I am having a problem regarding commuting in that I can cycle to work on
Monday and feel good and have lots of energy, then when I get up on Tuesday
it feels like I still have some residue tiredness in my legs from the
Monday. This means that the Tuesday commute feels somewhat harder than the
Monday, especially on the hills. When it comes to Wednesday sometimes I wake
up feeling so tired that I give up and take the car. Once I have done this I
will get up on Thursday morning and feel good again; Friday will feel less
good; Saturday I will get my weekly shopping on the bike then spend half the
afternoon in bed when I get a wave of exhaustion. And so on. Is there
anything I can do to help my body recover overnight or have I got to just
accept this?

My commute is about 24 miles round trip and if I go to the bridge club in
the evening that is another 4 miles round trip. I eat about 4-5 times/day
and try to keep my diet healthy (meat/veg/complex carbs) so it is not clear
why I keep losing energy.

I go out with the cycling club on Sunday mornings whenever possible for a
35-40 mile ride and I notice that when I do this I often feel like crap
Monday morning even though the ride itself didn't seem that difficult, so I
am baffled as to what is happening here. It is really annoying as with the
excellent weather we have been having recently it is the ideal time to
commute to work every day, but it seems I'm not quite up to it.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Adam

"Adam Lea" <asrlea> wrote in message
news:yjga
>
> Any advice would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Adam
>
See a doctor and get yourself checked out. You should feel so wiped out
with the sort of mileages that you are doing unless you are commuting at
time trial pace.

vernon wrote:
> "Adam Lea" <asrlea> wrote in message
> news:yjga
>> Any advice would be much appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Adam
>>
> See a doctor and get yourself checked out. You should feel so wiped out
> with the sort of mileages that you are doing unless you are commuting at
> time trial pace.
>
He shouldn't feel wiped out but I certainly feel a lot fresher and
stronger if I haven't ridden for a few days.

Mind you this is only on the ride itself I don't feel tired afterwards.

Firstly, rest is an important part of getting fitter. Even competitive
cyclists will have a regular rest day in their training plans. Always
worthwhile getting a general checkover by your doc to see if there's any
underlying health issue that means the tiredness you are feeling is an undue
feeling of tiredness. Probably isn't but it's worth a check. It may be that
even though you are trying to eat healthily you aren't, and may not be
eating enough, or missing out 'something'. Keeping a food diary of what you
eat over the course of a week can be a useful thing to do as it can throw up
light on whether your diet is as healthy as you think it is. Example: are
you having *enough* protein after riding to aid recovery?

Hope this helps.

Adam Lea wrote:
> And so on. Is there
> anything I can do to help my body recover overnight or have I got to just
> accept this?

You could just take the cycling a bit easier: take some more time
and your body will get less hammered. If you are over-doing things
then you're possibly doing harm rather than building up. Slow off
and see if that helps, if it does then /gradually/ build towards
your current speed, as you really can have too much of a good thing.

> My commute is about 24 miles round trip and if I go to the bridge club in
> the evening that is another 4 miles round trip. I eat about 4-5 times/day
> and try to keep my diet healthy (meat/veg/complex carbs) so it is not clear
> why I keep losing energy.

There's more to muscular output than havaing the fuel available:
over use does come back to haunt them. Over use won't show up
straight away.

Pete.

"Adam Lea" <asrlea> wrote in message
news:yjga
> My commute is about 24 miles round trip and if I go to the bridge club in
> the evening that is another 4 miles round trip. I eat about 4-5 times/day
> and try to keep my diet healthy (meat/veg/complex carbs) so it is not
> clear why I keep losing energy.

Are you getting a really good nights sleep every night? I experience
something similar when I'm generally tired.

Last week all was well, bed at 9:30 then up at 7:00 to do chores and leave
by 9:00. Then over the weekend I was up late chatting to friends which has
messed up my sleeping pattern and I'm now finding any distance a bit of a
struggle. Although it's not that noisy round here, normally the only way
I'll get a full nights sleep is with earplugs in which may be a
psychological thing.

Hope you sort out whatever it is.

Adam Lea wrote on 22/04/2007 00:18 +0100:
[..]
>
> I go out with the cycling club on Sunday mornings whenever possible for a
> 35-40 mile ride and I notice that when I do this I often feel like crap
> Monday morning even though the ride itself didn't seem that difficult, so I
> am baffled as to what is happening here. It is really annoying as with the
> excellent weather we have been having recently it is the ideal time to
> commute to work every day, but it seems I'm not quite up to it.
>
> Any advice would be much appreciated.
>

If you are not used to it that is a fair distance to do every day - I
know it used to be the length of my cycle commute. Start by cycling on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (or if that proves too much too Tuesdays
and Thursdays instead) Take the car the other days. When you are
comfortable doing the alternate days, then add in the gaps but keep a
weekend rest until you are easily doing the whole week. Take care of
your nutrition - plenty of pasta after a ride is good - and make sure
you drink adequately on the way in and back. Finally have a banana or
something to eat about half to an hour before you set out home and make
sure you have a good breakfast with a bit of a gap for your digestion
before you set off in the morning.

One of the things I find puts people new back to cycling off more than
anything is trying to do too much too soon. The body starts to build up
an aversion to it which then makes it difficult to summon up the
motivation to get the bike out. So take it easy and build up slowly.

HTH

Adam Lea wrote:
> I am having a problem regarding commuting in that I can cycle to work on
> Monday and feel good and have lots of energy, then when I get up on Tuesday
> it feels like I still have some residue tiredness in my legs from the
> Monday. This means that the Tuesday commute feels somewhat harder than the
> Monday, especially on the hills. When it comes to Wednesday sometimes I wake
> up feeling so tired that I give up and take the car.
>
> Any advice would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Adam
>If you don't recover you could have a iron deficiency

On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 11:02:17 +0200, M-gineering <ikmotgeenspam>
wrote:

>Adam Lea wrote:
>> I am having a problem regarding commuting in that I can cycle to work on
>> Monday and feel good and have lots of energy, then when I get up on Tuesday
>> it feels like I still have some residue tiredness in my legs from the
>> Monday. This means that the Tuesday commute feels somewhat harder than the
>> Monday, especially on the hills. When it comes to Wednesday sometimes I wake
>> up feeling so tired that I give up and take the car.

As M-gineering has already said, an iron deficiency is possible, or even mild
anaemia.

The most worrying thing seems to be the need to actually go to bed for 'half the
afternoon' (2-3 hours?) because you feel exhausted. That's a long time for a day
time nap!

I would certainly agree that you should see your doctor, but it may well be that
her/his attitude when you say you are tired after a 24 mile trip is 'well, what
do you expect' (some doctors really aren't much good!). OTOH they should get
some basic blood tests done.

You didn't mention how old you are, although if you're less than 65 that
shouldn't be a problem. (Of course there are a lot of people over 65 for whom 24
miles a day isn't a problem).

Good luck with getting to the bottom of this!

In article <462b2f8b.3904812>,
ziggy317 (Ziggy) writes:
|>
|> You didn't mention how old you are, although if you're less than 65 that
|> shouldn't be a problem. (Of course there are a lot of people over 65 for whom 24
|> miles a day isn't a problem).

24 miles a day for me would be a problem, but it would be more of the
time spent, because it would take almost two hours. Two hours of
moderate exercise shouldn't do that. If the OP is pushing things too
hard, then that is the cause, and the solution is to ride a bit more
slowly.

If he is NOT pushing things too hard, then it needs checking out.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Tony Raven" <junk> wrote in message
news:nz2d
> If you are not used to it that is a fair distance to do every day - I know
> it used to be the length of my cycle commute. Start by cycling on
> Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (or if that proves too much too Tuesdays
> and Thursdays instead) Take the car the other days. When you are
> comfortable doing the alternate days, then add in the gaps but keep a
> weekend rest until you are easily doing the whole week. Take care of your
> nutrition - plenty of pasta after a ride is good - and make sure you drink
> adequately on the way in and back. Finally have a banana or something to
> eat about half to an hour before you set out home and make sure you have a
> good breakfast with a bit of a gap for your digestion before you set off
> in the morning.
>

I have been doing this for over a year now. I have been trying to move up
from 3x/week to 5x/week for some time now but keep coming across this
barrier.

I have been out with the cycling club this morning doing 30 miles at 15.5mph
average. Seemed nice and easy at the time but now, 6 hours later the
generall, overall tiredness is setting in fast, despite the fact that I was
perfectly alright immediatly after the ride.

On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:40:30 +0100, "Adam Lea" <asrlea> wrote:

>
>"Tony Raven" <junk> wrote in message
>news:nz2d
>
>I have been doing this for over a year now. I have been trying to move up
>from 3x/week to 5x/week for some time now but keep coming across this
>barrier.
>
>I have been out with the cycling club this morning doing 30 miles at 15.5mph
>average. Seemed nice and easy at the time but now, 6 hours later the
>generall, overall tiredness is setting in fast, despite the fact that I was
>perfectly alright immediatly after the ride.

You should definitely see your doctor in that case. Although you produced a lot
of energy this morning you should not be responding like this now. Together with
what you said originally it does sound as if something is not quite right with
your metabolism.

You need to get checked out with a raft of blood tests for such things as
anaemia and diabetes.

Quoting Adam Lea <asrlea>:
>I am having a problem regarding commuting in that I can cycle to work on
>Monday and feel good and have lots of energy, then when I get up on Tuesday
>it feels like I still have some residue tiredness in my legs from the
>Monday. This means that the Tuesday commute feels somewhat harder than the
>Monday, especially on the hills. When it comes to Wednesday sometimes I wake
>up feeling so tired that I give up and take the car.

Funny, that. You can easily reach 35mph on a small-wheeled folder, you
claim, but you can't ride to work 3 days running. Yet when I commuted by
bike (about the same distance), I could do it 5 days running, go out on
Sunday with the local CTC, and start again on Monday, but I was only
reaching about 20mph. You'd think a super-Lance like you could keep going
a bit longer?

David Damerell wrote on 23/04/2007 09:40 +0100:
>
> Funny, that. You can easily reach 35mph on a small-wheeled folder,

That's what happens when you use the default computer wheel size setting
on a small wheeled bike ;-)

On 23 Apr 2007 09:40:59 +0100 (BST), David Damerell
<damerell> wrote:

>Quoting Adam Lea <asrlea>:
>>I am having a problem regarding commuting in that I can cycle to work on
>>Monday and feel good and have lots of energy, then when I get up on Tuesday
>>it feels like I still have some residue tiredness in my legs from the
>>Monday. This means that the Tuesday commute feels somewhat harder than the
>>Monday, especially on the hills. When it comes to Wednesday sometimes I wake
>>up feeling so tired that I give up and take the car.
>
>Funny, that. You can easily reach 35mph on a small-wheeled folder, you
>claim, but you can't ride to work 3 days running. Yet when I commuted by
>bike (about the same distance), I could do it 5 days running, go out on
>Sunday with the local CTC, and start again on Monday, but I was only
>reaching about 20mph. You'd think a super-Lance like you could keep going
>a bit longer?

Although the OP has obviously made a mistake with his timings, your clever dick
comments only show a lack of understanding of human physiology.

The OP clearly has a problem that is not related to his muscular performance. He
complains of overall fatigue, NOT muscular tiredness.

So he can achieve whatever speed he is capable of for a ride but then suffers
after effects.

I hope he has made an appointment to see his doctor.