Getting Back On The Bike
so you have taken some time off the bike for whatever reason, be it illness, work, time shortages, holiday or just a rest away from the sport, but now its time to get back on. How can we go about maximizing the time we have to get back into top form without hurting our legs. Keep in mind that form grows over time so don’t expect results in a week or 2. its going to take a month at least
the first thing you will realise when you get on the bike is that it feels big. The reason for this is that your leg muscles have shortened. This makes the pedals feel further away. I suggest dropping the saddle by about 5mm for the next 3 or 4 rides. That will help with the reach and make it easier to ride.
Day 1:
The first ride back needs to be done at a very leisurely pace. Don’t go out and flog yourself like you did months ago cause the next day you wont be able to work. You might still have the power to grind up the hills and push it hard on the flats but your body has lost aerobic fitness. Your legs will also be “out of tune” and wont be used to the motion required to pedal. They say “you will never forget how to ride a bike” this is true, but your legs forget. While out on the bike they might feel fine but the next day they wont. So spin it up nice and easy for about 90-120 minutes in heart rate zone about 65-70%. If you train with a power meter, try and ignore the numbers, they will only make you sad. If you feel like your pedalling on your ties then you need to drop your saddle a bit more
Day 2:
you will most likely wake feeling like you did a solid 150 km’s yesterday. You might even find it hard to walk up stairs. This is a good sign though. it means we worked yesterday and our body is adapting to riding. Today should be done at slightly higher intensity to yesterday but go a little shorter. i also suggest putting in a few solid 1 minute efforts followed by high cadence efforts. This helps train the legs and also works the muscles.
Day 3:
Rest. Don’t ride. Let the legs recover.
Day 4:
You should feel quite good today. The legs will start coming back and you wont feel weird on the bike. Your heart however is what is going to need the work. Do a longer ride for 2.5 hours try and get in a few hills maybe sprint a few times. This ride needs to be done at an intensity that leaves you feeling tired when you get home
Day 5:
Start getting back into intervals. Start doing the hill climbs again. don’t try break any records. Also don’t be upset when your more than 3 minutes away from your previous best of 8 mins up a certain hill. You have been that good before and you can be that good again, but its going to take some time to get there. Put your saddle back to normal height if you have not already
Day 6 —->
get back into your old training plan. if your plans are power based try and take off about 5% and work to that. If you feel that’s still too hard take off a bit more. The key is not to burn yourself out. The advantage of the time off is that you have very little training stress. So by training carefully we can manage the stress and turn it into good form. If you train to heart rate you will need to shorted your ride/interval time. Your heart wont have the ability yet to maintain the stress periods it could before.
Stay away from races for a month or so. If you really want to race then ask if you can be dropped down a grade. Just don’t come out and win it or else you wont be very popular.
The first week back is the most important. You come out too hard you will do damage, its better to ere on the side of caution
