4 Post-Cycling Mistakes Noobs Should Never Make

You’ve done it – you’ve reached your destination. Doesn’t it feel great? It’s almost as if you can do anything now that you’ve got the monkey off your back and completed your first mammoth bike ride.

For now, though, you’ll happily sit down and relax. It’s been a long day in the saddle and you want to chill out and enjoy the rest of your day! However, something as simple as staying in your cycling gear can be a huge mistake, and as a newbie, you have no idea the damage it can cause.

Why would you? It’s not as if you’ve experienced the errors before and can learn from your mistakes. You’ve only just started your cycling career, so there’s nothing to be self-conscious about. The good news is that more experienced riders have ridden the beaten path before you and understand the dos and don’ts post-ride.

There’s no reason for you to suffer from saddle sores as they did. Instead, you can carry on reading and learn more about the issues that don’t appear significant, yet that often cause a lot of pain.

Finishing At Your Door

After cycling over ten miles and finally arriving at your door, it’s tempting to walk through, collapse onto the sofa, and go about the rest of your day. However, it’s a massive mistake as you neglect the cool down, the part that you don’t feel right away, but that you will after a day or two.

Part of maintaining a comprehensive and healthy cycling routine is participating in long bike rides regularly. Without a cooldown, the oxygen won’t reach your muscles and remove the buildup of lactic acids, causing you to experience pain and discomfort. Once this happens, the chances of another bike ride in the same week decline drastically.

There are tons of ways to do it, so you don’t need to spend another thirty minutes to an hour stretching or walking. As Steel Supplements highlights, taking recovery supplements improves soreness and increases your recovery times. So, something as tasty and simple as a smoothie could be the answer.

You can tell whether your cooldown routine is effective by watching out for side-effects. Aside from DOMS and feeling stiff after a bike ride, a poor cooldown could lead to dizziness and lightheadedness as blood can begin to pool in your legs.

Snacking On Garbage Food

The fact that you feel hungry immediately after a bike ride means that you’ve made a mistake – you haven’t fueled up properly before the trip. Cycling Weekly points out the many dangers associated with fasted rides, and you should take them seriously because they are no joke. Eating a meal of protein and carbs will help since they absorb into the bloodstream very quickly.

Still, eating a strategic pre-ride meal isn’t going to be of any assistance now that you’ve finished and you’re famished. Plus, you’ve just done more than fifteen miles of hard work, so it’s not as if you don’t have a little bit of leeway. However, stocking up on fats and fiber could have the opposite effect.

Firstly, sweet food will boost your glycogen levels, but the sugar high doesn’t last long, and you’ll be ready to eat again after a short period. Secondly, fats slow up your metabolism and digestion after a cycle ride.

Both of these attributes lead to traits such as overeating and loading up on junk food. While you need to replace the energy you lost during your ride, you’ve got to be healthy, too. That means consuming lean meats and non-starchy carbs (brown rice and pasta) and keeping your portions relatively small. You might need to eat a bit more than usual, yet it’s not an excuse to go crazy!

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Staying In Your Cycling Clothes

With your achy legs and sore muscles, it’s easy to see why you wouldn’t strip off and head straight to the shower. You need to take it down a notch first, which is why a lot of new riders like to multitask. There’s nothing wrong with preparing lunch or sending an email; if anything, it’s super-organized.

It’s also a surefire way for your tight cycling clothes to rub and cause saddle sores. Sometimes, they are inevitable since you spend a couple of hours on the bike at a time. Still, if you’ve managed to avoid them, the last thing you want to do is make them more likely by remaining in your lycra outfit.

Plus, it’s not as if the solution is difficult. Drop your shorts and underlayers and let your skin breathe! You’ll love the freedom, especially during the hot summer months, and there’s no reason you can’t relax, either.

As long as you’re happy to chill with everything on show, you can wait until your body temp has lowered and your muscles are less painful before hopping in the shower. Of course, Runners World reckons that a bath is a better choice as the hot water promotes blood flow to the muscles via dilated blood vessels.

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Not Backing Up Your Metrics

Even beginners have access to exercise metrics these days. Mostly, a smartwatch will monitor your progress and store all of the data until a later date. But, you’ve still got to download the information and upload it to another device, such as your laptop or tablet, if you want to keep it safe.

By losing the watch, you could lose access to everything you’ve achieved since you started cycling. Again, it’s not easy to head straight to your computer and hook up your watch when you’re tired, yet it’s better to do it sooner rather than later.

Leaving it until after you’ve showered and eaten only means it’s less likely to happen. The good news is that apps like MapMyRide do the hard work by saving the essential data. Once you plug your watch into the USB point and log in, it’ll upload automatically.

You can even leave it to do its thing and carry on with the rest of your day.

Have you made any of the mistakes above? What has been your biggest learning curve so far?