Recovery before full frontal

Training
1

Hi there,

I have just completed 12 weeks of General Road Intermediate which I’ve really enjoyed.

At the halfway point my FTP went up from 220 to 240 and other metrics went up but slightly less - so I could see it was working.

Anyway, I was due to do my final full frontal last Sunday (it’s Tuesday today), but around Tuesday last week I was feeling very tired and skipped a session. So I thought that I would shift my FF to Monday as I’m not working this week and felt that an extra day recovery would make no difference.

Then on Friday I spent some time running around in the garden with the kids and my legs were really sore the following day - it hurt just walking around.

On Sunday I did Recharger and yesterday I did Primers in preparation for FF today, but to be honest my legs still feel inflamed even though most of the pain has gone.

The other factors here:

  1. I weigh myself daily and I know that if I have a large daily weight gain (say 5 or 6 pounds) then I am carrying a load of inflammation. This morning I put on 6 pounds vs yesterday.
  2. I’ve been training really hard and consistently for 3 months and really want to make FF count and don’t want to do it unless I’m in top shape.

Advice needed:
Firstly I assume I have the right idea by trying to be fully recovered.
What would be the best approach? Rest completely or keep repeating Recharger until I feel better?

Thanks in advance!

2

Running around the garden isn’t a recovery day :wink: I use a WHOOP strap and many times the strain score from working in the garden is equal to or greater than a cycling workout.

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3

One option, depending on how recovery time you’ve had already - is load up the FF PREP plan - it’s a specific one week pre FF plan. Still has some limited riding
That’s got me my best results when I’ve followed it to the letter.

2 Likes
4

@Allen Hello! It’s great to hear that your training has been beneficial. Taking a few easy days as your legs felt loaded was a smart move instead of just pressing on. You have put in the hard work and you want to reap the benefits of your labor and rushing the test would not have given you accurate numbers.

I would suggest as @Martin said to complete the FF prep plan once the inflammation has subsided. If your prep needs to be condensed to six days I would remove the taper efforts but I would typically take a full day off two days prior to the FF test!

Nothing new on test day!

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5

Thanks all.

I have loaded up the 7 day FF prep plan with a target day of Saturday.

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Good luck and enjoy the day.
One wee thing (if you’ve been through this loads before pls ignore me) — Primers might (I’d go as far to say ‘expect it to feel’) feel rubbish. In my experience that’s absolutely fine … it’ll be all good the day after.