Often the major influence on a rider’s performance is not talent, but available training hours. However, if you’re limited to less than 10 hours per week, there is another strategy you can combine with high-intensity training to compensate for the lack of time. This is high-quality recovery.
There is an added bonus if you work in a sedentary job, because you can turn this into a positive by re-labelling some work time as ‘recovery time’!
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Resting and fitness gain
The main principle to keep at the forefront of your mind is that training hours allow for the possibility of increased fitness levels, but improvement only occurs with proper recovery.
Therefore, the process of getting fit happens when you’re resting and adapting to the training – not when you are actually training.
This is extremely important and, as a coach, I frequently have problems with highly-motivated athletes who struggle with the idea of ‘sacrificing’ training time for high-quality recovery. So, I am going to repeat it to ensure that it sinks in: ‘The process of getting fit happens when you are resting and adapting to the training – not when you are actually training’!
Recovery strategies – passive and active
Passive recovery
Active recovery
- Rehydrate: no matter how much you drink on the bike you will usually be dehydrated at the end of a session and you should rehydrate with water (between 250ml and 500ml) and an electrolyte mix if you have sweated a lot.
- Top up your carbohydrate stores: try to get 30g of carbs in, which normally equates to one medium banana or one energy bar.
- Now it’s time for protein and this can be taken on-board in liquid/shake form or bar form (or both).
Recovery is more than a marginal gain
- It increases our response to training – in other words, fitness gain
- It helps have you be prepared for the next training session
- It rebalances the hormonal levels
- There is less chance of motivation loss
- The risk of sickness or injury are greatly reduced
- It improves motivation and readiness to train
- Stress is reduced and you have a recovery routine that will help keep you focused
- Overall, it helps to make your cycling more enjoyable and fruitful
Regulating your recovery
A final word
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