Due to weather I'm off the road around 4 month in the winter. I limit trainer time to short sessions and 2-4 days a week with XC skiing a couple days. During the other 8 month I do at least one proper recovery ride week with 2-3 easier rides. Mixing it up with active recovery helps more physically and emotional than taking a day off or doing other activities.

The last two years I've been feeling the flame going out. It's an effort to push myself out to take a ride.

It'll either get better . . . . . . . . . or the flame will go out, period. Life goes on.

My coach made me take 2 weeks off in October. Longest 2 weeks of my life. But I'm sure she was right.

In contrast to what surgeon said... if you want to ride but you are just having a performance plateau, try getting on a structured training plan instead of just riding the same way all the time. Maybe even hire a coach for a startup plan.

I tore a ham strong a few years ago which forced me off the bike for about two weeks and then forced me from doing fast, group rides for about another month. That's about it.

Agree. Except for mine, which is always right and good.

I once took about 4 months off during the winter. What a terrible idea! It took me all summer and fall to get most of it back. I rode/worked out all the next winter and by spring I had it back. So almost a year to repair the damage done by 4 months off. Never again. I'd been training consistently for about 10 years.

I injured my leg a while back (not while biking), and had trouble getting it to heal. I found this sports warmup / flexibility program, Defranco's Limber 11 -
Joe D's "Limber 11" (flexibility routine) - DeFranco's Training

It actually cured my injury without surgery, and greatly increased my flexibility on my bike (and by increased I mean I'm more comfortably flexible now). Biking got a lot more enjoyable, and it helped my hips/leg heal. (I should probably note that I also added in "foam rolling" everywhere the program didn't hit as well - I bought a foam ball off amazon called "The Orb" to roll the underside of my leg, hit the top of the thigh with a foam roller, and use a baseball to roll the area around the hips that's hard to hit with the foam roller, then at the end I do bodyweight squats to increase my flexibility in the squatting position).

Just an fyi or thought. I don't know if it will help other people, but it really really helped me, both in healing my legs and increasing my flexibility.

Man, I was hoping muscle memory would've helped much sooner than that. Thanks for the reply.

I do three weeks of in December around Christmas and then 1 week of in July.

I also ride every other day not to exceed 4-5 days a week, and do 100-125 miles a week in season.

So yes, by all means you should take time off and recoup. If you get on the bike and you are dreading in the first mile, then your body is telling you something.

Is that what Lance calls himself these days to remain incognito?

I took a few months off my bike, & away for BF...
Our beloved Hot or Not Thread got nuked...

Is this a sign... ???
"Bad things happen when I don't pay attention to my bikes, or BF"... 😲

Muscle not muse. Damn spell check is crazy.

Except Dudlesacks, take his.

It's not muscle memory so much. It's loss of heart size and mitochondrial density, plus fat burning ability, plus who knows what, the upshot being that power and endurance are off, and dratted hard to get back if you've spent 10 years ramping all this up to somewhere near your physiological limits.

Everyone else had taken it, so he hasn't any left to offer. Yes?

If 100 miles a week is causing your body to need an extended break to recover, then you're doing it wrong.

Its perfectly fine to take a break if your not enjoying yourself, virtually no one here is getting paid for this. You may well need time away doing other things for your mental health.

But for fitness, and performance, its doubtful a multiple month period off the bike is needed. A well designed program with rest days, recovery rides, and recovery weeks will keep your body from needing extended time off the bike.

The season is still young, so it depends on your goals. If I feel like you do, which often happens, I would take one week and put in six real easy hours, one high cadence low power session and two longer distance easy sessions. If I don't feel fully recovered after that, I will continue the same until the legs come back fully.

I always take a break of six to eight weeks at the end of the season, but never as a couch potato.

In short, it totally depends on your goals. If competitive, in season, one week off can do you good, two weeks off you start losing fitness rapidly.

For me, it's the month of October. Power meter goes in the drawer. I run, kayak, lift weights, play golf or wahtever I feel like. I still ride, but only if I want and with no training agenda.

[ Our race calendar starts in January]

I will throw out the disclaimer that I am nowhere near so many here in terms of accomplishments. I don't race and I don't ride extreme miles. I have moderate goals (2500 miles this year)...

By Oct though I'm getting burnt. (weather allowing) weekday rides of 20-30 and weekend rides of 50+ are beginning to lag and get boring. I start to slow down and get ready for the indoor winter training session. It's not uncommon to see a whole week during the month of Oct where I don't even touch the bike.

I sometimes wish I lived in a place where I could outdoor ride 12 months a year...but in all reality, I'd get burnt on it. I refuse to ride much colder than 35F so Nov-Feb is often a no-go for outdoor riding. It's good though, by March/April I'm often seriously ready to hit the road again and fully recharged.

" Take my advice...Im not using it"

Oh no. A conundrum loop.

It makes him feel superior.

We humour him.