I have been riding mt bikes for a few years now and raced in lots of different formats. I have recently bought a road bike for training, and have noticed that after a few hours of pedalling, my legs just seem to lock up and give out... This is not something I've ever experienced in any mt bike races (which are usually lap based, and therefore I get a rest in between laps) excepting for (100km) marathons... I feel like I've got heaps more to give from a cardiovascular standpoint, it's just the legs that are stopping me! Do you think this is a problem solved by just more hours riding, or should I be looking at leg specific exercise in the gym? Any advice would be much appreciated - it's not nice watching your mates ride off into the distance toward the end of a ride....:mmph:
Shut up Legs!
- Thread starter MikeyH
- Start date
Pastavore
Eats Squid
More hours riding sounds like the right approach. Road riding tends to have more constant, prolonged power requirements, compared to MTB where the terrain requires shorter more intense efforts, with periods of downhill/technical with less pedaling. If you have only recently started road riding, you are probably still adapting to the type of exercise.
And secondly, make sure your food and drink before, on the bike, and after are properly sorted. If you don't eat well, you are pretty much guaranteed to run out of legs after a few hours.
And secondly, make sure your food and drink before, on the bike, and after are properly sorted. If you don't eat well, you are pretty much guaranteed to run out of legs after a few hours.
Knuckles
Lives under a bridge
More carbs, better cadence. Had the same problem when I got back on the bike after 10 or so years off. Legs used to cram and fatigue really easily found concentrating on my rhythm and eating more energy rich foods really made a difference. Now I can go for at least two blocks before I shit the bed.
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Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk 2
Jerry Atrick
Likes Bikes
FOOD FOOD FOOD... you will tend to do longer stints on the road bike putting out a constant power.
when you start to run out of energy it will feel like your legs just wont work. (usually on the up hill, even on the smallest gradient)
just remember to keep eating small amounts though out the ride, ie a gel and hour(40min) or a muesli bar.
if you do bonk there is not much you can do, but limp home, but some thing like a bag of snakes that you can keep munching on, will help
when you start to run out of energy it will feel like your legs just wont work. (usually on the up hill, even on the smallest gradient)
just remember to keep eating small amounts though out the ride, ie a gel and hour(40min) or a muesli bar.
if you do bonk there is not much you can do, but limp home, but some thing like a bag of snakes that you can keep munching on, will help
hahaha, trying to stop laughing out loud in the office..... 2 blocks hay? Not bad! I cramp up and fall over 6 houses from home, and it's downhill all the way there. Need to work up to 1 block.
This makes a lot of sense. I haven't thought too much into eating during a ride (or even pre-ride). I always carry an emergency gel or so, but with the longer hours and more consistent output of a road ride, perhaps I need to have a more structured eating approach. It also allows me to nicely blame food as the problem and not my weak-arse legs!!
The expression I've heard for longer rides is 'eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty'. Makes a huge difference to your fuel levels.
Knuckles
Lives under a bridge
.......Curl up in the fetal position before you stroke.
rotorub
Likes Dirt
Classic Jens!
It’s the constant pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal that’s killing you... Mountain bikers, and mountain bike riding in particular is just a series of intervals, be they 2 second log hop, that short 30 sec pinch or a 20 min climb; you’d be amazed at the 1 min, 2 min and even 5min duration power outputs even for the average joe! We do however get a bit of rest due to the nature of the riding, dips, DH’s, fast flowing single track etc… Road riding however is a constant (or near constant) level of output for hours at a time which your body will take time to adapt to.
If you have a heart rate monitor you should be monitoring your HR against your lactate threshold (or any other method), you’ll find you’ll be able to ride for hours in LTHR Zone 2 (endurance), a little less in Zone 3 (tempo), and an hour in Zone 4 will kill your legs in a hurry…
As others have said try and keep the fluid intake, and food intake up – the road bike seems effortless but it will bite you in the arse if you don’t.
They are a fantastic training tool, and even fun for the social aspect if you find a good bunch
If you have a heart rate monitor you should be monitoring your HR against your lactate threshold (or any other method), you’ll find you’ll be able to ride for hours in LTHR Zone 2 (endurance), a little less in Zone 3 (tempo), and an hour in Zone 4 will kill your legs in a hurry…
As others have said try and keep the fluid intake, and food intake up – the road bike seems effortless but it will bite you in the arse if you don’t.
They are a fantastic training tool, and even fun for the social aspect if you find a good bunch
Its interesting you should mention HR here because this is what frustrated me most riding home from work yesterday. Rode to work (40kms) HR avg 155. Rode home from work, pushing pretty hard to try and beat sunset, and avg HR 160, but after about 50mins - boom! Legs packed up and I watched my HR plummet, even though I wanted to give more.... I guess it's true about the constant power output on the roadie. I hadn't thought as much about that...Ah well, that's why I got it so I'm gunna have to learn how to do it properly!
I've never found that position particularly effective for it, but each to their own
It's probably worth noting that if you're reasonably MTB fit (as noted above, basically interval training), it's a fairly quick process to build up endurance. Speed is another issue. If you push yourself reasonably hard and keep going as far as you can you'll find the distance becomes less of a problem fairly quickly. You'll work out how hard to push pretty quick! As you've also found out riding at a certain level is efficient and gets you there ok, push 10% harder and you go about 2% quicker and bonk about 50% quicker. Go 10% harder again and you're a quivering mess on the side of the road after half the ride...
Geoff Gump
Likes Dirt
Watch out for the Super-Commuter syndrome. Going as hard as you can for the whole trip is not always best.