I usually finish around 29 miles in an hour on a stationary bike with some resistance . But when I try to cycle the following or the third day , I hardly go for 10 minutes when I have to stop because the burn in the legs is unbearable . How come I can cycle 30 mph one day and not being able to cycle at all the other days . Do any other cyclists suffer the same issue? If so please tell me How to overcome it . There are a number of possible things going on to cause what you describe. I鈥檒l give you all my general thoughts and advise on using a stationary bike.
Water consumption 鈥?you need to consume about 1-2 water bottles per hour. The amount will vary with your body weight, weather, etc. You should need to urinate when you get off the bike. Otherwise, you have not had enough water. Additional water should be consumed after the workout. If you experience back pain, kidney pain, scratchy eyes or joint pain while riding these are all classic symptoms your body is low on water and is 鈥渉arvesting鈥?it from other places in the body.
Insufficient warm up and cool down- You need to devote at least 10-20% of your riding time to warming up and cooling down. Cooling down is especially important as this is the time when you body is removing the lactic acid that has built up in the muscles during your effort. Ride at low to no resistance just turning over the cranks freely. Stretch, getting up out of the saddle. Concentrate on relaxation and recovery.
Insufficient Magnesium, Potassium and Calcium 鈥?These three minerals are interdependent. They will help your endurance and recovery. Check with a health food store and pick up a supplement that contains all three. You will find that such a combined supplement is readily available.
Incorrect Seat and Pedal geometry 鈥?Whenever people use exercise bikes there are often problems keeping the bike at a consistent seat height. When others use the bike they may change your arrived-upon setting. Seat height is very deceptive. It should be done initially by measurement and the fine points adjusted with the help of a cycling coach or an experienced rider. If you adjust your seat height by how it feels you will often find that it will always feel better when raised slightly. If you follow the cycle of continually raising your seat a little bit at a time, you will feel better all the way up until you suffer a hyperextension injury. Visually you should have your foot parallel to the ground and a slight bend in your knee. Toe pointing is known to fatigue calves prematurely.
Pedals should have a toe clip or strap arrangement or a clipless pedal should be used. The ball of the foot should be directly over the pedal spindle. If the toe straps allow a variety of positions of your foot and this is changed by the previous user then you can have ergonomic problems. Imagine playing tennis or golf and grabbing the racket or club handle in a different spot each time. Soon your body would complain with various aches and pains because you keep changing the attachment angles or attack on your body. So, you need to be sure your exercise bike has a very consistent seat height and foot to pedal relationship.
Possible Overtraining 鈥?You may be cycling at an effort level that is taking you close to or over your Anaerobic threshold. There are a number of techniques and formulas for determining your threshold and over the long haul you will find that training just below that threshold is the best strategy. The way you are going now you can鈥檛 do daily workouts because you are too wasted. Clearly this is a sign of overtraining.
Heart rate symptoms 鈥?Start taking your resting heart rate each AM before you get out of bed. Over time you should see a trend of heart rates develop. A rise of 3-5 beats on the day following a workout can indicate fatigue or can indicate an illness coming on. The resting AM heart rate is a good indicator of how your body is doing.
Incorrect gearing and load selection 鈥?Stationary bikes vary in how their resistance mechanisms operate so here are a few general ideas. I have had a number of very fit cyclists injure themselves on stationary bikes. Complaints include but are not limited to thigh fatigue and knee problems. There definitely are potential problems with getting a stationary bike position to match a rider鈥檚 road bike and this may account for some of the issues. The crank arms may be a different length or be spaced wider apart to accommodate the stationary bike鈥檚 mechanisms. Also, some exercise bikes use electronic resistance mechanisms that don鈥檛 simulate hill climbing accurately. Something about the load coming on artificially quickly can stress legs and knees before the rider hits their aerobic limits. I have experienced this personally. The caution I would offer is to use hill routines carefully. Don鈥檛 set them up to come on abruptly but to instead ease into them. If you find the load dropping your crank RPM below 60RPM you should get out of the saddle or reduce the resistance. Dropping below 60RPM on a hill and gutting it out can really hurt you and your knees.
Shoe problems 鈥?Normal cross-training and running shoes are designed to absorb shock while cycling shoes are designed to transmit force. The first long bike ride I ever did was 200 miles and when I finished my toes were bleeding. Most running style shoes will allow your foot to reverse arch under load. This impacts all the upline joints and muscles as they try to keep the foot in alignment while it is bowing under the forces. Be sure to use at least a semi-hard touring shoe when you ride an exercise bike.
These are just a few ideas. Hopefully these will give you some ideas that will help your workouts. Actually one of the other answerers is right, this answer is a hit and miss, it doesn't answer the question very well. Report It
We are not machines and after a hard effort we all need to "recover". Some efforts can require 24 or more hours to recover from, age, nutrition and physical condition all contribute to how fast you can be ready for your next workout.
Over training or forcing your self to fight thru the muscle fatigue can actually set back your training. Everyone needs recovery time to help your body adapt and repair itself. your legs need time to recouperate. i cycle a minimum of 20 miles per day. on the 3rd day like you it is more challanging. you need to skip a day of cycling. try swimming instead or weight lifting. make sure you are getting enough protein or you will go "catabolic"(muscle atrophy when there is not enough protein intake) try taking some l-glutamine, it helps with muscle retention plus it enhances your immune system.blurey Try a longer warmup the second day. After 45 minutes to an hour of easy spinning, you may be able to get close to the first days level. your muscles havent recovered fully. you can combat this by making sure you are eating enough to refuel, and by stretching well. also, if you are just beginning, it may be a factor you are going too hard. if you go way over your head one day, you will pay for it the next. i dont know what bike you use and that, but 30mph is awful fast even for a stationary bike. i would suspect that is over where your training is, and you are digging a hole you cant recover from for the next day. We do rest days ride for two or three days, rest day, ride again more miles the better. TDF riders do this after the four day ! Nice Essay Richard but most of it is irrelevent!
The asker is training too hard and needs to recover! - as simple as that!
EDIT: CSU - Yes there are good points, but I am very doubtful they are relevent to a guy who has burning legs! - incorrect shoes or set-up geometry will NOT cause these symptoms.
I myself could spout reams of information or Paste links from the late Sheldon Brown 'until the cows come home' but it doesn't really help the asker! - Does it?
Thanks for your input though and I thought I would just mention that I agree with your answer regarding eating after a good workout, - not too sure about the 'feet up' and rest though? - I believe it's far better to stretch and walk about!!
. Actually onlyme Mr G, Richard raises a lot of really good points. The total training stress that an average individual can handle can usually be more than doubled by making changes to things like bike geometry, cadence, warmup, cooldown, and recovery activites in the 2 hours following each workout.
And... put your feet up after each workout. Lie on your back on a bed with your legs up at a 45潞 angle and your feet against the wall for an hour or so after each workout. Make sure you are eating and drinking during this time. | 