Hi all and thanks once again for returning! Hope you’re all good?? In this vid I am out finishing off a training block, so as you can probably tell, not a lot of energy left in the tank 😂 oh well, rest week inbound. I’ll talk a little about how I recover from ultra rides, works for me so hopefully might help some people to enjoy longer days on the bike.
This ride – https://strava.app.link/KlZc5CythJb
0:00 Intro
12:27 Recovery Tips
21:14 Ride Home
this is probably a good time to answer a question I’ve had a few times about recovery but there are certain things if I don’t do them I won’t recover very well at all one essential step to recovering well for me [Music] good morning welcome back to the channel and another Ultra cycling related video you’re already subscribed then thanks for coming back if you’re not already subscribed my name is Andy I’m ultra cyclist on the south coast to the UK videos I make are about Ultra cycling training kit and Adventures I’m recording this it’s the following weekend from the Wales trip pretty tired so if you watch that then I appreciate that it’s quite a bit of effort to ride it it’s the most important thing but quite a bit of effort to edit it as well it’s quite a long trip but what an Avenger that was if you just joined and you haven’t seen that two part series give it a watch I rode 500k across England into Wales over the highest path in Wales and back to Portsmouth in 34 hours it was an amazing trip and a good Shakedown of my kit my races this year so keep it a watch on the cars for today I am pooped this is the last training ride in this training block so I get a good rest after this essentially just getting everything out of my legs and onto the road trying to get as much train effect in from this training block as possible so riding about 100 miles all around Hamer right now riding through gosport if you know gosport and I want to make the most of this beautiful weather I heard a a little buddy tell me there’s a heat wave coming soon so let’s see I’m racing in 4 weeks no in my Lu the weather will be terrible by the time we get there but I’ll be [Music] ready route wise today I’ll be honest I sat on my couch last night absolutely knackered trying to decide what to do pretty much decided I was going to ride to Brighton and back which is along the south coast and lit zero elevation kind of what I felt like I needed but then I on the forecast I kind of want to be out in the beautiful countryside today is going to be a gorgeous day [Music] [Music] [Music] ah [Music] thought I st for a minute the headwind is rough so pretty tough to film on the bike the plan today after looking at the forecast last night forecast was pretty good nice and sunny not too windy as you can probably see the forecast was rubbish it’s windy as hell so I’m pushing into that for the first half of the ride and then back across sou down and into Portsmouth with a Tailwind so that’ll be nice well then now let’s go enjoy the weather go into the countryside maybe get a cafe stop and enjoy the sun do you ever feel like you’re being watched this is probably a good time to answer a question I’ve had a few times and one’s quite recently about recovery so I’m now less than a week back from that ride I got back last Sunday afternoon 500k lots of elevation had about 4 hours sleep halfway through I managed to do my normal kind of recovery protocols and I was out on Thursday doing my 2hour threshold session and back out again today for another 100 miles got a pretty good routine for recovery but I think I’ll wait till I get out of this wind it is brutalizing me but almost time for a Tailwind I bloody hope so anyway a [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] I think that’s most of the headwind done you know how that normally goes I’m sure it’ll change on me and I won’t get a Tailwind but let’s see stay positive I’ve got a bit more energy now and sometimes energy beets energy so I push on a bit and the body soon follows for a bit it’s gorgeous out here though first section of the ride it’s all through Portsmouth and the south coast and it’s a bit busier out here Rolling Hills Countryside it does mean more climbing so there’s a few climbs coming up but it’s going to be pretty gorgeous [Music] n [Music] that is one of my favorite Lanes in the whole of the South so much fun it flows perfectly and in weather like this beautiful green roll in here Hills of the English Countryside and you fly through there it’s a bit of work to get up to the top but boy is it worth it about 2/3 of the way through now 65 Mi something like that to nearly home just riding through a place called aington Park so nice I always forget on this route that it goes through here till I get here and oo this is nice it’s through a golf course you noce some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK often as golf course plunked on top jealous seems like a bit of a waste to me but what do I know not too far from New olford now and I think that might be something ground of I’m Man Lee wght so I’m hoping to stop somewhere there get something semi substantial for food it’s I’m feeling pretty knackered but I think it’s actually just fuel so I find some food see how we get on it’s a gorgeous ride though that’s better fed and watered feel a lot better definitely wasn’t eating enough stopped got a sandwich some pork pies iced coffee feel a lot better so still feeling pretty I’m pretty sure now I got some climbing to do but then there’s an amazing descent into Petersfield so fast so let’s get up and over [Music] [Music] all right onto recovery something I’m in need of right now for sure as I mentioned a few people have asked about what I do for Recovery one person quite recently I think when I uploaded the whales ride someone else done a similar ride and asked me how how I intend to recover as with anything like this I don’t give advice or tell you what to do on here I just tell people what I do what I’ve learned over the years that works for me and I think I’ve got a pretty good protocol I can recover pretty quick like I said last weekend was 500k Wales highest pave Road sleeping rough for a few hours and then straight back into it this week to’s get back into training I did Skip Tuesday I trained on Thursday and did a 2hour threshold session and out today for 100 more than 100 miles probably now so I’ve got a pretty short routine but I’ll go through it and maybe it might help you tweak what you do who knows and if you got ideas for me as always then tell me maybe I’ll stop for a minute for this one the road is a bit busy but yeah it’s not a crazy routine but there are certain things if I don’t do them I won’t recover very well at all so the first thing I do I make sure start before the ride even begins one essential step to recovering well for me is the fueling and the fluids on the actual ride because if I go too deep into a hole on the ride don’t fuel well enough bunk do myself a Mischief on the actual ride that’s going to cause real problems damage to my body during the ride it just takes longer to recover from so so sometimes it’s easier said than done last weekend I ran out of water food was a bit scarce in the evening it happens but the better you can plan for food and liquids and the better you’re going to recover the next thing I found helps me and getting into the weeds a bit now on personal stuff but I don’t mind I’ll tell you really is taking care of your undercarriage because that just like your bike needs maintenance the more you ride it it starts to get a bit worse for we the same thing happens to your body so I bought myself a tall bottle of moisturizer with a squeezy top every time I shower a bath moisturize down there uh yeah too much information maybe but it really really helps if I skip that once I feel the difference I feel much more sore and much more discomfort down there on rides so moisturize and take care of your uh sensitive areas next thing I found works for me I’ve had plenty of injuries over the years lots of injuries um and I’ve had to go through physio I’ve had to have sports massage lots of treatments and over the years I think my body’s just got better and adapted to the kind of work so the injuries are much much less frequent but every time I get injured I’m given exercises a massage to fix things I just paid attention to what those massage therapists did and tried to replicate part of it into my own ongoing routine so it’s one example I had an issue with my knees and the physio was trying to lengthen my muscles massaging down the lengths of my quads and my hamstrings and it really helped maintaining flexibility made a massive difference so now when I get out of the shower or the bath I spend 5 minutes stretching but I also get moisturizer and I massage down the length of the quads hamstrings lengthen them as much as I can and that takes couple of minutes if I do that every time I shower or a bath after a workout not every single time but every time I work out have a bath when I have a training session have a bath I go through that little routine and it makes all the difference again if I skip that once maybe twice start to have problems start to get issues with my knees all kinds of issues so self massage can be done you can learn it really easily YouTube whatever makes a huge difference for me that’s what I do baths that’s another one I used to shower only started having baths that made a big difference to recovery so especially in the winter with cold R cold weather riding makes a huge difference to recovering from those rides and I think in some ways kind of a bit like Poor Man’s hydrotherapy that really helps me as well sleep is an obvious one and that’s really really important you have to prioritize sleep and getting enough rest and that’s obvious some of these things will be obvious um and I probably am telling you things that you do already or are obvious but not for everybody so sleep is really important and if you don’t prioritize it you’re going to suffer so I know people have other priorities and busy lives and and I get it but the more you can sleep after a ride better you’ll feel another one for me would be back onto the food subject again is fueling well before and after obviously before it’s going to give you the stores the glycogen stores and the energy to get through the rides that’s going to help in the long run and afterwards eating well to recover eating the right things lots of veggies lots of protein good carbs it’s going to give your body all of the good stuff it needs to recover so that’s really important and I try I think I might have seen it on Alex D’s Channel I’m not sure but I heard someone talk about a six M Window 3 mils before your event and 3 mils after eat a lot that’s what I do and really give your body everything it needs don’t skimp on food around the event what I like to do I try to make sure I’ve got especially for a really long ride a liter of chocolate milk I’ll drink the whole thing when I get back that really makes me feel better milk’s quite quite well known for recovery after after exercise like that so again this is just what works for me you start to see these are things that that factor in to the small amount of time before and after the event so it’s not difficult for me I just make sure I eat plenty before an event I get good amount of sleep I have a bath do the self massage drink the milkshake get plenty of sleep eat plenty of food and I generally feel pretty good A lot of it is Fitness and experience and over time your body will just get better at doing this but the better you can fuel it and help it to recover the more you’ll cope with doing rides like this more frequently the fatigue side of things is is pretty difficult to avoid unless you unless you factor in plenty of rest for me I have to have a week easy every fourth week that’s coming next week for me now so even though I do all of this I’m my body’s ready to go I can ride this distance today and I did do a threshold session on Thursday I’m feeling pretty knackered so I’m pleased to be honest I’ve got a rest week coming up after today it works out about 10 days of rest of quite easy riding so that’s just a word on fatigue management that’s a separate subject altogether to be honest um that’s pretty difficult to manage but yeah talking about recovering from big rides so this is what I do hopefully it helped some people uh if there’s stuff in there that you think is useless or there’s things that you do that really help and tell me because some of the stuff I’m talking about it’s a bit personal moisturizing you’re on the carriage and stuff like that but I’m hoping it will help people and and help people recover from events and enjoy ultra distance riding so if you’ve got something that works for you that I haven’t mentioned tell me and I’d really appreciate hearing it back to the here and now this is the highest point of this ride I’ve climbed all the way up at the back of Petersfield now just have to descend Stoner Hill which is fun and then basically ride South back towards Portsmouth so go home have a hot bath have some self massage all that stuff let’s get home [Music] w [Music] [Music] w w [Music] [Music] we are back in Portsmouth business is taken care of for another week and another 4we block definitely hanging on energy wise absolutely but it was a really good ride so hopefully those tips might help a few people out I’m of a to go and use some of them myself cover and then about 10 days worth of rest thanks again as always for watching hopefully you’re all well happy and healthy if you’re not happy go ride your bike anyway look after yourselves I’ll see you on the next one [Music] [Applause]
17 Comments
First today! 🙂
I've got an Infrared Sauna – really helps my recovery 👍
I have used Squirt balm for several years, but I have started using Doublebase moisturiser in addition, but over a wider area and I haven't had any issues down there for a while. It's inexpensive too.
Loving your rides and the interesting insights in how you train but can we have a change in the musical soundtrack please.
recovery tips are really helpful. Nerver thought about it in that way. I always focus on eating and getting my carbs back in
Another great record of your efforts. As an older rider recovery is something I have to take more seriously. Although my riding is not at your level. Seriously enjoy your content.
I don't understand why you haven't got more subscribers. Your content is fantastic.
Good stuff some good tips , I haven't had a bath in donks 😂eating food and fluids during a long ride is something I definitely need to work on, I often see a long ride as a great weight loss work out 😂but I realise that's probably a mistake .this year I'm making a big effort to go slower on my long rides , keep my heart rate low so I can travel further and still be able to walk the next day 🙂 One thing I have started doing in recent months to partly physio the legs is just going for a walk for an hour or two , preferably with a hill to go up and down. I guess a kind of z1 z2 workout and the hill by default stretches all my muscles and gives my knees something different . Have found walking or hiking compliments my cycling quite well 🙂
Thanks for the shout out Andy 😁 The quality of your edits is getting higher and higher as the weeks roll by! Loving the metrics on the screen, deffo keep that going mate 🚲
Thanks for all the tips and info in your videos, very useful for me to see what I can incorporate into my own riding. Lots of zone 2 over winter seems to have helped me recover quicker from longer rides but I'm slower than ever! What's the rationale behind the training blocks? Is it more effective to train harder for a few weeks and then have to take a week off rather than training slightly less during the week but maintaining a constant schedule? I can see psychologically it might be easier to push hard for a while but have a rest week to look forward to.
Cheers! That was quite informative. I think I'm the person you were referring to who did a similar ride at the time you did your Wales ride. Besides riding my bike, I'm at the gym 3 times a week doing upper-body work. I keep extensive records of how much I've done on each exercise, and how it felt, and what was going on at that time which might affect performance during lifts. For about a week after my 500k ride, I noticed my lifts at the gym were relatively normal at the start and halfway through my routines I would feel like I hit a brick wall with regards to my energy. One way I knew when I was fully recovered from my ride was when my lifting came back.
Great content pal and some good tips, I find the on the bike fuelling is the big one in the events they just become an eating competition and the riding secondary hold the bonk at bay 😀, I’m in your neck of the woods in June on my homeward leg of riding from Warrington to Paris and back half organised charity event the other half self supported bike packing last big training block before my Ultra in July, keep up the fantastic content and the quality is top notch 👍🏻
nice ride video and some useful tips Andy…I don't know if I would be up for a threshold session and 100mile ride after that ride to Wales and back!! – think my recovery would be down the pub afterwards for a few pints and a pie then sleep for a day! guess that's not the right attitude to take on ultra endurance rides though – but I am going to take your advice…if feeling bad, go for a ride 🙂 cheers
Some excellent advice. As a pt I am always telling clients that recovery is as, if not more important than the workout itself. Beat your body up during a workout and treat it well as a reward for the efforts put in.
Planning a ride tomorrow to take in five of Simon Warren's Classic Climbs of the South East. Incredibly it isn't meant to be raining. Will need your recovery protocol afterwards.
Another great video Andy! I will second your advice on "taking care of the undercarriage". I am currently off the bike letting a persistent (untreated) saddle sore heal. I am currently at 2 weeks off and will likely not even consider getting back on the bike for another 4 weeks minimum. I developed a saddle sore in January of 2023 (poor bike fit on my indoor trainer bike, since corrected). Rather than stopping at that point, I continued to ride and attempt to address the issue w/setup adjustments, etc. By the time the outdoor season came around (in 2023), the problem was not getting any worse, however, things were not healing because I was continuing to ride 4-6 times per week. The discomfort was minimal/manageable, but the condition persisted. Fast forward to April 2024 (15 months from the initial problem) and I was finally forced off of the bike with what my doctor called a persistent chronic wound. I will be the first to admit that I am a complete idiot for violating the first advice of saddle sores, stop riding and treat immediately. Fortunately I am healing, however, learning lessons the hard way is not the most efficient method of learning!!
Great video Andy ! Some good tips in there, especially about the undercarriage. Do you do any strength training running weights and have you got a spare Merc hanger on your bike?