Yesterday I did a 1 hour endurance ride, Pioneer - 3. This was the day after an intense VO2 Max workout (that I completely nailed).
When I started the z2 workout my legs were just not there for me. It felt more difficult than it should and I had to focus just to stay in my usual cadence. About 30 minutes in I started getting those “I wish this would just end” thoughts and looking at the timer every 30 seconds, disappointed every time.
Then, about 40-45 minutes in my heart rate crept up a bit and I figured it was just hr drift towards the end. But then my legs felt remarkably better, I started sweating more, my cadence went up without even thinking about it. My mood changed and I felt very happy that I stuck with it. It was like a complete shift happened, like a clog was removed.
Was this just a very long warmup session, or was something else happening?
Yeah, at 53 when I’m in the best shape in many years, I still find some days it takes 45-50 minutes to properly flush the system and get the legs going, especially the day after a hard workout.
I just take it easy until I feel better, or muddle through an easy ride if not.
How long before the Z2 workout did you eat? I sometimes get on the bike after a big meal just because of scheduling restraints. It always feels bad for the first hour
I didn’t feel properly warmed up on Saturday’s ride for nearly 2hours, thanks to poor circulation. Fortunately though after the first 30mins ride to the meet and 5-10 mins sitting on I was sufficiently (if not fully) warmed up to lead the group. And at least I found it more easy at the 2h mark into a headwind when other folk were beginning to struggle.
I live in the mountains and had a 10 day period where we got dumped on so i was out skiing pow every other day. Legs felt toast, when I got to the evenings workouts. An extra 20 or 30 mins or so on the warm up made a huge difference (so 30-45 mins total) to how I felt during the work periods.
My experience and thinking. When this happens to me, it’s either my body saying it’s time to quit or my mind saying it’s time to quit. Maybe both. But if I keep going I know my mind and body will give in and not try to resist anymore.
Past few years I find myself starting to feel really good after an hour or so of tough riding. Unfortunately, fatigue kicks in around 30 minutes later.
Same for Z2, often takes me an hour for it to start feeling good. But I find that I can jump straight into intervals with minimal warmup and then Z2 feels fine. And yeah, the first interval will suck, but it always sucks even if I’m warmed up.
That’s an interesting difference. I guess I warm up pretty fast for intervals too. Or, maybe it just requires so much attention and focus that I don’t notice lol.
