No not mile repeats. Not VO2 Max intervals. Not 200’s on 2:45. It’s the recovery week workouts!! Riding at 13 mph for two hours is booooooring. Getting passed by a 70 year old like I was standing still was humbling. Mental discipline to the max. I hate recovery weeks.
I disagree. Rest days workouts are much worse than recovery-week workouts.
lol.
But is there any point to a 2 hour recovery ride at 13 mph, anyway? Skip it.
From coach Ken Mierke:
We all know that sometimes a light workout can promote recovery more
than a day completely off. The goal is to exercise at an intensity that
is enough to stimulate circulation and trigger certain endocrine
responses, but lightly enough to avoid demanding more recovery from the
recovery workout.
And a 2 hour, 26 mile ride serves that purpose? I’m asking.
My schedule calls for a 20 mile easy spin after my Sunday long run. Seems to work well for me.
Based on my numbers from the power meter, perceived exertion, etc, yes, the 26 mile two hour ride should be accomplishing that.
I will say it does help with the mental side as well.
And it’s either that or go into work early since my body is now hard wired to get up at sunrise…
don’t Tour riders ride on the ‘rest’ day of the Tour?
It seems that there is some value to ‘active’ recovery as opposed to complete rest.
I’m not questioning the value of active recovery, I’m questioning the value of a two hour recovery ride. It seems like a lot of time for not much gain, frankly.
How many hours/week are you training, mclamb? And do you schedule similar recovery efforts for swimming and running?
Right now, I’m strictly riding. 6-7 days per week, 210+ miles per.
So 10 or twelve hours/week, about?
OK. Personally, I think a 2 hour recovery ride at that pace is overkill, but that’s just my opinion. I’d be curious to see what would happen if you shortened it by an hour, or didn’t throttle back on the pace so severely. I’d guess that you wouldn’t see any detrimental effect.
Here’s another question for you guys: If mclamb *was *running and swimming now, would he have to schedule recovery workouts for those sports, too, or does the active recovery effect transfer over?
that does sound hard.
i also have trouble with a lot of my swim workouts - they usually involve swimming from one side of the pool to the other, and then back again. then i repeat that. then i repeat that. then i repeat that.
i’ll take the grueling, lactic acid fests of a hard workout over boredom anyday.
No not mile repeats. Not VO2 Max intervals. Not 200’s on 2:45. It’s the recovery week workouts!! Riding at 13 mph for two hours is booooooring. Getting passed by a 70 year old like I was standing still was humbling. Mental discipline to the max. I hate recovery weeks.
If your coach asked you to jump off a cliff would you?
Why do this? You are allowed to ask questions…
Call me a wuss, call me a Type B personailty, but I’ll take the recovery workout pretty much any day over the old pool workouts that used to involve vomiting, and an inability to really lift my arms above my head to wash my hair afterwards.
I don’t know how 13mph could possibly qualify as a recovery ride unless your normal TT speed is only 18mph… I do my 20 min intervals at 275W and a recovery is at a casual L1 of ~150W or somewhere around 18mph. I would probably die of boredom at 13mph!
I also can’t imagine riding for two hours at 13 mph. What kind of HR are you averaging for that ride? Seems like you could spend a half hour stretching in front of the TV and get the same benefit (just kidding, kind of.)
I agree with the recovery weeks being hard, but I can’t stand tapering off before a big race. My legs start twitching right in the middle of meetings at work.
Well, right now, the power meter is on the fritz, but based on previous testing, 13 mph gets me at the watts I need.
I’m also self-coached and haven’t had a recovery week since maybe late March/early April. My legs were talking to me in new and surprising ways, therefore I felt it was time to dial it way back for a week.
i also have trouble with a lot of my swim workouts - they usually involve swimming from one side of the pool to the other, and then back again. then i repeat that. then i repeat that. then i repeat that.
LOL!!!