Week 6 – A Welcome Recovery Last Week

Recovery week is often a misunderstood concept. Some think of a recovery week as laying on the couch doing nothing all week. Completely turn off. Some do not really lower their volume or intensity and may just drop a ride for the week. Read burnout on the horizon. There are many aspects to consider when it comes to recovery week. I like to work somewhere in between those two extremes.

Recovery week is the reward for a period of hard work. Its the week where you ride for a bit more fun. Ride easy and short. However it’s so much more that’s going on.

When your body is put under strain from training, it will naturally aim to adapt to cope with that strain next time you push it. Your training should deliver a stimulus, designed to take the body and its strength and energy systems, outside its comfort zone. For your body to ‘adapt’ to cope with the load we need to give it the environment to recover, adapt and grow.

This recovery week involved four rides, including the CCW Zwift Shop Ride and my FTP test. So my training load would be near half what it was the week before.

Two easy, short outdoor rides during the week. Both of them bloody freezing. Yes Winter is definitely on the horizon. Get out those heavy duty gloves, and shoe covers people. The key for me was getting more sleep and allowing the body to feel rested. Couple that with eating well and staying hydrated – with water not just wine!!

By Saturday I was feel really good and after a bit of a sleep in due to no pre-Shop Ride training session I was on top of things for the CCW Zwift Shop Ride. This turned out to be a solid ride. After a bit of an easier start this ride ramped up a little in the back half and was a great primer for the FTP test the next day.

I have mentioned it before – I hate FTP tests!

Part of the issue for me is the not knowing how you are going to go. Did I improve or was the last block a failure? Regardless of the number, the previous block is never a failure. However mentally, not wanting to fail makes you not want to test at all. However it is a part of the process an needs to be done.

I set up today’s test to be indoors due to the forecast weather (which was better than forecast actually). I would be doing the day as a step or ramp test, rather than the traditional 20min test. The main issue I have with the 20min test is the concept of pacing. The ramp test removes that element from the test.

Off we go and the testing is under way as we commence ticking the minutes down and the load increases. I like this incremental build in intensity. Yes your legs and lungs do start to burn but it takes a while to build to that point. I had been joined by Dale and Gemma, two of my coached athletes, who I would be conducting tests for after mine. I was feeling pretty good.

Fairly soon I had passed my current threshold value, which would mean I would have to survive another 6 mins of above threshold work to see a valuable improvement. The girls were setting up their bikes nearby. Another four minutes came and went, when suddenly my system had no power. WTF!

Dale had turned on her system and it interrupted mine! No not Dale’s fault as that shouldn’t occur but still bloody frustrating. So this is where as both a coach and athlete, you really need to analyse the situation. Now I could have re-tested, but I had already mentally switched off. I was unlikely to feel the same as I had to the power failure.

So as a coach I would look at where I thought that test would end up. In this case I felt I would end up between 275w to 280w FTP. I have opted to adopt the mid point of 278w as my new FTP for the next block.

Back into the next work block next week.