Recovery days/weeks: I just go backwards without refreshment

andyeb

I've been trying to get more disciplined about recovery recently - taking 1 or possibly 2 complete rest days a week and taking an easier week every 4th week.

The problem is, my fitness just seems to go backwards, my legs feel worse, I don't feel refreshed by the time off the bike - if anything I actually feel worse for the rest after I start upping the pace again afterwards.

I've experimented with just doing 20 minutes gentle spinning with a few 6 second high RPM spinouts on the rollers instead of having a complete rest day. This seems to help, but I worry that a complete rest day is really what my body needs.

Has anyone else experienced this? Should I cut out the unproductive recovery, or is this a symptom that shows I'm already headed for overtraining?

In the past couple of months I've recently joined a new club who are stretching me a bit (averaging 19-22mph over a 40 mile course, 2,000ft elevation change), but I only ride with them every other weekend. Overall training volume has probably gone down slightly recently, although I've been making an effort to go for focussed quality over quantity instead. I commute by bike once a week, but generally try and keep the pace right down unless I've got behind with other training rides.

imposter2.0

Same question every time - what are your training objectives?

andyeb

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19722230#p19722230]Imposter[/url] wrote:

Same question every time - what are your training objectives?

In the short term, to feel comfortable keeping up with the new club, or at least less like I'm hanging on. This will realistically mean taking my threshold power up a notch.

Medium to long term, I've got my eye on the London to Paris in 24 hours next summer, as the next logical step up from the 200k I did in 2014.

I'm currently saving up for a power meter and reading the Joe Friel book in preparation.

diy

Have you looked at your intake? When you can't train yourself faster, looking at what you eat for gains, is a good place to start - A lot of sports gains can be attributed to diet.

buckmulligan

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19723060#p19723060]diy[/url] wrote:

Have you looked at your intake? When you can't train yourself faster, looking at what you eat for gains, is a good place to start - A lot of sports gains can be attributed to diet.

This is a good shout and I'd add "sleep" to that.

People are all about optimising their training plans to the n-th degree, but that's only one portion of improving the effectiveness of your training; there are just as many avenues to explore and improvements to be made when you're not actually on the bike. I've found that when you're younger you can get away with a lot of bad practices, but as you get older it really pays to be more disciplined in your overall approach.

Take a look at your diet and sleep. Are you eating a lot of junk on the average the day? Are you consuming a lot of caffeine, especially in the late afternoon/evening? Do you experience big energy swings throughout the day? Are you getting enough sleep (IME in periods of heavy training this should be >8 hours, not 8 hours min)? Is it good quality sleep, or are you restless throughout the night?

Recovery days are all about recovering well, if they're not leaving you feeling refreshed then try to mix things up a bit to see if you can improve that.

To be honest though, re-reading your last paragraph, it sounds a lot as though you're suffering from a lack of base fitness more than anything else. If you're able to push hard sessions but they leave you feeling drained and accumulating fatigue week-after-week, I think it's time to revisit some low intensity work to build up a bigger base of aerobic fitness. It doesn't sound as though you're getting a lot of that at the moment if your regular club runs are really stretching you. This is the perfect time of year to be doing that and it'll stand you in very good stead for your goals next year.

andyeb

Thanks guys - good points. I think I'm probably doing OK-ish on diet and sleep, but still room for plenty of improvement and I will pursue this next.

Funnily enough, I was intending to try and get back to some long base sessions again. I've seen big improvements through base training in the past, although I had to do a very, very high volume to get the benefit. Unfortunately I don't have as much time available these day however.

supermurph09

What does your weekly training / riding look like?

andyeb

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19723276#p19723276]Supermurph09[/url] wrote:

What does your weekly training / riding look like?

Here's my Strava profile: https://www.strava.com/athletes/452666

...however most of my commutes are private, simply because I think most of them are not that interesting to most of my Strava followers.

daxplusplus

Looking at your strava profile it looks like that from March onwards you've ramped up your monthly miles\elevation .. and you mention that you recently started to put in 1 or 2 rest days per week. Might be a little bit too late and you're now feeling knackered from the last 6 months of increased workload?

You mention that you have a rest 4th week - how'd you feel coming back from that? You should really be raring to go and refreshed.

cycleclinic

You don't have enough "base fittness". More slow base miles for the next few weeks you should recover.

I had a lull like this in august felt proper rubbish but I slowly recovered by riding more and spinning. I reduced the intensity of my rides and hit another peak last week. Back to slow rides for the next two month before ramping up again the intensity again.

Your rides are probably too intense for your level of fittness. The only way to change that is spend more time on the bike. Also if you don't spin try that it can help alot. Focusing on quality over quantity is your problem. The rides are leaving your body too fatigued. Quantity works well at this time of year.