Increased mileage and recovery

[CCrew]

@Tim Kelley 14159 wrote:

Your buddy is Greg LeMond? He’s generally attributed to saying that…

Naa, Hey, he just always tells me that, didn’t know he ripped off the source I guess it’s just like the “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” one…

[StopMeansStop]

Ballston mall has the Asian massage place for a dollar a minute. I’ve hit them up after some long rides.

[jrenaut]

I’m trying to think if I increased by more than 10% a week – it’s hard to say, because I can’t really quantify miles with the trailer vs miles without. But I’ve been doing about the same mileage for a few weeks, and it’s only just now really getting to me.

No matter – I have a date to bake bread with my older daughter on Saturday, and an invitation to a Super Bowl party that will surely feature copious amounts of excellent beer on Sunday. I’ll miss the bike, but I’ll be back next week.

[Riley Casey]

Well that’s a good entre into a question Ive always been curious about. Can you characterize the difference between riding with a heavy load, say a child in a seat or heavily laden panniers and towing a trailer? Just curious. It’s been a verrrry long time since I rode with a child seat but I do virtully all my grocery shopping by bike and a cargo trailer would be the next stage.

@jrenaut 14178 wrote:

I’m trying to think if I increased by more than 10% a week – it’s hard to say, because I can’t really quantify miles with the trailer vs miles without. But I’ve been doing about the same mileage for a few weeks, and it’s only just now really getting to me.
.

[dasgeh]

@Riley Casey 14188 wrote:

Well that’s a good entre into a question Ive always been curious about. Can you characterize the difference between riding with a heavy load, say a child in a seat or heavily laden panniers and towing a trailer? Just curious. It’s been a verrrry long time since I rode with a child seat but I do virtully all my grocery shopping by bike and a cargo trailer would be the next stage.

I have a similar question. We do the front bike seat all the time and love it. In my head, trailers are _so much harder_. We’re thinking when the family grows we’ll go to a cargo bike (bakfiets-esque). I _really_ hope we do this family bike show and tell so we can compare…

[DismalScientist]

Speaking as a father of three children, I find a child much more irritating than a load of groceries. :rolleyes:

[americancyclo]

Does anyone use compression socks?

[Arlingtonrider]

I don’t usually give endorsements, but I want to put a good word in here for Nirvana Reflexology in Shirlington, an awesome new business that accepts walk ins when they can (appointments are highly recommended) and is easily accessible by bike. Many Shirlington locals have become addicted regulars at this place, which offers great one hour clothed full body reflexology treatments very similar to a sports massage for only $45. I highly recommend it! (It’s best to wear loose fitting gym clothes.).

[Dirt]

@americancyclo 14203 wrote:

Does anyone use compression socks?

After really hard day rides I use compression socks and tights. Getting the fit right is very difficult. I suggest buying locally so that you can try them on before you buy. I got mine at Bonzai Sports in Falls Church. They were awesome in getting the right fit.

Compression socks and tights made a big difference for me when I was doing really long rides (6 hours or longer). My legs were still tired the next morning, but they revived much quicker when I got back on the bike and I had much less soreness. One weekend last fall, in particular, would not have been possible had I not used compression tights. Saturday I rode Seagull Century on a fixie. 20 minutes after finishing, I had compression socks and tights on. I wore them most of the night. I was on the bike again at 4am Sunday morning to do a 140 mile mountain bike ride in Montgomery County. I won’t say that my legs felt great when I started out, but they were not sore… they just felt a bit sluggish and tired for the first few hours. By mid-morning they were feeling good and I finished out the day strong.

Certainly it was a combination of things that let me do this ride… training, diet, hydration and use of compression tights/socks.

Hope that helps a little.

Pete

[Subby]

@Dirt 14207 wrote:

Saturday I rode Seagull Century on a fixie. … I was on the bike again at 4am Sunday morning to do a 140 mile mountain bike ride in Montgomery County…By mid-morning they were feeling good and I finished out the day strong.

Awesome.

[jrenaut]

@Riley Casey 14188 wrote:

Well that’s a good entre into a question Ive always been curious about. Can you characterize the difference between riding with a heavy load, say a child in a seat or heavily laden panniers and towing a trailer? Just curious. It’s been a verrrry long time since I rode with a child seat but I do virtully all my grocery shopping by bike and a cargo trailer would be the next stage.

I can’t compare the trailer to a child seat or panniers because I’ve never ridden with either. I can say that the trailer is a little tough to get moving sometimes, but once it’s rolling it’s not as much of a load as I expected. The first ten feet from a stop it often weighs a ton.

I had a very pleasant ride in via public transportation. I took my daughter to school on a bus, then caught another bus down to Farragut and got on the orange/blue line. Didn’t wait even a minute total, and nothing was crowded. My legs still don’t feel great, so I’m pretty confident that an easy weekend is the right decision.

[Tim Kelley]

@Riley Casey 14188 wrote:

Well that’s a good entre into a question Ive always been curious about. Can you characterize the difference between riding with a heavy load, say a child in a seat or heavily laden panniers and towing a trailer? Just curious. It’s been a verrrry long time since I rode with a child seat but I do virtully all my grocery shopping by bike and a cargo trailer would be the next stage.

I can speak to this a bit. I have a rear rack that holds a baby seat that can easily be switched out for a tote for grocery shopping or hauling. Between a backpack and the tote I can usually carry about $100 worth of groceries–although not if it includes too many beverages or bulky items like paper towels. I also have a stroller/trailer that I use for longer rides. I don’t have panniers.

With the baby in the child seat, the weight is pretty high up, but it is centered (which I would expect is one downside to using just one pannier). With the high center of gravity, it feels like going around corners needs to be taken a bit slower. If the baby moves around a lot you can definitely feel something going on behind you.

Using the tote, the weight is centered and a little lower. I feel like I can corner a bit better than with the baby on the bike, but I generally don’t take turns too fast since I don’t want to break the eggs or send the apples flying.

With the trailer you don’t feel the extra weight acting on the bike as much as you feel your legs doing the extra work. It’s like you’re in a much harder gear. On the flats, once you’re up to cruising speed it rolls pretty well, but going downhill where you’d expect to go a little faster due to the extra weight, the added rolling resistance and drag negates much of that.

Going uphill is a much different story. When you’re pulling a trailer, getting out of the saddle doesn’t work as well because even though you’re standing and producing more power, it is much less smooth and the trailer bucks forward and back giving a strange sensation like someone is pushing on the back wheel. The best way to get up steep hills is to drop into an easier gear and spin your way up.

I generally ride with the baby seat on the commuter bike 90% of the time because I do daycare drop off and pickup by bike. It works pretty well if I need to pick up something on the way home because a backpack or case of beer roughly the size of small child straps in easily. Lately I’ve been using the trailer on the carbon race bike when I’ve got baby duty and want to go out for a ride. The last serious ride I did with it was a few weeks ago, when Contes/Freshbikes was doing a small group version of one of their hill rides.

Keep in mind that I’m right around the Clydesdale weight division, so a child or load is a much smaller percentage of my overall weight than someone smaller.

[Dirt]

@Subby 14208 wrote:

Awesome.

Thanks. It was part of a series of rides that I did between mid September and mid October. I trained all year for that month of riding and was very happy in how they all turned out.

The stuff discussed in this thread has a lot to do with being able to complete long rides successfully for 5 weeks in a row.

One other thing that I used on these endurance rides was salt supplements. It is important to replace electrolytes and salts that you sweat out. As I get older, I’ve found that I’m not able to do that well with just what I’m eating and drinking during a ride. I started using a product called Salt Sticks during long rides. They helped me a lot.

[Tim Kelley]

@americancyclo 14203 wrote:

Does anyone use compression socks?

I’ve got various pairs of compression socks, calf sleeves, compression shorts, and compression tights. I don’t think they help too much with actual recovery other than the placebo effect and I think the placebo effect is very effective! I wear them because they generally just feel good.

After some crazy hard workouts, proper nutrition, rest, and time are the only things I’ve found to help with recovery. When riding/exercising with sore muscles, a nice easy warm up is essential.

[vvill]

My experience with a trailer (containing a 3 y.o.) is that it’s harder to get started, harder on hills, and yes definitely difficult to stand up and pedal in without getting strange back and forth feedback, as Tim mentioned.

I attach mine either to my hybrid (flat bar with 700x32c) or 26″ MTB.

I have some sort of drugstore compression socks that are made for long flights. I’ve tried them for recovery (most recently after a jaunt to Purcellville and back), but I haven’t been riding long enough to tell if they make that much difference. It’s not really my calves that feel tired after a long ride anyway.

[Author]

Posts