?s about recovery rides and training

I got off on a tangent and asked some of these ?s in a different thread, but I figure if I ask here I'll get more answers.

What exactly IS a recovery ride? Is it a really slow ride? Are you supposed to get your HR up and breathe hard still? Are you supposed to feel much burn? How should your body feel on a recovery ride? I've been trying to do recovery rides but any time I'm on my road bike and I'm not breathing hard, I feel guilty. Today I got the idea to get out my beach cruiser and take the dog on a ride. The dog and the slow bike forced me not to go too fast. Does 5 slow miles on a beach cruiser even count as a recovery ride, or is that more like a day off?

If I ride 5 days a week - doing 2 long rides, 1-2 short fast rides, and 1-2 recovery rides depending on how I feel, is that going to be too many days off & recovery rides?

How are you supposed to do intervals? I've been riding as hard as I can for like 10-15 rotations, until my legs burn quite a bit, then I slow down. After I slow down my heart says "hey wait a minute! What happened there?" then it remembers to start beating faster and I breathe hard for like 4 breaths and then do it again. For the rest of the ride I stay right on the line where I can get out 3 words at a time or so, but no more, and my legs alternate between burning and not burning for the whole ride.

Am I training hard enough to keep getting better? Too hard? How do I know?

I'm sure somebody here will have some good answers, but my suggestion is to go to the library and check out some books by a great training coach... They go into depth on many of your questions, along with sample training plans and menus.


5 Essentials for a Winning Life: The Nutrition, Fitness, and Life Plan for Discovering the Champion Within
by Chris Carmichael, Jim Rutberg
Softcover, Rodale Pr, ISBN 1594868093 (1-59486-809-3)

More editions of 5 Essentials for a Winning Life: The Nutrition, Fitness, and Life Plan for Discovering the Champion Within: Hardcover, St Martins Pr, ISBN 1594864551 (1-59486-455-1)

Andy Pruitt's Complete Medical Guide for Cyclists
by Fred Matheny, Andrew L. Pruitt
Softcover, Velopress, ISBN 1931382808 (1-931382-80-8)

The Carmichael Training Systems Cyclist's Diary
by Chris Carmichael, Jim Rutberg
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group, ISBN 0425200388 (0-425-20038-8)

Chris Carmichael's Fitness Cookbook: Delicious Recipes For Increased Fitness, Enhanced Health, And Weight Loss
by Chris Carmichael, Jim Rutberg, Mark Tarbell
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group, ISBN 039915292X (0-399-15292-X)

More editions of Chris Carmichael's Fitness Cookbook: Delicious Recipes For Increased Fitness, Enhanced Health, And Weight Loss: Softcover, Berkley Pub Group, ISBN 0425209911 (0-425-20991-1)

Chris Carmichael's Food For Fitness: Eat Right To Train Right (
by Chris Carmichael, Jim Rutberg, Kathy Zawadzki, Lance Armstrong
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group, ISBN 0425202550 (0-425-20255-0)

Thanks for the book suggestions! I will definitely look for some of those.

I have "The Runner's Handbook" by Bob Glover and some of it pertains to cycling somewhat but that's all I have as far as fitness books. It's a pretty good book - I used it years ago when I was running.

I have also been wondering about some of these same questions myself. I currently ride maybe 3 times a week outdoors depending on the weather, which lately hasn't been too good! So it seems like I get in one really hard ride a week 40-60+ miles with 2000+ feet of climbing. Then, I'll do what I call my recovery ride, which is about 22 miles on flat, and I'll go at whatever pace feels comfortable to me, without pushing myself. Of course, I have no idea if this is correct or not. Somewhere in between I'll do a moderate ride of maybe 32 miles rolling hills. I've also wondered how soon before and after a difficult ride can I do my recovery ride? My last ride that was 63 miles, I did the 22 mile flat ride two days before. It seemed to work out just fine. This week I plan to do it the day before my 65 mile ride. I don't know if that's a bad idea though.

As I understand it, a true "recovery ride" (or run) is just that, the day after a hard effort. The idea is to circulate blood and lymphatic fluid through the fatigued and micro-torn muscles to speed recovery without causing more damage.

Also as I understand it - there's a benefit to both short and long intervals, and you can do maximal effort (usually for a shorter time) or steady-state at a defined heart rate or pace. Some authorities say that intervals as short as 30 seconds are beneficial, although to my completely unscientific way of thinking, "no pain no gain" - I'm barely starting to suffer after 45 seconds of maximal effort, so I don't do anything shorter than 1 minute.

Hills and pacelines are sort of stealth ways of doing intervals, but they're not very well-controlled unless you're actually doing hill repeats, or frequent consistent pulls.

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Originally Posted by XMcShiftersonX

I have also been wondering about some of these same questions myself. I currently ride maybe 3 times a week outdoors depending on the weather, which lately hasn't been too good! So it seems like I get in one really hard ride a week 40-60+ miles with 2000+ feet of climbing. Then, I'll do what I call my recovery ride, which is about 22 miles on flat, and I'll go at whatever pace feels comfortable to me, without pushing myself. Of course, I have no idea if this is correct or not. Somewhere in between I'll do a moderate ride of maybe 32 miles rolling hills. I've also wondered how soon before and after a difficult ride can I do my recovery ride? My last ride that was 63 miles, I did the 22 mile flat ride two days before. It seemed to work out just fine. This week I plan to do it the day before my 65 mile ride. I don't know if that's a bad idea though.

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A recovery ride is after, not before, a hard effort. Before a hard effort, you might do an easier or shorter ride in an effort to rest your legs, but that's not a "recovery" ride.

I don't tend to call my rides "recovery rides" unless I'm truly recovering from a hard effort. If I'm just tired or want to ride easy or socially, it's just "a ride." But then, that's likely just semantics. Frankly, I'm really off my game right now so everything feels like a recovery ride.

Here's how Carmichael Training describes the Recovery Miles:
Goal:To speed the recovery process by riding at an easy pace at low resistance on flat terrain. Benefits include increasing blood flow to the muscles to help remove muscle soreness, reducing free radical build-up that cause muscle stress and damage. Studies have shown that active recovery at an appropriate pace leads to faster recovery than complete rest.

How to do it: Recovery rides should be between 30-120 minutes in length on flat to rolling terrain. Keep your pedal speed slower than normal, staying in a light gear to keep resistance low. Heart rate must also remain low even if you hit any hills, just slow down and use your gears to keep the resistance low. The key to recovery rides is to ride just enough to engage the active recovery process but not long or intense enough to induce a training stress upon yourself. This is a workout that you will use during all your training periods.

Even though the temptation is there to vegetate on the couch the day following a tough workout, use RR as an active recovery workout to jump start the process of repair and regeneration.

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Originally Posted by tctrek

Even though the temptation is there to vegetate on the couch the day following a tough workout, use RR as an active recovery workout to jump start the process of repair and regeneration.

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That explains it, and it makes me feel really good. Today I was totally dreading getting on my bike because I was so run down from my rides on Monday and Tuesday. It would have been so tempting to just sit and veg. When I decided to compromise by chilling on the beach cruiser, I probably accomplished exactly what a recovery ride is supposed to accomplish.

So . . . . if you take nice slow recovery rides, is it necessary to take days off?

I know with running there's general rules about how close to a marathon you should do your training runs, just vaguely from my sister that does marathons. I think usually if she has a marathon planned on the upcoming weekend, she'll do a short easy run at the beginning of the week and then rest until the marathon.

I know that to be considered a recovery ride, it comes after your hard effort. But, I guess what I was trying to get at is, are there rules similar to the running ones that apply to cycling? Like, is it bad to do an easy ride the day before a hard one? How many days before a hard ride should you do your last training ride, etc.

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Originally Posted by staceysue

That explains it, and it makes me feel really good. Today I was totally dreading getting on my bike because I was so run down from my rides on Monday and Tuesday. It would have been so tempting to just sit and veg. When I decided to compromise by chilling on the beach cruiser, I probably accomplished exactly what a recovery ride is supposed to accomplish.

So . . . . if you take nice slow recovery rides, is it necessary to take days off?

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Technically, it is not necessary to take days off if you properly incorporate active recovery into your training plan. However, scheduling in a ride every day can be challenging, and taking a day off the bike completely is great for mental health. I usually take Fridays off the bike completely and enjoy the change of scenery :-)

What Oakleaf and tcttrek said........

I road 42 miles on Saturday. I was sore on Sunday, so I went on a leisurely coffee run, just to get the circulation going (recovery ride).

I used to run, and there are a lot more running books--and they are applicable--than cycling books. You also might try thinking of it in terms of heart rate--there are several books that describe all sports in terms of heart rate. (ie. recover ride, less than 70% max HR? interval 80%, then recover to 70%?)

If you are a new rider, just getting out there and getting the seat time and mileage in is sufficient. After a couple years of riding (and my first spinning class), I added a "hill" day. I follow my husband up the biggest, baddest hills he can find. It's a short ride, maybe only thirty minutes with a focus on getting up the hill (shifting) and not on speed (recovery on the descent). This is an option to intervals (which in spinning class is a sprint).

Will you get better? Yes. Just by consistently getting out there. However I've found that riding longer distances and doing hillier routes, have improved my overall fitness. We do a century at the end of the summer, so we consistently increase our distance by 5 miles per weekend. Long rides are slower (just like running), but increase my endurance and make me faster on shorter rides. Hills improve my strength and also make me faster on normal, flatter rides.

Just get out there!