Giving yourself a chance

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BY: Niall Frost

Published: 29th November, 2010

Like a lot of people who train for bike racing I try and learn from my previous mistakes so I am always moving forward and making best use of time available.  It's great in theory but inevitably like all good ideas I usually find a way to make a mess at some stage! 

 

I'm not even talking about smashing out "base miles", pyramid interval sessions or turbo sessions based on your maximum heart rate less your minimum heart rate, times by PI divide by waste size and add crank length.  This is simple recovery I managed to get wrong.

 

Last weekend I had the major fortune to have 3 whole days of riding my road bike with friends and in mainly glorious weather.  Joining me were an elite roadie from Oxford, a former Scotland quality triathlete and the other half of my 10utb winning team all having a varied riding background but focussed on good riding (and Belgian beer).

 

We built up the miles each day with a steady flattish 60 miler on the Saturday, a lumpy 65 through the trough of Bowland on Sunday and finally a monumentally wet 75 through Coal Fell, Buttertubs and Tan Hill.  We'd all followed the time worn recovery process; recovery drink, carbohydrate rich foodstuffs with a brief diversion to another carbohydrate rich drink on Saturday (well, it is winter!!!).

However, by Tuesday I was back at my desk and my legs ached (quelle surprise?).  This was the most back to back riding I'd done in a long time which was excellent but I knew that I still had a portion of the recovery still to go.  The day after a hard ride I always feel better after a 40min spin on the rollers to get the legs moving which, although it may not feel like it at the time, is the one of the best recovery "tips" that apply to me.  In my wisdom I convinced myself that sleep was the better option and I completely skipped this ride.  Major Mistake.

 

Come Wednesday and sure enough, I felt tired and my legs still ached.  I went out riding but my heart rate was really low and I felt generally crappy.  Not until Thursday did I feel able to ride properly again.  In reality, only one training session missed but I'd still invested the same amount of time/effort anyway for less of a return.

 

So a lesson for me anyway, practise what you know works because this week the road was under 3 inches of snow and I can't ride as much as I'd like to now.  Lesson learned?  Well, I'm only human so I'll let you know in a month…..

 

Niall Frost
XCracer.com/29ers

P.s.  1 week on and I'm travelling back from London.  Left home at 4.15am and arrive home at 9pm = no riding.  This time sleep will be the right recovery.