UCIMBZ

The notion of a recovery ride is absolutely bogus and scientifically unfounded. It is something that subpar cyclists came up with to justify their underperformance on a day after they went all out in a stage race. Your body recovers from lactic acid accumulation as you ride. If all you do is sprinting, yes, then you need a period of a low intensity ride to recover but it needs to follow immediately not the day after. Your body has already recovered over night and it is ready to go all out the next day. The whole idea is to train in such a way that your body can perform at any given time at its maximum recovery level. You recover in flats and on descents. If the recovery ride were to be something of a substance than every other stage in a stage race would be a calm, slow and a leisurely ride where everyone is on a their small chain ring doing 14-15 ml/hr.

ne_dan

Um, what's your point?

10 Wheels

So good to have all that knowledge.

Essex

Is this actual data, or anecdotal information?

canam73

What about post workout muffins? What can you tell me about those?

ne_dan

I believe it's an anecdotal rant, coupled with self righteous undertones and a smidge of D baggery

canam73

You are correct on the OP.

Although he is mostly right. You have a computer, look it up.

Essex

Must have chocolate chip.

Elduderino2412

All my rides are recovery rides

merlinextraligh

UCIMBZ is chanelling his inner Floyd.

If you overtrained, it means that you didn’t train hard enough to handle that level of training., So you weren’t overtrained; you were actually undertrained to begin with. So there’s the rule again: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins.

mmmdonuts

hmmmm

DaveWC

I've got to admit, until lately I've never done recovery rides. I just went out and hammered as hard as I felt able to on that day. Mind you I never did intervals either. So now I'm trying to do both (on different days obviously) and the recovery ride days seem useless to me. I'm fine to go harder, I've done it repeatedly day after day before and it bugs me to just piddle along.

danmc

My training rides are 14-15mph!

I'm not worthy of the awesomeness of the other posters here!

plpete

I use recovery rides to find new places to hammer on later

SCochiller

You must mean all those sub-par riders on the Grand Tour, who always do recovery rides on the rest days of the major stage races.

bpr

mine too

SCochiller

Ucimbz(trolling)

canam73

The OP already thinks those guys are idiots for using aerobars on tts.

lsberrios1 

Same here and proud!

mpath

So you're riding seven days a week, 365 days a year? Or do you take a day break here and there? During those off days, ergo, sitting on the couch channel surfing, is way better than going out on the bike for even a "slow" ride? Ok.

grwoolf

You will certainly get stronger faster and get closer to your potential if you mix rest into your training. Not just a good night's sleep, but rest days. On a rest day, I agree that the value of a recovery ride vs. pure rest is debatable and there is not clear proof that it "clears toxins, opens up legs, etc.".

There is a reason why world class athletes (particularly endurance athletes) follow structured training that includes periodization techniques where rest cycles are key to achieving peak performance. Striking the balance between training volume + intensity vs. rest is different for everyone, but riding as hard and fast as you can every day will not result in top performance.

To be clear, most recreational cyclists are not approaching a training volume or intensity where rest days are that critical, but the concept still applies. You get stronger when you are not on the bike (as a result of what you did while on the bike).

I like to do recovery rides on rest days because I enjoy riding my bike and it burns off a few calories, but I don't claim there there is any performance benefit vs. a rest day off the bike.

tagaproject6

You either HTFU or you don't, there is no recovery

MrTuner1970

My experience also.

Hey, OP. Try doing hard interval training every day for as many days in a row as you can. You'll wear yourself down and actually get slower. As grwoolf said, the recovery time is when the body makes gains. Break muscle tissue down, then the body rebuilds it.

If we're doing hard training, we NEED recovery days. My recovery rides would be compared to a brisk stroll around the neighborhood. Nothing too stressful, but gets the blood flowing. And my legs feel better afterward.

lsberrios1 

Ive noticed Im getting slower by the day. Usually ride 5 days full blast, to my abilities, and then rest 1 day.

SCochiller

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