I commute by bike 5 days a week. It’s a 22 mile round trip with approximately 1200ft of climbing. I’ve been doing this for about 18 months.

I really enjoy it, but towards the end of the week my legs are feeling decidedly achy and I feel like I just want to find a lower and lower gear.

I eat fairly healthy foods I think and have a nesquick milkshake after the ride home, but is there anything I could be doing to help with leg muscle recovery?

Are you drinking enough water?

I really enjoy it, but towards the end of the week my legs are feeling decidedly achy and I feel like I just want to find a lower and lower gear.

I eat fairly healthy foods I think and have a nesquick milkshake after the ride home, but is there anything I could be doing to help with leg muscle recovery?

The way you say “I feel like I just want to find a lower and lower gear” it’s almost as if you’re embarrassed to do this – don’t be. Take Friday easy, as a reward for the hard week you’ve done.

I drink pleanty of water at work – enough to make sure my waters run clear.

I’m not embarrassed to find a lower gear, but there are none left!

My legs feel like this by the time I’m at the end of my road on a Monday morning 🙁

Had my bloods checked but all OK apparently. Doc told me to load up on Vit D (I forget the reason) and go back in 3mths if no change.

I think you’re doing fine.

I have a similar distance, you may not want to do it but the best thing might be to take Wednesday off. It will allow you to maintain high intensity on the 4 days you do the commute and adapt on the days off. If I do every day the cycle home on Thursday is usually a killer and 5 days in a row doesn’t make me feel like doing much at the w/e

Sounds completely normal to me, especially if you’re riding at the weekend too.

Don’t underestimate the importance of a rest day, I feel way better and go better on the other days since I put a complete rest day in my week.

EDIT: What he ^^^^ said, basically!

https://www.philrichardsperformance.co.uk/index.php/post-workout/vegabolic-drive.html
Best stuff I have ever used.

Yup, what others have said. If you have the option not to ride when you don’t feel like it – don’t ride. Also, mix up your speed/effort/route a bit, having different ways of thinking about the ride can help reduce the tedium associated with riding the same road 10 times a week.

I started eating a small bowel of muesli or granola before heading out, made a difference to me. Another vote for taking Friday easy.

Cheers,
Jamie

You need a rest day, plenty of water, plenty of sleep, magnesium can help with muscle spasms at night. SIS do a bedtime recovery drink called nochte Zipvit do a similiar one, it works but it’s ££££. Never under estimate the power of a milky horlicks before bed.

I was doing 30 mile a day, 5 days a week, I found it was too much, I was spent, work was hard and I was getting really down. Lost a lot of weight though, it also took the fun out of weekend rides with friends and family.

These are ace too.

a small bowel of muesli

urgh yuk!

Post ride cheap protein shake?

Either that or ride slower. It’s just cumulative fatigue, I used to commute 40 miles a day 5 days a week. I was farked every friday saturday sunday, too tired to ride at the weekend and justr about ready to go on monday. After 18 months I had a massive collapse and a bout of hardcore tonsilitis. Sacked it off in the end, by riding slower it was quicker to get the train, so the wife made me do that instead.

Electric bike 🙂

I think it’s normal, your legs feel tired cos they are!

Are you using plenty of this on Friday night?

If not, that’s your problem.

instead of it being about recovery, could it be about leg strength?
would it help to do some squats or other muscle building exercises?

I have no idea about this by the way, but am curious.

Hmm you seem to be getting a much more sympathetic ear than I got when I asked exactly the same question the other month 😀

Oh well.. worth reading the response I got:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/muscle-recovery-empty-legs-from-commuting

I found a combination of more sleep, more water and more protein has helped me.

That, and of course…

I have a similar commute, in terms of distance, and climbing, i found a leg massage (self applied unfortunately) and whey protein helped, along with changing from a 11-25 cassette to 11-30 :D.

As above, probably loads of things which might help: eat more, more protein, more carbs, foam rolling/massage. Are you/your legs actually tired or just painful?

You don’t mention what other cycling/exercise you do, might be worth doing some harder work i.e. intervals, etc to increase fitness if you’ve plateaued, then the commute wouldn’t feel so hard in comparison!

I took the easy option of putting an MTB rear mech/cassette on my CX commuter though, which means I can still ride every day even if my legs are really knackered!

I feel the same, it’s very rare that I do 5 days of bike commuting cos I just end up knackered and not wanting to ride at the weekend.

Regardless of the comments about “take it easy one day”, it’s not always possible if you’re riding on busy streets and need your wits about you or you’re trying to keep up with traffic or if you need to be back for family commitments.

I do a round trip of 31 miles, sometimes on a mix of towpath/cycle track routes using the CX bike, when the weather is too bad to make that an option I use a SS road bike on a (fairly busy) road route. The first is more pleasant but takes longer, it can end up being 90 mins each way.

Just accept that you need a day off once in a while but make sure that you’re eating/drinking properly – if you’re stuffing yourself with junk calories it’ll make you feel far worse!

It all builds up – take a day off one day (wednesday?). I have a stupidly long/hilly commute (21 miles each way, 1800ft climbing each way), and I feel utterly mullered if I just do two days in a row.

One really important question – are you a ‘one speed’ rider? I.e. just go as fast as you feel you can on every journey?

If you just do the return leg at a really leisurely pace (think spinny and not working the heart very hard, except maybe on hills), it’ll make a huge difference to how you feel.