I'm probably in the worse shape of my life. I just started riding this week again after taking about 14 years off. My legs start to burn about 50 feet down the road and I have been pushing pretty hard to keep going for about 30 mins which I don't think I could take much more plus don't want to over do it.
What I don't understand is I'm not getting sore. I can feel the next day that my legs feel alittle mushy but they don't hurt at all. Is this normal?
What I don't understand is I'm not getting sore. I can feel the next day that my legs feel alittle mushy but they don't hurt at all. Is this normal?
I don't know what's normal, but my experience is similar to yours. The day after a hard ride, my legs will feel stiff, even weak, but I don't feel a clear muscle soreness like I do, for example, after I lift weights.
I've sort of vaguely assumed it's just a difference in the kind of work the muscles are doing. I'll be interested to see if anyone else has an explanation.
I'm probably in the worse shape of my life. I just started riding this week again after taking about 14 years off. My legs start to burn about 50 feet down the road and I have been pushing pretty hard to keep going for about 30 mins which I don't think I could take much more plus don't want to over do it.
What I don't understand is I'm not getting sore. I can feel the next day that my legs feel alittle mushy but they don't hurt at all. Is this normal?
I like to get sore that why I know I did enough.
Cycling isnt really supposed to make you sore from what I understand. Its like swimming. Low resistance high rep training. If you want to get sore go to the gym and lift weights at higher weight with less reps. Cycling is more aerobic which wont make you as sore. When lifting weight the soreness comes from breaking down your muscles and rebuilding them. That doesnt really happen as much in aerobic type training such as cycling and swimming.
I don't know about you guys but I get very sore after a few days of consecutive rides. I rode for 3 hours Wednesday and 3 hours Thursday and Friday morning I felt as though I'd been to the gym. Feel it in the quads mostly but to a lesser extent in the hams and calves. My abs, intercostals and lumbar feel more fatigued than sore but I can tell they've been worked.
I left off squatting for almost 3 weeks due to time constraints but was still doing lots of climbing. Then I finally got to the sports center and did some squats. I noticed a drop in my squat strength but, the following day, no soreness. Prior to my cycling, I would always get sore after squats - even more so after a layoff. Obviously the climbing work I had been doing works the leg muscles quite a lot. Even so, I don't think it matters about muscle soreness. It sounds to me like you need to slowly increase your overall fitness by making your cycling enjoyable and progressive. You could slowly increase the amount you do and eventually you'll find yourself getting into great shape.
rumptis said:
I'm probably in the worse shape of my life. I just started riding this week again after taking about 14 years off. My legs start to burn about 50 feet down the road and I have been pushing pretty hard to keep going for about 30 mins which I don't think I could take much more plus don't want to over do it.
What I don't understand is I'm not getting sore. I can feel the next day that my legs feel alittle mushy but they don't hurt at all. Is this normal?
Ok, I do have a theory about this. I have been riding for 4 months now, and have had 2 breaks of 2 weeks in here. What I found was that when I first started riding, I had been hiking around Europe for 6 weeks, at about 10 hours a day. My legs were strong, but I had not built up much aerobic fitness. I got on the bike, and was tired and in pain after just a few kilometers. I was however NOT sore the next day or two. (The same after the breaks I had). I attribute this to my STRENGTH being more then sufficient, but my fitness was not.
You get sore when you increase your strength - especially if you do hill work. You get tired / feel pain when you are training for endurance. Endurance training should not give you sore muscles the next day, strength and power training will.
I'm probably in the worse shape of my life. I just started riding this week again after taking about 14 years off. My legs start to burn about 50 feet down the road and I have been pushing pretty hard to keep going for about 30 mins which I don't think I could take much more plus don't want to over do it.
What I don't understand is I'm not getting sore. I can feel the next day that my legs feel alittle mushy but they don't hurt at all. Is this normal?
I like to get sore that why I know I did enough.
Your older, wait another day or two and the soreness will take hold.
I'm going through a new stage lately that surprises me. When I started cycling my main problem used to be puffing and getting out of breath in hills. Now I hardly ever get out of breath but I feel my body working hard. The stress seems more physical. I've cycled for the past 3 days without a break and yesterday I went for a 4 hour session, including sprints, climbs and speed runs. Again all the hard work seemed to affect me more physically - it felt like a physical workout. Whenever I hit a big hill I have a tendency to murmer the odd swear word - expressions of how much I'm suffering at a given time. Fortunately, there's nobody around to be offended by these exclamations in the middle of nowhere.
rumptis said:
I'm probably in the worse shape of my life. I just started riding this week again after taking about 14 years off. My legs start to burn about 50 feet down the road and I have been pushing pretty hard to keep going for about 30 mins which I don't think I could take much more plus don't want to over do it.
What I don't understand is I'm not getting sore. I can feel the next day that my legs feel alittle mushy but they don't hurt at all. Is this normal?
I'm going through a new stage lately that surprises me. When I started cycling my main problem used to be puffing and getting out of breath in hills. Now I hardly ever get out of breath but I feel my body working hard. The stress seems more physical. I've cycled for the past 3 days without a break and yesterday I went for a 4 hour session, including sprints, climbs and speed runs. Again all the hard work seemed to affect me more physically - it felt like a physical workout. Whenever I hit a big hill I have a tendency to murmer the odd swear word - expressions of how much I'm suffering at a given time. Fortunately, there's nobody around to be offended by these exclamations in the middle of nowhere.
Soreness is NOT an indicator of how hard you've worked. Whether its weight training or riding, do not judge your efforts by how sore you feel. DOMS may or may not set in - be glad if it doesn't. You'll be able to train more effectively
FWIW, I always ride my bike after a good leg workout. I do this the after the leg session and the day after. The increased blood circulation will help reduce the soreness.
