Aching Legs

As a 55 year old cyclist, I too get sore legs when I put too many 20 plus mile rides back to back. It almost feels like when I was on the Lacrosse team in high school that constant daily ache. but then, I'm not 17 any more. I find that a hot shower and a couple of aspirins help when the ache gets too hard to ignore. Other than that, I try to stagger my rides. Long on the weekends (20+); off Monday; short Tuesdays (10-15); short Wed.; long Thurdsays; off Fridays and so forth. My riding schedule has a lot to do with my business schedule and how long I have to stay at the office.

Amazing; I could have written that post myself! I think the key might be decent recovery periods between rides; when I take a couple of days off I find the leg ache isn't as bad. However I find that I'm riding more quickly these days but suffering the same ache as when I started riding, but obviously going faster; so maybe we ride up to a pain level?

Thanks for that. It's good to know that I'm not the only one. My age is 52 and I did wonder if I had jumped in a little too deep and over did it to begin with. I have started riding to work which is 10 miles each way. Perhaps I should stagger it a bit cycling every other day until the legs get used to it a bit more. I am training for the London-Brighton bike ride. I have done it twice before but I do not remember the leg thing lasting so long when I have trained before. It must be my age creeping up on me

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I'm not sure age is the problem really! I'm in my late 30s now, but remember the same problem when I took up cycling more seriously in my early 20s. I think cycling every other day would be a good idea though to start with.
I've also been told to drink a lot both before cycling, during the ride, and after.
Just one other thing; I often go for a couple of miles walk on my off cycling days, and this seems to really loosen up the muscles very nicely for the next ride.

My legs were killing me until I got my seat adjusted properly. Turns out that with my body geometry/configuration, I cannot sit on the seat and touch the ground, tip toe or otherwise, if my seat is properly adjusted for me to actually bike. I don't get any extension on my legs and it makes biking very very painful and I tire out so quickly.

Once I had the seat raised (and it was about 1-1/2 inches, the fatigue vanished, my speed came up and I can go forever. Have your favourite wrench at the LBS check out your seat postioning.