Long rides and Proper Recovery
 

This year has for me been one of long rides.

I just finished a two day event whereby I rode 185 miles by myself to Cocoa Beach and then entered in the SpaceCosat Century, not a race but there were plenty of fast guys there.

I averated 18.5 mph on the 185 mile leg but I bonked on the century at 60 miles and instead of staying with the pack I fell back and turned in a sub 18mph average.

Two weeks prior I rode a 165 mile day followed with a 100 mile day followed with 3 days of 50+ mile rides in Clearmont as part of Mt Dora. I did fairly well with 18.5 ave on the 165 miles and 20mph average on the 50+ mile rides.

Two weeks before that I did a 165 mile ride from Ft Lauderdale to Naples Fla with a friend who is becoming a strong rider. We managed a 19.5 average which woulda been higher but we ran into a heck of a rain storm at the very end and had to wait out the storm.

Anyway my question is this:

After doing long rides, even say just a century, what recovery plan do you use? No riding, light riding, cross training, a combo of all of the above? What should you eat, how much sleep and such.

After I got back from the 185+100 mile trip my cadence fell from 99-103 to 85-92, my legs feel like logs... Things are a little better now that 5 days have passed but I suspect that this weekend I'll be riding with a slower group because I still need more recovery time.

ultracycling.com

Regards.

You have to realize that the soreness is caused by damage done to the muscle fibers, you can speed up the recovery by increasing circulation, giving the body what it needs to repair the damage, and resting.

a little light spin always seemed to help me, got the blood circulating and what not. I used to lay with my ass up to the wall and my legs straight up until my toes would tingle a bit, then flop over on my side and feel all the blood rush back into my legs. Repeat.

Get a massage if you can, or jump in the ocean, or a pool and just float around for a while. 6 Time Ironman World Champion Dave Scott suggested this, and it really is great.

Also eat a bunch of vitamin C, protien, carbs. get some sleep and stretch (yeah, its going to hurt a lot at first).

I just ride. I don't take days off. But I am not into longer miles like you are Preston.

I have found if I beat myself up one day and ride the next, my legs can "feel like logs" but if I stick with it and keep riding and warm up slowly, I can often get back to nearly "normal". :) It just takes awhile to do it.

I did do 180 miles in one day once. The next day, my legs felt pretty beaten up but I went out and did a short ride anyway. After the ride, I felt a whole bunch better. I think, in my case, getting the muscles warmed up and the blood flowing through them helps speed up my recovery. You may try it and if it does not work, well stop doing it! :D

Just curious, but when you say you "bonked" on the century what exactly do you mean? As I understand bonking it is a complete loss of strength, even an inability to stand or speak coherently. Like a diabetic experiencing a hypoglycemic attack. Since you were able to complete the final 40 miles and have a sub 18 mph average (I assume around 17 mph), I was wondering what did you do to recover from the bonk?

Smoothie104,

After the Mt Dora 165,100,50,60,66 milers I convinced myself I should get a massage every week. I started doing that last year at the pay-rides just because it was there and it was nice.

Found out that work here has someone on staff, though it cost, but it is $20 for 30 minutes, a bargan! And the person is very good.

Pat,

I'd been doing the warm up and slow spins.. Typically I ride from home to the local rides and it is between 10 to 16 miles depending on the group I am going to. I start out slow and end up warm enough that I'm doing 22+mph around the 10 mile mark.

I think because these rides are back to back that I'm going beyond being able to use that routine.

The massage helped a bunch to do the 185/100 mile ride but I had to basically not ride this past weekend to reciver to around 80% now.

Nhorscro,

Well bonking may not mean you are going to faint or not be able to speak. My first extended bonk I remember well as I was OK on the flats following the group but when we would get to an overpass I found that I could not sit and crank... I could only spin with almost no horsepower... I was doing about a 90 cadence and only going 7mph. Typically I would hammer over the same bridge with a 85 cadence and be doing 18mph.

Yes I've seen folks bonk to the point where when they stop they simply fall over, unable to clip out before they topple.

For me I know the onset. The first sign is one of anxiaty. My body begins to fight me when I try to kick out of a turn. Next I notice that I don't want to eat or drink. This is immediatly followed with a drop in my heart rate of around 10-15bpm. I've noticed that I can get out of the saddle and hammer and hammer but then my legs give out and my heart rate is relatively unchanged. Down it goes to around 135bpm and kinda sits there. I can kcik hard for a while and it will go up to 140 but I nearly have to make myself faint to get it above 150. When I'm feeing good it is never below 150!

To complete the trip I slowed, found someone to draft and just stayed behind them, wheel sucking for as long as I could. I was lucky he was not suffering but could not keep up with others. Occasionally I would muster up enough to get back into form but each time was tougher and shorter than the previous.

I hit a small hill like the overpass above and lost my draft because he was going 16 over the bump and I could only do 11. At the 85 mile point I had to stop at one of the rest stops and simply lay down and close my eyes for a while. Sipping and eating as much as I could take.

I felt a lot better after the stop but even with a 15mph wind at my back I could only do 17mph on the last 11 miles. The day before on the same windward stretch (180 miles into the day) I was doing 23mph !

Well, in my way of thinking, *bonk* is the depletion of glycogen. If you look at your basic physiology burning fat yields just half the ATP (chemical energy) per Oxygen molecule as burning glycogen. People can store about 2500 calories of glycogen and they get about 50 calories per mile. When you use up your glycogen, you are down to half power. You just can not sprint to save your life. From reading Preston's description, I get the impression that Preston's experience with the bonk is similar to mine.

Preston, I noticed that you are a Florida rider. Are you going to do the Horrible Hundred the week after next? It is a good ride.

Pat,

Yep I think that is my description of *bonk*.

As for the Horrible Hundred. I'm thinking about it... Although I rode from here to Mt Dora which passes through that area.. I did Battle of Buck Hill while I was there, A month before that I took some kids (22 and 25 yr olds) who were doing their first 1/2 ironman and I rode the 1/2 ironman bike course and showed them the tricks. That course starts in CLearmont at Lake Minneola at the Waterfront park. The ride may even start out the same way... Heck it may simply be like the full ironman course (112 miles)...

So for now what is holding me back is that I've been there several times this year...

I'm doing the SBW century this weekend and that will be my 26th 100+ mile ride this year. I'll see if anyone else from here is going... Perhaps I can get up there...

I was just curious since I've never really experienced it and wanted to know what to look for. I wasn't sure if severe exhaustion and bonking were the same.

The ride starts at the park and then goes around the lake (clockwise). You go east and the turn north and do Citrus Tower hill. You then go east a little ways and then go through Ferndale and stop at the first rest stop. After that, you do The Wall and turn south on the road that goes to Astatula (if you went north - I am terrible with road names). Anyrate you then head south back to Clermont on Grassy Lake road and then west towards Groveland. On the 70, you loop back. The 70 mile route has all the good hills on it. On the 100 you go out and do a 30 mile loop on beyond Groveland and hit the second stop. There aren't any real hills out there but it gives you 30 miles so you can have your century. You come back and do American Way hill and do the third stop. You then head east to Monte Verde and do The Pappa and head south and do Buck Hill then wind back north again and do Mount Sugar Loaf and then back to Ferndale and hit what was stop 1 again (if you feel like it). The rest of the way back is just rolling except they do run you up Hospital Hill in Clermont to keep you honest. The route is just a shade over 100 miles so it can't be the 112 they use on triathalons. It is not a bad course and they have been using this one for about 4 years. Before that, you did most of the hills in the first 40 miles and they brought you back to Clermont at the 70 mile point and you went out again to get the last 30. I prefer not coming back to start, myself. Also on the old route, the last 30 was OK but nothing exciting and it was hard to get motivated to go out to do 30 when you had already done the good stuff. So I like the current course better. But there are only so many decent hills out around Clermont and this ride only misses Taco Bell Hill (which isn't that exciting), Thrill Hill (which is too short to be fun even if it is steep) and Pumpkin Hill. It is hard to design a decent route that will get those hills because they are all off by themselves and Thrill Hill is north of Mount Dora.

Hey all.

During the Tour de France this year I found a web site (and subsequently can't find it again) where one of Lance's doctors talked about the nutritional requirements of the riders during the tour. Now I know probably very few of us train at that level but I think most of what was covered can apply to anyone who spends an entire day in the saddle.

I can't remember all of what I read but the vitals are staying hydrated and fed.

The rule of thumb they use on the Tour is to drink 3 bottles an hour with at least one of them being a sports drink (gatorade, powerade). It was also suggested to try to eat (munch on) something every 15 minutes or so, anything from a powerbar to peanuts. They also suggested gels at least every 20 minutes or 20 miles which ever came first. The riders also ingest about 8000 calories daily (from the time they get up until the time they go to bed).

I participated in a 60 mile road race this summer from Augusta to Portland, Maine. I kept to the above schedule and felt great for the entire ride (although I had to pee something fierce!). After a nasty flat tire just shy of the finish I managed to place 5th.

This website has a pretty good overview of exactly what brings on "the bonks".

Hope that was some help.

I found the link to the website I mentioned above. Here it is for those of you who'd like to take a look at it. http://www.lancearmstrong.com/lance/...ltdf03/ccrest1

I know this is an old thread but I'm just reviewing bonks.
Thhaze, I just read the article in this link about how hard the liver has to work in a race. Err does this cause liver failure after years of cycling?? ah DON't want ma liver to "check out"!!!!!