Do you think it is absolutely necessary to have a day off every week or do you think you can play it by feel or circumstance? Specifically referring to FOP athletes or those that recover quickly - do pro’s take a day off every week? In the base period is this more feasible, considering training intensity is low?
Who doesn’t plan a complete day off every week?
I take 2 off - ride 5, but then I only ride. No running/swimming.
Hey, got that Gramin Forerunner, absolutely the colloest toy ever!!
Now I race against the “training partner” during my weekly time trials. I set the distance and time and can see how far behind/ahead I am of my actual goal. Have not used it in altitude.
do pro’s take a day off every week? I’m not a pro (still trying…) but I find that having one scheduled “off” day (usually 30 min easy spin on the rollers) helps me keep things in order.
In the base period I could probably do my hardest day seven times a week - I feel good the day after and sometimes even want to do it again. However, this creates a small debt which will grow and you’ll end up paying way into the season.
The idea behind a scheduled day, for me, is that you should not wait for your body to give you signs of tiredness and only then to have an easy day.
My 0.02.
I only take a day off on a recovery week or if I’m feeling really wiped out which is rare. Working full time with three kids I don’t have the time to get in everything I want in a week if I lose a whole day.
I never schedule a day off. I take a day off when life’s circumstances call for it or when I feel that my body needs a rest. I think that last year between May and the end of September I had 3 off days and one of my best seasons ever. I had one year where I specifically scheduled 1 day off each week and raced like crap. I think it is a very individual thing and that some people respond better to complete off-days and others to active recovery (easy ride/swim drills/easy run) type days.
When I was training hard, I would typically take one day off a week - Usually, Monday as the weekend was either two hard days of training or a race of some sort on Sunday.
. . . And one very easy week each month.
I think it depends on what type of training you’re doing.
If you going “long and slow” (conversational pace, zone 2, whatever), I don’t see where you necessarily require a day off or a “light week”.
If you’re doing strength training, speed work, harder than zone 2 intervals, etc … then I do see where a day off and a recovery week are beneficial.
Remember the recovery week and day off are more for the immune and nervous systems. These systems are much easier to overtrain than the muscle and skeletal systems. It also for connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, etc) which take longer to recover than do muscle systems (connective tissue has fewer capillaries … less blood flow … less nutrients)
The more strenuous your training becomes, the more you’ll need that off day and that recovery week. That’s true in any sport.
I don’t schedule an off day, life seems to insert on here and there for me (not too often).
Te best year I ever had was when I was training full time. I took 2 days off in feb due to travel, 1 in april and 1 in may. Once the racing kicked in 2-3x per month I scheduled days off. If you have easy workouts ie spinning on rollers for 30 min or an easy 20 min run or an easy 1500 drill set in the pool, you allow yourself to recover. I had easy weeks thrown in where I would drop volume by 50-75%.
You need to look at your whole lifestyle. If you have a high stress life you might need a day off every week. You need to factor in physical and mental stress