Originally Posted by fastcarbon

After 5 surgeries in the last 12 months and attempting a comeback to fitness each time I finally was able to ride Saturday and Sunday group hammer sessions with success (I use Strava to see if I am faster on general sections although I don't know exact starting and ending points). I am usually total toast on Monday but do 30 to 40 mi on Tue and 60 and 4000 feet of climbing on Thu trying to hold FTP for all climbs and usually for at least 10 min. on the flats. I do usually take 1 hour naps after hard rides and may sleep for 10 hours that night if they were brutal. I can no longer rely on a recovered heart rate of 42 bpm to signal recovery as one surgery was cardiac ablation to eliminate A Fib and Atrial Flutter which brought recovery resting heart rate to the high 50's. When you are in your late 70's and riding with 50 and early 60's folks a fairly high fitness is required to survive the rides. I have done 3 rest days a week for many years but occasionally if in Texas where it is really flat I do slow recovery rides with watts under 120 and heart rate under 100.