The most important aspect to riding and racing success is hard training. The second most important aspect to riding and racing success is recovery; for you can’t ride hard, unless you are rested and ready to do so. For me, a recovery ride 1-2 times a week is crucial. In general, recovery rides promote blood flow which helps decrease inflammation, remove waste products, and loosen stiff, sore muscles.
For a recovery ride to be productive it has to be an easy, mellow, short ride. If you ride any harder than “recovery pace” you are putting a training stress on your body instead of recovering.
Fortunately and unfortunately, I live in the mountains of Colorado at 8,000. The training is amazing; altitude, mountains, low traffic roads, etc. Unfortunately, every road either goes up or down. A proper recovery ride at 8,000ft while climbing is not ideal.
A recovery ride at home is where my Kinetic by Kurt Road Machine comes in. When I need an easy, mellow, high cadence, recovery ride at home, I’ll get on the trainer and “spin out” my legs. In 30-45 minutes I feel loose and “clean” because my body has gotten rid of the extra junk left in my legs after the previous day’s workout or race. I keep the pace mellow (<140 watts) and every 3-5 minutes alternate spinning my legs at high cadence (<120 rpm) with more of a moderate cadence (90-100 rpm).
I make sure to drink a lot of water (2 bottles) as it can get pretty warm in the summer time on the trainer and I sweat a lot. I follow this workout with stretching and more water. The rest of the day, I put my feet up and by tomorrow I am ready to “Rock n Roll”.
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