Recovery rides question

bobtbuilder

This year I have become more focused in my training, and specifically in the use of heart rate zones for training.

The one question that I have concerns recovery rides. Living in an area with short, sharp climbs in every direction, I am unable to keep my heart rate in the lowest zone for the duration of my recovery rides. E.g. my commute has a 14% gradient followed by a 17% gradient which takes my HR up around the 90% mark.

The obvious effect of this would be that I am not recovering as much as possible, but is the detrimental effect that much?

For greater HR control, I could do my recovery rides on the turbo – but who wants to do that?

Any advice / thoughts appreciated.

SBezza

If you need to do a recovery ride, and you have no easy route then perhaps a 30 minutes spin on the turbo isn't a bad idea.

Even if you use the commute as a recovery ride, just pick the lowest gear and ride up the hills as slow as possible, HR will rise of course, but if you just spin for the rest of the ride, I think it would still be a good recovery ride.

swaman

I am in the same boat, just not possible to keep HR in recovery zone due to terrain, so if i need a recovery ride I just do 30 mins on the turbo...works well.

amaferanga

Can't you just ride up the hills a bit slower? You may not keep to your zone, but I'd have thought you'd be able to get up with an HR of less than 90% of your max.

mentalalex

recovery rides, are around 120bpm mark, high cadence, for max benefit, just nice easy riding, 95rpm plus.

if your getting to %90 you won't be getting much out of it.

recovery rides should be around 40 mins long, drink lots of fluid, 500ml min for that, and afterward do lots of stretching etc.

hope that clears a few things up.

Pokerface

mentalalex wrote:

recovery rides, are around 120bpm mark, high cadence, for max benefit, just nice easy riding, 95rpm plus.

This is not correct. At least it is not correct for ME. It might be for YOU, but not for everyone.

Heart rate is individual - not a fixed number. And cadence is somewhat irrelevant. If I was to try and do a ride at 95rpm+ - I would probably be closer to 90% max than 65%.

I personally do recovery rides based on power wattage, not HR and can be as long as a couple of hours. And yes, I have a coach.

dmch2

Might be a silly question... but what is a recovery ride meant to do? As I understand it - it's just some very light exercise done a day or so after a heavier session that is meant to aid recovery. But how does it achieve that? (Honest question - not trolling! ).

And would just going for a long brisk walk (or light jog or session of yoga or something) achieve the same aim without risking you getting bored on the bike and being tempted to go faster?

mentalalex

i agree everybody is different...cadence is relavent, as you want to be spinning the lactic out of your legs, along those lines,

i just repeating what the BC coaches said to me, could be based on youth/junior riders,
as the whole thing can be argued, horses for course etc.


and yes i have a coach too.! we can all flash that card!

Pokerface

dmch2 wrote:

Might be a silly question... but what is a recovery ride meant to do? As I understand it - it's just some very light exercise done a day or so after a heavier session that is meant to aid recovery. But how does it achieve that? (Honest question - not trolling! ).

And would just going for a long brisk walk (or light jog or session of yoga or something) achieve the same aim without risking you getting bored on the bike and being tempted to go faster?

Recovery helps you flush any lactic acid out of your legs, loosen the muscles up - without taxing them. Stops you from stiffening up as can happen if you stop riding altogether.

Some people WILL just take a day off completely, while other people like to ride - so they keep it light.

I've been told that on a recovery ride, you should always be in the small ring - that sort of thing.

freehub

If I ever did a recovery ride I'd just sit on my turbo for 30 mins, spinning nice and easy, probably averaging under 100bpm. But if you have enough rest days like me I'm sure you'd not need a recovery ride? I don't cycle mon/tue/thur/fri. Just Wed/Sat/Sun.

shockedsoshocked

freehub wrote:

If I ever did a recovery ride I'd just sit on my turbo for 30 mins, spinning nice and easy, probably averaging under 100bpm. But if you have enough rest days like me I'm sure you'd not need a recovery ride? I don't cycle mon/tue/thur/fri. Just Wed/Sat/Sun.

Depends really. Recovery rides (active recovery) benefit some and not others. I feel better having spun my legs the day after a race for instance than if I didn't.

Alex_Simmons/RST

mentalalex wrote:

i agree everybody is different...cadence is relavent, as you want to be spinning the lactic out of your legs, along those lines,

i just repeating what the BC coaches said to me, could be based on youth/junior riders,
as the whole thing can be argued, horses for course etc.


and yes i have a coach too.! we can all flash that card!

Then your coach needs to bone up on the rate of removal of lactate from the blood (which manages that all by itself and long before the next day comes along - with most of it gone within an hour of ceasing hard exercise).

Not that lactate is an inhibitor to exercise anyway (in fact it's an important fuel source), but that's another myth.

swaman

so Alex...in your opinion is 30 to 40 minutes easy spinning an aid to recovery after a hard training spell or race, or might we as well just take the day off completely ?

my unscientific opinion, it seems to work for me, i prefer to have a short recovery ride rather than a day off completely if the day before has been especially hard

i do take days off, just not the day after a real hard session

dmch2

Doing enough to warm things up and prevent stiffness makes sense. Also calling it a recovery ride may stop people overtraining and going flat out everyday. So other gentle exercise would be just as good.

Not sure about flushing out lactate though. Blood is flowing whether you exercise or not and it only takes a few minutes after exercise to clear it out - why and where would any be hiding a day later?

Garz

Try it and see.

I done a hilly 114 mile sportive and cycled the next evening in great form thinking I was going to need a 'recovery ride', turned out I put one of my PB's without trying all the way.

Looking back I was in great shape, maybe now im in the off season and a few pounds heavier it would be beneficial. I think it depends on your form, nutrition and mood. I would encourage a recovery ride but wouldn't say it was essential.

bobtbuilder

amaferanga wrote:

Can't you just ride up the hills a bit slower? You may not keep to your zone, but I'd have thought you'd be able to get up with an HR of less than 90% of your max.

I'm 85kg - getting up the 17% slope on my way to work takes my HR up to around 184bpm (192 max) every time. I can't see what else I can do to stop it? I'm not sprinting up it - it's just steep and I'm fairly heavy!

mentalalex

@ AlexS i'll admit what i said about lactic wasn't 100% acurate, but you can see my point regarding high cadence, it works for me,
All the guy wanted some brief ideas regarding recovery, my coaches knoweledge is sound, not going to blow his trumpet,

Recovery is a personal thing, some things workfor some, otheres it doesn't but i 'm
Sure you know that!

Alex_Simmons/RST

swaman wrote:

so Alex...in your opinion is 30 to 40 minutes easy spinning an aid to recovery after a hard training spell or race, or might we as well just take the day off completely ?

my unscientific opinion, it seems to work for me, i prefer to have a short recovery ride rather than a day off completely if the day before has been especially hard

i do take days off, just not the day after a real hard session

Do what works for you.

Recovery spins up of 30-90-min are not uncommon, up to 2hrs for very fit riders. Legs/body/mind often feels better for it and I prescribe them, but they are usually optional.

I haven't personally noticed a lot of difference for myself between doing them and resting, although the more I train, the more I prefer them. I might want a slightly longer warm up following day if I rested.

Main thing is to keep the intensity way down. Flat roads, avoid hills. If you have hills then indoors might be better. Otherwise go as easy as possible. No need for an unnatural cadence.

Some riders however simply do not know how to ride easy, and this can affect their subsequent training. They may well be better off not riding at all.

Think of it as a walk on the pedals.

ut_och_cykla

bobtbuilder wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Can't you just ride up the hills a bit slower? You may not keep to your zone, but I'd have thought you'd be able to get up with an HR of less than 90% of your max.

I'm 85kg - getting up the 17% slope on my way to work takes my HR up to around 184bpm (192 max) every time. I can't see what else I can do to stop it? I'm not sprinting up it - it's just steep and I'm fairly heavy!

I'm pretty heavy and have some steepish hills around here - but my solution has been - lower gears - so I can get up anything without exploding every time....

bobtbuilder

ut_och_cykla wrote:

bobtbuilder wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Can't you just ride up the hills a bit slower? You may not keep to your zone, but I'd have thought you'd be able to get up with an HR of less than 90% of your max.

I'm 85kg - getting up the 17% slope on my way to work takes my HR up to around 184bpm (192 max) every time. I can't see what else I can do to stop it? I'm not sprinting up it - it's just steep and I'm fairly heavy!

I'm pretty heavy and have some steepish hills around here - but my solution has been - lower gears - so I can get up anything without exploding every time....

I'm running a standard compact chainset with a 12/25 cassette. Don't want to change the gearing as I'm pretty happy with it.

Anything over 13% or so requires me to climb out of the saddle. I just find this much easier than trying to remain seated. As mentioned before, I'm not sprinting up the steep hills, just climbing in my lowest gear.

Pokerface

I'm no expert, but I would THINK, that even if you have to leave your "recovery zone" for short periods of the rides (as in to get up a hill), it will not significantly spoil your recovery.

For instance - if your heart rate goes way up for 5 minutes so you can get up a hill during your hour-long recovery ride (the rest of which is spent in the recovery zones) - then you'll still see the benefits - especially if that harder effort comes early in the ride.

If you're blasting up the hill in the last 10 minutes on the way home though, you're defeating the purpose.

bobtbuilder

Pokerface wrote:

I'm no expert, but I would THINK, that even if you have to leave your "recovery zone" for short periods of the rides (as in to get up a hill), it will not significantly spoil your recovery.

For instance - if your heart rate goes way up for 5 minutes so you can get up a hill during your hour-long recovery ride (the rest of which is spent in the recovery zones) - then you'll still see the benefits - especially if that harder effort comes early in the ride.

If you're blasting up the hill in the last 10 minutes on the way home though, you're defeating the purpose.

Cool - this is what I was hoping for.