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  • How fast do you lose fitness?
  • Rorschach
    Free Member

    Finally had my knee op on friday (hurrah!).It only got too bad to ride on for the last 6-8weeks (apart from the occasional 'brufen powered pump track sesh).How much fitness might I have lost whilst I've been sofa surfing and generally living a pizza fuelled 'normal' life?I feel about 20 stone and out of breathe hobbling up stairs!Been finishing in the 20sommits at the crc's and htn his year.Dreading being at the back at the 3 peaks-how long to get back up to speed,fitness wise-the knee op was fairly minor.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Not that much in 6-8 weeks. If you're at the back of the 3 Peaks now you wouldn't have been much ahead otherwise.

    singletracksurfer
    Full Member

    had similar and reckon I was back up to 80% odd fitness pretty dang quickly.
    first week or two is hard and demoralising tho but at least you'll be happy to be out again.

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    IA
    Full Member

    IME you feel like you're loosing fitness very quickly, but it's just the sharp edge of it (to use a knife analogy) so it's noticeable, if that makes sense.

    It takes a lot longer to dull it completely and loose the base. Having been riding a lot less cos of serious work commitments, I found I lost the sharpness, then started to loose weight as all the muscle fell off from lack of use then started to put weight back on 🙁 It's that second stage where you really start to feel slow!

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Roughly twice as fast as you build it up.

    Off for a week with a cold, take 2 weeks to get back to where you were

    Off for a fortnight with a sprain – give it a good month.

    etc etc

    Ohh, and without being alarmist I had a 'minor' arthroscopy and was unable to walk and in eye watering pain for the first month, and it was a good 6 weeks before I could walk to the shops, 4 months before i even contemplated riding a bike at anything other than a pace intended to try and build flexibility.

    roadie_in_denial
    Free Member

    Agree with the above…Greg LeMond used to reckon that a week off the bike would result in two weeks training to get back to the same level.

    Rorschach
    Free Member

    Been for a good wander today-bit sore and knackered but ok. Plenty of ice and anti imflamatories. Will get on a spinning bike this week and start riding to work next week. Will break out the ss when I'm up to speed on the commute-simples.

    hh45
    Free Member

    I had a shoulder op on 18th Dec and arm in a sling until start of Feb and first rode bike on 6th March. I reckon I missed out on about 80 hours riding including commutes, road sessions, Gorricks and Thetfords etc). I did do 4 x 1 hour turbo sessions in Feb but fairly half hearted. I also walked up escalotors and stairs that is something you presumably can't do.

    On 6 march I felt ok in terms of getting up short (200 metres etc) hills but felt there was no endurance and had no wish to ride beyond say 2 hours. I did HONC on Arpil 11th and got on fine, not as quick as year before but riding with a slow friend so not strictly comparable. My commuting bike is SS and I was able to turn that over OK.

    By end of May I was marginally less fit than year before judging from results in tour of wessex.

    Overall I was amazed that all that hard winter riding counts for so little. No that it will stop me winter riding next year.

    radoggair
    Free Member

    depends really. If you have cycled all your life you'll find you will still have a good base fitness, and be able to do rides at a slightly below average pace. The power, speed and endurance is what you'l need to work on. Regular riding with some power sessions during the week will see you back upto near full strength in a month or so

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