Rest days

[USM TOM]

how often do you guys take complete rest days???
i know rest days are good but i feel like im been lazy if i take a few days off


i rarely ever have rest days but ive felt a little run down so im having a few days off the bike (luckily the weather is !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! anyway ) my legs are starting to feel great today and i have found my motivation to ride has increased after having some rest

[snedden9485]

I dont think you can structure rest daysm, you just need to rest when you are run down. I try and have one day a week off the bike completely and also another day where you only have a recovery ride.

[sogood]

Alex states that min of 4 days/week of training is desirable. So that leaves 3 days of rest. Otherwise 1-2 days of rest works for me when I am super motivated. Of course, there are riders of different intensity and duration.

[toolonglegs]

I only rest when I don't think I can achieve a descent workout.
Usually 1 day off a week and 1 day 60-90minutes TOTALLY sub 190w (like going for a gentle walk).
The day before a race is a tune up...60mins with two 1 minute all outs followed by 10 minutes at ftp followed by 2 30 sec all out spins...very little work in all.
So really I have 3 quiet days a week...the other days are usually pretty hard so I need the rest!.
Weeks without racing are a bit different.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

At least 1 rest day per week is good.
How much rest depends somewhat on how much you train and how intense the training is.

[drubie]

After the graded race yesterday, I felt great. Got up this morning to go for the 6:30am bunch ride and felt like a bus had hit me while I was sleeping. Rest day for me today. Not sure what was different other than I think I put in a bigger effort than normal trying to stay with another club member who usually rides away from me with impunity.

I'm starting to think I need to structure my training a bit more - can't quite seem to lift to a level of performance that would allow me to make a show in the b grade races here. I think that'll mean scheduling a rest day rather than just doing when I feel this awful.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

I'm starting to think I need to structure my training a bit more - can't quite seem to lift to a level of performance that would allow me to make a show in the b grade races here. I think that'll mean scheduling a rest day rather than just doing when I feel this awful.

I can help with that

[drubie]

I know you can help Alex, but finding the time to utilise that help will involve some compromises I'm not quite willing to take yet.

I'll bet next time I get spanked by the bunch in a scratch race I'll be back here with begging bowl in hand though.

[toolonglegs]

I know you can help Alex, but finding the time to utilise that help will involve some compromises I'm not quite willing to take yet.

I'll bet next time I get spanked by the bunch in a scratch race I'll be back here with begging bowl in hand though.

6 to 8 hours maximum a week will have you flying doing it right...certainly be spanking everyone doing 20 hours if they are JRA!.

[drubie]

JRA?

Just Riding Alone?
Jaguar Rover Australia?
Jerks Riding Argons?
Jolly Red Armwarmers?



It's finding that extra 2 hours of training that will be hard at the moment I reckon - especially since the days here seem about 7 hours long dusk til dawn.

[toolonglegs]

Just riding around...what most people do in training

[goneriding]

How do adaption weeks factor into the equation though? My understanding is that once every 3 - 4 weeks you should back it off to about 60% intensity to let your body rest and reset before the next onslaught.

[snedden9485]

I build my training each week (eg week 1 - 3 is progressively harder) then week 4 is recovery week (eg very little intensity sessions and predominantly recovery rides / low intensity rides)

[Alex Simmons/RST]

How do adaption weeks factor into the equation though? My understanding is that once every 3 - 4 weeks you should back it off to about 60% intensity to let your body rest and reset before the next onslaught.

When you are able to manage the increase in training loads carefully (e.g. through the use of training stress metrics from power meter data) you realise that such weeks are only needed infrequently, maybe every 3 months or so and regular recovery weeks are not actually necessary. The body is far more capable of managing increasing workloads than many realise. But it does of course presume the workload increase is a sustainable one (and as is often the case, people try to do too much too quickly). I'll see far better results over the longer term with this method than an arbitrary time frame for ramp and recover (e.g. 3 weeks on, 1 week off).

However when you are not monitoring loads so closely, then ramping up and recovering on a regular basis is a safeish bet and is more typical of training plans as opposed to coaching where I would monitor things more closely and only provide for a recovery period when it's actually needed, not based on some arbitrary time frame.

[goneriding]

Talk about a timely discussion. In the last week I've hit a wall. Basically, it has been a case of barely being able to maintain any kind of intensity in my riding and being absolutely wrecked in the evenings.

I've been commuting for about 18 months now and am up to 300+ km per week. The push over 300 km per week happened about 6 weeks ago and I've been riding reasonably well until last week. In the past I've been able to push through but this time it's biting hard so I've backed off over the last couple of days and will continue to do so for the rest of the week.

I'll be halving the number of k's until next week and then I'll try upping the intensity again. I understand that this kind of thing is a 7 - 10 day process. I guess I'll just have to enjoy the sleep ins!

[AllDan]

I've always thought the key is to listen to your body, if you're feeling crappy - genuinely so not just "poor me it's cold out" then there's usually a pretty good reason why.

It's often the time when you will pick up either some kind of illness or you'll do yourself an injury.

I've had a couple of days off this week, but that's been more about sitting exams than feeling poorly. As a few people have already said, taking it back down a notch is also a critical part of consolidating your gains - you can't expect go make huge gains every week and its important that your not running the risk of going backwards by going too hard for too long

[casual_cyclist]

I have had 4 'rest' days in a row after hurting my knee in a crash. I hate being off the bike though. The upside is that after a break my legs always feel amazing

[goneriding]

Rest period over.

Did a gentle ride on Sunday to turn the legs over. Pushed it a bit yesterday morning on the way to work. Felt great. I decided to push it on the way home and it was unreal. Felt like I was flying and I had plenty of endurance. Same again this morning.

I am interested to see how the week off goes over the next couple of weeks.