-Always go to sleep and wake up around the same time, if possible.
-Try to eat a lighter dinner at least 3h before bedtime. I found overeating or eating right before bed was bad for my sleep.
-No screens and dimmer lights ~1h before bedtime to wind down.
-My issue is not falling asleep, it’s waking up at 3-4AM and having trouble getting BACK to sleep. So I now always give myself an 8h “sleep opportunity,” i.e. I’m lying in a dark room for 8h whether sleeping or not. Trying to sleep is better than getting up in terms of recovery, and I find it easier to fall back to sleep with the knowledge that I either lie here or sleep, so might as well sleep. Getting up at 4:30 and doing some work (or whatever) is not an option.
YMMV, and obviously I’m lucky to be able to implement all these; they may not work for work and family schedules for some.
For me, I’ve made a few big changes that help me fall and stay asleep, but I’ve never found anything that will help me sleep more than 7 hours consistently.
I have my thermostat set to get colder at night. We bought a single size bigger blanket that my wife can use if she gets cold so it’s not on my side of the bed.
I go to bed 30 minutes before I want to be asleep. I follow my nightly routine and then put in my noise cancelling earplugs. These are one of my key items because they drown out noises like barking dogs, rain, house noises, etc.
I spend 15-30 minutes reading in bed. All lights are out except my nightstand lamp. I hear no noise thanks to the earplugs. No devices are allowed in the room other than my Kindle.
With this routine, I’ve always been able to fall asleep quickly, but when I wake up, I always struggled to fall back asleep and the earplugs give me almost complete silence, which really helps. Speaking of waking up, I try not to drink more than a few sips in the last 2 hours before bed so I’m not waking up more than once to pee. When I do get up to go to the toilet, I don’t check the time. I don’t need to know it’s 1am. That does me zero good and just starts me worrying about whether I can sleep. I just go back to bed and don’t look.
If I do wake up and I’m really really awake, I don’t spend more than 5 minutes or so in bed trying to get back to sleep. I just get up and brew some coffee and accept that I need to try to sleep more the next night. I used to lay there for 30 minutes or an hour tossing and turning fretting over not being able to sleep. I’ve stopped that. I just get up, have some coffee, read, play a word game or something, and before I know it, my watch is going off saying it’s time to wake up. I then commit myself to trying to get to bed a little earlier or making my workout a little easier or whatever I need to get back to a positive pattern. This has pretty much eliminated me worrying about sleep, which creates a pattern that does me no good.
Hope there’s something in there that might help you.
@Pbase this is great, thank you! Many of your tips resonate with me (no phones, reading a book, not checking the time, just get up if unable to fall back asleep, etc) … I just need to go do them!
What kind of ear plugs do you use? I was thinking of using my wireless earbuds that block out a lot of noise.
I normally use the standard ear plugs you get at Walmart but curious if you found something better?
After fireworks going off til 3 am Sunday night I’m thinking of finding something to hopefully block out mortars/ bombs for those type of nights
You are not old by my perspective. I didnt start riding till I was 55. I am now 63. Cycling changed my life. I cant say enough good things about what cycling brought to me.
I am a numbers person but the actual number of FTP is irrelevant.
Ride consistently. If you dont feel like the hard workout just do some endurance. It doesnt hurt to take some time to go easy.
Unfortunately, I’ve learned that it’s kind of like shoes and saddles. My wife absolutely loves these. She can get them so deep in her ears she can’t even hear me talking to her! They have tons of great ratings. You can get them in grocery stores too. https://a.co/d/ihbCBX1
I also tried these, which a lot of people love, but they didn’t work for me either. Again, you can get these in stores too. https://a.co/d/jg89Pta
Both of those ones fall out of my ears or only lightly seal. Same for my daughter. We were both absolutely amazed when my wife showed us how far she gets them inside her ear with very little effort (and she has tiny ears!).
These are the ones that work for me, and of course, they’re the most expensive. But, they solved my issue and are worth every penny for me. https://a.co/d/22aXWwP
I’d say try the cheap ones first and if they don’t work for you, go for these.
Arthritis is not going to wait until I’m in my 80’s like I planned.
My body will not listen to my brain. Brain says catch those 30 something’s up the road. Body says your heart is going to explode if you ride at maximum heart rate for another few minutes.
This may need a refresher course in 2024.
Learned that a rice and bean burrito at the very end of a long 5-6 hour ride, is the perfect food for me to refuel and start feeling great. Add some Gatorade to prevent the dehydration headache and I think I’ve found a great post-ride recovery routine.
I think some lose sight of this if they chase numbers. How am I feeling and performing when doing the kind of riding / events I enjoy? The performing isn’t even measured against others, it’s measured against your own personal benchmarks. How’s the fatigue resistance, how are you doing on courses with repeated hills etc?
Reading what others do has reminded me of more stuff…
Yeah, earlier dinners and trying not to drink in the evening helps a lot too .
Another thing that helped is to train consistently daily. Even if it is not a lot, the physical activity helps me to sleep.
One more easy one: no caffeine after lunchtime. Being a tea drinker, I switched to decaf too .
The thermostat thing is also something that I do. Also, a hot shower helps when I feel I’m not going to be able to sleep that easily. I find the temperature effects paradoxical.
The first thing is maybe more acceptance than learning for me.
I am 5’5 so am usually pretty light and most people expect me to be a monster when climbing, however as I live along the coast there aren’t a lot of significant climbs most are 2 to 5 mins, 5 to 7% and I don’t feel like my light weight makes that much of a difference on climbs that short. In 2022 I was 56.5kg, I started structured training in 2022 and in 2023 increased my volume and consistency, I steadily gained weight with this and am now 59kg. I found this frustrating as it seemed to slow my progress to 4 w/kg (finally hit it last week) but have accepted that to achieve a higher FTP my body needs to be heavier than 56.5kg. I think I am a bit of a natural mesomorph, even though I am a tiny human overall my body seems to quickly pack on muscle in response to the activities I am doing, even if I purposely train and fuel in a way that I would expect my body to whizzle up.
In 2024 I am going to focus less on my weight and just worry about fueling right, getting my volume and consistency and starting to spend more time in the gym, in 2023 I was probably in the gym <6 times, for 2024 I’m hoping to do 1-2 days a week in the gym along with maintaining my 2023 cycling volume.
The thing that I guess I ‘learned’ was looking back on 2023, I realized while my best results were road racing, I had the most fun racing gravel or belgian waffle style races on my gravel bike.
2023 i slowly started transitioning to creating my own plans after using TR and tried out a couple other training apps.
I also learned:
I am better off with 2 intensity days a week.
Recovery weeks are good for my physical and mental health.
Writing my own plans isn’t that hard and actually only takes a few minutes a day/ week to make changes. I bookmarked lots of information on how to improve with cycling and writing plans. Also read the cyclist training Bible for a second time.
TrainerRoad has the best UI and calendar compared to any other platform except maybe training peaks.
When I do more volume I need to worry less what percentage I’m riding and goes with learning to ride by RPE.
If I don’t need rest weeks I’m probably not riding hard enough on my hard days.
I want a mountain bike again and don’t know why I sold mine.
Having had Garmin record my power since first getting a road bike 5 years ago my FTP and PRs were highest that first month even after 20K miles, club rides 6 times a week, and 4 seasons of structured winter base my FTP and other metrics have remained stubenly consistent!
I am a better cyclist now at 50 than I was at 45, I am an A group rider and suffer less but the data says I started around 3.7W/kg and after all that time and effort I’m still right around that same number.
@BrianSpang
Did weights and rode bikes as a teen (just solo, no clubs or racing), active outdoor lifestyle in my 20s and 30s. Occupied by kids mid thirties for a decade till getting some time, and back into cycling mid forties. Maintained a healthy weight and lifestyle but otherwise unremarkable.
Really puzzled how stable my power numbers have remained through all the work and seasons… Try as i might it is what it is.
