Work hard. Recover harder
It's been a while since I posted one of these charts up here. I usually put up a shot of an interval session or a sweet spot workout. Today you get something rather boring: Just a plain ordinary recovery ride.
Plain, ordinary, boring, yes. But just as important as any interval or sweet spot session.
Yesterday at this time I felt dead tired. My lets felt heavy and swollen from two days' hard work. The last thing I really wanted to do was a hard ride. Fortunately for me the weather turned to shit yesterday. I had all the right ingredients for a successful trainer workout - crappy weather and a locked down tight excuse to slack off on the bike.
In the spirit of getting the most out of my recovery ride, I set my sights low. 25km for an hour's ride. That's slacking. That would be easy. That's one I could call recovery.
It only took 20-30 minutes before I noticed my legs were no longer heavy and sore. About that time I also noticed my cadence and wattage had started to climb. I resolved to throttle it back periodically so as not to turn a good recovery ride into a tepid tempo workout. I had to work at it. Keeping wattage in check wasn't easy. Holding a recovery ride in the recovery zone is always hard for me.
My TSB now sits in the low -20's. Today's Thanksgiving. I'm feeling pretty good. On the one hand I have plenty of time and energy to let 'er rip. On the other hand TSB is still pretty negative. Plus it's a holiday. And the weather still sucks. Then again...
Search
 |
Recovery Rides
OK idiot question of day - TSB = ?
I was pretty burned out in late spring - and really learned the power of recovery rides.
Yes! It sucks when someone passes you.
It's also tough when you feel great - but know you need a recovery ride. What threshold do you avoid going over - power related / heart related / other?
Definition of TSB
TSB = Training Stress Balance
I wrote a definition of TSB page a while back which might help explain the idea.
Personally I don't believe in taking recovery days when I'm feeling great. Sometimes you're just more fit. Some days, by some lucky combination of factors in your life, you just feel good despite how many miles or meters of climbing you have in your legs this week.
I believe in taking maximum advantage of those days. I take advantage because there are other days when I know I should feel good and don't. Sometimes when I get going I feel better; but if not there's no point in trying for more than the recovery day my body is telling me I need. As scientific as we've gotten about training, there is still a lot of magic that we can't account for.
thx for response.
thx for helpful response and the link
What I struggle with is my riding plan when I know I have a few big days AHEAD of me and I want to start those days well rested;
In other words I feel great and I don't want to rest but also don't want to spoil it.
Post new comment