Recovery - how awful can it get?
I really felt like I wanted to ride tonight but I knew if I tried it would end in disaster. My legs have a good and deep tired in them from all the work I've put on them the last couple of weeks. Even though I was dragging somewhat I still had the motivation to ride. The solution to what kind of ride to do when your mind says go but the legs say no is the old easy ride, also known as JRA. Also known as recovery.
For me recovery riding is a beggars can be choosers proposition. Today it was that or nothing and I didn't want to do nothing. At least recovery is something.
The trouble I have with recovery riding is it's slow and monotonous. It took me around an hour and a half to cover 25 miles; and after it was all done I felt the same fatigue as if I'd done it at threshold pace on a day when my legs were fresh.
Worse, everyone was out today. Lots of people riding. It would have been terrific to ride along and chat with someone but I didn't encounter anyone riding so slow. Well that's not completely true. There was the shirtless, helmet-less guy in shorts and sandals. He didn't look chatty though. It might have been the headphones - yes, headphones, not earbuds - that made him look that way. So there you have it. Riding slow, no one to talk to and feeling tired and worn out.
Call it recovery; but it's anything but restful.
Recovery sucks
Recovery rides suck. Even if I do them in a group it never works out because some joker always tries to ruin it by making a run for a sprint sign.
Oh yeah, the guy who doesn't
Oh yeah, the guy who doesn't understand that a recovery ride means taking it easy from start to finish. There's one in every group recovery ride.
Group training...
I find that group recovery rides work about as well as group interval sessions.
ha
people actually think they can do a recovery ride during a group ride.... there is no recovery in group rides, like you said there is always someone trying to go just a bit faster and harder than you want. thats why recovery rides are always done best with a friend like mine whos slower than shit anyways, or go out with the significant other. they're usually pretty slow too. my next purchase... a hr monitor, to make sure my recoveries are actually recoveries... bc like you 2 old, i dont do slow, but it's a neccessity...
Oh man that's funny
That's a scream. G, I take it your friend doesn't read this site? LOL
You're spot on. There are no group recovery rides. I have a hard enough time riding slow alone in my own recovery rides, much less than with a group. I might even be the one to make a run for the sprint sign.
Nah, I wouldn't. Really, I wouldn't.