# Recovery times...



## SWriverstone (Sep 3, 2009)

As far as I know, it's a physiological fact that recovery times in humans get longer as we get older.

At age 54, I've definitely noticed that it takes freaking FOREVER (as in months—not weeks) to fully recover from even a moderate injury.

And this past Sunday, I did my first good workout ride in a month or two (so yeah, took a month or two off mainly due to work and family commitments). It's a 5-mile ride (roundtrip) with 1,000' elevation gain (in the first 2.5 miles obviously). It definitely got my HR up and put a burn in my legs.

So...I let myself recover for 3 days after that ride, then did the same ride again this morning, and I was HURTIN'. I did it, but my legs were burning twice as bad as they were 4 days ago.

In the 3 days of recovery time, I've slept well for 8hrs/night, eaten well, done nothing that would compromise my recovery. And yet clearly I hadn't recovered enough.

As I said above, I didn't ride for a couple months, so I realize there's always a bit of "shocking our legs back into action" after a break like that. But I figured 3 days would be plenty of time to recover.

Should I have waited longer? Or should I be doing rest-recovery (easy) rides on the recovery days? (Which I didn't do.)

Also curious to hear what other fifty-plusers have learned about recovery times?

Scott


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## Lone Rager (Dec 13, 2013)

Hah. mid 50s was nothin'. I still felt like a teenager. Mid 60s in another story. I thought I had some aches and pains from riding. I haven't ridden in two weeks and still have the aches and pains. I guess they're there whether I ride or not.


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## Crankyone (Dec 8, 2014)

Lone Rager, love your handle and badge. 
Couldn't agree more about random aches and pains in the 60's. Agonizing pains in areas that have no reason to be sore. I never was an aspirin taker but once I recognized inflammation and started medicating the inflammation, it got much better. Less stress is good as well. It has gotten better being retired. At least I know I earned the pain with effort!


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## Cayenne_Pepa (Dec 18, 2007)

Crankyone said:


> Couldn't agree more about random aches and pains in the 60's. Agonizing pains in areas that have no reason to be sore. I never was an aspirin taker but once I recognized inflammation and started medicating the inflammation, it got much better. Less stress is good as well. It has gotten better being retired. At least I know I earned the pain with effort!


Agree on the daily Aspirin. Inflammation has no chance if the diet and exercise is right.


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## Guest (Oct 7, 2016)

I'll concur with SWriverstone in that recovery takes patience but once yer back in the saddle a couple times a week stick with it otherwise it's back to sq 1. Yes rest-recovery easy rides (flats) and engage the leg muscles to wake them up.(sort of)


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## Slowdownhill (Oct 20, 2015)

For me, two/three weeks off of the bike and I am back to nearly useless. When life/crashes happen, I try to get back on the bike as soon as possible even if it is only an easy spin on gravel. I never try to get back to hammer time, what ever that is, with no precursor incremental moderate rides. Aches & pains, don't really have them & the rust never sleeps aphorism is probably about as true as it gets for mtbr. Riding every other day works unless I've had a big ride and then I am ok at the third day to ride. I am old and this routine might not work for you.


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## SWriverstone (Sep 3, 2009)

Yeah, I'm in total agreement with you nvphatty—stay in the saddle or you go back to square 1. 

When I did my bigger ride this past weekend, it was basically jump on the bike stone-cold and climb for 2.5 miles. I didn't hammer at all—dropped to my granny without hesitation and just tried to keep the cranks moving (slowly) on the steeper parts, but nothing more. That strategy seemed to work as I made it to the top of the mountain (1,000 climb) and felt pretty good.

I felt the ride later that evening...but not in a "Omigod I can barely walk my legs are killing me" way...just more in that "healthy" way where your legs feel worked but not shot.

Based on that, I figured a few days' rest and I'd be able to tear up the mountain again. NOT. LoL My wife says it's because the ride I did this morning was at 6am, right after rolling out of bed (first time I've done that in a LONG time). She claims "You can't go from dead asleep to cranking up a big climb just like that!" At my age, she may be right?

Scott


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## Cayenne_Pepa (Dec 18, 2007)

I give myself minimum 2 hours upon first waking, before grinding uphill. I can do a 2 hour climb even in a fasted state, once the caffeine hits me.


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## thecanoe (Jan 30, 2007)

At 68 y/o, I find that warming up is crucial. I always try to find trail systems that have very little climbing for the first couple of miles. I'm good for about 10-12 miles, depending upon terrain. I ride 3 times a week and road ride another 2. But I am much more cautious and have stayed away from real technical stuff. Injuries don't heal fast at my age. 


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## TMack0704 (Dec 1, 2015)

So I've been riding or running or sometimes hiking 3-5 times per week. At 56 I'm probably in as good a shape as I've been in in many years. Well 8 days ago I sprained my ankle and haven't done a thing until today. I put on a brace and went for a ride. Interestingly I made every hill, even the ones I normally really struggle with, with relative ease. My legs felt absolutely great! I had wind to spare on climbs that usually have me gasping for air when I get over the top. 
Anyway, that's my unscientific anecdotal evidence that ... well I don't really know what it means but that's my story.


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## mudflap (Feb 23, 2004)

Sometimes a week off produces unexpected results. I'm the same way.


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## Cayenne_Pepa (Dec 18, 2007)

TMack0704 said:


> So I've been riding or running or sometimes hiking 3-5 times per week. At 56 I'm probably in as good a shape as I've been in in many years. Well 8 days ago I sprained my ankle and haven't done a thing until today. I put on a brace and went for a ride. Interestingly I made every hill, even the ones I normally really struggle with, with relative ease. My legs felt absolutely great! I had wind to spare on climbs that usually have me gasping for air when I get over the top.
> Anyway, that's my unscientific anecdotal evidence that ... well I don't really know what it means but that's my story.


Sufficient recovery times = FRESH


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## rlouder (Jun 26, 2007)

I can definitely relate. Seems like my recovery is taking longer most of the time because I'm not rIdina as much. Sometimes when the legs still feel dead, attacking a short climb followed by some easy riding will loosen them up. Other times not. 

Does anyone else do cooldowns? I've started doing that some.


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## Guest (Oct 11, 2016)

I'm finding that my recovery times are hampered by overlapping injuries. I need hand surgery, shoulder surgery and at some point both knees. The good news is that my collapsed disc is probably going to fuse itself at some point so there's one less thing to worry about. The hand thing is the worse, because I can't ride the hoods on my Fargo. Old sucks.


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## miatagal96 (Jul 5, 2005)

I'm not surprised that you felt it.

After a rest period or time off due to injury (even 5 days), my coach always has me do a few day of VERY easy riding (recovery pace), then ease into endurance pace rides. I ramp up to normal activity over about a week or so (and that's with only 5 days off).

I imagine that once you've got your fitness back, you'll be able to do that ride back-to-back days without much of an issue.

Injuries suck - even more so when you're older and it takes longer to get back.


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## telemike (Jun 20, 2011)

For years I've ridden three or four days in a row when on frequent camping trips. I've skied in the morning and ridden in the afternoon for years on my spring Mt. Shasta City month.

However, I could not do both this year and I'm finding that trying to ride more than every other day wears me out significantly now and takes days for recovery. I'm now 68 and can testify that age begins to catch up after 65.

I wonder how those anabolic steroids that weight lifter use would work for us old athletes? That could be a legitimate use for steroids.

I'm afraid that I'll be totally out of the game for many months if I crash badly. Perhaps I'd never ride and ski again. This legitimate fear is reflected in the way I ride nowadays. Carefully and walking the most technical parts - but with some go for its with my fingers crossed (metaphorically). 

Another fear is that I'll need to finally go onto chemo and that that will result in a doughboy body that will take years to recover from.

How to deal with these fears? Hike, bike, ski, paddle. Coffee in the morning, wine in the evening. Never give up!!!


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## MSU Alum (Aug 8, 2009)

telemike said:


> I wonder how those anabolic steroids that weight lifter use would work for us old athletes? That could be a legitimate use for steroids.


Anything that can turn your semi-annual hard-on into an annual semi-hard-on isn't worth the extra strength!!


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## telemike (Jun 20, 2011)

There are pills for that and they work!! Do they ever work! 18 again.


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## MSU Alum (Aug 8, 2009)

telemike said:


> There are pills for that and they work!! Do they ever work! 18 again.


Deleted. My attempt at humor is probably too R rated.


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## BruceBrown (Jan 16, 2004)

SWriverstone said:


> As far as I know, it's a physiological fact that recovery times in humans get longer as we get older.
> 
> At age 54, I've definitely noticed that it takes freaking FOREVER (as in months-not weeks) to fully recover from even a moderate injury.
> 
> ...


Two months off the bike and then you put yourself through a nice grinder. That'll rattle one's core, legs and require some recovery for sure. That's what you were feeling three days later. I wouldn't worry about it as you simply tore the soft tissue down and it is recovering. Even after one puts in a couple of months of some nice base training, a nice hammer at our age is going to need a nice recovery from in 24-48 hours. The other issue would be what was your post ride recovery eating (time frame and fuel) after that grinder?

It takes me longer to recover from weight training now at age 55 compared to 15-20 years ago. For that reason, I tend to concentrate lifting on only one day per week during the riding season - or do legs one day and upper body two days later. I find I need about an entire week to recover from that to be able to hit it again. I will rotate into 2 - 3 days per week once the snow hits.

Bike wise - hitting it hard one day on the bike, usually means a recovery ride the next day and or a longer warm up the next day or time around. It all depends on how hard one is going, their base training, what point in their season they are, the training goals, and the post ride recovery nutrition. I monitor mine in Training Peaks and just finished a 9 1/2 hour week which was a peak weak in a block of weeks during Fall base training month - before going into this week as a rest and recovery week. I'm pretty shelled as a result because it is the most amount of stress I have put on my body since mid-July training wise, and will have to be very cautious to make sure my immune system continues to be fed the proper nutrition to not get sick.

However, at our age - we will bounce back. Whether it is 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, or more. As I said, a lot of factors contribute to it: current riding shape, post workout nutrition, and the stress we have put on our body.


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## camp10 (Mar 2, 2015)

I wonder how much of that is due to the 1000' elevation gain in 2.5 miles?

We have hilly MB trails here, but nothing like that. I'm 54 and in OK shape. I need 36 hours to recover, and then I'm good to go. I ride about 10 miles, at about 8 to 9 mph pace, and probably have a total climb of around 400'.


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## JKDjEdi (Nov 22, 2015)

SWriverstone said:


> As far as I know, it's a physiological fact that recovery times in humans get longer as we get older.
> 
> At age 54, I've definitely noticed that it takes freaking FOREVER (as in months-not weeks) to fully recover from even a moderate injury.
> 
> ...


Id add some easy rides in-between. The scavenging free radicals that get built up from hard efforts just plain hangout and hide In the damaged muscles, soreness is the end result. Get a massage and/or do easy rides in between to flush the bad blood out of your system. Otherwise what your experiencing will be happening more often than not. And one thing that's SO IMPORTANT.....warm up before you start the BIG RIDES. a good half hour ride on pavement before hitting the trails is perfect and a half hour cool down on pavement EVEN BETTER. Good Luck!

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