Hi! I have a training question.
All along this messy 2020 I’ve been training really hard, building some fitness and increasing my ftp. So after 6 months, last weekend I decided to take 3 days off, and I thought that it would be a good idea to make my 4DP, considering the full resting and recovery I thought my legs would be stronger than ever, but a friend told me that I will fail The test and could regret trying it without a few days of warm up. So I decided to do GOAT, and I understood the advise of my friend, my legs hurt a lot and felt tired.
So de question is:
Why after 3 days of resting I felt like that? And How could I prepare for a 4DP without sacrificing Fitness? When is the right moment for a 4DP?
Don’t worry. Rest is an important part of training.
Even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, it will make you stronger.
As to where to go next: The Full Frontal Prep Plan is a pretty good week before doing the test itself. It will bring you back to where you need to be.
Another option to consider is maybe taking a week or two to do just whatever your heart desires without paying too close attention to a plan. This could help if you run the risk of burning out. You know yourself best if that’s a valid concern right now.
Otherwise just jump right back in.
We do active recovery, which is rest days with really mega easy movement of some type or another. An awesome active recovery is deep water running or pool running. If your local pool isn’t open, use a lake or river. Legs feel great afterwards!
If you had done Primers instead of GOAT then you’d likely have been perfectly set for a Full Frontal tomorrow. There’s a reason why all the plans have that one at the end of the recovery/taper phase and the day before the test/race/event - gets the legs through their “hurt a lot, feel tired” state and lets them know something nasty their way comes. I’ll leave the explaining the why to the coaches.
Thanks for the advice!!! Yeah I was thinking to do primers but that sense of no suffering after 4 days take over my mind and got me doing GOAT .
I will try to warmup my legs and do a taper week.
I’ll try the heart feeling and try to take back my form and fitness!!! And really hope you’re right and this rest days take me Back where I was or better!!!
Remember you don’t always have to leave everything you have on the bike after a training session, suffering comes in different levels. (more info on that here: Active Recovery)
In the training plans you will see harder weeks and then active recovery weeks. After a recovery week is a good time to go for 4DP (or if you’re not sure, schedule the FullFrontal prep week) as you will still have your legs and body working but at a lower intensity. Add in peimers the day before and you are set to go!
`3 days is great (I believe). your body will be stronger. Do Primers the day before you next ride though …
so for FF - doing zero for the preceding 3 days isn’t recommended as an approach … even if you just do Primers the day before (which will feel horrible but that’s the purpose of the Primer the day before - to wake the legs and systems up)
So - 3 days rest is good, forget about that being an issue - it will be good for you.
The best way to approach a FF is to have a full rest/prep week specifically focussed on it - there’s even a plan for it in the library, which includes rest, includes some ‘openers’ for the legs that are short, includes mental and yoga stuff, and after a week sets you very very nicely indeed for FF (with Primers the day before).
Give it a try !! You’ve lost nothing and gained lots by having 3 days off though … seriously - it’s a good thing - and it’s normal to feel ‘yucky’ 3 days later - your body is recovering !!
Sometimes your body needs 4 days. Sometimes 2. Test when you feel ready to tear the bike apart, not when you’re head and legs aren’t feeling ready. Primers is good, but so is Igniter!
My standard race prep is 2 days before the race complete rest (my legs feel like they are falling off), then the day before do Primers. Seems to work for me. It does mean effectively 3 days of no training if its a short race but the next 4 days is usually 8-10 hours, hence the tired legs by Thursday.
.