How Many Days Off The Bike Before You Lose Your MOJO?

[johnnyb47]

I've been on my first ride today after an absence of 4 weeks. Energy levels and enthusiasm for cycling have been rock bottom the last few weeks. I managed 25 miles through filthy and partly flooded lanes but i came home with a big smile and enjoyed it. My pace had dropped noticeably from the norm, and put this down to poor weather and road conditions.. I'm also sure having a few weeks away from cycling hasn't helped either.
Hopefully today's enjoyable ride out will kick start me back into again..

 

[Twilkes]

My longest spell off the bike this year, was five days and when I tackled that first hill after the lay off, I found it a lot easier than before. I assume this has something to do with muscle recovery or something like that?

I just read the first chapter of Graeme Obree's book and he's very big on recovery - for fitness the idea is to to have an intense ride to push you beyond your current boundaries, and then recover for long enough that you can then push further past those boundaries next time. This could be anything from 2 to 4 days recovery, which could be zero activity or an easy leg-spinner, with good nutrition and stretching to back it up. If you don't recover enough you won't be able to exceed what you did on your last training ride and so won't improve, is the theory behind it. 'Intense' could mean fast, or long, or elevation gain, just something that is on the edge of your capabilities.

If I had 12 days off it might be more conditioning that was the problem, I could probably put the energy out but more likely to have aches and pains, and maybe struggle with nutrition on a longer ride.

The recovery/losing fitness thing is probably more important the faster you are, i.e. I've read about racers that can see/feel the decline in their performance if they take three days off before a race instead of two; back when I was commuting I could have probably lay in bed for a month and still not noticed any difference in my morning ride.

 

[fossyant]

Not been on the bike for a fair few days. Pre-Christmas busy-ness, and busy refurbishing an old Reynolds 653 frame this week

 

[gavroche]

My last ride was 29 November and my next one will be in January, weather permitting, but don't know yet when in January, therefore I expect sore legs afterwards until reasonable fitness returns.

 

[HLaB]

I had a enforced 5 weeks off the bike last year and it didn't seem to do me much harm you'll be fine.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

If I have a couple of weeks of not riding at all, usually caused by multiple crap weather days coinciding with me being busy at work, I don't notice much difference if just pootling around on easy routes. I'm always on my feet at work, so I suspect this maintains a base fitness level regardless of whether I ride or not. However, if I then go to climb a gradient that's too long to be attacked using just a short burst of speed and the momentum, I find I run out of steam sooner and end up more out of breath when I get to the top. So in my case the noticeable deterioration is on hills, which I don't particularly enjoy anyway.

 

[slowmotion]

My longest spell off the bike this year, was five days and when I tackled that first hill after the lay off, I found it a lot easier than before. I assume this has something to do with muscle recovery or something like that?

However, with Christmas and everything, I am struggling to find any hours to put into my cycling.

There is a real chance that by the time I next get on the bike for a proper commute, a full twelve days will have passed.

Will my legs be useless up the hills and will my lungs burst?

I went for about ten days without a ride a couple of years ago. It was over Christmas and I had put away a certain amount of food and ethanol. On the first trip round Richmond Park at the beginning of January, I started up a hill and convinced myself that the front derailleur was stuck on the biggest chain ring as I ground to a halt. I was actually on the lowest of all my thirty gears. Christmas is bad news.

 

[12boy]

In my mind, or perhaps much further down, one of the casualties of not riding for a while is losing the desireable condition of having sitbones that are impervious to the pressures of riding a bike. They do numb up again after a while, of course.
My winter rides are shorter and more work. Once the weather allows for longer rides conditioning for them does occur, so hills are easier and rides are at a faster pace.
But missing rides at any time of the year isn't good for me, not so much because I get out of shape really fast, but because without my regular bike-based, endorphin fix I become out of sorts and even crabbier than normal to the point the family says "can't you go ride your bike or something? You are acting like a butthead. You know, I think its true.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Fortnight of the bike for me, hopefully ice dependant I`ll be back on it on Monday, Fitness returns quick, not so sure about the half stone I`ve put on will go though

 

[Mo1959]

Haven't been out all month as I have been doing a running challenge instead. Can't say I miss it, especially with all the frost we have just now.

 

[Lovacott]

Fortnight of the bike for me, hopefully ice dependant I`ll be back on it on Monday, Fitness returns quick, not so sure about the half stone I`ve put on will go though

I snuck out this morning for an hour before sunrise. I did a seven mile route which has 900 foot of climbing built into it with the first climb being 410 feet without a break.

The heart was definitely beating a fair bit quicker than usual and I also went into granny gear for the first time in quite a while.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Mojo is a funny thing. It can disappear if you are cycling every day, and it can come back with a vengeance if you take a break. Absence makes the heart grow fonder etc. Just go with the flow.

Fitness isn’t the same as mojo. Base fitness takes a while to go, but your top end speed and fitness can decline quite rapidly beyond a couple of weeks. A break of 12 days will barely make a dent, and may even do you good if you’ve been increasing the frequency or intensity or length of your rides of late.

 

[Lovacott]

Mojo is a funny thing. It can disappear if you are cycling every day, and it can come back with a vengeance if you take a break.

Fitness and ability are what I mean when I say "MOJO".

I get up the hills easier now than six months ago because both of those things have improved.

My main worry was going from ten hours per week of pretty intense physical activity to ten days of sitting on my arse eating tins of heroes and boiled ham with chips and thickly buttered bread.

 

[MrGrumpy]

My main worry was going from ten hours per week of pretty intense physical activity to ten days of sitting on my arse eating tins of heroes and boiled ham with chips and thickly buttered bread.

whats wrong with that . I`m subscribing to that !

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Fitness and ability are what I mean when I say "MOJO".

I get up the hills easier now than six months ago because both of those things have improved.

My main worry was going from ten hours per week of pretty intense physical activity to ten days of sitting on my arse eating tins of heroes and boiled ham with chips and thickly buttered bread.

Nothing to worry about. You’ll be slower when you restart but you won’t be back to the equivalent of a couch potato 🥔