Quote Originally Posted by weesara
This was helpful. I tried to do a "recovery ride" today, but I'm not sure I succeeded. It's very hilly near where I live, and the less hilly ways have a lot of cars. But I did go for a shorter ride, about 8.5 miles. Plan to go to the gym tomorrow and will focus on upper body as you suggest.

As for a log, what should I record? Any tips on this?
You can spin slowly up hills to try to get a recovery ride in.

Logging - if you're new, you might want to log everything. How far you road, any unusual circumstances (e.g., 30 mph headwind ), what you ate before & after & how you felt. That way, you can see if (for example) oatmeal is a better pre-ride meal than eggs, or orange juice & protein powder is a better post-ride refuel than a power bar. If you have a cyclometer, watch your average speed. If it starts to decline, you need a day (or two) off the bike.

In the gym, I always log my exercise and then number of sets X amount of weight used X number of reps. For example:

Bench press 3 X 70 X 10 (three sets, using 70 pounds and 10 reps for each set.)

I watch this closely because if I'm stagnant or sliding backwards, I'm probably training too much.

Also log any aches or pains, e.g., "rode hills - sore lower back" will be a cue that you need to spin on the hills - or maybe eliminate core/glute/leg work in the gym the day before a hill ride.