Rest days

[MrsHJ]

How many rest days do you like or maybe think essential?

Thinking of EV6- probably not next year but 2027+ and I’ll take a bit of time to build a plan and arrange some unpaid leave. For those who don’t know it’s 2500 miles/4000km plus Atlantic sea to black sea so I reckon for cycling it’s around 7 weeks for me at 50 miles/ 80 km a day ish. Say 8 weeks to include time for travel there and back and to see the Black Sea and a bit of extra time in the schedule for “give’. I may need to allow a bit more time too if I do the extra loop up to the delta instead of going straight to Constanta. I’ll have the cycling planned and broken out by day before I travelled anyway- I may vary a few bits on the road but probably not the overnights.

I don’t usually bother for a 3 week tour (I often build a couple of short days in to balance out longer days and treat those as half days and find that works well). I did take a day this year in Italy as I really wanted to visit Urbino but that was only a few days in to my cycling.

If I’m going for a longer tour though- say 2 months is there a need for rest days- does it help build to flexibility into the schedule for shocking weather or bike issues or will it help my physical/mental health? What spare time would you build in - is it for touristing or for rest?

If I just leave a few days at the end of the tour then I can eat into those if my schedule slips?

[Paulc]

Mon dieu! No rest days. Eeek! On a three week tour we would likely allow for enjoying 2 . Chance not to pack and go plus smooch around somewhere interesting and absorb the culture. Mentally refresh and possibly physically too. Though we might go for a wee spin in case the legs think the tour is finished and switch off. We keep them in the back pocket for when we find somewhere we want to stay or when we need a rest or the mistral or a storm goes through.. It might be a mini holiday treat in a tour.

We have also thought more about a moving on tour combined with say 3 day fixed base stays that give the chance to do day rides to explore an area better.

EV6 crosses a lot of interesting cultures and terrain.

Paul

[roubaixtuesday]

At least one day a week for us on average. Sometimes two days in a row off refreshes the body and soul.

Aside from anything else, there are things do do and see that aren't cycling!

[Shock, horror]

Also allows flexibility for issues, weather etc.

[Morzedec]

Rest days: what would you do if 'resting'?
We keep going if at all possible, unless the weather turns really nasty - and I never ride if there is lightening about! There are times (coming back to the UK from France at the end of this September was one) when the winds just get too much - and when you are nearly blown off your bike by 50km gusts, it may be time to stop for a while.
At our age, the average days (dependent on terrain, mostly) are somewhere between 80 and 100km a day (and yes, I can just about remember when those figures were in miles, for many days on end) so if we get weary we just have a shorter day, leaving at 9 instead of 8, and then trying to be in somewhere and completely 'set up' by 5.
Keeps our legs supple, and stops us getting bored just hanging around.
It does help to know where the campsites or 'wild spots' that you can rest your tent in are, but after over 60 years of touring in the UK and on the Continent the choice is often 'which one' rather than 'where' shall we stop for the night?.
Our French home is alongside a voie verte, and we regularly host cyclists (of all nations) and let them camp in our garden if they have overestimated their capabilities and cannot reach the next 'official' site, which is 25km further on - but most are not what we would think of as being real old school 'touring cyclists', just people out for a two-week holiday on two wheels. No matter, happy to help if we can.

I guess our moral would be 'stop if you have to' but otherwise - just keep on rolling along!

Happy Days.

[roubaixtuesday]

Rest days: what would you do if 'resting'?

Anything from walking in the mountains, visiting cultural attractions, swimming and relaxing to a little light bike maintenance.

[Cyclewala]

A short day (half daily mileage) every 5 days plus 1 rest day every 10 works for me. The rest day is really about enjoying the local town, food and general loitering around.

Tent and luggage stays at campsite and use bike for exploring.

[axel_knutt]

For my money, words like build-in and schedule aren't compatible with flexibility. The nightmare scenario is having a tour planned and booked in advance, then having it all spoilt from flogging yourself into the ground to keep to a pace you can't hack. My longest tour was 1400 miles in 27 days, with no rest day, but I doubt I'd have done that if it were all planned in advance, I'd have either ended up exhausted and going home early, or doing half the mileage in the same time. I don't commit to anything in advance, and it shows in my rest days: sometimes I rest, sometimes I don't. Just over half my tours were with no rest, but on the others, rest days were typically at about 10-15 day intervals.

As for what counts as a rest day, I recall joking with one of the staff at York hostel once: "Today was supposed to be a rest day, and I've just spent the last 8 hours walking round the city centre ". It's difficult to spend a whole day just sitting outside a hostel twiddling your thumbs though.

[simonhill]

If I’m going for a longer tour though- say 2 months is there a need for rest days- does it help build to flexibility into the schedule for shocking weather or bike issues or will it help my physical/mental health? What spare time would you build in - is it for touristing or for rest?

From reading replies you can see that people do it differently.

For days off that will be up to you although your schedule does seem pretty full on. One problem with a day off I find is that I'm awake, etc at normal time. By second day when I'm meant to be away I've slipped a bit into relaxation mode.

Nowadays I ride much shorter days starting later and finishing earlier, not camping and get a decent time for a wander around so I don't worry so much about days off. I suspect my schedule now is a bit too laid back for most.

I only take days off when I get to somewhere I want to stop.

There is often a theory that on long trips you build up fitness and can do more and more. I suspect this is often theory rather than practice. You certainly will build fitness but there are numerous things that can slow you down. In no particular order.

Boredom - yes it can get tedious.
Injury - large can be tour ending, but don't underestimate small niggles that can sap your will.
Illness - particularly lingering stomach problems.
Diet - often poorer than home and this can lead to a slow decline.

Basically you need to be a bit careful.

Enjoy.

[bohrsatom]

My rest days are mostly determined by my fitness (or lack of!). Whilst I cycle a lot in daily life I don't regularly ride long distances day after day, and that twinned with lugging a heavy bike up hills means a break every 3 or 4 days is needed to give my legs a chance to recover.

Sometimes the rest will involve an easier day of riding, but given the chance I'd rather just take a full day off and explore a town, have a leisurely lunch, etc

[foxyrider]

I have done 2 week plus tours moving every day but my preference is to have at least one multi night stop per week, as others have mentioned, there are places and excursions that deserve either longer or by their nature fit into a multi night stop better. That doesn't mean i won't be riding those days but if i do it'll be without carrying all the gear.

If i'm moving on every day i have sometimes reached a point of ride hate where i'm not enjoying that element of the trip.

[Navrig]

I did a similar distance tour following EV8 to some degree. I planned and worked on the basis of 80km per day and cycling 5 days in 7. This was a combination of rest days and tourism days. I don't "get" the idea of cycling long days with no rest days and, thus, no time to see the places I am passing.

At the end of the tour I back calculated what I did and I was very close to my planned figures. The longest day was 120km (Canal du midi), the shortest day was 40km. On average I was close to 80km and 5 from 7.

On some of the non-cycling days my step count was in excess of 25,000 so they were not all rest days.

[simonhill]

Now I've slowed down and spending more time gently exploring, I'm finding that I am going back to places that I just passed through on long A to B tours.

I realise how much I missed. The route can be a very narrow line.

[MrsHJ]

Thanks for all of your comments- lots of food for thought and some really good points. I totally take the one about deteriorating diet for instance. I haven’t successfully completed continuous tour of more than 3 weeks . Usually I’m rushing around to fit in as much as possible before needing to be back to work.

I’m very much at early stages here so I need to break the route down in more detail and see what it could look like rather than just dividing 4000 by 80. Your comments have been valuable (hopefully I’d have got there in the end but I need to have a fair plan before requesting unpaid leave so landing on 8 weeks without getting enough detail in the plans could be really problematic). I will be putting some rest days in- if nothing else it will help if bad weather derails things so I don’t need to rebook weeks of accommodation. I think I’ll be mixing with some short days for a bit more touristing. Some places may not have as much to see so I’ll be getting some of the books to check my options.

If I finish up at anywhere urban I do usually stay in the city/town centre (I’m haven’t camped recently) and generally in hotels so I do do touristing in the afternoons when I’ve checked in (although late check in times in France can make this difficult). I don’t like to be all day on the bike and I fully agree that it’s sometimes the mental fatigue with endlessly chugging along quiet roads that will get to you. On the other hand at the end of 3 weeks up to roscoff (somewhat shorter days mostly) I was savouring every minute and really feeling the power of getting home by bike. But 3 weeks isn’t 8 and that’s part of what I need to adjust to.

I have been celebrating a bit that I can do longer days again- a few years ago my coccyx used to limit me but the rido saddle has now got me to the stage where I can do sequential days of more than say 4 hours in the saddle with no pain at all. It’s almost like I’m testing the limits of how long a day I can do and it’s great but I take the point that I may have tipped the other way and be overdoing it a bit.

[axel_knutt]

I generally found that the main determinant of how many miles I rode in a day, and how much time I had to look around, was the distance between youth hostels, which kept increasing all the time as more and more closed. I was a lot less interested in looking round towns than seeing countryside though.

[roubaixtuesday]

I’m very much at early stages here so I need to break the route down in more detail and see what it could look like rather than just dividing 4000 by 80. Your comments have been valuable (hopefully I’d have got there in the end but I need to have a fair plan before requesting unpaid leave so landing on 8 weeks without getting enough detail in the plans could be really problematic). I will be putting some rest days in- if nothing else it will help if bad weather derails things so I don’t need to rebook weeks of accommodation. I think I’ll be mixing with some short days for a bit more touristing. Some places may not have as much to see so I’ll be getting some of the books to check my options.

Not a recommendation for you, but some reflections of our experience planning and doing a 5,000 mile tour last year, which worked well for us. Like you we weren't camping.

First of all, looked at the overall distance, as you suggest.

Then, put the route into cycle.travel and checked out bits that looked potentially difficult (ferries, border crossings, mountain ranges etc) and moved route accordingly. We booked ferries ahead from the very start, which anchored key dates. We planned a rest day somewhere interesting close to ferry ports to ensure we had a day to spare if necessary.

Decided a few key places we really wanted to visit; cities, lakes, cultural sites etc, and moved the route to go through them.

Then went through and put overnight stops where we were confident of being able to find accommodation, around the distance we wanted to average overall - 80km in your case I guess. This adds overall distance but also can result in a few shortish and longish days.

Added one day a week for rest days.

Counted up the total!

Actually on route, we treated it as a guide rather than a plan, and booked typically 3 days ahead. That's enough time to have a fairly reliable weather forecast, ensured we were never stressed looking for accommodation, but equally never at risk of losing a lot of money if we had to change at the last minute (this happened only once, food poisoning, and all the accommodation moved us a day without charging in reality).

We kept pretty much to the overall plan but changed quite a bit of the detailed route, for various reasons.

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