Keep up the practice

When I was time-trialling regularly it was reckoned that a week of no
riding took a month to get back to where you started from, and would
lose some frightening amount of your fitness (can't remember the figure
that used to be suggested, but it was 10 or 20% of endurance I think).
I don't know how true that was, or if it was just banded about to scare
people into training regularly.

I didn't ride at all (bike or uni) for nearly two months last winter
after a cycling accident, which was by far the longest I've gone
without cycling since I was about 10 years old. The first ride I did
after that was a muni ride with a group in Haldon Woods (mostly
singletrack, quite hilly) and I was surprised how good I felt. I
wasn't quite as fast as normal but my legs didn't feel too bad - most
noticeable was getting out of breath more quickly on climbs. Once I
was back riding regularly again I was back to normal in a few weeks.

But yes, a relatively short break from regular riding, certainly a week
or more, can be quite noticeable.

Rob

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That's bizarre. I commute every day (I confess, on a b*ke) 2.5 miles
each way, and live 240m above work. In August I had two weeks with no
riding at all, due to a few days of taking the car to work, getting
lifts and going on holiday. On my first day back on the bike I actually
found going back up the hill easier - I put it down to being really
well rested and getting rid of the slight fatigue in the legs that you
just get used to with riding every day.

What probably helped though was that although I did no riding I kept
myself ticking over with a bit of walking throughout those two weeks
(and most of that was in the Alps... altitude training? 🙂 ).

I thought that for special events like enduros, races and marathons you
were supposed to hardly do anything for a week before the event?

Phil

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Weirdo! 😉

I think some people react in different ways to a week or so off the
bike (sorry, unicycle :o) . There was a bloke who I used to time-trial
with who pretty much didn't ride at all between weekly club meetings,
and was very quick indeed. There was also a bloke who would sit on his
bike on the start line puffing away on a [censored], put it out a few seconds
before his start time, then light up again when he finished - and he'd
beat me by a couple of minutes over 10 miles.

I think the week off/month to recover thing was probably exaggerated by
club folklore but I certainly feel weedier if I haven't ridden for a
week. A couple of days is OK, but I do notice a lack of performance
after a week of no riding.

Rob

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I guess it depends a lot on what you do generally with your time off
between rides. My time off was partly inflicted by a stinking cold
that kept me off work for a couple of days, and I didn't feel up to
doing much physical stuff at all during my time off.

One thing I've noticed is that my fastest commuting day is generally
Tuesday. I think this is because I don't often ride on a weekend, so
Monday I'm kind of getting back in to it, then on top form on Tuesday,
and then getting more tired towards the end of the week.

STM

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I think it's because your body hasn't adapted to you unicycling again as
it may take sometime to adjust to it also. Which may explain why you're
always in top form on Tuesdays. 😄

Does this make sense semach.the.monkey??

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Hazmat said:

I think it's because your body hasn't adapted to you unicycling again as
it may take sometime to adjust to it also. Which may explain why you're
always in top form on Tuesdays. 😄

Does this make sense semach.the.monkey??

As that's almost exactly what he said in his last post, I'd guess it
does 🙄

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