of riding is not a big deal. As another poster said, lots of people do cardio after lifting anyway. When I wasn't bike commuting, I still did 45 minutes of cardio after lifting. Go for it.

doesnt the saying go "you cant over-train, you can only under-eat".

way way way back, when i lifted heavy i would ride to the gym and at times ride to the beach after. on leg day i always would stop for a bite to eat right after to give extra time for recovery and a refuel. but there were two times on crazy leg days that i bummed a ride home and the other caught a cab.

i dont see how anything other than abs, lower back and legs will cause a bike ride to be bad. if anything its best to hit cardio after as it will burn fat faster as your sugars are depleted during lifting and your body will start to hit your reserves (fat).

Ditto on the listen to your body comments.
Today I felled a very large dead fir tree for this winters firewood and so it could be dropped in a controlled way and not come down in a winter storm and damage several high value Pacific Maples nearby.
I had planned to bike today but after felling, bucking to length, loading and unloading 3 chords of firewood my body told me to drive to work today. As I sit here at the end of the day eating stuffed mushrooms and enjoying a glass of cab my body is also saying thank you.
Tomorrow I ride and will feel great. If I had ridden today I would probably feel like crap right now.

so far I agree with what people have said! If you are just remaining tired, become more irritable than usual, lower than normal sex drive, crave sugar!, are constantly sore....all are signs to ease up. If you ride regularly and can't live without riding for a day then your "rest" days must become weight free and easy on the bike. I've always been a big weight lifter and over the last 4 years started getting into endurance/ultra sports. The 2 don't mix well but it is feasible. just be reasonable. If your tired, and riding is your passion, but hopping on the bike sounds dreadful, then tone your overtraining. What I've learned is that just because your working different muscle groups doesn't mean you can't burn out.
Hope this makes sense I typed it on my phone :/

OTOH at times it can be good to have a shorter period of very intense training. Liken this to a training camp. However sore you are (not injured) just get up early and work hard! 3 times a day for 3 days to a week.
Overtraining? hell yeah! Listen to your body? No way!

You'll be totally wasted, but after a couple of days rest and recovery you'll have moved up a notch in your overall level of performance.

:edit: This is obviously not suitable as newbie training.

It depends how long and how you are cycling.

Cycling at a decent pace (just under panting) is good "active recovery", flushing the muscles with blood and nutrients. This is a good thing. Whereas going balls to the wall to the point of bonking will hurt recovery...

Do make sure you are eating enough calories. Like CJC said, "you cant over-train, you can only under-eat".

-philip (weightlifting and cyclist)

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

For logistical reasons, I pretty much only lift on days when I ride (I ride in, then lift, go to work, and ride home). It's probably true that I won't achieve the maximum possible weight on my squats and what not, but that's not really what I'm about. I don't feel like it's hurting anything to double up like that, and if my legs are tired, I can always take the cycling down a notch in intensity on the ride home or the next day. I'm continuing to build on a kind of relaxed 5x5 lifting regimen.

It really depends on a lot of factors. What are your goals? What kind of routine are you doing? How many days on/off? What is your diet like? How many cycling miles? What is the intensity of each activity (lifting & cycling)?

If your goal is to build strength than commuting shouldn't interfere to much as long as you aren't doing to many miles at to high an intensity.

Not sure I understand what you are asking.

If you work upper body, what difference will riding your bike make.

When you work your legs, just take it easy. Your legs will let you know.