Advice on Recovery

[SnappyPix]

I'm wondering if anyone can give me some advice on implementing recovery as part of my training regimen.

How many days per week do you ride - and are your days off intentional recovery days?
Are your recovery days spent completely off the bike, or do you do use a recovery day for easy spinning?
In a heavy training week, do you recover at the beginning or end of a week?
Is it beneficial to have two consecutive recovery days, rather than two staggered days?

So many questions!
Here's some personal information:
My hardest training days are:
Saturday - 100km+ endurance ride of steep hills with local club
Sunday - 60-70km ride of varying intensity with local club
Monday - rest day
Tuesday - easy riding, roughly 60km
Wednesday - hillwork, typically 30-50km
Thursday, easy riding, typically 30km
Friday, moderate pace, roughly 30-40km.

The Tuesday-Friday isn't a rigid schedule and may vary in mileage or intensity.

By the time Saturday comes around, my legs are starting to get tired, which is bad news as Saturday is my hardest day.
I don't think I'm recovering enough as my legs are shot two-thirds of the way through the Saturday ride.
I'm currently training for several events and as it's midwinter here in NZ, I'm at the beginning of the training year, which means the Saturday and Sunday club rides will become significantly harder and longer (respectively) as the season progresses.

I don't want to drop mileage, as I want to maintain a base and need to get the miles in, but am well aware that it's also a question of quality as opposed to quantity.
I'm also beginning to realise the importance of recovery as part of the training week.

Nutritionally I'm fine - hydrate lots (take a camelbak as well as two bottles on the Saturday ride) and I've just been converted to Hammer Perpetuem, which is really the business. I feel my lack of oomph is more training than nutritionally based.

Sorry I'm rambling.
You ladies are such a mine of information and although I don't post much, your words of wisdom have helped me come on in my training enourmously.
I'd be so grateful if anyone could take a brief minute to maybe guide me as to what I should/shouldn't be doing with regard to training and recovery.
I AM improving, my average speed is steadily creeping up and I'm managing steeper climbs without my heart rate monitor yelling "WTF?!" at me anymore.
But I'm starting to feel fatigued and by the time the weekend comes along my legs certainly aren't fresh.

Advice, anyone? :confused:

[rocknrollgirl]

Now I am sure that you are going to get lots and lots of feedback from this site that is really great, and I basically have nothing scientific or sports medicine or Lance Armstrongish to back this up....

Oh and I am just a mt biker....But I do race, so here goes.....

In my case sometimes after a really hard day of training, I need two days recovery. I might take a walk, or lift upper body, or do a very light spin, and sometimes I just do nothing. It makes it hard to schedule it all in sometimes with two rest days, but I have found if I back off a bit, I have a much better ride next time.

So like I said...I know nothing from nothing, just what works for me.....

I hope you figure it out.

[Nanci]

If I were you I'd throw in a rest day Thursday or Friday, too. Rest is VERY important. A lot of people view it as something they have to do like a "punishment" almost, but your muscle fibers that have been all torn up in training need time to rebuild and get stronger, and that happens on rest days. If you are already feeling tired in the days before your long ride of the week, at the beginning of the season, imagine how it's going to feel when you ramp up, if you don't add in more rest.

I know- it's hard. But important!! All you do by overtraining is damage, and you run the risk of getting mentally burned out, too, and it's tough to recover from that.

Nanci

[Pedal Wench]

Yeah, I don't know much, but I know that you need at least one day off a week - either complete rest or an easy spin.

It took me a while to figure out the benefits of recovery until recently. I used to do a hard ride on Tuesday nights, and then a really hard group ride on Wednesdays. I could barely keep up on the Wed. ride for the first few miles, and then I was always tossed off the back. Well, one week I missed my Tuesday ride, so I did the Wednesday ride completely fresh. For the first time ever, I was able to keep up for the entire ride! Since then, I've always taken Tuesdays off. I still fall far behind at times on Wednesday's rides, I keep getting better and better!

[madisongrrl]

This might sound kind of obvious, but just listen to your body. You might need more rest than someone else who has your training schedule or maybe you need less rest. If your legs are tired by Saturday and you are planning on doing your hardest day of the week, don't do it. Go back to the drawing board and rework you training schedule.

Each training week should not be the same. If you are doing that way, then you are doing yourself a disservice. Cycling is much like run training. You have weeks that you build, weeks that you taper, weeks that you peak. Training should be in cycles. Are you currently racing? If you are over training many times, you can see it in your race results.

[SnappyPix]

Thanks ladies, for your words of wisdom.

I know you're right and that, realistically, I need to focus more on my recovery - possibly taking two days if it's been a particularly hard week or I'm starting to get fatigued. It should be blatantly obvious, but it's difficult to stay subjective when you're also trying to increase your stamina and training - and taking two days off a week seems like precious training time wasted.
I know, I know - recovery is also important, but it's so easy to lose focus and perspective, I guess - which is why this board is great, always someone to give you a slap and set your right again!

I train with guys, mostly, who are stronger than me. That's good in one respect, as it keeps me pushing, but I also need to keep my own limitations in mind too, I suppose and - as you say - listen to my body.

[RoadRaven]

Hi Snappy

Rest days are very important to build in to your training schedule... but sometimes your legs can hurt if you don't ride.
So you can choose to build in active recovery - where you ride at low intensity / low heart rate - just to move your legs and ease the muscles.

For example, yesterday afternoon I did some interval training - 5 minutes at close to my LT then rest for 3 mins and repeat... and so on...
This morning my legs were aching, so I sat on the spin bke this morning before I woke the house and we headed off for school and work ... 30 minutes where I barely raised my HR above what it would be if I were walking.

This evening I was on the bike for an hour - half an hour of that at 75%.
I suspect I will be doing another low intensity workout tomorrow in preparation for my race on Saturday although usually I would not ride the day before a race...

[rocknrollgirl]

Hi Again Snappy,
You have been getting some great feedback.
I train with all guys too, and sometimes I need more recovery than they do. For example, we are planning a hard ride on Sunday, so today i lifted weights, and tomorrow I rest.

They guys are riding tomorrow too and wanted me to go. I told them I had to save my legs for Sunday. They looked at me like I had three heads!!!!!!

I learned about rest days the hard way...listen to your bod!

Ruth

[Dogmama]

My hardest training days are:
Saturday - 100km+ endurance ride of steep hills with local club
Sunday - 60-70km ride of varying intensity with local club
Monday - rest day
Tuesday - easy riding, roughly 60km
Wednesday - hillwork, typically 30-50km
Thursday, easy riding, typically 30km
Friday, moderate pace, roughly 30-40km.


If you're feeling fatigued, you are not recovering and you won't build a base because you will eventually burn out, get sick or both. Your weekend rides are too hard back-to-back. You need to make one day an easy day. Here is what I suggest:

Saturday - same as above
Sunday - slow, flat approx 30-50 km
Monday off
Tuesday Sprints or hill work
Wednesday - repeat Sunday
Thursday - Sprints or hill work
Friday off

Make your Tues/Thurs rides negotiable. If you're tired, turn them into slow flat days.

If you MUST ride weekends, you need Friday and Monday totally off. Tues and Thurs should be slow flat and Wednesday should be sprints or hill work but make that negotiable.

Your muscles are being torn apart and they need time to repair and get stronger. You should be refueling immediately after your ride with fast carbs/protein (whey) liquid shake and a meal within an hour later. Put a little l-glutamine powder in your liquid shake to enhance recovery.

Make sure you are getting enough sleep and try to eliminate stress. Keep your diet clean.

I would put light upper body weight training into your off days. You don't want to work legs, however. :D