Feeling rough for first 30-40 minutes of a ride

I am really trying to get fit and over the last 7-8 months and have progressively improved to the point where I am happily doing 100 milers on the road and 60-70 mile rides on MTB and did 250 miles from Manchester to London in a day.

My problem is that i often ride with lads that are able to ride at pace from the off, yet for some reason I often feel really quite rough (legs dead, sick feeling and breathing heavy) for the first 30-40 minutes when trying to keep up with them, once “warmed up” I am fine and will happily rip my legs off trying to stay with them.

Any tips?

Any tips?

Not really, other than you have my sympathy. I find whether running/riding…well most sports, it takes me a bit longer to get going as it were.

Skin’s compression shorts helped me warm up quicker.

I feel the same quite often, and I’ve never found a sloution. After 1/2 an hour or so I feel good and fit, but the first 30 mins I feel lethargic and often seem to lack power in the legs.

Go for a 30 minute ride before meeting up with your mates?

HTH

Same here. Unless you’re going to do a warm-up before a ride starts (unlikely) try and make it a positive thing – i.e. think to yourself “I’m feeling awful and still keeping up / doing fine, just wait till I get past my usual 30-40 minute ‘bad patch’ ”

Go for a 30 minute ride before meeting up with your mates?

That wins today’s prize* for most logical and effective solution to a problem.

*You win an Occam’s razor shaving kit.

Any tips?

It takes me 30-40 minutes to warm up almost every ride. Always has done.
I take it easy(ish) on the climbs to begin with and start pushing once my body is ready for it

If I’m riding with people who want to go fast from the get go, I’ll let them get on with it and see them at the top.

I once rode with some guys who rode as fast as possible at the start and progressively got slower and slower as the ride went on. Macho bullshit.

It’s almost like you have to warm up or something? Weird.

I’m the same – if it’s just a training ride then I just accept it, lag at the back feeling awful at the start then rip their legs off as payback later in the ride 🙂

(Unfortunately these days, I’m more likely to do the first bit and then just keep up later…)

If it was for a race and I was serious about it, I’d do a full warm up to get over the crap part. Or I found that spending 10 mins warming up then doing some hard efforts (eg short sprints) followed by recovery for a few mins got me over the bad bit.

@ Peterfile.

I appreciate that there is a warming up period, it was more why am I affected so much more than others it seems, they can ride hard from the start, I set off on a 30-40 mile ride with them and for the first 30 minutes genuinely don’t think i’ll be able to make it and feel shite, is it a case of this will improve as I get even fitter?

never got on with whites opening climb for the exact same reason, full bore from outset with no respite, have me puffing and blowing in no time.

Takes me 20-30 mins to warm up and get rid of the dead legs and no power feeling.Once warmed up i am ok for 100% effort

I appreciate that there is a warming up period, it was more why am I affected so much more than others it seems, they can ride hard from the start, I set off on a 30-40 mile ride with them and for the first 30 minutes genuinely don’t think i’ll be able to make it and feel shite, is it a case of this will improve as I get even fitter?

With club/mate rides which are at a reasonable pace, don’t be surprised if some of them turn up already well warmed up.

I can’t remember who said it, but a mountaineer once penned words to the effect that the first 30 minutes of anything, from a jog around the park to leaving advanced base camp on everest are always the hardest.

I’m the same, I can’t seem to find pace, control my breathing, my muscles scream and have no power, then when you think “there’s no way i’m going to manage x hours of this”, it just sort of comes together (coincidentally, it seems to be about 30 mins for me too, no matter what i’m doing). Just a shame that I’ll never know what i’m really capable of in bed 😉

Yes I’m the same, I find my legs really kick in after an hour on my road bike. That’s why pro athletes sit on turbo’s before racing.

I’ve got like this in the last 2 or 3 years. I just put it down to age and ride at a level that I’m (relatively) comfortable with. I usually pick up after 2 or 3 miles.

Same here Paul, I even get it after a longer stop, having to restart again. As I’ve got fitter I find the warm up period gets shorter, but if you’ve been in debt from the off and don’t allow the CV system to catch up, by keeping going hard it prolongs it.

I find a short, intense warm up works well enough – 5-10 mins riding, with a couple of big efforts in there to get the heart close to Max and the chest opened up and puffing. Eg. At the big dog, I looped from the car park road up to the top of the last descent twice about 10 mins before the start, so I was still a bit blowy as we lined up.

Didn’t Paula Radcliffe always do quite a big and high tempo warm-up before her runs due to asthma issues? i.e. a bit more than a lot of people did to get her “second wind”? I used to find this when I played football as well, if I was ever brought on as a sub (super-sub) with 15 mins to go I was just about feeling fine by the time the whistle went…

I used to be a no warm up, no stretching straight out of the blocks and hammering kinda guy…………..then I his 30 and have 2 small kids in the house/broken sleep, takes at least half an hour to warm up and really only feel on top of it after an hour

I often feel the same. However, I have also noticed, many times, that many of the “off like a rocket” guys I ride with can’t sustain the pace for very long and that, not always later in the same ride, but, more often, when it comes to riding the following day, that they then, seem to struggle from the off.
All our riding is mtb, if riding local, on fairly hilly terrain.
I’m in my 50 s now and all the guys I ride with are between 10 and 25 years younger.
I’m convinced I simply need longer to warm up than they do and more to the point, do warm up during those first 20 or30 mins, rather than burning out early.
It’s often payback a little later.

I’m pretty much like that. even at my fittest about 6 or 7 years ago I still felt rubbish for the first 30 mins of a ride. Sometimes this can extend to 45-50 mins, depending on my initial level of feeling rubbishness.

Most of the time I don’t try to push through it, but ride steadily through, that way I find my legs after about an hour. sometimes though, if I’m not feeling great after an hour, I’ll call it a day.

Been this way since my early 20’s, I don’t smoke, don’t drink to excess and have managed to maintain an OK fitness level.

Personally, I think for me it’s related to body stress as I can suffer from a type of surgical shock if I have fall hard, (crash hard results in light headed/dizziness but OK after 10 mins sit down) but sometimes it’s just the way your body works and we just have to get used to it.

Start your rides with a higher than normal cadence and spin for the first half an hour or so. Only start to get into higher gears after that. Bit hard to keep your discipline and not just switch to a regular gear but it works.

Well i’m glad i’m not alone…

Sounds pretty normal 😀

I guess one answer has already been covered and that is to warm up before the group ride even if it only means bimbling over to where you meet.

It also sounds like you have the low intensity stuff pretty sorted with some impressively long rides but how much high intensity riding to you tend to do? Is it possible that you might always struggle at the start (even if warmed up) in the group rides you mention as the others tend to ride shorter but faster? Perhaps you are not so aware of this as your endurance means you feel good and strong towards the end of the group ride which kind of levels the playing field against the guys who are faster but lack the same endurance?

Third option might be to really attack the foam roller and get some very short moderately hard intervals in on the turbo the day before just to try and flush out the legs and bring back some zip?

As you can probably tell I am no physiologist but hope some extra ideas might be useful 😀

I get this, and I’m technically more rubbish than usual for the first 20 also, even though my local trails/meets are a 4 mile ride so I am warmed up.

I’m the same. But they slow down and I don’t. Suspect it’s something to do with the liver getting the bodyfat cracking process up and running.

I get this too, if I’m riding trail centres I usually nip round the blue and or green, usually without a helmet or a care in the world ! I often get smart arse comments from people who should really keep their mouths shut but that’s another problem !!!!!!

If I’m riding Dalby I park in Thornton and ride in, I usually get second wing when all my mates are burnt,

I was extremely fit as a late teenager and into my 20’s endurance wise and have often thought that this was the problem from all the extremely hard endurance I did in my youff,

It prob doesent help you but its good that its not just me if you know what I mean ????

And yeah what every one else said, warm up first !!!!!

I’m exactly the same. I’ve found its not so bad when I’ve spent a few weeks decreasing my caffeine intake right down. I can’t tell you why that makes a difference but that definitely affects me and how quick I can get going.

I’ve always had this, and its just as bad now as it was when I was riding as a teen. I’ll usually have an absolute breakdown and collapse in a sweating, heavy breathing, heart rate through the roof pile around 20 minutes in. Interestingly this breakdown point is extending itself as I get back into riding again, at first it was just 10 mins LOL

Once i’ve got my breath back, had a sip of drink, and shook my legs a bit, I get past the wall around 10 mins after being back on the bike and can then ride for hours without a problem 😀

I put it down purely to cold muscles, low blood flow. I’ve wore a waterproof top layer the last two rides, and compared to my usual summer months of tshirt only, that really help me get going quicker, I wonder how much core body temp plays in this?

I’m not sure core body temp plays much part as it doesent fluctuate that much any way, not without something nasty occurring ?
For me some of it is down to diet, fueling, sleep, and frequency of riding, once a week for me is no where near enough to keep me topped up fitness wise where as riding every day fooooks me physically, tired legs and lack of fuel in the tank, I won’t ride the day before a biggy and have a gentle one the day prior to rest day, its not a science for me its just something that I have come to understand as I’ve got old er !!!!

So – everyone on this thread says they “suffer” from the same symptoms? I do to FWIW. Maybe the OP should think about how much his mates are suffering from the off. Probably too much testosterone going around 😆

Thanks for asking this question as I was thinking exactly the same thing!!

It takes 30 mins for me to get passed that ‘am I really that unfit ?’ stage, then it clears.
Unlucky for me, I have two 25 minute commutes/day so I’m always riding in the ‘crappy zone’ 🙁

Have you been tested for exercise induced asthma? I suffer from it and the first 30 mins is pretty hard work. I can’t stay with my mates if they really cane it at the start, but after a while everything comes together and I’m back with them.

Also, I read somewhere that Paula Radcliffe suffered from it, and she felt like she was breathing through a straw for the first few miles.