How to recover from long bike rides

Knowing how to recover from long bike rides is really important if you're doing Etape du Tour, Haute Route, Marmotte or some other sportif on your travels.

Whilst it's especially important to know how to recover properly each day during an event like Haute Route, it's also important for “shorter” events like Marmotte, Etape du Tour and the like.

Recently, I decided to ride 200km (Strava details here) as a little local adventure.

Now, I haven't ridden that far since the 2011 Etape Alps (Strava details here!), where I stupidly added a 90km ride over the Glandon/Croix de Fer from Alpe D'Huez back to St Jean de Maurienne.

For me, 200km is a long way, especially around where I live. The Byron Bay hinterland is infamous for (and replete with) absolutely, shockingly, dead roads. And, many, many hills.

For most people (including me), 200km would render you very sore the next day, unless that 200km was on flat roads, and ridden largely in a group (I'm looking at you, Around the Bay in a Day!).

Anyway, about 150km into that ride, my legs were kaput. I had a block headwind heading home, but made the decision to ride another 50km with much of it into a prevailing wind. I remember thinking, “why am I doing this?”. I was just chasing that 200 number.

When I got home, I was shattered. I drank my recovery drink, ate a LOT of food, rolled my legs on a rolling pin (watch how to do this here) and curled up into a small ball and waited until Kate got home to cheer me up (with Tim Tams, probably).

Here's the thing though, the next day, I was completely fine. I did a bunch of stuff around our property (which is pretty steep) and was totally fine.

Why this matters to you

A couple of reasons here; overseas trips and training.

Did you know that the 2012 Haute Route just finished? Don't worry if you don't know what Haute Route is – it's just finished its second year, but is fast becoming THE sportif to do. You can read more about it in the special Haute Route guide article I put together.

Anyway, Haute Route is a non-stop, no rest day, week-long event spent climbing the Alps and Pyrenees (new for 2013).

When you plan a trip overseas that incorporates an event like Etape du Tour or Haute Route, the last thing you want to do is absolutely wreck yourself and be laid up for a couple of days after the ride.

Even if you have trained properly for a big sportif, it's likely you'll want to recover properly. And if you haven't trained properly, you're going to be in big trouble.

Knowing how to recover from long bike rides is also important as part of your normal training. Long rides can be great for adapting your body and making it stronger (if done properly) and knowing how to recover properly means you can do it all again the next day, or at least being laid up on the couch in pain.

Top tips – How to Recover from Long Bike Rides

• Make sure you limber up first
• When you get home, have a recovery meal: I usually just have loads of carbohydrates in the form of a 10-15 banana smoothie (no dairy at all).
• Roll your legs with a rolling pin – video here
• I also got told once you should lie on your back with your feet up in the air against a wall to drain all the muscle waste out – not sure if this is valid or not
• Drink lots of water – this helps cleanse the body of toxins
• Roll your legs again, then stretch
• The next day, go for an easy ride, or run.

Don't stretch before rolling your legs out. Imagine the knots in your muscles are knots in an elastic band. If you stretch the elastic band, you just tighten the knot. It's the same with muscles. Roll knots out first, then stretch.

That's it! It's pretty simple; eat right, drink water, massage and stretch.

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