Taking a break… 5+ minutes off the bike… What I notice is that all of a sudden I’m noticing that lactate is kind of creeping into the muscles.
I have a pretty strong base ~15h/week average for the last 3-4 months, 10h for the year before that, lots of long z2 rides in the winter.
So if I had to guess I’m leaning that it’s the relaxing that is causing this issue and possibly by extension says something about how my system manages lactate overall. Despite the base training I would still be “blocking” lactate as opposed to recycling it.
It’s a bit annoying because I do certain more intense rides that have regroup points and people are clearly benefitting from them whereas I am not.
Not really an option, it’s my club team.
Plus I’m not really struggling it’s more like everyone else is taking advantage of these breaks whereas I’m feeling like they are not helping me.
Yeah, I might give it a shot, usually we are waiting 2-4 minutes for all the dropped riders on climbs, then they need a few minutes once they arrive, you know how it goes.
For that, I’d suggest that you roll back to the ones still rolling in and give them some “support”. Be a wheel for drafting if that is appropriate, or at least some company if they want it.
I do this at times in our groups vs just sitting and chatting. Can help build comradery as well as keep you warm.
This. Taking a break off the bike means you stop pedaling, which, in turn, means your blood circulation (as in volume per minute) is reduced. Hence, your body processes lactate more slowly.
Keep pedaling. If you can’t, keep breaks short, really short and pedal backwards if you must.
I see. Is there an option to talk to the team? I don’t think this is a good habit to develop, unless you are waiting for some stragglers (like you wrote in a later post).
One option is to “pedal in place/in circles”? E. g. you could grab a hold of a street sign and spin backwards. If you get strange looks, explain what you are doing.
A second option is to head towards the stragglers and pick them up (meet them half-way and keep your pace really easy). Also here, I’d explain your team mates why. But if you are one of the stronger riders, this is almost always appreciated. (Plus, you could get some extra training in!)