How long it's going to take me?

[whooztheman]

Hi guys,
I did my season's last race on July 17th and then i stopped my training for 35 days, the last 15 of them being party, some drinking and basking in the sun... plus late nite sleep ~6.00-7.00am EVERY night. I needed it SO bad to stay out late and party!
I re-started again on Monday 22/8, exactly after 35 days. Mostly some easy weight training sessions, one-two rides and two runs to bring some blood circulation back to my muscles. All this week is on a "how-I-feel" basis and unstructured training to avoid any mental stress.
How long do you think it's going to take me before i come back to where i was? I've heard something about double the time of the rest-period... Is this true? I don't like it as an idea, hey... no matter the time... i don't regret my party time.
I will start my structured training from this coming Monday 29/8 again, but i won't do too much (~11-15hrs/week) for the next 4 weeks. Then i'll see... i'm still on a vacation mood
pls advise.

[big fellow]

give me your palm so I can read it young fellow...

no offence mate but that's a wee bit of a silly question

detraining occurs as rapidly as 5-7 days. this will depend on whether you have had a gradual build up in your training or whether you have crash trained leading up to your last event. i would say that "double the rest period" is garbage.

however, it is incredibly variable and I seriously doubt whether anyone on here can give you a sensible answer - as you may have noted the thread had many views but no replies

enjoy the vacation!

[whooztheman]

big fellow, thx for your "serious" reply in my "silly" question.
i am training for years -no crash training- (no reason to put numbers here, my point is not to impress anyone, i doubt if i can) and all i wanted/expected to hear actually is someone to psych me up with a positive reply, cuz i always find it tough to come back after 5 weeks off or any "off".
no offense here, but you don't sound like you've been in my boots. Ever...
With all the respect and have a nice week bigfellow!

[leonardo da vinci]

Can't comment on the 35 days off, but I've always been told that up to 10 days without a bike, you can recover to the original fitness level in the same number of days as your break's lasted. Whether you can't train due to a crash, bike failure or holiday won't matter to much. Heavy drinking and partying will obviously not improve your cycling, but a mental break can. Any more than 2 weeks off the bike brings your fitness level back to basic, whatever that may be for you.

[big fellow]

cheers whoz

i am not going to get into an argument over who is the better rider, racer or all that childish dribble. i suck, you win. done.

so no, I have probably not been in your boots and frankly it doesn't make any difference whether i have or not

research suggests that people respond differently to training, people respond differently to periods of no training, and so on. to ask people here to comment on something which is so variable is a tough task

take a chill pill with all your beers dude and good luck with getting back into your racing

[whooztheman]

thanx leonardo, thanx big fellow.

[Dalai]

@whooztheman

Maybe Bigfellow hasn't been in your shoes, but the fact that he works and is respected in the sports medicine field deserves a little respect when he comments on such matters!!

I love it on Forums where someone doesn't get the answer they want, it always ends in a pissing contest...

big fellow, thx for your "serious" reply in no offense here, but you don't sound like you've been in my boots. Ever...

[big fellow]

cheers Dalai

there's a lot of love on this forum

[stumpytrunks]

[quote="whooztheman"]
no offense here, but you don't sound like you've been in my boots. Ever...
quote]

With this kind of question you don't sound like you've ever been in this situation either. To do it without peaking quickly and then burning out for the rest of the season it'll take a good couple of months. The lower the level of competition, the easier to some extent it is. Your version of a race could be dragging the kids down to the shop or you could be a euro pro so who knows. Pretty open question and my 2 cents.

[whooztheman]

To All,
Guys maybe you misunderstood me. I had a question and decided to post it in the training part of the ww forum. I can' find ANY reason for someone to comment a post/question with words like "silly question". Maybe i'm not a rocket scientist (i've done some studies though in the US) and definitely i'm not a pro cyclist. Actually am far from it. I have been out of training (due to forced rest, injury etc.) many times in the past and maybe i can guess (only from experience) how long it is going to take me to comeback. Does this prohibit me from posting such a question? I always think that such forums offer very good information and sometimes you may end up receiving replies or ideas that worth a million. Sometimes, you see that lots of people here ask the "obvious" just a for a second re-assurance reply. Maybe this is what i was looking for... but anyway. I never wanted to insult anyone here and i respect all the posters, of course including the guys that replied me. Sorry if I made a mistake and again thanks for your replies. Big fellow, i probably suck more, don't worry. YOU win

[JK]

I think it is a good question

Let me assume you drank yourself to a recreational fitness level . That would be about the same level (or worse) after a post-season break that a lot of cyclists have in fall. To get back at race level, you would need the same sort of buildup most people do to get fit for march-april.

That would be 2 or 3 periods of 4 weeks of "base" training, 2 or 3 periods of "build" training, followed by 2 weeks of "peak". Depending on how gradual you want your buildup to be, that is something like 4 months. You would peak in january.

Ever considered cyclocross?

[Bruiser]

It was 'silly' cause different people respond differently. I know my body likes me to take a 7 day rest from the bike after very heavy training, while others lose much of their "edge" if they did the same thing.

It depends on yor body and on the training prior to the rest.

Interesting topic anyway.

[bobalou]

I assume since you're partying you're relatively young. Or maybe you're one of my alcoholic relatives?

Well, what I was going to add is the older you get the more time your body needs to recover. Long rest times are not necessarily a bad thing. This is weight weenies after all.. if you're only partying without any workouts you're putting on the weight I'd guess (unless you're doing crack). So the question might be how long will it take you to take the flab back off! You might lose some muscle mass and aerobic threshold too.. but .. everyone is right about it being such an individual thing.

If you are serious about training you can keep a log of miles/hours/watts/heartrate and performance. You can watch better what works for you then. A certain TT course (or better, a real long climb, like a 8% 3 mile climb) can be used as a measure of your fitness level.

[whooztheman]

Thanks for your reply bobalou. I'm not relatively young, am 36.
i had a tough year working and training and with not good results in my AAA race, probably was overtrained and tired.
I definitely wanted a mental break that ended up with partying and such stuff. I know it's gonna take longer, i can actually feel it right from the start or is it just my imagination? (i wish).
On top of that, yes, I put ~ 4kg (8.8 pounds) and since monday i changed my diet and in combination with my training schedule, i hope that the extra kgs will leave soon... bringing me back to a ww condition.
i started my base building really slow and easy, armed with all the patience of the world. Let's see... Again thx.

[RTW]

I was once told that it takes you seven years to lose the 'muscle' that you had. Meaning that you body will be used to the movements and demands on it. This doesn't mean that it still has its form though, but that the foundation is there. If this is true or not, it is reassuring all the same.

In your shoes I would ride different routes and stay away from your old favourites. The reason being that you will always think 'oh, I used to do this in 'x' gear' and feel bad about yourself. That will just serve to make you feel worse. So my advise is to get in the car, and drive elsewhere. Start your ride there, and build your fitness up again.

Rich