How to get out (of the plan)?

Training
1

Hi,

I have a question concerning training plan intensity/muscles.

I’ve been following the "All-Purpose Road“ plan for 7 weeks now and haven’t missed a single day until last weekend.

Saturday - to my own surprise - it was New Bike Day for me :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Sunday (yesterday) the weather was just great, so I did the first 80km with my new bike.

The days before (Tuesday and Thursday), the plan was so kind to give me Nine Hammers and The Chores with new numbers from Half Monty😬

Yesterday, I skipped “Half the Road” for my outside ride. Right from the start, my muscles were so tight and sore :see_no_evil: The rest of my system felt really good - not tired at all. We had quite a strong wind, so 75% of the ride wasn’t easy (head- and crosswind).

I have the feeling that my muscles were in that condition not only because of the last (tough) week, but also because of following the tight plan the weeks before.

Since I want to be prepared for the next (weekend) outdoor rides, what can I do to relax my muscles?

Stretching and foam roller of course. That’s what I always do. Should I reduce the plan and just pick one of the tougher rides on weekdays and replace the rest by recovery spins?

I won’t finish the plan anyway, because I will do more and more outdoor rides (in quite an unstructured manner, I’m just a fun rider) as soon as the weather is more stable.

Have a nice week!! :blush::bike::sunny:

2

Not sure what the question is. I understand that you’ve been training and your legs hurt. I also understand that you want to stop following a training plan because you’re more interested in enjoying time on the bike rather than chasing performance gains. Sounds to me like you’ve got this thing figured out.

1 Like
3

Thank you!
My questions are:
How can I speed up leg recovery? Maybe it was a bit too much during the last weeks… Recovery spins? Can I go on with the harder workouts (I would love to!). Maybe reduce them?

4

Ok, got it. I don’t find anything to be more helpful than rest. Foam rolling and stretching feel good, but I’m not sure they actually enhance recovery. I’d like to know if someone has evidence those things work. I’ll also say that week 7 on that plan is a killer. Not surprised you don’t feel great after that.

5

My tricks are:

  1. Protein within minutes of getting off the bike. I take 40g within 15 minutes. A male can take less (24-30g) within 30-60 minutes. If it’s a particularly tough day on the bike or in the gym, I also take caseine based protein at bedtime.
  2. Ice the legs. I hose mine down with cold water in the shower or jump into an unheated pool until I’m cold. I can’t quite face ice baths but cold water seems to help.
  3. I foam roller daily. Yoga helps too.
  4. Prioritise quality and adequate food.
  5. Prioritise sleep.
  6. Take the allocated rest days seriously. This might mean reshuffling your plan. There’s also a training article somewhere on how to adjust your plan to accommodate a group ride or other outdoor ride.
  7. I also do a longer warmup and cooldown depending on what my hormones are doing
1 Like
6

Thank you so much!!!

  1. I definitely take the proteins too late.
  2. I love icing my legs :star_struck:
  3. I do both. More Pilates than Yoga though.
  4. I eat quality food, but I have no idea what I should eat when…
  5. I definitely have to work on this point. Usually I sleep less to have the time to fit in a SUF workout :smiley:
  6. I‘ll search for the article, thank you!
  7. Haven’t noticed any hormone effects so far, but my thyroid is creating some chaos anyway…

Thanks again! Maybe I should go to bed now… :wink:

1 Like
7

Track your cycle. Use the Wild.AI app which is now out of Beta and available to all women. The FitrWoman app is also good and also shows what food types to eat when. It’s really good.

If you have a 4 week hormone cycle, set up your training plan so rest week aligns with the last week of your cycle. Works well. With thyroid issues, I’m guessing it’s not that straightforward for you. Might need some tweaks or a custom plan maybe?

1 Like
8

Massage (including self-massage like a theragun or foam rolling) is one of the few things that has actually been demonstrated to be helpful to speed recovery and adaptation. Most recovery products are at best almost irrelevant and at worst they are snake oil, but massage seems to do something. Plus it feels great.

For quality food, if you hit your macros and then make sure to be eating a rotating variety of foods that grow in the ground of a variety of colors, you’ll probably be all set. Not scientific but it’ll get your pretty close. i have found that focusing on eating on the bike actually can be super helpful for recovery too. Cruising around at zone 2 endurance on the road you can be churning out a surprising amount of kilojoules and dig yourself into a hole. Make sure to eat on the bike and you have less work to do (eating-wise) later and you’re more likely to be ready to work out again the next day.

Also it might be worth checking to make sure your fit is correct on the new bike. i think even when you’re hittin a training plan hard, pain and tightness is abnormal. worth checking out and making sure your setup is dialed in.

9

Do you have references to support this? If so, I’d like to be able to review them myself.

10

yeah let me do a little digging here.