Rest

meanredspider

Now I know that rest is meant to be good for you but I'm a little thrown by how good it's been for me.

Last week, after a 1000-mile epic round trip to go motor racing all weekend at Cadwell Park, I was completely slaughtered so only cycled once last week. This week I'm on fire - two fastest rides in (with no or negative wind assistance). Monday was my fastest ever round trip and today I was feeling so good that I added 4 extra miles and a nasty hill with 300 more feet of steep climb on my ride home (18.5 miles & 1200 feet of climb). So far I'm nearly 1mph faster on average than any other week I've done.

Anybody else experienced this? I was more worried I'd go off the boil.

mtb-idle

yup, a good old rest every once in a while gives your body time to recover and instead of being constantly worn out you are fresher and therefore faster.

cjcp

Yep. Rest is part of training. Not that I regularly listen :roll: . But my two best times of the year so far for three laps of RP have come after a week when I've not ridden much. Was off the bike today, too.

meanredspider

I suppose the clever bit is knowing when to rest and for how long.

jonginge

meanredspider wrote:

I suppose the clever bit is knowing when to rest and for how long.

Indeed. Especially as cycling is not just exercise but something we enjoy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining

Paul E

I try and rest a bit, I have days when I can't use my bike for work so I take it easy on those days instead of walking like a maniac like I normally do.

Before my little trip upto the Isle of Arran for a 3 day cycling holiday breakette I am going to take at least 4 days off to let my legs recover and so I am that bit fresher.

Saying that on the way home I felt slower and sluggish and had a nasty headwind but still did a normal time and that was after 5 days of commutes over 8 days which is a lot as I haven't been back on my bike for long.

Kieran_Burns

I've forced myself to have a week off as it was just getting too much like hard work. As it turns out, I've had a chest infection and ermmm.... 'stomach problems' :oops:

The week off has been very much needed and all I want to do now is get back on the bike!

Craggers

What type of racing at Cadwell?? Gotta love the mountain!

meanredspider

Craggers wrote:

What type of racing at Cadwell?? Gotta love the mountain!

Like this (onboard film from my first race) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doVffjeaNZw

And this is me. I love attacking the Mountain (superb!)

Aidy

JonGinge wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

I suppose the clever bit is knowing when to rest and for how long.

Indeed. Especially as cycling is not just exercise but something we enjoy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining

Hmm, perhaps commuting every day and riding every weekend for the past er.. several months, hasn't been doing me that many favours.

amnezia

Aidy wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

I suppose the clever bit is knowing when to rest and for how long.

Indeed. Especially as cycling is not just exercise but something we enjoy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining

Hmm, perhaps commuting every day and riding every weekend for the past er.. several months, hasn't been doing me that many favours.

Its not just the volume of miles but the intensity at which you ride.

If you ride your commute flat out everyday like some people seem to then the chances are you're in a perpetual state of over-training.

Greg T

meanredspider wrote:

And this is me. I love attacking the Mountain (superb!)

Stone Cold Cool

Will you be my Dad?

Aidy

amnezia wrote:

Its not just the volume of miles but the intensity at which you ride.

If you ride your commute flat out everyday like some people seem to then the chances are you're in a perpetual state of over-training.

You mean there's another way of riding?

Greg T

amnezia wrote:

If you ride your commute flat out everyday like some people seem to .....

I never try hard, not trying.

jonginge

amnezia wrote:

Aidy wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

I suppose the clever bit is knowing when to rest and for how long.

Indeed. Especially as cycling is not just exercise but something we enjoy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining

Hmm, perhaps commuting every day and riding every weekend for the past er.. several months, hasn't been doing me that many favours.

Its not just the volume of miles but the intensity at which you ride.

If you ride your commute flat out everyday like some people seem to then the chances are you're in a perpetual state of over-training.

This.

I find it quite hard not to flay myself on the commute.
When I first started commuting I did 5 days a week on an MTB. After not too long I lost all enthusiasm to do any weekend riding. It took me a while to work out what was going on. Now I either have one day off cycle commuting a week or ride my pearson which is a spinnier ride.

This week I've had two days off the bike coz I recognized the apathy symptoms early. The Magnificat has fatigued me a bit

petejuk

I agree, its very easy to beast yourself on the commute, as you begin to associate the route itself with the speed and effort you usually do so it becomes the norm. Your body (and mind) go into autopilot. I started riding with my heart rate monitor just to keep the effort down. I was shocked by how much effort I was putting in.

Rich158

That's exactly why I pulled out of the stats league. The temptation to flay myself just to stay in the top 3 was too much. Now my mileage has gone down I'm able to concentrate on quality and my performance has gone through the roof. I still commute 4 days/week but make a massive effort to make at least 2 of those commutes very easy recovery sessions. You don't have to be off the bike to recover, just take it easy abit on the odd occasion

amnezia

petejuk wrote:

I agree, its very easy to beast yourself on the commute, as you begin to associate the route itself with the speed and effort you usually do so it becomes the norm. Your body (and mind) go into autopilot. I started riding with my heart rate monitor just to keep the effort down. I was shocked by how much effort I was putting in.

My commuter has no speedo for this exact reason, much better to aim for a target cardio level than a target speed.

rjsterry

If you ride your commute flat out everyday like some people seem to then the chances are you're in a perpetual state of over-training.

Guilty as charged. My legs are a bit wrecked this week after some SCR nonsense on Wednesday (kind of forgot about the nonchalance bit), and are feeling pretty sore. I've been desperately trying to take it a bit easier, but suitable scalpees keep turning up and I just don't seem to be able to stop myself. :oops:

Thought it might help that my speedo has got a loose connection and now only works in the wet, but this just seems to make me push harder as some warped part of my brain says, "well if you can't see what speed you're doing, you must be going too slowly."

Help me.

Perhaps I'll give the HRM a go.

Rich158

amnezia wrote:

petejuk wrote:

I agree, its very easy to beast yourself on the commute, as you begin to associate the route itself with the speed and effort you usually do so it becomes the norm. Your body (and mind) go into autopilot. I started riding with my heart rate monitor just to keep the effort down. I was shocked by how much effort I was putting in.

My commuter has no speedo for this exact reason, much better to aim for a target cardio level than a target speed.

+1, the only way I can force myself to ride at a recovery pace is with my HR monitor.

meanredspider

Yup - I'm a junkie for continuous improvement in my times. The funny thing is, and the lesson (to me at least) from all this is that I'm so much faster this week. This morning I beat my fastest ever speed over the 15 miles (set on Monday!) by 0.5mph and my average for this week will be up by over 1mph. That the sort of change I was seeing when I started back in Feb

meanredspider

Greg T wrote:

Stone Cold Cool

Will you be my Dad?

Ta - but 3 kids is enough! I could race every weekend if I didn't have to pay for them.

rjsterry

May have actually managed a recovery ride this evening. Didn't really push it at all due to th slippery roads. Didn't take more than 5 minutes extra either.

Paul E

I am taking 4 days off to let me legs get over a very long week after only starting to commute recently, will see how I improve on wednesday

stage_fright

meanredspider wrote:

Craggers wrote:

What type of racing at Cadwell?? Gotta love the mountain!

Like this (onboard film from my first race) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doVffjeaNZw

And this is me. I love attacking the Mountain (superb!)

nice - i was there on the Saturday with Porsche Club and think I watched your qualifying session - some lovely cars out there. Weather was great on the Saturday - it was my first time at Cadwell - but heard it wasn't that great on the Sunday?

edit - am writing this from Castle Combe, just waiting for first race...

andy83

Rich158 wrote:

You don't have to be off the bike to recover, just take it easy abit on the odd occasion

This is how I mainly get my recovery, I have prob one complete day off the bike every 2 weeks but do have easier days

Problem is i have already doubled my mileage for the whole of last year this year already. My body is crying out for exercise and cycling is the best thing for me to do time wise, and due to a medical condition which means running is just a no go and im not a fan of gyms

The only problem is an easy day for me now is 15 - 20 miles and i actually feel a lot worse if I dont ride. I was burning myself out but since realising and making myself have easy rides this has been great for recovery

meanredspider

Stage Fright wrote:

nice - i was there on the Saturday with Porsche Club and think I watched your qualifying session - some lovely cars out there. Weather was great on the Saturday - it was my first time at Cadwell - but heard it wasn't that great on the Sunday?

edit - am writing this from Castle Combe, just waiting for first race...

Ah, yes, I watched the Porsche races. I qualified an unexpected 3rd way out of position relative to my car's capability. 3 years ago I had a day there with Marks Hales which obviously paid off. DNF'd though with an exhaust issue.

Sunday was shocking - there was the mother and father of thunderstorms then the Mini from our series dumped oil from his brand new engine ALL the way around the circuit on the green flag lap. Slightly unnerving to start a race only to see slippery surface flags at every post! Watch the first 20 secs of this to see what it was like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zqZrqyVIw

stage_fright

Nice video(s) - a bit of wheelpsin as the car goes light over the Mountain on a couple of occasions? Looks a great circuit, I was being told they are ooking to widen it in order to attract BTCC etc - can't see how you would do that though without changing the character of the track, not necessarily for the good.

I wasn't in the Porsche races, but was the 'expert' who kept popping up in the commentary and talking about the series.

meanredspider

Aha - yes, so that was you.

Yes - the car goes very light at the top of the mountain - just at the point you want to change gear to third (I variously selected 5th and 1st! on one occasion - fortunately spotted my mistake before fully engaging the clutch!) and got very out of shape in testing too.

It would be a shame to widen it but I think it would make it a better racing circuit for cars - it really is too narrow to overtake safely. Might ruin it for bikes though....

Oddjob62

Rich158 wrote:

That's exactly why I pulled out of the stats league. The temptation to flay myself just to stay in the top 3 was too much. Now my mileage has gone down I'm able to concentrate on quality and my performance has gone through the roof. I still commute 4 days/week but make a massive effort to make at least 2 of those commutes very easy recovery sessions. You don't have to be off the bike to recover, just take it easy abit on the odd occasion

Same. Trying to get my lifts in the gym back to respectable level + trying to improve my performance on the bike + doing loads of miles every day was never going to work.

Aidy

Hmm.

Perhaps I should try and fish one of the HRMs out, and actually try to chill for at least one commute a week.