Morning all,

Got home last night after 5 days of Tuscany fun and wondering what you lot do to recover after multi-day exertion???

Obviously I'm physically broken but also feeling massively energised and really eager to get out and play, run, ride and capitalise on my recent exercise.

But I think I'll just injure myself if I don't successfully allow myself to recover (hip-flexers are really shot and my back is on its last legs etc...).

So are there any exercises or activities you've found that can help with recovery or should I just be sitting on my ass and doing nowt (apart from work which is unfortunately quite physical and lifty for me)?

Be interested to hear what you lot do.

Cheers, Gairy.

(Good) yoga. It lacks a certain something compared to more dramatic or adrenaline activities but if you can relax into it the mental (bloody hippy) and physical benefits are pretty good, IMO. Also, a good instructor or programme will be able to focus on the bits that are broken, tired or need strengthening.

If you think it's all ladies barely breaking a sweat and making body-pretzels then you may be mistaken

Difficult when you've a bust fist though

Sitting no ... but some complimentary active recovery and stretching would be a good way of helping those tight muscles
Swimming would be very low impact

Yoga, swimming, walking. Very low intensity rides (think cycle paths and canal routes).

Thanks for the tips.

I do Pilates once a week (which is not a million miles away from Yoga) but it's not until Tuesday so will have to just do some of the stretches from memory in a bit. All the yoga people around here are über serious and have nearly killed me when I've tried to do it.

And swimming was what I was thinking but I find it really boring.

Just have to suck it up and get wet.....

+1 for yoga, but you needn't be in recovery mode to see the benefits of it.

I suppose like all things it depends, mainly on how well you recover.

If youre tired and low on energy (cardio) after alot of endurance stuff but still feel fit enough to move then i enjoy practicing Trials, im dreadful at it but an hour of just track stands, balancing, hopping around the park with no commitment to distance is quite relaxing and fun. Just headphones and a small picnic left by a bench and practice.

If its the other way around and you want to rest muscles, i love walking, totally different muscle groups and i walk nearly everywhere as it is. Doesn't have to be mountains, i quite like laps of my local marina in swansea. Mellow but the steps quickly add up.

And hell, sometimes, theres nothing wrong with spending a whole day doing a whole lotta nothing, for me its video games and fixing tiny stuff. Sometimes your body just simply needs it

I really need to spend some time on my low speed tech skills. I've worked hard to get my endurance / speed up, but that's all lagging behind a bit.

Pilates is great. They have a weekly class at work that I go to. The only man most of the time.

I do some most work day mornings too, just to keep everything moving.

Si

No-one here sits on their arse and drink beer then? Eats everything in the fridge and then orders a take away?

Just me then...

voodoo_simon wrote:No-one here sits on their arse and drink beer then? Eats everything in the fridge and then orders a take away?

Just me then...

That's my default and exactly what I feel like doing (which is exactly why I'm trying to avoid it).

Need to maintain momentum to get fitter and a little less weighty.

voodoo_simon wrote:No-one here sits on their arse and drink beer then? Eats everything in the fridge and then orders a take away?

Just me then...

Might have been

3 words.
Non guilt biscuits.

Richard G wrote:think cycle paths and canal routes

Hmmm, I better go find more gnar....

https://www.doyouyoga.com/whats-the-dif ... tes-76215/

Sometimes a case of needing to find the *right* yoga for you

Depends how tired and beat up I am but eating (fairly) well, sleeping more and daily rides are my priority. Stretching a bit also. Riding is just no-aim easy pootling, sitting around a bit, maybe a pint at the pub. 2 hrs or so at a time, rarely more. Active recovery, rest and reflection, that sort of thing.

voodoo_simon wrote:No-one here sits on their arse and drink beer then? Eats everything in the fridge and then orders a take away?

Just me then...

Yup, and jolly good it is too. Mind you I'm also a lone bloke at a pilates class plus I've been doing lots of stretches to help my buggered knees to recover. I've found that having 2 weeks off the bike totally after a big ride means that when I get back on I'm feeling dead fit.

So day one of recovery accidentally meandered slowly but inevitably towards overeating and beer - doh!

Did some light stretches and planning a little pre-work gentle tootle and a swim at lunchtime tomorrow.

Already got my next daft ride planned (and vague plans of the one after) so all's proceeding nicely.

Thanks for the tips folks!

voodoo_simon wrote:No-one here sits on their arse and drink beer then? Eats everything in the fridge and then orders a take away?

Just me then...

I find that has its place in the recovery cycle. Mmm. Beer

After the comfort of beer, gin, whisky, pizza, curry, ice-cream, etc, and allowing the niggling joints to recover, I am now trying to get back into riding fitness after the HT550. However, it's not going so well, and even 10 days after finishing, with my Training Stress Balance numbers (derived from Power Metrics, empirical and estimated) indicating good 'form' (and both ATL and CTL indicating relatively low fatigue / high fitness), it just doesn't feel like that. I have not tried any max sustainable power riding (at 1 hour TT pace) for since March, focussing instead on Z2/3 Endurance/Tempo as being more relevant to the event, and therefore wanted to work on Z4 (Threshold) power in the limited time I have to train mid-week, but it would appear my legs are just not interested!

I know this pseudo-scientific analysis is not for everyone, and the generic algorithm is based on an 'average' person - I might just not recover as quickly, or have underestimated the Stress Score of the HT ride (no PM on that bike), but it is disappointing to think my riding fitness may have regressed after that ride, rather than improved.

That aside, I feel more confident and have a greater desire to take on other bikepacking 'events' once I bounce back from this.

Any ideas how I should get myself back into a structured training regime?

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:
Any ideas how I should get myself back into a structured training regime?

It might take a while...

For me it's not just the body. Also commuting the mind to hard training or racing needs significant time.

But if you want to get back into training. Some moderate intervals to see what your physiological response is. Say 3x10 minutes at 185w. See how your heart rate is for each interval and how the de-coupling is.

I'm sticking to the beer and whiskey for another couple of weeks though and o didn't even finish

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:...even 10 days after finishing, with my Training Stress Balance numbers (derived from Power Metrics, empirical and estimated) indicating good 'form' (and both ATL and CTL indicating relatively low fatigue / high fitness), it just doesn't feel like that.

Only my opinion, but I think there could well be several very good reasons to believe your TSS score would be too low:

1. TSS, whether derived from Power or HR, does not consider other factors, such as nutrition and sleep length / quality - obviously important over the course of several days of the HT.

2. Even if you had a power meter, TSS would only measure what's produced by your legs. Riding rough / technical terrain and pushing a loaded bike etc places a lot more demand on the upper body compared to road riding...and that goes unmeasured, even with HR.

3. TSS for each individual ride is calculated without consideration to accumulated fatigue. i.e. A 400 (for example) TSS ride is the same whether it's done on fresh legs or after 4 consecutive massive days - though clearly the physiological cost of the latter ride would be much much higher.

4. Most importantly, as you know TSS and TSB are just calculations to guide your training. How your body feels is real. If you are fatigued and your legs feel weary, then that's the way it is...whatever TSB says. Bask in the well earned post HTR glory a bit longer!

On getting back into training - this short podcast is for marathon runners, but I think the principles / concepts are likely to transfer:
http://strengthrunning.com/2017/04/next ... -marathon/

Also, if you're pulling the numbers from something like Strava, then it's obviously heart rate based if you don't have a power meter attached.

Any experienced endurance cyclist can tell you that your heart rate figures basically become useless after many hours worth of riding... and even more useless on the days that follow. I've had days pushing 200w+ averages at 160bpm followed by days at the same power output, but an average heart rate of sub 140bpm.

Sadly it makes the numbers less than reliable.

As for getting back into it. Ramp. Either keep the intensity but reduce the duration, or keep the duration but reduce the intensity. I tend to start back at 10% - 15% less intensity, and add in a percent or two each session until I'm back to 100%.

SRS - thanks for the observations; you sound like a coach? I am lucky to have 10 years of power meter usage to assist my understanding, but not on the MTB, so just estimate that from perceived exertion - I rarely get out of Z1 on a multi-day trip, so not hard to get a good-enough guess of TSS. I only use Strava very occasionally (because Garmin Connect is crap and won't let me upload from my Etrex 30), but not for the Fisher Price analytics - Golden Cheetah for that geekery... I suspect the lack of proper recovery assumed by the simple algorithms is a key factor - 3 hrs sleep/night plus crap nutrition isn't a recipe for peak performance. Perhaps I'll reap the endurance adaptation benefits at this weekends 400km Audax.