Periodicity and Recovery Training

Optimal training is not just about steady build-up. Periodization training is something that Russian Olympic athletes were developing back in the 1950s and 1960s. West Germans began it in the early 1970s. Almost all endurance athletes use it as core a training strategy today.

The basic idea is that to build up your body to a high level of performance, you need to cause it to adapt and accept higher and higher levels of work as "normal". In simple terms, during hard training you push beyond what it can do with ease and actually cause small internal breakdowns of muscles.  You don't push all the way to exhaustion, but to a point that's harder than normal; sometimes close to exhaustion, even.Then you allow your muscles to recover. When you recover your body will repair itself back to where you started and then some. By repeating this cycle, athletes can build both strength and endurance.

From experience, I'm a strong believer in active recovery rather than passive recovery. Passive recovery might involve taking a few days off. Active recovery might be switching from riding to doing strength exercises (not associated with cycling muscles) for a day, or pedaling very gently for a while.

The roads still have nasty ice patches that might force me to decide between a moving car, an ice patch, or a snowbank. All poor choices.


Sunday's hilly ride was longer and considerably more intense than my average these days.  Yesterday I rode the trainer pretty hard. So this morning involved a "recovery ride" in the basement: 30 minutes spinning lightly in an easy gear.

Pedaling to the point of breathing deeply and sweating lightly helps us recover faster than sitting around. Picture lots of fresh oxygen being circulated around your body. Picture toxins being breathed out as you exhale deeply, moved out with the blood as it circulates through your liver and kidneys, and other toxins being gently washed out with sweat. This is _not_ a time to push hard even once briefly. It's a time to get your muscles warm and your circulation moving. It takes intentionality to not over-do it on recovery days. A heart rate monitor can help with this. Your reward is that you'll be stronger for it once your body does recover from a hard effort.

We'll explore training cycles more over the coming season. For now, plan on a few days of active recovery after each heavy effort. When you're fully recovered, you can push a little harder or longer than before on the next ride.

I've found that a plant based diet allows me faster recovery. The science behind that is well documented and quite interesting.