rest day

[dailuggs]

started training this week, and am wondering if i should be taking a rest day in my schedule? ive got 1 day thats always significantly less than the others but not sure whether its enough. guess it might be a case of if your too tired take a rest day if not do what you can

cheers in advance

 

[Fixey]

Originally posted by dailuggs
started training this week, and am wondering if i should be taking a rest day in my schedule? ive got 1 day thats always significantly less than the others but not sure whether its enough. guess it might be a case of if your too tired take a rest day if not do what you can

cheers in advance

I would take atleast one rest day a week for starters.....I actually plan my week so my rest day is the last day, that way if I miss a ride for whatever reason I can use it.

 

[tanggoman]

Originally posted by dailuggs
started training this week, and am wondering if i should be taking a rest day in my schedule? ive got 1 day thats always significantly less than the others but not sure whether its enough. guess it might be a case of if your too tired take a rest day if not do what you can

cheers in advance

Never neglect the benefit of rest days for it is as important as training days. Dont wait till you feel 'tired and burned out' as this are symptoms of overtraining.

 

[stone61cm]

Wait a second....what's a rest day?

Only time I take off is when i break something (either bike or self) and can't get it fixed right away....in those cases, I sit on my couch and think about riding....heh

seriously, tho, it totally depends on the level of your training, your body's ability to recover, and your mental fitness. I personally like to kill myself on the bike and take a day off maybe once every 2-3 weeks. I have an awesome ability to recover and rather enjoy the pain, but like i said, it varies from person to person.

 

[edd]

have at least one day off the bike a week, if that means you have to do twice as much or work twice as hard on another day or days, so be it. It works like this:

Training stimuli...... adaptation, training stimuli...... adaptation, training stimuli...... adaptation. Sooner or later the Training stimuli is going to accumulate and the adaptation part will suffer !

 

[stone61cm]

I took yesterday off and I didn't really know what to do. It's hard going from riding 3 hours a day to nothing. All that free time and what did I do? I sat on my couch and watched a movie. Bah!

 

[Cowboyathlete]

Originally posted by dailuggs
started training this week, and am wondering if i should be taking a rest day in my schedule? ive got 1 day thats always significantly less than the others but not sure whether its enough. guess it might be a case of if your too tired take a rest day if not do what you can

cheers in advance

Sweet Jesus YES build rest into your schedule!!!! The weather outside where I am right now is perfect for cycling of any kind. However, the way I ache from lifting last night, if I go cycling today I will be too worn down to go cycling this weekend. Am I gonna rest tonight? You bet I am!

 

[Cowboyathlete]

Originally posted by dailuggs
started training this week, and am wondering if i should be taking a rest day in my schedule? ive got 1 day thats always significantly less than the others but not sure whether its enough. guess it might be a case of if your too tired take a rest day if not do what you can

cheers in advance

Sweet Jesus YES build rest into your schedule!!!! The weather outside where I am right now is perfect for cycling of any kind. However, the way I ache from lifting last night, if I go cycling today I will be too worn down to go cycling this weekend. Am I gonna rest tonight? You bet I am!

 

[sooray02]

Originally posted by Cowboyathlete
Sweet Jesus YES build rest into your schedule!!!! The weather outside where I am right now is perfect for cycling of any kind. However, the way I ache from lifting last night, if I go cycling today I will be too worn down to go cycling this weekend. Am I gonna rest tonight? You bet I am!

Here is an idea. Do something you suck at. For example, I'm a horrible tennis player, but I love playing tennis. I’m out there 2-3 hours trying to play tennis but I don’t get any exercise done. I pretty much walk around, since I can’t even serve. Also once a week I go play golf. So, I call those days as my resting day.

Please don’t over train. Because that is what I’m trying to overcome and believe me, it sucks.

Good luck with everything!

 

[Fixey]

I play golf on my rest days. Im getting better at it, im down to a HC of 4 (per hole) and up to 1 ltr of Whiskey.

 

[edd]

Originally posted by Fixey
I play golf on my rest days. Im getting better at it, im down to a HC of 4 (per hole) and up to 1 ltr of Whiskey.

On rest days I sleep a lot and wonder why my legs ache. Reading a good book is the very best way to waste time !

If it happens to be about cycle training then maybe it is not so much a waste of time.

 

[shokhead12]

I ride no more then 3 days in a row without a day off the bike but i'm old.

 

[Aztec]

My CTS coach has me doing endurance work on Weds, Sat & Sun, intervals on Tues & Thurs. Friday is a recovery ride, but I rarely do it. So, that's 5 or 6 days/week. I am starting to think that's too much for my 38 year old immune system (see other thread on immunity).

 

[Fixey]

Originally posted by Aztec
My CTS coach has me doing endurance work on Weds, Sat & Sun, intervals on Tues & Thurs. Friday is a recovery ride, but I rarely do it. So, that's 5 or 6 days/week. I am starting to think that's too much for my 38 year old immune system (see other thread on immunity).

Im not supprised dude, your doing 5 hard days a week? I would question that. I would point out I am generally a track coach, I only coach roadies at a beginer to mid lvl, but I rarely go over 3 hard days....any endurance coaches want to jump in here? coz 5 days hard just seems to much to me. especially with no quite rides

 

[edd]

Originally posted by Aztec
My CTS coach has me doing endurance work on Weds, Sat & Sun, intervals on Tues & Thurs. Friday is a recovery ride, but I rarely do it. So, that's 5 or 6 days/week. I am starting to think that's too much for my 38 year old immune system (see other thread on immunity).

Yep !

It's not the volume or intensity that going to get you it's the fact you never get time to recover. How old is your coach ? needs to learn a few things !

 

[Doctor Morbius]

I'm glad to see threads like this. That's why I like this forum.

We all tend to glamorize our training routines and how hard we push ourselves. However, without adequate rest and nutrition the best training regimen in the world will not produce good results. Training is just one leg of the tri-pod. Without the other two legs ... well, you know the story.

Look at how many new threads there are lately that deal directly or indirectly with overtaining. I'm certainly guilty of overtraining (or under-resting) too.

I think most of us that take up these endeavors - whether it's endurance cycling, bodybuilding, distance running, whatever - tend to have obsessive compulsive personalities. In a way that's a good thing because we are more driven to train day in and day out doing something that the bulk of the populace is unwilling to do. But it is also bad because we associate our successes with pushing ourselves to the limit and not with relaxing and taking it easy while our bodies recover from those arduous workouts in previous days. I've even felt guilty for taking a few days off even though I probably really needed them!

Since most of us probably know little about how an elite athlete truly lives there lives from day to day (other than what we know from the media), I just wonder how many of them spend 10 hours a day sleeping and a couple more taking a nap. Other than their training they proabably do very little in the way of housework or lawncare. I'm willing to bet good money it's quite a few of them. And now I'm going to emulate some of their "technique" for a few days.

I'm not lazy, I'm just highly motivated to RELAX!!

 

[edd]

I'm not obsessive or compulsive, I like to do the very minimum. That's why I keep the bike close to the bed, so I don't have to go far to get on it.

 

[Aztec]

Originally posted by Fixey
Im not supprised dude, your doing 5 hard days a week? I would question that. I would point out I am generally a track coach, I only coach roadies at a beginer to mid lvl, but I rarely go over 3 hard days....any endurance coaches want to jump in here? coz 5 days hard just seems to much to me. especially with no quite rides

No, it's really more like 2 hard days. The 3 endurance days are <80% max heart rate (155 allowed out of 195bpm max). The target HR is 145. This is easy stuff. That is, until it's for 4+ hours (only one of those days). That seems to take the most out of me.

Even the 2 'hard' days have SEEMED to be cake. No more than 36 mins at 85% of max HR (165bpm), broken into 2 or 3 intervals. But the schedule is ramping up now, with volume dropping off and intensity rising. Volume now is about 10-13 total hrs/wk.

I should note that 1 out of every 4 weeks is a super easy week, with no intervals, and volume chopped down to a few easy rides.