Hey team!

Now that we’re in season this week we’ll talk about recovery! I’ll detail a recovery week, and how to recover post ride. As a slight sidebar, we will talk nutrition at 10,000 foot level. Eating during and after a ride(if you haven’t read my post on nutrition, check out coaches corner on the site!). Also, the recovery ride and recovery aids!

The recovery week. I mentioned in a previous post about training schedules. whether you’re doing a 2 week on 1 week off, or a 3 week on 1 week off cycle doesn’t make a difference here. As a general rule, your recovery week should be half of the volume, but no change in intensity. for example: a tue/wed/thur/sat/sun on week would look more like tue/thur/sat for your recovery week. Tuesday would be the sweet spot/threshold/vo2, Thursday would be zone 2 and Saturday would be the group ride/longer ride day. The rest week is also very similar to a taper week.

Nutrition when recovering is huge. again, if you’re hungry after a ride you didn’t fuel enough during the ride. The recovery week is when your carbohydrate and protein stores can rebuild. don’t pig out, but eat well. Restoring the body’s nutrients will only aid in overall recovery!

Okay, the big one; the recovery ride. In my experience most riders get this wrong. The recovery ride is ONLY in Zone 1, and no more than 40 minutes. The entire point is to just spin the legs enough to increase blood flow and flush the last remaining remnants of lactate and muscle decay. Recovery aids are another topic I get asked about frequently. Personally I use a couple. I am a big fan of the air relax/normatec/recovery boot. While I don’t personally own one, I use one whenever I can borrow. I do personally own a theragun which is one of the percussive massagers. What’s The big deep dark secret of these things? they feel really good, but don’t actually quicken recovery. rest and sleep do.

Recovery is pretty simple. Get some rest and sleep. Let your body heal. Eat some good food. Dont go too hard!

see you out there!