Recovery Rides

Edwin

What kind of distance do people do for recovery?

A bit of background: I'm a newbie 3rd cat, struggling a bit this season trying to get 2nd. I'm currently racing twice a week, comprising 30 odd mile local road race league on Thursday evenings, and 'proper' races at weekends, ie 50-60 mile 2/3/4 races. I've also done a few harder events, such as the 88 mile E123 div champs yesterday (which hurt a lot). With the time taken to recover, I'm not bothering to do much training, but was wondering if throwing in more easy recovery miles would help.
I only live a mile and a half from the office, so during the off-season I was doing a 27 mile loop every day before work, but today I just rode straight to work and back. Is there any benefit to just doing those 3 miles, or should I tried to have tried to do an extra half an hour on the way home? Although my legs ache, I didn't feel that bad on the bike, I'm just avoiding doing too much during the week - is this wrong?
Would be interested in what other people have found to be beneficial.

Ed

James_London

About 60-90km a week. I also race Cat 3.

30-45km *EASY* is great to keep the legs turning between hard efforts - training or races. I'd normally average 29-30km for a recovery ride depending on the terrain - about 65% of max HR - for two days out of six riding each week. Just be prepared to be overtaken and don't sweat it!

Look at the recovery ride recommendations in the training schedules in 'Racing and Training with a Powermeter' for more detail.

Bronzie

James_London wrote:

Look at the recovery ride recommendations in the training schedules in 'Racing and Training with a Powermeter' for more detail.

Just started using a power meter and I am amazed at how softly I have to pedal to keep my average watts below the recommended level. Assuming I've got my figures right (still trying to get to grips with it all at the moment), most of my previous "recovery rides" were actually more endurance level than recovery.

Alex_Simmons/RST

for a walk on the pedals, 30-90 minutes is typical
it won't improve your fitness though, so it's optional

Edwin

Thanks everyone, sounds like at least half an hour or about 20 miles is the way to go. I'll do an easy loop in the morning and relax PM. Must admit I find it hard to ride slowly, even when tired!

nolf

For my recovery rides I've got a very short local loop.

Often I find just spending 45 minutes going up and down some local bike paths is a good way to do it. I find that if i get back feeling better than when I started I've done it right, and if I feel worse I probably went too hard.

vorsprung

I have a 15 mile hilly commute which I take it easy on for a recovery ride
This takes approx an hour

As I understand it, the recovery ride is supposed to aid blood flow around the micro torn muscles in your legs. So I aim to ride for long enough to give some kind of warm up on a recovery ride.

100%

I'm interested to know if people find their recovery rides make much difference?

Pretty new to training/racing myself, having started with cross last season. I just rested between sessions and did some running during the season. Bit stiff from training this week, so wondering if it's better to do a recovery ride to try and not seize up or just to rest?

Cheers,
Steve

vorsprung

100% wrote:

I'm interested to know if people find their recovery rides make much difference?

Pretty new to training/racing myself, having started with cross last season. I just rested between sessions and did some running during the season. Bit stiff from training this week, so wondering if it's better to do a recovery ride to try and not seize up or just to rest?

As I understand it, recovery rides work for some people and not for others
Remember the recovery ride is v-e-r-y s-l-o-w

The old folks on shopper bikes should be over taking you

Jaeger

vorsprung wrote:

The old folks on shopper bikes should be over taking you

It's whether you can take the embarassment or not.... (damn pride!) :roll:

chrisw12

From a personal totally un-scientific point of view I feel that recovery rides are pretty pointless from a RECOVERY point of view, but for me the point is more weight management and keeping to a routine of trying to ride 6 days a week.

What I'm trying to say ((badly) is that I only do recovery rides because | have to ride my bike 6 days a week (to work) and sometimes I'm just too knackered to do anything else.

Bhima

It's all bollocks. What a waste of time!

I've tried them, but I always end up giving in and putting the hammer down! :?

Either I don't ride hard enough - so I feel OK to go crazy on my recovery rides, or I ride extremely hard and am so mashed the next day that I can't even think about riding, even at a snail's pace.

freehub

I don't do recovery rides, I either go on a normal ride or don't ride at all.

mclarent

I try and do my "recovery" as part of my commute - 5 miles spinning each way - which is tough (FCN - I'm not allowed to talk about it ), which means my legs don't get wrecked and I can try and get the best out of my training plan. That means that my off days (typically mondays, occasional tuesday, wednesday, thursday and/or friday... ) include a recovery spin of 1 hour or so....