nemeseri

I know that sometimes resting for a week (or two) can actually help you recover and make you stronger when you return to your training cycle. But how long you can stay off the bike without hurting your edge? I know that's probably very personal and depends on your level, but I'd like to hear your personal opinion.

Last October I had a bike accident and I had to skip training for 3 months. I kept commuting with my single speed, but I didn't do big climbs or long rides. It took me around 3-4 weeks to get back to the same level I had been before the accident.
I know this is a little bit different than what I asked, but still, I was surprised how much it hurt when I climbed my regular category 2 training hill for the first time. I just don't want to feel this again and make sure I never skip training for too long.

So where is the fine line between useful resting and loosing your edge?

Snicklefritz

Back when I was racing regularly and doing long distance events, I figured this out through trial and error in addition to data analysis from my power meter. There were times I thought I sucked, but my power meter said otherwise. Then there were times I felt tired and truly was, as confirmed by a lower power output.

What worked for me was 3 weeks on, one week off. The three weeks were very hard, increasing in difficulty each week until I felt I was just on the verge of overtraining. Then I would take a week off to do easy spinning and a few moderate rides, maybe 20-25 miles each time, but no major climbs, no intervals, etc. So the "off" week wasn't entirely off. Out of 7 days I might have had 1-2 days off the bike and then 5 doing something easy.

There were a few times my training was interrupted by the flu or whatever and I had to take a week or week and a half off the bike. I didn't feel like I lost that much in the way of fitness.

More than 2 weeks and I think I would have noticed something, although I was never really off the bike for that long. When I was on vacation for that amount of time, I just ran and did other stuff like aerobics or other workout DVD.

I'm sure other people will chime in with their own experiences too.

DaveLeeNC

In my anecdotal (mostly running, BTW) experience, up to one week was 'just good rest' WRT a good upcoming performance or workout. Somewhere between 1 week and 2 weeks was when there was a detectable (mostly back in the pre-HRM days) drop in performance.

dave

Carbonfiberboy 

Three days of doing nothing and I notice it on the 4th day. Two days are fine. If I have to take a week completely off, I have to start back with endurance work for a week. I once took a winter off, and it took me all summer to get it back all the way. There's a big difference between being able to ride and having that edge where you can attack and just be gone.

But I'm talking about doing nothing. Cutting the volume and intensity back every few weeks is normal training and a good idea.

That said, it can be a good idea to take a midseason week completely off and come back with an endurance block to restart your training. Keeps the boredom at bay and is a nice refresher.

Drew Eckhardt 

Coggan's model has fatigue decaying to zero over a 7 day period and fitness over a 42 day period, although other researchers came up with different numbers in that neighborhood and individuals vary.

(as asgelle notes below, this is wrong - it's exponential decay)

asgelle

You misrepresent Coggan's performance manager in a way that is almost frightening. Coggan uses an exponential weighted average with time constants of 7 and 42 days as a starting point. That's a far cry from saying things go to 0 in a fixed time.

Drew Eckhardt 

Yup. They say memory is the second thing to go, and I forget the first thing. It only feels like zero after a long layoff.