Ideas for Recovery
 

I just finished a 356 TSS week - TrainerRoad Sweet Spot Base 2 - MId Volume; l am not totally wrecked but definitely feeling it.

Looking ahead the next weeks are planned at 407/435/448/473 and they have me a little scared.

Any tips on the best way to recover besides laying with my feet up (I have a day job and family....)?

Take in some Carbs and Protein within 30 minutes of finishing a workout. A banana and Whey Protein smoothie works well for me.

Take an easy spin the day after, zone 1 not more than an hour.

Hot tub or hot shower / bath for 30 minutes.

Eating is probably the most important. Eat before, eat during, eat after.

For what it's worth, it's not uncommon for riders to do 300+ TSS in a single weekend ride. Besides building up that conditioning, the biggest factor is adequate calories.

I did 328 TSS in a 3.5 hour Saturday, but I ate a lot Friday and a lot right after, and I got through the day chasing my 14 and 2 year old around just fine. Hopped on the trainer for another 45 minute ride this morning with a bit of fatigue but nothing another day won't take care of.

Movement is better than sitting around, in my opinion, but getting in the calories has the biggest impact of anything I've ever tried (which is near everything). It's the only thing I do for recovery (since it's necessary for everything else, too).

Eat well. Put your feet up.

Forgot to mention - Sleep well - minimum 7 hours, try for 9.

Strategic calories I might add - before during and after, but not ongoing. And make sure it's the type of calories you need. Ice cream is calories and so is beer, but its not going to help you recover. Adequate calories isn't a license to pig out, unless you want to gain weight. The following day you shouldn't need lots of calories unless you are riding hard again that day. If you ride in the morning hard, your recovery calories should be done by early afternoon and you shouldn't need a big dinner.

Hydration is another big factor - drink lots of water throughout the day afterwards and don't get dehydrated during your rides.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Eating during my rides and hydration have been something I struggle with, mostly either planning ahead or just forgetting.

I am used to a big ride on the weekend, for sure, but this is a different animal. This past weekend was 90mins at 0.84IF on Saturday followed by 90mins at 0.82IF. The last 3 weeks have Saturday rides at 90mins at 0.88-0.90IF followed by 120mins on Sunday at 0.80-0.85IF.

I wouldn't ramp like that for 5 weeks in a row without a recovery week. Most people ramp 3, but I'm a geezer and often only ramp 2 before an easy week. Don't get whupped, whatever you do. If you try a workout and your HR doesn't come up, back it off. No fear, just ride smart. Ego is for silly boys.

I set my next day's ride up the evening before, preparing food and bottles or whatever.

Food and sleep are the two things that affect recovery the most.

There's a bunch of other stuff (massage, contrast baths etc.) that may work, or may not. But even if it does, it's effect is far less significant than eating enough and getting enough sleep.

For recovery, protein and sleep.

Your bigger problem is that simply selecting a TR plan doesn't mean you can keep up.

Athletes differ in their fitness coming into a training plan, what they respond to, tolerance of ramp rate, potential for improvement, power curve, required rest week frequency and so on.

And FTP (along with NP, TSS, TSB and other silly derivatives) is terrible indicator of anything other than test performance. Two riders with the same FTP can have vastly different endurance, load tolerance, VO2 max and so on. The list is too long to cover in a forum post. Athletes are more different than they are the same and the only way for you to discover what you need is to monitor how your body is responding to training, using tools such as the internal to external load ratio, cardiac drift, HR vs cardiac drift, etc.

ERG training fixed power under controlled conditions makes these measures even more reliable.

Use EF for performance and if it's improving then you are doing something right and also need to progress your training.

If cardiac is decreasing then endurance is improving so you need to increase duration.

If HR is down but drift is up then fatigue is present and also drift can also show accumulating fatigue and this can be proven easily by reproducing it.

Sorry if this is somewhat rough but I had to type it up quickly so I can catch my bus.

Good luck!

:lol:

Yeah, your aerobic power doesn't tell you jack, but your heart rate sure does!

Unless it's hot. Or you're tired. Or hungry. Or dehydrated. Or too fresh. Or, or, or...

Yeah.

Welcome to the land of the absurd.

It does if you live off of soylent, drink 60.5oz of water with 50mg of NaCl, sleep exactly 7.59 hours every day, never step outside of the basement, and trained yourself to enjoy paint drying on the wall

Take a day off the bicycle and go for a walk with your family.

Indoor training thread. Please try to pay attention.

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Ideas for Recovery

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It's not, so stop trying to hijack it with your nonsense.

The guy's using TrainerRoad. Again, please try to pay attention.

For someone who admonishes others about reading good, you sure don't read good.

Comprehension and context are two pieces of the communication puzzle you've still yet to grasp. Probably why so many of your posts are incomprehensible.

Reported

Why don't both you guys cut it out. If you can't get along put each other on Ignore. Easy peasy.

Right, so another week down, and based on your guys' feedback (with the exception of a couple posts) I am feeling great after 6 hours 35 minutes and 415 TSS. Hydration during my rides has been the biggest change, and I reckon the biggest difference as well. In a typical hour session, I would have taken in 250-300ml. This past week I took in +500ml per hour.

Legs are feeling great.

Please try to remain civil.

Seriously? That was like a month ago.

I prefer active recovery. Moving around and doing something physical makes me feel a lot better than doing absolutely nothing... and a ton of calories from nutritious food.

I think this works, on the condition that you take it really really easy. I find if I strain myself even slightly, it harms recovery rather than helps.

What about massage therapy? It helped me to recover in a few weeks, after my injury last year. Now I try to attend out local massage Calgary at least twice a month. For me it's probably the best way to relax. Besides my therapist is more than just practitioner, he's also athlete and coach.