Recovery is very interesting. My experience has been that recovery is relative to the effort being made (HR zone, power, etc.). If doing rides where a lot of time is spent in the higher zones (more intense) my recovery is definitely taking longer. However I’ve found that I can ride day after day, mile after mile when riding in Zone 3 and below.
On my my solo cross country ride I covered 3400 miles in 43 days with 2 days off the bike (41 riding days). I did 9 centuries with 6 on consecutive days, with the longest being 127 miles. But my legs were tired enough to where I could spin easy gears faster to get speed but I couldn’t push the pedals with enough power to get my HR into Zone 4.
Similar results this week. We are doing about 70 miles a day with 4500’ of climbing. But by keeping my HR down riding 7 consecutive days with longish miles is very doable. I also prescribe to some sort of recovery drink. Chocolate milk seems pretty good for most but I can’t tolerate milk. I use a powdered mix that is 4 parts carbs to one part protein. It seems to help me, but that’s a pretty subjective analysis on myself.
__________________
Ride your Ride!!