Road Cycling

Status
Not open for further replies.
Since my bonking on Tuesday I've felt really run down and just knackered all the time. It's really annoying :/ Managing to get out for my commutes and do gym work but doing proper evening rides or turbo trainer stuff just isn't happening. Kind of feels like I'm permanently hungover or something.
Overworked and underfed! Take a week off and feed the living **** out of yourself and you'll feel much better. What you're feeling is an exercise hangover that has caught up with you and the only way to shift it is rest :)
 
bikeshops are not really for the likes of us who know what we want and usually how to fit it together. The ones that will thrive are the ones that sell stuff to normals, who won't even think to go online for stuff
 
My LBS (Pearson Cycles) is fantastic, I didn't buy my bike through them purely because of the Planet X deal on their carbon bikes when I got it, but have been using them for many years. Mate of mine worked there, so any issues I can happily pop along and normally get it looked at the same day. Happens to be the oldest bike shop in the world too!
 
I so want to support my local bike shop but how can you when this is the case -

Need a new 10 speed chain - nothing posh or fancy, shimano or KMC etc.

First shop - sorry no 10 speed chains in stock - will be Wednesday next week before I have any :confused:

Second shop - yes - KMC X10 SL gold chain - £49.99 that's all I have just now

Third shop - yes - shimano Ultegra chain - 6701 - £26.99 - Nearly double the price of Wiggle/Amazon/CRC etc. Or KMC X10-93 10 Speed Chain - £24.99 - again nearly twice the price of anywhere online.

I have prime with amazon so could get it delivered tomorrow to the house.

I understand shops are always going to be more expensive/overheads etc - but at nearly 80/90% price up ontop of any online place - surely that's not good for business.

It's not that they are putting more on top, they will be retail with a trade that means they can maybe do 15-20% off max. It does seem a little higher than current rrp but Madison bounce rrp about so much with some stuff it's hard to keep track.

Bigger places get it grey market or pay shimano upfront for lots of moneys rather than going through a uk distributor.
 
Since my bonking on Tuesday I've felt really run down and just knackered all the time. It's really annoying :/ Managing to get out for my commutes and do gym work but doing proper evening rides or turbo trainer stuff just isn't happening. Kind of feels like I'm permanently hungover or something.

I'd make sure you're getting enough electrolytes. Drink a couple of Oxos in hot water and maybe a magnesium supp an hour before you next go out and see if it makes a difference.

Failing that just do a couple of easy recovery rides to get the blood flowing and fuel up well to top up your glycogen reserves.

After being a 14.5-15st pudgy yet hill loving carb monster most of my cycling life I'm now doing very low carb in an attempt to shift my additional 2st excess weight. I'm having to be extremely careful to watch my electrolyte levels due to the massive initial water/glycogen loss that comes with low-carb.

Edit: I'm also weak as hell now and getting dropped by casuals (hi Pete ;))
:(
 
Last edited:
I made it out to Southport and back, which comes out at 63 miles and just 2000ft of climbing. I've done it once before but I'd tweaked the route a bit to avoid a couple of dodgy sections from last time. As it was I missed a turning in Wigan so ended up on an even dodgier bit of road, but I made it, so it's all good! I was slower than the last time I did this run - 15.5mph compared to 15.9mph last June - but I guess it's earlier in the season, so meh. I was knackered by the end of it - I should've had more food to keep me going.

So, first metric of the year done, and hopefully more to come.
 
that's my only excuse for not doing legs!

simple logic -;

quality ride on sunday? - no leg day.
no riding on sunday? - leg day.

:o I can't do both, no way, legs jelly after squats/cycling

Yeah. I've been skipping legs for far too long. Probably got some pretty bad imbalances right now. After the summer I'll have to get on fixing it.

Really does sound like fatigue from any increase

Could be I guess but it really shouldn't be this bad given the two weeks rest.

Overworked and underfed! Take a week off and feed the living **** out of yourself and you'll feel much better. What you're feeling is an exercise hangover that has caught up with you and the only way to shift it is rest :)

As above, normally that's what I'd assume too but in this case I've just come back from a two week break of little exercise and tons of food. I am on my eternal cut but it's actually less extreme than I've been on previously and not had issues. I'm thinking it's some kind of minor bug, or perhaps as Damien suggests below, something to do with my eating a few less carbs and a bit more protein (still getting over 300g of carbs per day though).

[Damien];27920125 said:
I'd make sure you're getting enough electrolytes. Drink a couple of Oxos in hot water and maybe a magnesium supp an hour before you next go out and see if it makes a difference.

Failing that just do a couple of easy recovery rides to get the blood flowing and fuel up well to top up your glycogen reserves.

After being a 14.5-15st pudgy yet hill loving carb monster most of my cycling life I'm now doing very low carb in an attempt to shift my additional 2st excess weight. I'm having to be extremely careful to watch my electrolyte levels due to the massive initial water/glycogen loss that comes with low-carb.

Edit: I'm also weak as hell now and getting dropped by casuals (hi Pete ;))
:(

I hadn't considered the electrolyte side of things but that's a good shout. In the winter whilst turbo training I drank tons of the things (and obviously even more during the summer) but I've not been drinking them as much lately and I'm also on a cut so I might start sipping one throughout my commuting miles.

I'm not on a particularly low carb diet though given the amount of exercise I do it could be considered lower carb than is optimal for performance, plus I shifted some of my macros over more towards protein recently (mostly due to eating quite a bit of BBQ'd meat :p) so that could be it.
 
Shots fired! Next time I'll abandon you in deepest Burtonwood!

Please don't. I'm afraid of the dark :(

I'm going to go out for a bit tonight I reckon. Recovered from my almost-bonk now. Got some superstarch delivered yesterday so I can carb up now without screwing up my diet. Also bulletproof hot chocolate (don't like coffee) for breakfast is awesome. Tried it this morning and I've been buzzing all day.

I reckon I can get used to this low carb high fat lark.
 
I hadn't considered the electrolyte side of things but that's a good shout. In the winter whilst turbo training I drank tons of the things (and obviously even more during the summer) but I've not been drinking them as much lately and I'm also on a cut so I might start sipping one throughout my commuting miles.

I'm not on a particularly low carb diet though given the amount of exercise I do it could be considered lower carb than is optimal for performance, plus I shifted some of my macros over more towards protein recently (mostly due to eating quite a bit of BBQ'd meat :p) so that could be it.
Drinking wise, since the start of the new year I've had only water, other than my chia seed drink in the morning (which is water, lime juice and chia seeds). For the first time ever I'm not drinking any caffeine or hot drinks, other than the odd decaffeinated coffee in town (and that is countable on the fingers of one hand).

Been feeling loads better. For rides I make my chia drink and chuck in a few drops of of a mineral/electrolytes solution (the name of which fails me at the moment).
 
I really need to cut back of caffeine, and sort my sleep out. If I did that, I'd be doing pretty much everything better, cycling included.
 
Drinking wise, since the start of the new year I've had only water, other than my chia seed drink in the morning (which is water, lime juice and chia seeds). For the first time ever I'm not drinking any caffeine or hot drinks, other than the odd decaffeinated coffee in town (and that is countable on the fingers of one hand).

Been feeling loads better. For rides I make my chia drink and chuck in a few drops of of a mineral/electrolytes solution (the name of which fails me at the moment).

No coffee? :( Drinking awesome coffee isn't far behind cycling and making/eating awesome food in terms of things I enjoy. I don't find it normally impacts my cycling, aside from if I don't feed my caffeine addiction of course.

I do want to try the chia seed thing though. It sounds pretty interesting.

I really need to cut back of caffeine, and sort my sleep out. If I did that, I'd be doing pretty much everything better, cycling included.

I try not to drink any caffeine after my lunch time coffee unless I'm about to do a really intensive exercise session involving gym + a turbo session or long ride. I cut back to having about three double espressos worth of coffee per day from drinking farrrr too much years ago. I don't find it really effects my sleep now.

I've said it before but look into taurine as a food supplement to have before bed. It improves the quality of deep sleep you have and massively counteracts the effects of caffeine and alcohol on said deep sleep. Science, yo.
 
I don't like how Strava challenges don't retrospectively include your activities when you join them.

Mine does/did, the adventure challenge last month I joined after my 'adventure' and it counted :)

So, first metric of the year done, and hopefully more to come.

Good work & well done!

I really need to cut back of caffeine, and sort my sleep out. If I did that, I'd be doing pretty much everything better, cycling included.

See I have no problems with my energy levels, I sleep well (cycling commute and busy work help that!) it's the recoveries and fatigue I 'struggle' with. Soon I want to try 2 big rides a week (20-30 miles) with 5 days of commuting (total of 40 miles) to break through the '100 miles a week' barrier. I'll be taking 1 rest day a week, is that really enough?
 
I really need to cut back of caffeine, and sort my sleep out. If I did that, I'd be doing pretty much everything better, cycling included.

I cut caffeine out years ago , was getting headaches if I hadnt had any for a while and decided I didnt want to be a 'druggy' ;) After giving it up my sleep patterns were so much better and I havnt had one headache since and i'm talking about 15 years now

Along with not drinking alcochol either I feel like my system is getting flushed nicely and I sleep like a log too. I'd recommend it to anyone without hesitation.
 
See I have no problems with my energy levels, I sleep well (cycling commute and busy work help that!) it's the recoveries and fatigue I 'struggle' with. Soon I want to try 2 big rides a week (20-30 miles) with 5 days of commuting (total of 40 miles) to break through the '100 miles a week' barrier. I'll be taking 1 rest day a week, is that really enough?

You can easily get by with your one rest day still involving a fair few miles but taking it easy. When I was doing more miles last year I would generally only do 16-20 on Fridays and that would be my rest day. The key thing would be to watch my speed and make sure I didn't push it at any point.

To be honest with you, if you're eating enough you will find it very easy to get through the 100 mile per week barrier. It's a mental thing more than anything else. Worst case, you'll feel knackered and be really slow on one or two of your rides the first time you do it. Then a few weeks of doing it later you'll wonder how you ever struggled :)
 
Next week Roady just go out and try doing 100 miles. I bet it's not as bad as you think.

Just make sure you eat, drink and sleep and you will be fine.

I now drink decaf tea (don't like coffee) and feel a bit better for it. I'm doing loads of exercise at the moment and think I need to get more sleep but I'm in bed at 10pm as it is!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom