Impact of race intensity effort? I’m a 53yo that’s been doing long distance mountain bike races for quite a while and I’m familiar with the effects of 5+ hours of moderate effort with burst of high intensity. 

I did an XC race on Sunday where I started strong but crashed a few minutes in. From that point I chased the leader who is slightly stronger than me. According to my HRM, I spent  a solid hour in Zone 4 with a spikes to Zone 5. I’ve never maintained that intensity for that long before. 

I felt pretty good after the race with just some muscle soreness. However, that evening I couldn’t get to sleep. The next day I felt hungover and drained. I’ve done 50 mile rides that haven’t felt this bad. Is this normal for that kind of effort?

It’s strange how different the impact is to what I experienced from the longer distances. 