Why do I ride so lousy after a tour?

[slowpoke]

I keep hearing how doing a stage race or -- for us non-racers -- a tour is
supposed to make you better, stronger, faster, etc. For some reason, after
doing a tour -- about a week long, 50 - 80 miles/day -- I feel and ride like
crap for about 6 weeks. It's like I'm riding on fumes, or something. (I do
occasional time trials -- both a flattish, 3-miler, and a 1.6 mile, 800 ft. uphill one -- to check my fitness, and its nearly always noticeibly slower than the one I did before the tour.) I do make sure to take a recovery week following the tour. I ride and feel fine during the tour, other than sleeping rather lousy. (But that's also a problem at home the days I do a long ride.) Any ideas on where the problem may be -- training, nutrition, etc.? Any special "trick" I need to know about? In a few weeks, I'm doing a mountainous 12-day tour -- my longest ever . . . I'm beginning to dread how bad I'll be riding after that one . . .

 

[Dr. Wattini]

I keep hearing how doing a stage race or -- for us non-racers -- a tour is
supposed to make you better, stronger, faster, etc. For some reason, after
doing a tour -- about a week long, 50 - 80 miles/day -- I feel and ride like
crap for about 6 weeks. It's like I'm riding on fumes, or something. (I do
occasional time trials -- both a flattish, 3-miler, and a 1.6 mile, 800 ft. uphill one -- to check my fitness, and its nearly always noticeibly slower than the one I did before the tour.) I do make sure to take a recovery week following the tour. I ride and feel fine during the tour, other than sleeping rather lousy. (But that's also a problem at home the days I do a long ride.) Any ideas on where the problem may be -- training, nutrition, etc.? Any special "trick" I need to know about? In a few weeks, I'm doing a mountainous 12-day tour -- my longest ever . . . I'm beginning to dread how bad I'll be riding after that one . . .

Slow, I mean no disrespect but you can only think in the terms you are thinking if you are a real pro. If you are even a well trainned amateur (i.e. train 15 hours per week) riding 60 miles per day will kill you.
In order to do what you are saying, racing 60-80 miles per day, you should be doing the same amount of work (60-80 daily) for a month or so. For posers like us you need to train hard and rest a lot harder. You need to progressively increase the work load. You cannot go from riding 1 hour per day and then ride your tour.
Sorry bro, you just need to train more and rest a lot more.

 

[BroDeal]

Sounds like an insufficient base and the volume of work done while touring is leaving you in an overtrained state.

Things that I can think of doing are:

1) Train more before touring, especially long days back to back.
2) Take a rest day during your tours, which could be a day off the bike, shorter distance, or slower pace.
3) Make sure you are eating enough while touring. It is easy to undereat, be in a chronic state of glyocogen depletion, and end up working a lot harder than if you were eating better.
4) Ride slower while touring.
5) Testosterone gel.

I have toured doing an average of 90 - 100 a day and finished feeling great.

 

[nightfend]

I think it's fine to push yourself during the "tour". But the week after the tour, be sure and ride at an easy pace (small chainring) and let your body rebuild itself. A week's recovery is not uncommon for a hard week of racing or tour riding.

It's more than just your leg muscles that are worn out. Your heart and cardio system need a rest as well.

 

[tashimi76]

+1 to everything others have said, definately sounds like you need a better base, but you should look into recovery techniques too. There is a thread on recovery here somewhere, try looking at that. Also, I wasn't sure what you meant by non-racers, are you saying you don't race then go and do a week long racing Tour or are you talking non-competitive Tour? Or did you just mean amateur racer, not pro?

 

[BigBoat]

I keep hearing how doing a stage race or -- for us non-racers -- a tour is
supposed to make you better, stronger, faster, etc. For some reason, after
doing a tour -- about a week long, 50 - 80 miles/day -- I feel and ride like
crap for about 6 weeks. It's like I'm riding on fumes, or something. (I do
occasional time trials -- both a flattish, 3-miler, and a 1.6 mile, 800 ft. uphill one -- to check my fitness, and its nearly always noticeibly slower than the one I did before the tour.) I do make sure to take a recovery week following the tour. I ride and feel fine during the tour, other than sleeping rather lousy. (But that's also a problem at home the days I do a long ride.) Any ideas on where the problem may be -- training, nutrition, etc.? Any special "trick" I need to know about? In a few weeks, I'm doing a mountainous 12-day tour -- my longest ever . . . I'm beginning to dread how bad I'll be riding after that one . . .

More info... How old? How fast? Training schedule? Health history, etc.

Do this>> Train at a MAX of 8-10 hours a week doing fast 2-3h group rides and threhold 20s at 40K TT pace. 20min*3s and 20*2s. Spend time racing in groups drafting and pacelining. Do some TIMED all out 3 minute efforts on the front of a paceline "towing them" at 30 mph... But a MAX of 9-10 hours a week. You see the higher you threshold power can get (and V02 max power) the better you'll do.

Take 3 days completely off the bike before your "Tour." Then the day before do a quick 1 hour ride with 10 minutes going hard at TT pace.

After the "Tour" Take 5 days completely off the bike NOTHING. Do it, dont get off the couch for 5 days!! Then 2 days of quick 1 hour rides with some tempo (75-85% of FTP power) easier than 40K TT pace.

 

[BigBoat]

Make sure your getting enough carbohydrate intake post race/ stage too. 90 grams in 30-60 minutes afterwards. Make sure your getting about 3,000 mg per day of potassium, and enough Omega 3s with some flaxseed oil, non fried fish, etc... And take a vitamin and watch to make sure your getting enough calcium per day (about 1,500 mg.) 350 iu of Vitamin E too.

Colorful but (cooked) veggies... And stick to easy to digest foods. Dont develop nutritional issues during teh Tour.

 

[The Gear Movement]

They're right - BASE MILES!

I can tell you from experience, its all about base miles. And slow base miles... months of them.

Typically a good 2-3 week block of 20+ hours followed by a "rest week" (under 10 hours)... do this for 3 to 4 successions and you're ready for some interval training.

But even your initial intervals are only LT intervals (60-70% effort)... which are typically 3 x 15-20 min with 5 min rest in between. Then, and only then, are you ready to pin it.

With the Base Miles, your body is trained to recover and take the abuse... that's when a large volume of abuse (like a grand tour) will actually improve you fitness... but even then, the pros will not feel the improvement until they REST and RECOVER.

One more thing to add, then I'll shut up. Not everyone is built to get to these levels of fitness... many try and only get so far. I've seen plenty of people who work their asses off to get fast suffer from the inability to recover... this is what separates the Joe's from the Pro's.

Thanks for reading...

The Gear Movement

 

[Stelvio]

If you are even a well trainned amateur (i.e. train 15 hours per week) riding 60 miles per day will kill you.

No, this is not racing.

In my experience, leisurely riding maybe 1000 kms during a few months leading up to a tour will let you start the tour without too much pain. Since I usually (apart from the time I did 2000 kms in two weeks) ride about 80-110 kms per day on tour, I try to get in a few training rides of that distance before. (I don't think it is necessary to apply a sort of scientific training approach for a tour.)

I agree with BroDeal that this sounds like overtraining/undereating. Take it somewhat easy the first couple of days on tour, don't push for an extra 20 k at the end of an already hard day, when in doubt - rest.

A properly planned and executed mountainous tour can do wonders for your off-tour speed. After my Alpine Tour of 2001 I increased my training speed from a meager ~22 kph to about ~30 kph (yes, it's still slow but I still only have my touring bike to ride). I'm not sure how much of it was physical (though riding 90k per day in the Alps for four weeks must do something) and how much was mental (I know that I can climb whatever, not fast but steady). I think that might be your problem, you are worried now, before the tour, that you will ride crapily when you get home. I would try not to think about that at all, but instead focus on taking enough brakes, eating enough, not push too hard during the tour and so on.

Funnily, I sleep better than ever when I'm touring..

 

[BigBoat]

Dont do the slow JRA (just riding around) for longer than 4 weeks... Once your in half decent shape it does nothing for you overall fitness.

High volume though can lead to low testosterone levels.... Which ****es off your significant other! You can develop high fatique from high volume training and this is mainly to hormone depletion and lack of recovery because you are simply running low.

Try to keep the volume low and intensity high until your Tour. After the Tour sit on the couch for 5 days and dont do jack!

 

[The Gear Movement]

Good thoughts

Yes, after reviewing others responses - there are just so many factors to consider... enough training? Too much training? Eating right... etc. Your body is the best indicator... too bad we all don't live in Europe where a full blood screening only costs about $50 (here its like $500)

 

[jfo-ny]

this is why forums are silly

did it never occur to you - as a 'non-racer' - that what you call a tour and what a racer calls a tour (giro, vuelta) are different?

Where is the old CN? This is terrible.