[Quince]

In short; when to ride, and when to rest?

After a big effort on a given day (and with the luxury of a free day afterwards), is it better to spend the following day pathetically curled in bed, or to head back out on the bicycle – albeit at a lower tempo?

I think I have an issue with ‘spikes’ in the regime… If I haven’t been out for a while, I’ll want to give it the beans when I next clamber aboard the bike; but if I’ve given it the beans the day before, I’ll want to spend the next day in a state of impromptu hibernation. Then things like work can throw the rhythm out further.

So, when do you opt for a recovery ride, and when do you purely rest? And, when you DO ride, at what length and intensity (compared to the harder days) do you ride at? As an aside, how do you plan around things like work hours – especially in the darker months?

I’d be interested to hear some thoughts!

Topic

[gr3g0ree]

My ‘long’ story short is that
My ‘long’ story short is that when decided to sort of train hard, the better, fitter and more precise in ‘performing’ a hard or a long day I got, the more sense and recovery I got back from a recovery ride.

Last year used to take ‘long’ days on my hybrid, and pushing myself every now and then to end up feeling some muscle soreness the day after. Recovery ride that was done at a heartrate in the lowest zone and with efficient cadence, never dropping (unless not pedaling) under 60-50rpm was the best I could do for my legs to enhance bloodflow and aid recovery. I felt it.

Earlier this year I tried to focus my efforts to what is known as interval training (ahem, gave my best shot in Richmond Park). I’m no pro, obviously, and on the same hybrid. Also working either a morning or an afternoon shift at a warehouse, I felt the lack of a rest day. Having a job that involves healthy physical exercise I would need (from what my body and legs were telling me) a rest day. Otherwise a very low intensity recovery ride between 30-60mins would do the job.

For me personally doesn’t matter if a hard day is a long hard day or a ‘short-ish’ sprint training, its the effort I put into and if its hard, I would prefer to take a 1h recovery ride next day, with another day off. Or another recovery ride the day after as I am commuting to work by bike every day.
The challenge of a recovery is the discipline. Got to go slow and no big gear. Slow speed + big cadence = recovery. Now learn to to that uphills too.
So to put it this way: hard/long, recovery, off, hard/long again <- ideal personal scenario for training. hard, recovery, recovery, recovery, hard/long <- weekly practical/manageable regime with usually 2-5 recovery days in a row. I'm afraid I can't help you with planning rides without knowing your commitments. Riding in general is not such an issue in dark/cold/snow/rain provided there's sort-of appropriate gear. Trying to follow a rather structured training plan is more of a challenge. Imagine a 1h recovery ride in moderate to hard rain. Insane. But doing an interval or some very close local hill repeat in rain with half-appropriate clothes max 20mins away from home is manageable. Same in one of the coldest days of the year (strictly by UK standards, which aren't that cold) is a no again, but some zone 2 heartrate training with steady effort keeping yourself warm and not too sweaty is manageable.

[fukawitribe]

Some excellent advice on
Some excellent advice on here, this might also provide some useful information. Written by Neal Henderson – director of sport science at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, CO and owner of Apex Coaching – don’t be put off by the triathlon link 😉

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2013/07/training/checking-your-intensity_59521

[Paul__M]

re the ego thing it helps to
re the ego thing it helps to have an old flat bar bike & mimic the studied nonchalance of the youth.

[Quince]

Thank you all – I feel I’ve
Thank you all – I feel I’ve learnt a lot, so I’m glad I asked. I have the benefit of a commute largely on decent segregated paths (I think one of about 10 bits of sensible infrastructure in the entire country), so I mainly don’t have to suffer from the ‘racing against rhinos’ scenario of using the roads. While it doesn’t count as a ‘recovery ride’ (it’s quite short, for one thing), I’ve realised the commutes are worth more to my riding (as well as being more pleasant) when done at the pace of a refined senior citizen. And it’s nice not arriving at work in a sweat.

I realise that’s not the scenario really that’s generally considered in a HIGHLYSERIOUS training plan, but there’s plenty of food for thought here for when I have more time to ride for the sake of riding, rather than to get somewhere.

[Quince]

Thank you all – I feel I’ve
Thank you all – I feel I’ve learnt a lot, so I’m glad I asked. I have the benefit of a commute largely on decent segregated paths (I think one of about 10 bits of sensible infrastructure in the entire country), so I mainly don’t have to suffer from the ‘racing against rhinos’ scenario of using the roads. While it doesn’t count as a ‘recovery ride’ (it’s quite short, for one thing), I’ve realised the commutes are worth more to my riding (as well as being more pleasant) when done at the pace of a refined senior citizen. And it’s nice not arriving at work in a sweat.

I realise that’s not the scenario really that’s generally considered in a HIGHLYSERIOUS training plan, but there’s plenty of food for thought here for when I have more time to ride for the sake of riding, rather than to get somewhere.

[KirinChris]

Daveyraveygravey wrote:
I

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

I read somewhere about 6 months ago that most of us amateur cyclists don’t really ever ride in such a way as to benefit. We don’t ride gently enough on a recovery ride to feel it; maybe if you ride 6 days a week very hard, then an hour or two at minimal intensity will help you. And the same article said that when we push ourselves, we aren’t doing it in a structured way , and both of these points applied to me. It also said a recovery ride should be as low intensity as you can, if you come to a hill walk up it. I tried to do a couple of rides in z2 or less, and if I took it easy on the flat I could do it, but the slightest hill would take me into z3.
If I feel tired now (usually in my quads) I won’t go out on the bike, but I try to push myself hard on 3 of the 4 rides a week I do, and make the 4th a longer ride.

When I first started being coached I found it really hard to do recovery rides so light that previously I would have thought were not worth getting my shoes on for.

But you don’t need to be doing 6 hard days a week to benefit from recovery – in fact you don’t need to be doing 6 hard days a week. It’s far too much.

A reasonable program would be:

Two hard days
One endurance day
One light recovery day
One day for a race or a different session like swimming or gym

That leaves two days of full rest. And if the race is hard then I would replace one of the two hard days with a light recovery day.

And punctuate that with an easier week in every four.

[notfastenough]

I think the problem with
I think the problem with recovery rides for amateurs is partly that you can end up being overtaken by grannies on shopping bikes or whatever, and your ego won’t allow that, and also that, especially on UK roads, faster feels safer in traffic. Not super speed, but I definitely feel safer at 22mph sat in the traffic flow, than pootling at 11mph and having everything pass me by way too closely.

Personally, I find recovery rides to be a luxury. I’m lucky if I get out on the bike more than twice a week (excluding 2 days commuting), which is why I’ve added gym sessions, because we go there as a family anyway.

[Daveyraveygravey]

Cyclist

Cyclist wrote:

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

Depends on your age and what you’re used to, also how good you are at gauging how you have recovered. I only ride 3 or 4 days a week and can’t feel any benefit from a recovery ride. And are you disciplined enough to do a recovery ride properly? Can you avoid the temptation for a ten minute sprint or blast up a hill?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ agreed… But the last line is a great question, you have to be disciplined.

I read somewhere about 6 months ago that most of us amateur cyclists don’t really ever ride in such a way as to benefit. We don’t ride gently enough on a recovery ride to feel it; maybe if you ride 6 days a week very hard, then an hour or two at minimal intensity will help you. And the same article said that when we push ourselves, we aren’t doing it in a structured way , and both of these points applied to me. It also said a recovery ride should be as low intensity as you can, if you come to a hill walk up it. I tried to do a couple of rides in z2 or less, and if I took it easy on the flat I could do it, but the slightest hill would take me into z3.
If I feel tired now (usually in my quads) I won’t go out on the bike, but I try to push myself hard on 3 of the 4 rides a week I do, and make the 4th a longer ride.

[bigmel]

abudhabiChris gives the best
abudhabiChris gives the best advice.
A longer. lower intensity ride requires you to have an easy spin after it – your muscles will have been busy bulking up on glycogen as they expect more effort – so spin your legs and keep it easy.
A short, intense ride will have directly broken down muscle tissue. Rest and let it repair.

[Cyclist]

Daveyraveygravey

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

Depends on your age and what you’re used to, also how good you are at gauging how you have recovered. I only ride 3 or 4 days a week and can’t feel any benefit from a recovery ride. And are you disciplined enough to do a recovery ride properly? Can you avoid the temptation for a ten minute sprint or blast up a hill?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ agreed… But the last line is a great question, you have to be disciplined.

[KirinChris]

As with the first comment,
As with the first comment, they are not just alternatives – they are different.

A day which is hard because it is long is probably better followed by a light recovery day.

A day which is hard because it is intense is probably better followed by a rest day.

If you want a rule of thumb portion them out in equal measure but mix it up a bit.

Hard-rest-recovery then hard-recovery-rest. Do that for three weeks and then have a very light week of only a couple of easy rides, maybe a low-level endurance ride and three or four rest days.

[Daveyraveygravey]

Depends on your age and what
Depends on your age and what you’re used to, also how good you are at gauging how you have recovered. I only ride 3 or 4 days a week and can’t feel any benefit from a recovery ride. And are you disciplined enough to do a recovery ride properly? Can you avoid the temptation for a ten minute sprint or blast up a hill?

[Daveyraveygravey]

Depends on your age and what
Depends on your age and what you’re used to, also how good you are at gauging how you have recovered. I only ride 3 or 4 days a week and can’t feel any benefit from a recovery ride. And are you disciplined enough to do a recovery ride properly? Can you avoid the temptation for a ten minute sprint or blast up a hill?

[Daveyraveygravey]

Depends on your age and what
Depends on your age and what you’re used to, also how good you are at gauging how you have recovered. I only ride 3 or 4 days a week and can’t feel any benefit from a recovery ride. And are you disciplined enough to do a recovery ride properly? Can you avoid the temptation for a ten minute sprint or blast up a hill?

[Daveyraveygravey]

Depends on your age and what
Depends on your age and what you’re used to, also how good you are at gauging how you have recovered. I only ride 3 or 4 days a week and can’t feel any benefit from a recovery ride. And are you disciplined enough to do a recovery ride properly? Can you avoid the temptation for a ten minute sprint or blast up a hill?

[Author]

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