You Should Not Ride Every Day; This Is Why
While riding daily is fun and impressive, cyclists need recovery periods to stay healthy, ride stronger, and avoid burnout. This advice from a coach and a sports psychologist helped me rethink rest.
How many days in a row have you ridden your bike?
While many cyclists simply aren’t fussed about riding every day – or avoid it because the challenge of riding every day doesn’t agree with their training plan, some riders get hung up on needing to ride every day. I fall into that category: This spring, I broke a 125-day riding streak (aka an unbroken sequence of riding a bike), and over a month later, I’m still beating myself up about snapping it.
“Riding every day also caused me to feel burnt out.”
Unfortunately, riding every day and getting sucked into a streak also caused me to feel burnt out. And now, as long daylight days and summer temps are here, I lack the motivation to get out on the road or trails.
Some riders’ streak goals might be a week, ten days, or even a month. While my slightly longer than four-month streak wasn’t short, it was tiny compared to those of some riders. Other cyclists continue streaks for hundreds, if not thousands, of days. Bicycling alum Jim Langley’s riding streak lasted 10,269 days.
The Case For Riding Every Day
Your motivation might be fitness, but others ride daily for consistency and to develop a habit. Riding daily helps some people add cycling to their daily routine. And some undertake it for the challenge or to do something bold that they didn’t think was possible.
“Riding is like meditation for me and keeps me sane. I think about all sorts of things and sometimes try to empty my thoughts.”
Motivating yourself to ride every day can be tough. Colin Gay’s riding streak is approaching 4,000 days. “I am best at following rules. It’s not if I ride today, but when,” Gay told me. He explained that riding “is like meditation for me and keeps me sane. I think about all sorts of things and sometimes try to empty my thoughts.”
The challenge itself can also be your motivation; I often need that kick in the rear to go outside and pedal my bike, and continuing a daily challenge can be my main motivator. “I needed a change and this offered that,” Gay said. “It won’t do that for everyone, but for me, I just love riding my bike.”
Consistency is important when developing routines. If you strive to ride more or commute to work by bike, undertaking a daily riding challenge can help you settle into a routine that works with your lifestyle. It pushes you to find ways to squeeze riding into your day; rather than blowing off a ride, you will find time in the morning or after work to get out on the road or trail.
If your riding goals are based on distance or time, riding daily can quickly boost those numbers. It also keeps you riding, even when the weather is unfavourable. “While I love bicycles and riding, my desire to ride wanes when the outside temperature ticks above 32 degrees or falls below 5°. Rainy weather also often pushes me to ride the couch instead of my bike. The risk of breaking a streak is sometimes all I need to get on the bike in less-than-favourable conditions.”
The Case Against Riding Every Day
However, riding daily can also do more harm than good. While participating in my most recent daily riding challenge, I rode on a few days when I should have decided against getting on the bike. Though I usually rode indoors on Zwift on days with freezing outside temps, I also unwisely kitted up and rode when I was sick to keep my streak alive. This lack of rest probably prolonged my illness and contributed to some of the riding burnout I currently feel.
Riding daily can be particularly unwise if fitness is one of your cycling priorities or if you are training for an event. A good training plan builds rest days and recovery periods into your schedule. And to properly recover, you need to know when to stay off the bike.
“Rest isn’t a break from training, it is training,” said Bicycling’s membership coach David Lipscomb. He explained, “Without recovery, fitness becomes fatigue, and performance becomes punishment.” Rest and recovery are strategies cyclists use to ride stronger. Lipscomb’s recently released book, The System 6×6 Framework, “blends science, structure, and strategy to help athletes train smarter, recover better, and perform longer”.
You need those days off the bike to recover and adapt before undertaking more training. As Coach David told me, your body doesn’t get stronger from the ride itself because it grows from the response to the ride. “A rest day is where the real adaptation happens,” he said.
Coach David’s response to my questions about riding daily ended with a great pearl of wisdom: “Riding every day without strategy is just stress with a fancy name – and the fast track to burnout or a performance plateau.” And he is right; that stress takes a toll on your body and mind. I know this firsthand as I’m experiencing this burnout and plateau from riding almost every day this year.
I contacted sports psychologist and Certified Mental Performance Consultant Dr. Erin Ayala for more advice on why rest days are important for cyclists to avoid burnout. Ayala, is also an accomplished road, gravel, and indoor racer.
“Cycling is a stress on the body – even if it’s the good kind,” she notes. Your body’s stress response can stay in overdrive if you do not take occasional breaks from riding. “Rest helps us balance our moods, keeps anxiety in check, and helps us manage our emotions on and off the bike,” Dr. Ayala said.
Research shows that a lack of recovery can significantly increase the risk of burnout in athletes. It finds that athletes who build rest and recovery into their training plans will stay more motivated and stick to their training plans long-term. Dr. Ayala said this is especially true “when combined with intense training schedules or other life stressors.”
Dr. Ayala emphasised that chronic training stress can negatively affect mood and motivation. “Overtraining can lead to brain fog, mood swings, sleep concerns, and poorer performance over time,” she said.
Riding streaks are not the only thing that keeps cyclists from taking rest days. Cycling’s social media culture, particularly Instagram and Strava, is another big culprit. Many riders get caught up in posting photos and stats from every ride. And honestly, I am one of those riders.
However, that drive to feed the algorithm also hurts rider recovery, and therefore our performance on the bike in the long term. Cyclists need those days off to boost fitness and avoid burnout. For example, Stava’s Fitness Score graph (particularly the version on the mobile app) can make riders feel that taking a day off from riding or working out negatively impacts their fitness.
Of course, Strava’s calculations are based on a more complicated formula (it combines training load and relative effort) than simply, “Ride more and the score goes up.” Strava also offers a separate Fitness and Freshness graph on its desktop site, but it is easily overlooked. (Plus, how many riders use the desktop features in 2025?) The company offers a more detailed explanation of the features and calculations on its support site.
Finally, re-evaluate your social media use if you feel pressure not to take rest days from Strava or another platform. Dr. Ayala helped put social media’s impact on riding into context. “Ask yourself, ‘If I posted about this on social media and received zero likes or kudos, would I still be doing it?’ If the answer is no, it may be time to reconsider your training strategy to prioritise what works best for you.”
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