My long rides on Saturday are about 60 miles. I do a recovery ride on Sundays and wasn’t sure what distance they ought to be. I figured about 10-20% of the distance of Saturday’s ride, 6-12 miles right now.
Does that sound right?
Also, do you skip recovery rides yourself?
Do you do back-to-back long rides? For example, a 60-mile ride on Saturday and a 60-miler on Sunday?
Thanks for your input and suggestions,
I do a 50 to 60 mile ride on Sat on the tri bike and then a 50 miler give or take a few on sunday. I take it a bit easier, especially on the hills and depending on the heat…I push the fluids during and after and seem to recover just fine and have enough left for the monday am swim and lunch time brick,25 bike and 5 mile run!
I’d think 1 hour would be a good time. Distance is what it is. That is if you are doing your long run Sunday morning.
BTW – I’m only doing bike training. Does 1 hour sound good in that case?
I still think 1 hour is a good time. Remember, a recovery ride is RECOVERY, not “training.”
You may want to be doing two big rides on the weekend then. A recovery ride can also be later in the day. For instance, 60 miles in the AM, 1 hour recovery in the PM. And do that both days.
If you are just doing bike training, I think the Lance Armstrong / Chris Carmichael book, “7 Weeks to the Perfect Ride” is pretty good. There are 3 programs in it – beg/int/adv.
Jim,
Recovery rides are more about intensity rather than distance. A recovery ride should not exceed zone 2 for heart rate, 60-70% of max heart rate. 65% would be a better limit. I would suggest at least an hour or 20 miles. 30-40 miles would not compromise your recover ride provided you kept it at the proper intensity level.
As an example, a cyclist with a max heart rate of 180 bpm would have a zone two of 108-126 bpm, 60-70% of max heart rate. 117 bpm would be 65% of max heart rate. Most cyclists do not have the self discipline to maintain such a low effort level for a recovery ride and as such they lose the value of their “recovery” ride. It is a recovery ride in name only for them and they lose the training benefit from it.
Many cyclists compromise their training and performance by riding their recovery rides at an intensity that is too great for recovery and ride their hard training rides at an intensity that is not quite intense enough to elicit maximum gains. their hard efforts ar in the 60-85% of max heart rate range instead of the 90-95% of max heart rate range. In effect, they ride in no man’s land most of the time.
My take on this is always that recovery rides are variable according to circumstance. For example:
If I’ve done a long session but it wasn’t too hard (ie 6hrs slow, 4 of which was sitting in a bunch of roadies) and I’m not culumatively fatigued and have nothing but more miles planned for later in the week (usually because I’m doing base work) I’ll do an easy ride of up to 2hrs the next day. I do laps of a nearby park (6.5 miles/lap) and stop when I feel tired or when I reach 2hrs.
If I’ve done a good solid session (eg yesterday, I did a session with 2x40mins averaging just under 42kmh) and am feeling it and/or I want to hit a tough session the next day i’ll do no more than 60 minutes easy.
If, finally, I am properly FUBAR from something really stupid (last time I felt like this I’d swum 4K, then done a 6.5 hr hilly solo ride all into a headwind) BUT I want to prevent myself turning into an immovable block of stone the following day, I’ll do 2 20-minute easy spins on the turbo one before lunch and one before supper.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the great input!
Looks like I can increase the distance on my recovery rides. My recovery ride last night was only 8 miles at 123 bpm (66% of my max of 185). I also like the guideline of basing your recovery ride somewhat on how you feel and/or how intense the previous day’s ride was. Only problem I have is that I start hitting hills pretty quickly no matter which direction I go and that makes it hard to keep the heart rate down. That should get better as soon as I get my new Trek Madone with compact cranks.
BTW – I love my recovery rides! I use them to just kick back and really enjoy riding the bike. I make sure to keep my heart rate between 60-70%. I use them to focus on smoothing out my pedal stroke.
I can see there are some different perspectives on recovery rides. How about some more input from other folks?
I do a 87 mile ride on Saturdays where I ride with a small group to our main ride and back. The main ride is 50 miles with an average speed of 23-24 mph. So we use the first 18 miles for warming up (all in the small ring at 20 mph). Then get to the main ride which is 50 miles long with a large group. Then use the last 18 miles back as a cool down in the small ring.
On Sunday I do a 60 mile hill ride with a large group of over 100. There’s a good mix of bike racers in this group so it’s always a hard ride. With the heat it’s really hard.
On Mondays I religiously either do a 1 hour spin or take the day off. On the days I spin for an hour, I seem to recover quicker for my Tuesday ride. But either way, never anything hard on Mondays. I only bike now, no running or swimming mind you.
~ AB ~
I only bike as well.
Are back-to-back long rides more beneficial than doing the same weekly mileage spread out over the week?
I assume most people do that because they can’t get enough weekly miles otherwise. I would think that you would be too fatigued to do very well on the Sunday ride.
I think recovery rides are extremely important. Your upward limit of 12 miles sounds reasonable to me. Also, duration is another reasonable gauge, telling yourself, “I will go about 1 hour easy.”
Perhaps a key feature is to use your heart rate as a governor to limit your level of exertion. Especially when you ride with others a recovery ride can get too fast pretty easily.
My impression of a good recovery ride is that it facilitates and maintains good range of motion and flexibility- keeping you from getting stiff and sore after a hard effort, and also maintains other physiological functions that facilitate recovery.
Another key to recovery rides is maintaining hydration levels before, during and after the rides. You don’t want to have an “episode”.
tomD is correct when he says
My impression of a good recovery ride is that it facilitates and maintains good range of motion and flexibility- keeping you from getting stiff and sore after a hard effort, and also maintains other physiological functions that facilitate recovery.
ride as long as you need to get the blood flowing, and you start feeling warmed up. sometimes we ride recovery rides at or below zone 1 (65%). This is when everyone passes you including kids of trikes!~
Not to me it doesn’t, especially if you’re not running or swimming. I rode for 4.5 hours on Saturday at about 19.5 mph. Then for 3 hours on Sunday at about 16. I’m recovering at that slower pace, my intensity level is about zero, I’m remembering what it is like to enjoy a nice Sunday bike ride and I’m still adding to my cardio fitness. The only time I’ll dramatically drop that distance down is if I have a lot of pain in my legs.
I don’t see why you need to limit your training to 60 min on Sunday. Sundays are valuable training days.
How fast do you ride/run, or, to put it another way…how long is your lunch?
FYI,
I only ride back-to-back long rides due to my work schedule during the week. I don’t have much time to train during the week so I need to get my miles in on the weekend – you do what you have to do to get in the miles…
I don’t feel this is a good way to train however. It’s not balanced at all and puts a shock on your system. I find myself losing fitness during the week, then getting some back with the long rides on the weekend. But as you can imagine, I am trashed on Monday & Tuesday. But contrary to what you might think after my long ride on Saturday, I can still hang with the front group in the hills on Sunday.
~ AB ~
I agree. That Chris Carmichael book is the book I used for my cycling. I also am a pure cyclist. I went from hating the hills, to being nick named “Lance” due to my climbing ability. The training laid out in the 7 week system also increased my average speed. After implementing the 7 week training system I was doing a solo ride of 114 miles which included a beyond category climb along with some third and forth category climbs, every Saturday. After implementing the advanced 7 week training system to get into shape, I then concentrated on my weakness, which was climbing. I used to climb like an anvil, but after implementing the hill intervals as laid out in that book, I looked forward to the tough climbs as they become my strength.
Just a small note here. as a pure cyclist, I ended up going beyond the advanced level laid out in the 7 week system. I used the same techniques but increased the distances. Now as I’m getting older at 51, I concentrate more on power intervals. This book also points out how to work on your weaknesses, so whatever you need can be found in that book. I will say however that it’s always a good idea to try other techniques as to shock the system a little. Another reason for this is that there are lots of great techniques out there. Some work better for some, and some may work better for others. Before long you will know what works best for you.
Hope this helps.
Those are words of wisdom Ben. I understand how difficult it is to keep the intensity level at 60% to 70%. I also shoot for 65% as I know effort will fluctuate. My personal preference is to do my recovery rides on the spin bike. I don’t mind staying indoors for 90 minutes of recovery riding if it keeps me from going outside of my zone. I find zone 2 to be the hardest zone to stay in as it takes no noticeable effort at all to end up in zone 3.