Are you physically exhausted after a tour? It seems it does not matter if I do a few days or a couple of weeks when I get back I am just physically exhausted.

I stay in decent shape off tour but that does not seem to help.

And not that I am complaining either. It kind of a pleasant feeling. Just that it makes it extra difficult to get back to work. There is the whole back to reality thing to deal with and then the exhaustion.

I guess I just give it my all when on tour. Funny during the tour, most times I can go and go without problem. But after getting back home I just kind of hit a wall.

Anyone else feel the same?

short answer, no not really. Not the way you describe it. I imagine there are so many factors that come into play, how much stuff you carry on your bike, how you pace yourself, how well you eat, how well you sleep etc etc. I mention food as it is so important to eat really well, lots of veggies, fruit, meat, you name it-as we work pretty hard day after day on tour. Same with sleep.

Im pretty average riding strength wise I think, but I always remember coming back from a trip being a lot stronger. Hills that were quote "hard" before are suddenly not much, and I can go up them numerous times easily, so the reality is that I am stronger after a trip, and if I take care of myself and pace things properly, Im not exhausted--Ive got to be honest though, its nice to have the break at the end (oh, another topic, is "break days" during a tour, they are important for me to rest up now and again)

Yeah. Be it days or weeks, I'll feel great on tour, despite not getting enough sleep, an irregular diet, and constant expenditure of energy.

When I get home, I'll crash for at least a couple of days. I'll mow through any food put in front of me and sleep till noon. I'll feel a bit stronger, yes, but also hungry and exhausted.

I've also noticed, that while I feel generally good and limber on tour, the first time I sit down getting home... Yikes, legs just about lock up with stiffness.

I'm significantly more exhausted after a century or randonneuring event than I am after a tour ... but then my tour daily distances are usually less than what I might do each day of a weekend while training for a longer distance randonneuring event.

I do get tired during a tour sometimes, and if that happens, I try to take a break ... take a few days off cycling, relax, wander around the area on foot a bit, etc. And I try to plan my tours with lots of room for off-the-bicycle breaks.

On tours I also try to eat well, drink well, and get lots of sleep. It sometimes takes a couple days to get into an eating or sleeping pattern, especially when flying into a new country. So it seems to help to plan a couple off-the-bike days right at the beginning of the tour to get my bearings and collect the food and liquid I need for the first day or two of the tour.



But what a couple of you are describing sounds a bit like post-tour depression.

Physically - no, not really. If anything, I'm physically stronger and refreshed, and looking forward to getting stuck into my local rides when the first opportunity arrives. For most of the first week back, I'll be sitting in my office with the adrenalin pumping, desperate to get on the bike and keep riding 100km a day. Mentally can be a different story, although that's more a case of not wanting to go back to work just yet. It's more like the post tour depression described above.

I call it 'getting back in the groove.' Takes me a few days to get reorientated/recovered, physically and mentally, to the hum drum of life in the real world after being in touring fantasy land for a month. Use to it now, but was pretty strange the first time. Didn't expect it.

Hard to know how much of the physical exhaustion is really post tour depression. Most I suspect.

I am more likely to be tired during the first week or two of a tour. Not so much after.

No. After the first week the physical exertion becomes sustainable and thereafter I feel no more tired on a touring day than I do on a regular day at home, immediate effects of exercise aside.

I train enough before a tour that I'm not exhausted during or after. In fact, I usually can't wait to ditch the heavy touring bike and start zipping around on my ultra-light road bike!

I came back from a 3 month tour, 30 lbs lighter and a lot of people thought I had been ill. For a couple of weeks after I came home my body was all revved up and raring to go, as if still on tour. It settled down and the weight is going back on. Shame about that.

Until a few years ago, I sometimes felt spent after a tour, or after several days of non-stop touring. Taking a rest day every two to four days helps a lot. So does minimizing my exposure to the sun. These days, I cover my neck and arms, and avoid riding between 11:30 and 2:00 p.m.

Unless you tour huge daily distances, I suspect this is a mental rather than physical problem. I recently finished an eight-week, 2500 mile tour and physically I felt stronger than I have for a while. But there's inevitably a slight sense of anticlimax at having finished something on which one has lavished so much time and energy, and a period of readjustment to " real life".