So I have been reading a bit on the topic and seems like there are 4 main approaches (with variations of each of them)
Don’t plan for recovery but let life lead its course and take recovery time when induced by life
Take a recovery day (active recovery or complete rest) every week
Take 1-2 recovery days every 10-14 days. Training load each 10-14 day block is either constant or slightly progressive
Take 1 week of 50-60 pct regular volume and with sessions being mostly easy (not active recovery) or tests every 3 weeks. Over the 3 weeks “on” training load is significantly but not drastically increased
Seems like advocates of 3 says it gives more training load over time while advocates of 4 says the overloading with subsequent recovery is beneficial as well as giving a mental break
To me 2 seems to be ideal for the people in tune with body and mind
A lot of 1. If you have a family you tend to have at least 1 natural break per week, unless you’re on the path to divorce or you have a Tri wife!
But I consider recovery in the micro cycle more, making sure I am having easier and harder days rather than bashing things out for weeks then having a week recovery. This doesn’t mean easy hard easy hard as I employ block training principles of 3-5 days of overload with recovery following this based on metrics that’s give me an idea of how my nervous system is responding. When it tells me to go again I go again!
The other thing you see with this is how good the body gets a recovering from a particular stimulus, but struggles when you suddenly throw in something new. I can do 4-5 days of high sweetspot etc. on the rollers, but when I threw in a lightish treadmill having not been on one for a while my recovery really struggled!
Don’t plan for recovery but let life lead its course and take recovery time when induced by life
A variant of this one, except when I feel like it or my body demands it (other commitments rarely interfere). I train until I sense that I’m getting into non-functional overreaching, and then scratch all hard workouts for 1-7 days until I feel ready to go again. Some indicators that it’s time for some recovery:
consecutive DNF/DNS key workouts
big increase in perceived exertion for given pace/power
stagnation in progress
poor sleep
Objective indicators work better, because it’s easy to delude yourself that things are going ok. I don’t operate on any fixed schedule. Sometimes I go a few weeks before letting up, other times, only a couple days. Tapering and recovering from races obviously imposes a little more structure during race season.
A lot of 1. If you have a family you tend to have at least 1 natural break per week, unless you’re on the path to divorce or you have a Tri wife!
But I consider recovery in the micro cycle more, making sure I am having easier and harder days rather than bashing things out for weeks then having a week recovery. This doesn’t mean easy hard easy hard as I employ block training principles of 3-5 days of overload with recovery following this based on metrics that’s give me an idea of how my nervous system is responding. When it tells me to go again I go again!
The other thing you see with this is how good the body gets a recovering from a particular stimulus, but struggles when you suddenly throw in something new. I can do 4-5 days of high sweetspot etc. on the rollers, but when I threw in a lightish treadmill having not been on one for a while my recovery really struggled!
2…monday is nearly always a complete rest. It’s when I do my grocery shopping or when I stay a little bit later at work. I tend to feel burnt out pretty quickly if I don’t have a day off every week or so.
I also listen to my body in terms of “recovery” (ie easier sessions when I’m feeling tired/sore etc) during the week. If I feel rubbish or just have no energy, I’ll just do an easy session.
So I have been reading a bit on the topic and seems like there are 4 main approaches (with variations of each of them)
Don’t plan for recovery but let life lead its course and take recovery time when induced by life
Take a recovery day (active recovery or complete rest) every week
Take 1-2 recovery days every 10-14 days. Training load each 10-14 day block is either constant or slightly progressive
Take 1 week of 50-60 pct regular volume and with sessions being mostly easy (not active recovery) or tests every 3 weeks. Over the 3 weeks “on” training load is significantly but not drastically increased
Seems like advocates of 3 says it gives more training load over time while advocates of 4 says the overloading with subsequent recovery is beneficial as well as giving a mental break
To me 2 seems to be ideal for the people in tune with body and mind
Any experience or point of view?
Recovery days are over rated. Get a week of 60 hours of sleep and it will be better than any week where you take days off training. Really hard to do, but if you flip the focus of the week to getting sleep like you would focusing on FTP or track splits. Treat it is a key event. Instead of a 5 hour ride, you’re going to get 5 hours of extra sleep over 2 nights.
Disclaimer: disregard if you have young kids/babies. Then you have to take days off training, because you can’t catch up with more sleep.
I would say I’m closest to #1 this time of year, #4 during race season. Racing about once a month gives you a good reason to cut back a touch for the week, probably 60-70% for me, to perform real well on the weekend. I think recovery weeks are overrated when the training stimulus is not that large, up to ~12 hours a week, but more crucial during big build periods when you’re putting in 16-20 hours a week.
I prefer #1 for people who have jobs/kids. Maybe pros too. Every day you don’t work out is a day you could have at least done some zone 1 and practiced handling or something.
more is more
So I have been reading a bit on the topic and seems like there are 4 main approaches (with variations of each of them)
Don’t plan for recovery but let life lead its course and take recovery time when induced by life
Take a recovery day (active recovery or complete rest) every week
Take 1-2 recovery days every 10-14 days. Training load each 10-14 day block is either constant or slightly progressive
Take 1 week of 50-60 pct regular volume and with sessions being mostly easy (not active recovery) or tests every 3 weeks. Over the 3 weeks “on” training load is significantly but not drastically increased
Seems like advocates of 3 says it gives more training load over time while advocates of 4 says the overloading with subsequent recovery is beneficial as well as giving a mental break
To me 2 seems to be ideal for the people in tune with body and mind
I do #2. If I take a complete day off it’s hard to fit in all the desired volume for an IM along with the other normal things going on in life. On Fridays I swim only and that is my rest day. I usually run long on Thursday and ride long Saturday so an easy Friday works well for me.
With recovery, it seems to me that you have to consider what your recovering from. There’s both training load and muscle fatigue. I did a 17 mile run on Saturday. Thre was high muscle fatigue, but it was “only” a TSS of about 160, compared to several days that week with 200-250 TSS or my long Sunday ride a 212 TSS.
For me as montioned, recovery has 2 parts. Getting caught up on sleep (I try and sleep in 2-3 days a week, 2 minumum… all other days are 6-6.5 hours) and usually Fridays are lighter to either recover from a long run on Thursday morning or prepare for longer workouts on the weekend.
I follow Friel/Traininpeaks periodization, and take a recovery/testing week every 4th week. Training load is about 50-60% the average of the previous 3 weeks. I could tell I was ready for a recovery week, as my the HR during my long ride on Sunday was running 5-8bpm higher than normal for the same power output. On those off weeks, I put a focus on getting plenty of sleep, watching my diet (easy to gain 1-2lbs droppping trainig load by 1/2) and relaxing a little.
But I also agree that every minute your not training, your recovering. Especially training for 3 disciplines. I also use a lot of active recovery, so I’d say at least 1/3 of my volume during a week is active recovery, mainting aerobic base and for running, getting miles on my legs which has beneficial adaptation.
Recovery days? What’s that. I will go 5-6 months without a day completely off. Usually only the week following a A race will I take a planned day off. Then I’ll do a week of fun, unplanned workouts (go out and smell the roses type stuff) then get back to it.
I run hard occasionally. Like 2 days a week. Every other day is a recovery day. I run on all of them but I am recovering. I don’t run a pace, I just run easy. That generally ensures recovery
I only take a day completely off when I feel fatigue piling up, and that tends to be rare thanks to making most runs recovery runs.
That’s for running only. Working swimming and cycling into the mix complicates it and I haven’t figured out the perfect mix. But I don’t cycle or swim enough anyway.
I run hard occasionally. Like 2 days a week. Every other day is a recovery day. I run on all of them but I am recovering. I don’t run a pace, I just run easy. That generally ensures recovery
I only take a day completely off when I feel fatigue piling up, and that tends to be rare thanks to making most runs recovery runs.
That’s for running only. Working swimming and cycling into the mix complicates it and I haven’t figured out the perfect mix. But I don’t cycle or swim enough anyway.
That’s a hard one too. I think you fit swim workouts where ever it’s most time effective. It matters little when you do them I think.
I haven’t figured out how I’m going to manage 2 hard bikes and 2 hard runs in a week. I guess I’ll just alternate them and see how it goes. WIth swims and easy runs betwen, its’ a lot of triple workout days. 4 workouts when I’m strength training, but I make my easy recovery run my warm-up for lifting.