I went a little almost three weeks without riding. I went on vacation and then we had a lot of bad weather when I got back home. I was really worried that not riding for so long was going to take it's toll.

The odd thing is after riding the past two days I feel much stornger than before. For the most part I had been riding every day for the past six months. I did miss a few days here and there.

I know that muscles need time to repair. Is it possible... that I was riding so much that my muscles never really had the proper time needed to build up. Yesterday I averaged 17 mph on a stretch that I usually average about 13. Later in the day I hit a few hills that usually give me a little problem and I felt stronger than ever.

Thanks

If I ride every day for a couple of weeks, I'm faster after a few days off. I don't know if I build up my energy stores a bit or my muscles repair.. but when I feel I need a few days off, I take them.

I once had a young fellow working for me who was a top 16 swimmer nationally in his age class. There was a team triathalon event locally so, naturally, we figured he'd be an unfair advantage for the swim leg. If I'm entering a team in a race an unfair advantage is exactly what I'm looking for. No dice. He had an event scheduled for the week end following and would be on taper mode.

Appearantly the people who are really good at that kind of stuff think that a certain amount of time off makes you faster.

Well at the moment I cycle every other day, Do a fairly long ride take a day off and so on. It works great for me and I personally think gives my muscles time to repair etc

Rest days have been a standard part of training as long as I can remember. When I raced in college in the late '60s and early '70s, we incorporated them.

Rest days are important in lifting weights, my other hobby. It gives your muscles time to repair and grow. Without rest days you'll plateau and be stuck where you're at. Try drinking a creatine drink after you ride and be sure to load up on lots of protein. This helps your muscles recover and rebuild. I'm making gains in my cycling at a phenomenal rate and think my diet (lean meats, eggs, raw fruit, raw vegetables, etc) and my protein shake and creatine supplementing are the reason why. Yeah I'm still heavy but I'm packing on the muscle lifting weights and the cardio/endurance gains I attribute to my cycling. Now if I could quit smoking I could likely make some more gains.

Thanks for the input. I think I will try riding two or three days and then take a day off. The riding days do as much for my mind as my body so I don't want to cut back too much

It's called recovery and/or tapering. Any decent book on training discusses and explains it.

/\ this.