Rest.. For real!

[Hebden]

Hi All,

I have been training for a few years for Triathlon. I have short breaks and long periods of easy training after events but I have never been off the bike for more than 4 consecutive days in the past 4 years.

I am planning on taking on some professional coaching in a couple of months to see how far I can go as a cyclist and was considering a 7-14 day complete rest period before starting my new coaching. That’s no cycling or training at all!

I would be interested to hear people’s opinions on this plan. Is it a good idea? Is it long overdue ? Will I come back after the rest and be faster than ever? (wishful thinking I know!) Or is rest totally over rated?

It will be hard for me to take time off like this, yes I am an addict.

Cheers,

[toolonglegs]

Do you need a rest?...do you want a rest?...are you feeling overly fatigued or exhausted?...NO?...then why would you? .
Personally I ride everyday I can but my health always gives me unforseen breaks during the season.

[Deanj]

I wouldn't, I'd just be making sure you don't do anything to stress full a few days before, so your starting off with ok legs.

[Hebden]

Do you need a rest?...do you want a rest?...are you feeling overly fatigued or exhausted?...NO?...then why would you? .
Personally I ride everyday I can but my health always gives me unforseen breaks during the season.

Mentally... no. I am super keen to ride, always. Physiologically I just don't know. I may be missing out on some gains by not resting enough? After a morning ride my legs feel a bit tired, and walking down the front steps lets me know my quads did some work. But by the next morning I can't wait to ride again and at the most my legs feel a little tight. And there maybe a little residual soreness but it doesn’t seem to slow me down.

I just don't know. Maybe I am just used to the fatigue and am not recognizing it for what it is. Maybe I have forgotten what completely fresh legs feel like. Full of doubt I am.

People talk about rest and how important it is, but Alex espouses it's not needed as often as most people think.

[Missy24]

I'd take a rest... I always take a rest when I start a new training plan... but only 4 days, after 4 days I tend to get a bit nuts and cagey.

But in the 4 days rest I still ride EVERYDAY, but I don't ride hard, hell my grandmother could keep up!

[JV911]

apart from going stir-crazy what have you got to loose?

go lay on a beach somewhere...i dont think you're going to loose all your form in 7-14 days and might give you a chance to collect your thoughts and re-focus

[Alex Simmons/RST]

People talk about rest and how important it is, but Alex espouses it's not needed as often as most people think.

... during the primary build and race periods and provided the ramp in training load is carefully managed. It's this last point that typically escapes many and is a typical mistake in training. Too often it's too much too quickly leading to an increased susceptibility to illness and injury.

But after the primary race phase is over, often a rest/recovery phase is a good idea. That can be time away from bike or just a couple of weeks of light riding, bit of fun stuff etc but low loads relative to build and race phases.

Recovery during the microcycle is very important though.

As to the original question, I would suggest doing what you feel good doing. A good coach should sort out what to do from that point on, irrespective of whether you've had a total break or have run yourself into the ground or some happy medium. A coach and athlete should be looking at the long term, not worrying about how the athlete performs during training in the first few weeks.

[Missy24]

You know I just had seven days of training, mainly cause I've been feeling exhausted recently and just changed my program so it needed some getting use to.

Kicked MY A** in my training run last night! I'm stronger and I'm faster with my running and my cycling! I did continue with my commute to and from work though.

I managed to knock 25 seconds of each km of my run!