# Ride everyday or take a day off?



## winginit (Apr 23, 2012)

I started mtn biking in 2012 to the end of 2015. I have a surly pugs and a rumblefish pro.
I recently started riding again. My question is to lose weight and gain Endurance's fastest should I ride everyday going easier every day as I'm more tired or should I ride hard one day then rest the next ?
Thanks


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## TooTallUK (Jul 5, 2005)

Don't ride every day. You make your gains when your body recovers.


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## uzurpator (Dec 8, 2005)

Ride everyday. Most people ( and by most, i mean 99% of riders and 99.9% of those who don't compete ) are not riding at an intensity required to overtrain. You'll recover without a problem.

Also - weight loss is down to diet, not excercise.


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## ninjichor (Jul 12, 2018)

You can ride everyday, but beware that your active heart rate will be notably lower than what you may want to target, as it sort of becomes efficient at what you're doing everyday after over a week straight of it. I'm a commuter and doing anything remotely like my commute is cakewalk (moderate to strong steady efforts over 1 hr). It doesn't help too much with anything else that's demanding in a different way, besides build tolerance for discomfort/pain in the saddle.

I'd only suggest solid rest days if you do structured intensity workout days. If you're just going at an average pace, under 80% of your race pace intensity, no need for a full day off.


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## TooTallUK (Jul 5, 2005)

uzurpator said:


> Ride everyday. Most people ( and by most, i mean 99% of riders and 99.9% of those who don't compete ) are not riding at an intensity required to overtrain. You'll recover without a problem.
> 
> Also - weight loss is down to diet, not excercise.


Awful advice. The OP wants to lose weight and gain endurance. Following some sort of training program is the best way to make and measure progress, and 7 day per week does not feature on any training program.

Weight loss is down to calories in being less than calories burned. A combination of diet and exercise is a good way to keep calories burning. Also, if the OP went on a carb-free diet they would wreck their chances of improving their endurance.


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

I find you can ride every day but it depends on what you are doing. 

If the rides are relatively easy then riding every day is not a problem. If you are pushing hard though, it's best not to ride every day. A rest day makes a big difference. This is especially true if you're planning a big ride which pushes your envelope. Build up to it but do not cycle at all the day before. 

I'm not expert but that's my experience.

To loose any weight you have to both cut your intake and cycle more than an hour each ride. If you do not eat less and you ride for less than an hour, irrespective of how hard your rides are, you will not loose significant weight.


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## winginit (Apr 23, 2012)

So I'm up to 8 mile ride I used to be able to ride 30 miles easy.
When riding everyday seems like I am a little more tired and slower each day but go the same distance . 
If I ride every other day it seems I can go farther.
I will ride everyday for a week and see if I start picking up the pace again.
I'm riding the pugs on bridal trail at this time.


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## b rock (Jan 5, 2017)

The main thing I try to avoid is injury, when adding miles or starting a new exercise program, since being sidelined will kill a lot of gains. Full recovery days are probably the safest way, and you can do complementary exercise on recovery days, to avoid injury even more, such as core strength/stretching/ foam roller. 

If you just want to be on the bike everyday, because you love it, you can take "active rest" days, where you keep the intensity as low as possible (never be out of breath, be able to easily hold conversation, no burning muscles, etc.). I do this after 3 days in a row of rides with medium to high effort, but it took me a long time to build up to that.


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## Kajjal (Dec 14, 2013)

Listen to your body, I can't ride everyday as I am unable to keep my speed and effort down on rest days so have to ride a few days a week instead. When you are not riding your body is rebuildiing its self.

The best way to lose weight is as much as you can cut out junk food, processed food, sugary snacks / drinks etc. For most people this will lead to consistent weight loss. The other thing is make sure you eat enough or you will not have the energy you need.


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## targnik (Jan 11, 2014)

Give up beer o_0

Yeah right ;-P

'Born to ride!'


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## Battery (May 7, 2016)

I ride 3-4 times a week and I focus mostly on road cycling with 1 day of hardtail riding. I even did a back to back session of road cycling and mountain biking! I should get a gravel bike for those days. My endurance improved a ton after road cycling for a month and a half on my endurance bike. It's hard for me to get tired on my mountain bike now. I've also lost around 3-4lbs in the past month from switching things up. I can't wait to see what my biking endurance will be like 1 year from now! 

What I've learned? Give yourself some rest time especially when you are building endurance. Eat smart. My wife feeds me vegetables every day and I cannot escape eating at least some vegetables for lunch and dinner. I also find that getting a professional massage from a licensed therapist helps a ton (at least for me). My body feels much more loose when I am out biking.


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## GuitsBoy (Sep 24, 2013)

Best advice was already given: listen to your body. You will know when its time for a few days rest. Do you track your performance? Lap time via bike computer or strava? When youre lagging behind your normal time and riding buddies, its time to take a few days off the bike. One day wont cut it, in my experience. But if youre not feeling any detrimental effects, ride as much as you like, especially if youre not doing a balls out effort each time out.


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## winginit (Apr 23, 2012)

GuitsBoy said:


> Best advice was already given: listen to your body. You will know when its time for a few days rest. Do you track your performance? Lap time via bike computer or strava? When youre lagging behind your normal time and riding buddies, its time to take a few days off the bike. One day wont cut it, in my experience. But if youre not feeling any detrimental effects, ride as much as you like, especially if youre not doing a balls out effort each time out.


I use Strava. After 2 day rest I rode the same mileage/ location and 7 minutes faster because my legs were not tired


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## GuitsBoy (Sep 24, 2013)

winginit said:


> I use Strava. After 2 day rest I rode the same mileage/ location and 7 minutes faster because my legs were not tired


Youll always be fastest after a few days of rest. The big question is if its a net positive or not. Would you be a stronger rider on the whole having not given up those two days of riding? Surely not on the third day, because youll be tired instead of rested. But on the whole, which leaves you more fit? Lets say a surprise work trip comes up and youll be off the bike for a week. You'd be a stronger rider had you ridden all three days before leaving on your work trip instead of just one, right?

Unless youre taking a serious performance hit where you know that youre trying to move your legs and they just dont want to respond the way they should, youre not doing yourself a disservice. Whet youre doing is conditioning your body, even if the rides are more frequent and slightly less intense.

But the flip side is also there too. If you dont periodically give it a good max effort, and you just sandbag all your rides, youre not going to grow either. Its a bit of a balancing act to find the right combination of frequency/intensity/rest.


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

GuitsBoy said:


> Best advice was already given: listen to your body. You will know when its time for a few days rest.


I don't agree, it's not that simple. You can ride every day or have rest days between rides depending on exactly what you are doing. I have never felt the benefit of having more than one day's rest before a ride but I have felt the loss that comes from not having it.


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## GuitsBoy (Sep 24, 2013)

Mr Pig said:


> I have never felt the benefit of having more than one day's rest before a ride but I have felt the loss that comes from not having it.


I think it depends on how you measure your success. Are you riding a big race or going for a PR run? You better have had a few days off. But if you're conditioning your body for stamina, and maximal weight loss, riding more frequently with less intensity is probably the better choice. On any given day, you wont be as fast if you were well rested, but on the whole, youll transform your body more quickly.


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## winginit (Apr 23, 2012)

GuitsBoy said:


> I think it depends on how you measure your success. Are you riding a big race or going for a PR run? You better have had a few days off. But if you're conditioning your body for stamina, and maximal weight loss, riding more frequently with less intensity is probably the better choice. On any given day, you wont be as fast if you were well rested, but on the whole, youll transform your body more quickly.


This makes the most sense to me


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## winginit (Apr 23, 2012)

It's has been raining for a week in CT.would you guys ride in the rain ?


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## ninjichor (Jul 12, 2018)

GuitsBoy said:


> Youll always be fastest after a few days of rest. The big question is if its a net positive or not. Would you be a stronger rider on the whole having not given up those two days of riding? Surely not on the third day, because youll be tired instead of rested. But on the whole, which leaves you more fit? Lets say a surprise work trip comes up and youll be off the bike for a week. You'd be a stronger rider had you ridden all three days before leaving on your work trip instead of just one, right?
> 
> Unless youre taking a serious performance hit where you know that youre trying to move your legs and they just dont want to respond the way they should, youre not doing yourself a disservice. Whet youre doing is conditioning your body, even if the rides are more frequent and slightly less intense.
> 
> But the flip side is also there too. If you dont periodically give it a good max effort, and you just sandbag all your rides, youre not going to grow either. Its a bit of a balancing act to find the right combination of frequency/intensity/rest.


I always feel like I have ground to catch up when I take 48+ hours off. What I do feel that I gain after rest, is a return in purpose and motivation. It's more spiritual/mental than physical.

I'm not sure what you mean by grow or sandbag, but my body gets more efficient at whatever I do repeatedly. If I repeatedly cruise at a moderate pace, it'll become more efficient at that, to the point that it'll soon become no challenge at all. It's more enjoyable to have some challenge, so there is natural progression still. I keep the effort to a sustainable level, since I actually need to not be exhausted. I don't want to limit opportunity for everyday life plans due to exhaustion from science-back structured interval training, burdening others with excuses regarding my recovery.

I don't want to add rest days as part of my "work-out" plan, without it being justified by legit high intensity training. If you keep taking days off, coming back gung-ho and putting out a strong effort (unstructured exercise, perceived as high intensity), you could very much be following a recipe for plateauing, especially if it's like 1-2 hrs of workout with close to 48 hr between each ride (e.g. riding every other day). If you feel desperate to find a way to climb from your plateau by and changing things up, beware that comes with an increased risk of injury. I'm riding at the same time everyday for 1h+, so that's just under 23 hours of rest between rides. Tortoise and the hare?


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## winginit (Apr 23, 2012)

ninjichor said:


> I always feel like I have ground to catch up when I take 48+ hours off. What I do feel that I gain after rest, is a return in purpose and motivation. It's more spiritual/mental than physical.
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by grow or sandbag, but my body gets more efficient at whatever I do repeatedly. If I repeatedly cruise at a moderate pace, it'll become more efficient at that, to the point that it'll soon become no challenge at all. It's more enjoyable to have some challenge, so there is natural progression still. I keep the effort to a sustainable level, since I actually need to not be exhausted. I don't want to limit opportunity for everyday life plans due to exhaustion from science-back structured interval training, burdening others with excuses regarding my recovery.
> 
> I don't want to add rest days as part of my "work-out" plan, without it being justified by legit high intensity training. If you keep taking days off, coming back gung-ho and putting out a strong effort (unstructured exercise, perceived as high intensity), you could very much be following a recipe for plateauing, especially if it's like 1-2 hrs of workout with close to 48 hr between each ride (e.g. riding every other day). If you feel desperate to find a way to climb from your plateau by and changing things up, beware that comes with an increased risk of injury. I'm riding at the same time everyday for 1h+, so that's just under 23 hours of rest between rides. Tortoise and the hare?


Good advice. I been trying for ride 3 days 1 off but this rain kept me off for 2 days


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## GuitsBoy (Sep 24, 2013)

In the weight lifting world there s popular saying: Keep the body guessing. Means just what you say, avoid falling into a routine/rut. Mix it up. Its why weight training programs tend to work better when you change it up after finishing one routine, rather than just repeating the same routine over and over. The same is true for cardio, in my experience.

But its really up to the individual where they place thier value in the work life balance. Some people prioritize structured training over enjoying life. I like to let the chips fall where they do, and have a nice happy balance. If a ride happens on any given day, great. If not, thats cool too. But that's certainly not the path towards making the fastest gains possible, and I'm OK with that.


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## kpdemello (May 3, 2010)

haha, two opposite statements in the first two replies.

Put me down for not every day. I ride 2-3 times a week and am in half way decent shape, but without recovery time my body gets beat.

For losing weight, it's far more important to count calories than it is to exercise. Exercise helps, as it allows you to eat more and still lose weight, but it's all about calories, man. Get MyFitnessPal or some other calorie counter and log your food.


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## brawlo (Mar 13, 2012)

Riding every day is perfectly fine. It's the intensity that matters. Don't think that pushing yourself day after day will help, because it will do the exact opposite. You will just burn out. You want 2-3 solid intense rides a week, then mix that up with low intensity recovery rides.


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## b rock (Jan 5, 2017)

winginit said:


> It's has been raining for a week in CT.would you guys ride in the rain ?


We try not to around here, because riding in mud leaves ruts that stick around a long time after they dry.


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