Jen’s Voigt  is one of cycling’s superstars. His inspiration to keep attacking for the win, no matter how much it hurts, inspired the phrase,”shut up legs.”  But is it always the best approach for mere mortals? The majority of average cyclists might be better served by listening to what their legs are trying to tell them.

Competitive Spirit

Cyclists are competitive at heart, driven to get the best out of themselves. If they have poor results, such as getting dropped on the local group ride, they feel bad about it and start planning on how to get faster. The usual conclusion is to train harder and longer to get more strength and endurance. It might not always be the best approach.

When You Should Listen to Legs

Listening to legs is important for several reasons: The signals they give you can be an indicator of overtraining, diet or chemicals in your legs, among other things.

Slow Legs

Slow, heavy legs and slow heartbeat could be a sign of overtraining. Understanding energy demands can help you understand why it’s often a question of listening to what your legs are telling you.

Dead Legs

Dead or slow legs basically means that if you ride too hard on every ride you will become exhausted. Over a period of weeks you become over trained. Enthusiasm will wane, riding will feel like a huge effort, and your legs will feel dead. “Shut up legs”, might not be the figure of speech your dead, slow legs want to hear.

Lacking Diet

It’s also good to evaluate your diet to make sure you’re eating enough calories and getting the proper nutrients. Low-calorie diets and nutrient deficiency can lead to dead legs as well. If your legs are fatigued and aren’t keeping up with your cardiovascular system, it may be a sign that something in your regimen is out of balance.

Hastened Training

Cyclists tend to hasten training, to get it all done quickly, but there is no shortcut to getting an aerobic base other than endurance hours. If you continue to train hard and fast, it can lead to dead legs—your breathing is fine, but your legs are unable to take you any faster due to fatigue. Also remember, the harder the effort, the shorter the ride. Don’t try to fit all the hard training in during a short amount of time, especially when your legs are tired and they’re telling you they need rest.

Waste Product

Listen to your legs if you feel a burning, somewhat intense pain. Lactic acid in the muscle is often the cause of leg pain. The  accumulation of lactate (it’s a separate chemical) as a waste product has brought down many cyclists in the form of cramps or overall pain. During a very intense and continuous ride, the production rate of the lactate exceeds the rate of its evacuation. At this point you will likely start to feel muscle fatigue, and pain.

Listen and React

Shift to a lower gear immediately to reduce the load on your muscles. Avoid a sudden stop; listen to what your legs are trying to tell you. Reduce your pedaling rate gradually and let the muscle get used to a lower load. Only then can you stop riding completely. If you stop immediately, your legs are going to feel super sore.

When All Else Fails

When all else fails, think about anything else other than your tired legs as telling them to shut up might be counterproductive. Set targets in the distance,  a treeline, the end of a stretch of blacktop, an intersection of highways, a town, so that you’re moving towards something and making the distance more manageable.

When It’s OK to Say “Shut Up Legs”

Other leg issues might include times when you’re legs might be talking too much. Bonking, interval training and the delayed onset of pain are good examples.

Legs Don’t Bonk

Don’t confuse leg issues with bonking. Generally when you bonk, you feel completely exhausted and have a hard time summoning energy to move. It usually doesn’t involve your leg muscles hurting though. Your legs can certainly end up sore, but a true bonk is not having the energy or desire to move your legs. In this instance, shut up legs is fine, it’s your energy and glucose levels talking to you.

Interval Sessions

Some professional cyclists recommend that approximately 75-to-85 percent of your training sessions should be centered around endurance work. If you’re riding 20 hours a week like elite athletes do, then that’s 16 hours at endurance pace. That still leaves 4 hours a week of interval training sessions. Shut up legs is fine for short intervals. Shutting them up, and allowing brief pain are muscle fibers breaking down. The end result is that they grow back bigger and stronger.

Delayed Pain

Cycling leg pain that appears several hours after the ride is typically also caused by microscopic tears in the tissues of the leg muscles. After the onset, it can  last for another 48 or 72 hours. This is normal, especially after a long and intense ride, particularly if you’re not used to it. The direct reason for pain is inflammation and temperature rise in muscles. Listen to your legs, if it’s unbearable after a ride, consider checking with a health care professional, and use whatever over-the-counter pain reliever and anti-inflammatory that you’re comfortable with to shut up your legs.

Get Comfortable with Your Legs

Give and take is the answer to leg issues tied directly to your training, diet, and cardiovascular system. Generally speaking, listen to all aspects of your body —  it’s easy for cyclists because they are typically in tune with their bodies, and treat it as an entity.

Training Tactics

One professional tactic is to implement easy days or rest days, just spinning the legs gently. Don’t even think about power output. Give your body a chance to heal and regroup. The gentle exercise will help the muscles in your legs to get the blood flowing and to take on nutrients and flush toxins.

Lungs are Not The Issue

Muscle Versus Speed

Don’t  leave out selective gearing to allow an even cadence no matter the terrain or weather conditions. Many cyclists like a cadence of about 90rpm’s to stay below their lactate threshold.

Life and Pace

Too many cyclists fall into the trap of deciding their pace before they ride off. If you’ve had a hard week at work and you haven’t had enough sleep, then you might not be able to complete a fast ride. Your cycling pace isn’t set in stone – if today needs to be a slow, steady ride, you can do your fast ride again when your legs don’t feel as sluggish.

Benefits of Listening to Your Legs

If you can cultivate the patience to listen to your legs and ride at an endurance pace correctly, then you should see the benefits in terms of more power, a better feeling , and better overall response to riding hard.