2 Weeks Off - Forced Experiment
 

I have been averaging 9-11 hours per week on the bike since May. This is typically 6 days per week. Some personal stuff came up and I had to go 13 days with ZERO bike time (or anything else resembling training). So today was my first day back and I went out for a 2 hour ride.

It was kind of interesting. I felt VERY fresh, and didn't feel particularly out of shape. I rode my typical rolling terrain at a speed that was on the slow side of normal, but not abnormal. I rode 'strong' but well off a maximal effort. For you numbers guys my NP was 92% of my ftp. I am now 4 hours after the ride and my legs feel like it was maximal 3-4 hour ride. I felt relatively normal at the end of the ride - interesting.

FWIW, I am 66 years old so you young twerps might have a different experience here :-)

dave

I can't find a pattern in my own downtime. Sometimes I can go for a pretty long time without riding and not feel a difference. Other times, an extra day off completely undoes me. There must be complicating factors....

I'm not very fit to begin with, but since I never need to ride very far anyway, it all sort of works out. :)

Interesting. Post again in 4-5 days: are subsequent rides seemingly unaffected? Maybe this was a fluke, although I doubt it.

I rode the same route at about the same RPE the next day. Power was off about 5% and I would guess that 'normally' this would not happen after two consecutive efforts like this (after a reasonable rest). And I was most definitely felt it in my legs a couple hours after the ride - way more than normal. So clearly I lost something in those 13 days.

I felt tired enough to take a day off today, although it didn't feel like a 'mandatory thing', just good judgment.

dave

I am going to take a week off after today's attempted LBS ride. I could only hang on for 15 miles and am not happy about it. Pretty sure I have not given myself enough recovery time since riding Six Gap 2 weeks ago tomorrow. Still got in 81 miles for the day though.

Think if you have been cycling for 5+ years that might help. 3/2 years you would def feel the lost fitness

Also depends what you did in the downtime. I've had to take a week or two off due to work - like 72hr week also thrown in flipping from dayshift to nightshift in the middle of that, or a couple 14 days stretches of 12 hr shifts with only 1 day off... and all of those 12hr shifts are sitting in a chair at a computer. Then other times I had to take a week or so off from running/cycling to get stuff done around the house like finishing insulation and flooring/drywall the upstairs of my house. Staying mobile for the time off really seems to help. Heck forget the 14 day or 7... even 3 or 4 12hr shifts of sitting take its toll on my muscles & tendons. :(

I'm a relative youngster at 35, but two weeks oft is the point where I can really feel the lack of fitness. It is easy to judge on my weekly Monday night group ride... I can ride nothing for a week, and still come back and do it again feeling ok, but after two weeks off, our last long hill kills me.