Ok so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong, my legs are fatigued a week after a hard ride. Here's the breakdown:
Saturday: 103 tough miles
Sunday: off; felt pretty good though
Monday: 45 miles in the hills; legs felt pretty good the rest of the day
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: off
Thursday: off
Friday: 21 easy miles; legs felt fine
Saturday: Set out for another century (training for a local gran fondo) and immediately I could tell my legs had no life in them. I kept going at a relatively easy pace since it was just the warm up before the fast group ride. Well, luckily it started raining cause there was no way I was going to be able to hang on, I felt like I was riding through sand. Made it 43 miles.
Sunday (today): Woke up to legs that are just achy. I don't get it. I have 5,500 miles this year, I felt good after last weekend, I'm not tired or stressed, I'm sleeping and eating well, this was my 5th or 6th century of the year. I must be doing something wrong because this has happened three times this year but it doesn't always happen after a week like this. Anyone have any ideas?

Try doing shorter hard rides. Century rides for training are actually not the way to go for LD races etc. Keep it down to no more than 4 hours and go harder. Even shorter is probably better. How Long Should Your Longest Training Ride Be? - CTS

1 day 30 miles, hill repeats. 1 day 25 miles speed work. 1 day somewhat longer hard ride, 60-75 miles. Rest easy/moderate. That's how I used to train for 400k rides.

But yeah, you probably overcooked it. It's cumulative, so not just one mistake. Another thing: I never take 3 days off in a row if I can help it. 45' of easy on my rollers is a better idea. Hours, hours, hours. Base, base, base.

There's an overtraining thread over in T&N that might be helpful: https://www.bikeforums.net/training-n...rtraining.html

Thanks CFB, you may be on to something. I'll check out that thread. I was having trouble finding any info specific to my issue. I guess I was just surprised that I went from little fatigue to a lot while essentially not riding hard for four or five straight days. I would have guessed I'd feel fine but that wasn't the case.

Go see your doctor and demand a blood test to make sure everything is in order--hormones can be off, or poor nutrition will show up, etc
Good luck

Certainly not bad advice if persistent.
I would suggest perhaps too many days off spliced with too many long days. Mix it up. I ride hard twenty 5 mile loops during work week and longer rides weekends, 1-2 days off per week max. Make shorter rides worth it, do intervals one day followed by an easier spinning day.

Ok so I have a new theory. I'm thinking it's the early morning rides that are causing my fatigue. This past week I've been off work and so most of rides have been during the day and I've been feeling pretty great. Very little fatigue if any. Then.. yesterday morning I go out at 5:40am to get a little spin in before taking two days off (mini-vacation). I go out and besides being sleepy and chilly my legs and body feel pretty good. I do a moderate ride, both in terms of power and HR, no intervals, no sprints, no climbs, just a steady effort for 33mi and I felt fine. Well I get home and shower and eat and that's when I feel the fatigue start to set in. Fast forward to today and my legs are still fatigued. There's no way on God's green earth I should be this fatigued from that easy of a ride. Especially considering how good I felt last week. I'm thinking the early morning rides are to blame. So what should I do? I have to ride then or I don't get to ride. Normally I don't eat much because the rides are always under two hours. I drink water during the ride. I try to get a little caffeine before but that doesn't always happen (and it doesn't seem to matter anyway). I'm not sure what to do here.

3 days in a row off, you're going to come back with sticky legs. Get some active recovery going for about an hour at a time in there.

Quite simply, I think you are putting too much stress on your system too quickly without giving it enough good recovery and carrying fatigue from one week to the next.


33 miles at a moderate pace (probably a two hour ride?) is still pulling stress from your body and fatiguing you, and you probably aren't recovered enough from the previous week. A 33 mile ride is just not a recovery ride.


In your op I think you rode too much and too hard within three consecutive days. 103 miles and then 45 miles of hills, which not knowing how hard you pushed yourself on the century (but I'm thinking not a leisurely touring pace), and then riding 45 miles of hills is basically doing two to three hours of intervals. You did a pretty stressful hill ride without giving yourself enough recovery from the century and even with the three days of doing nothing you weren't sufficiently recovered (it actually may have been better for your legs to get on a trainer and spin lightly for 30 minutes each of those days just to flush the legs out). In other words, my bet is that if you graphed your rides on trainingpeaks.com your fatigue would be high and it would be making your form low.

Everyone's advice above is solid- more of a mix of shorter rides with less emphasis on long rides, three days off is a lot. Also important are things you didn't mention- what you do to recover, how hard you've trained coming into this week (whether you've had adequate rest/recovery), your age, your gender, your atheletic history, how well you absorb training volume, whether you are dieting/have positive vs negative calorie balance, adequate protein intake, etc.

But the bottom line for me personally: I just don't sweat a single bad day. It happens, sometimes inexplicably. I get more concerned if I see a trend of multiple bad days.

Alrighty thanks guys, solid advice. I will be more mindful of taking it easier after consecutive hard days and see what happens. Thx

I have trouble with recovery which causes discomfort in the legs, sometimes even after a series of easy rides. As a card carrying old guy, it is not surprising that recovery is more problematic than it was when I was a young man (back during the bronze age). One thing that helps is using compression socks, usually at night. I notice many athletes from amateur to pro using them. They improve circulation similarly to a compression suit for fighter pilots.

I would do a recovery ride the day after the century. It's crucial.