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Leg Fatigue

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01 / Original postLeg FatiguePeka · 3 Sep 2005 02 / This pagePosts 1–6Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #6rule62 · 6 Sep 2005

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Cycling Training
Published
3 September 2005
Last activity
6 September 2005
Original author
Peka
Posts
6
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Public discussion
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Topics
RecoveryCommutingHeart rate trainingNutritionPower meters

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  1. Original post
    Peka
    Archived post
    #1

    Simple question, but probably doesn't have a simple answer 🙂

    How can I tell if leg fatigue after a ride is simply due to not having enough endurance, or from not enough energy intake during the ride?

    I commute 25km each way 3 times a week. There aren't any 'real' climbs, just a few ~1km long hills, one of which does take a bit of effort. Have been doing this for 4 weeks, had reasonable fitness prior.

    Yesterday I did a 60km ride, with a ~10km loop around Mt Coot-Tha in Brisbane (look it up on Google Earth if you're interested). It's ~25km from home to the Mt. I chose to go clockwise, which meant the steepest bit was over and done with first (and the descent is a continuous one). I don't have HRM or power meter, so I can only tell you that perceived effort until the descent was 'fairly hard'. I didn't notice my heart rate so it wasn't maxed out. For most of the climb I probably couldn't have held a conversation, though short bursts of singing along to the music in my ears was possible (I apologise for anyone who was in earshot 🙄 )

    I used one of the recipes from this site for my 'sports' drink and I'm positive fluid intake wasn't an issue. I also had some food with me, which I ate along the way.

    When I got home my legs were toast. Granted, it's first real climb I've done since I started riding again so I didn't expect to feel like I could keep riding for another couple of hours. After some more food, I had a shower and then slept for 2 hours :o I think it's just lack of endurance at this stage, but am wondering if I would've felt better if I had eaten more during the ride?

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  2. artmichalek
    Archived post
    #2
    Peka said:

    I think it's just lack of endurance at this stage, but am wondering if I would've felt better if I had eaten more during the ride?


    I started thinking about this yesterday after realizing that I had only consumed about 450 calories on a three hour ride. A quick search turned this up:
    http://www.nutristrategy.com/fitness/cycling.htm
    It gives some pretty reasonable ballpark numbers. It put me at a deficite of about 1500 calories for the ride, which I'm pretty sure isn't a good thing.

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  3. SolarEnergy
    Archived post
    #3
    Peka said:

    Simple question, but probably doesn't have a simple answer

    How can I tell if leg fatigue after a ride is simply due to not having enough endurance, or from not enough energy intake during the ride?
    ...
    Yesterday I did a 60km ride, with a ~10km loop around Mt Coot-Tha in Brisbane (look it up on Google Earth if you're interested).
    ....


    The energy that you burn during a ride comes mainly from your Glycogen supply (you can ride for few hours on that supply), AND on your fat supply.

    It sounds like typical fatigue due to not having enough endurance at the intensity level that you hold during your ride.

    To make sure, try at least one ride per week done at a lower intensity. You’ll see that you can probably burn more calories (ride for 2 hours) without slowing down.

    artmichalek said:

    I started thinking about this yesterday after realizing that I had only consumed about 450 calories on a three hour ride. A quick search turned this up:

    nutristrategy.comcycling.htm

    It gives some pretty reasonable ballpark numbers. It put me at a deficite of about 1500 calories for the ride, which I'm pretty sure isn't a good thing.


    Asking your stomach to digest 1500 calories in 3 hours, while riding hard? I'm not sure that it's feasable.

    We must also be carfull with big carbohydrate intake during a ride, as it can trigger an insulin response thus creating the opposite effect.

    Bottom line, 3 hour ride, done in Z2 (easy to moderate tempo), you should just let your system use your own body fat. At that intensity, the Kreb Cycle (during which fat gets transformed into sugar, and then into ATP) can take place no problem. If you just burn 150 grams of fat, you almost get 1500 calories out of it.

    A 3 hour ride done in the context of a race for instance, you MUST rest properly, at least one day prior the event. By doing so, your glycogen supply should be sufficient to complete the event at high intensity 🙂

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  4. Peka
    Archived post
    #4
    SolarEnergy said:

    The energy that you burn during a ride comes mainly from your Glycogen supply (you can ride for few hours on that supply), AND on your fat supply


    OK, well the total time was about 2.5hrs and I'd had a rest day the day before.

    SolarEnergy said:

    It sounds like typical fatigue due to not having enough endurance at the intensity level that you hold during your ride

    To make sure, try at least one ride per week done at a lower intensity. You’ll see that you can probably burn more calories (ride for 2 hours) without slowing down

    It was the loop around the Mt that killed me. I was determined and went hard for those 10km.

    I had a rest day yesterday. On this morning's commute, I kept checking what gear I was in and thought the speedo must've been playing up as it was reading higher then I expected for the effort. I equaled my best time without much effort and my legs were very fresh when I got to work. It was raining most of the way, I would've thought that would make it harder? Looking forward to the ride home - tomorrow I'm on the motorbike, so I can push as hard as I like tonight.

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  5. penguinonabike
    Archived post
    #5
    artmichalek said:

    I started thinking about this yesterday after realizing that I had only consumed about 450 calories on a three hour ride. A quick search turned this up:
    nutristrategy.comcycling.htm
    It gives some pretty reasonable ballpark numbers. It put me at a deficite of about 1500 calories for the ride, which I'm pretty sure isn't a good thing.


    interesting site that one for sure..

    is there anywhere online with some kind of calculator to work it out for any weight .. for example i am 210lbs not 195 lol.... dont laugh too hard there yes me fat ass penguinonabike lol

    some sort of online calc would be usefull in working out calories burned etc

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  6. rule62
    Archived post
    #6

    The smartest thing that I ever did was to read Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness. It taught me a lot about how I was missing the mark in my nutrition.

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