# Missing a week of training



## kreuzberg (Feb 1, 2009)

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if anyone had any advice. My family is thinking about going to florida for six days in the middle of march. It's kind of a spur of the moment thing, but I'm worried that six days off the bike will have a huge detrimental effect.
Just for some background, I do have a pretty decent base from this winter; since the beginning of september I've ridden almost 5000 miles. But this is a really important year for me and I'm looking to do well in a bunch of races in April. I need all the time to train I can get. And I haven't been doing this kind of mileage forever, this is my first winter of riding a lot, and I'm a teenager with no base from previous years to really draw on.
Lastly, I kind of freak out when I can't do training perfectly. If I'm losing lots of fitness while on vacation I go nuts. 
Does anyone have suggestions for what I should do? If we go, can I just run a lot to keep on with training?
Thanks


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## function (Jun 20, 2008)

Don't worry about it, you won't lose anything. But it's normal to (unnecessarily) worry about losing fitness, i do a really big intensity week prior to my trip so that my body needs the rest anyway, then i feel rested and even more eager to resume when i get back.


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## iliveonnitro (Feb 19, 2006)

Sounds like you need to schedule your training so that you have some weeks of hard training, and make your vacation a rest week.

Granted, you won't be gaining fitness. It will take you a week to get back into the swing of things, but you won't lose much at all. If you feel really bad, go for a couple runs.


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## tomk96 (Sep 24, 2007)

iliveonnitro said:


> Sounds like you need to schedule your training so that you have some weeks of hard training, and make your vacation a rest week.
> 
> Granted, you won't be gaining fitness. It will take you a week to get back into the swing of things, but you won't lose much at all. If you feel really bad, go for a couple runs.


+1.

i might add a couple short runs, but plan on making it a recovery week and go hard prior to taking off.


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## 180 (Jan 10, 2009)

Yeah I have to say I was kind of amazed how I felt after taking two weeks off to being sick. I had been going pretty hard the past couple months in a boot camp class and having a new trainer at home was doing 2 hrs on it a couple times a week as well. Even on my rest weeks from boot camp I would run. Can't really sit still until I was forced to with a bad chest cold. The two weeks off finally gave my muscles a chance to really recover. I felt great out there yesterday. I only went for an hour so as not to overdo it and get sick again but I didn't really have any major fatigue like I thought I would and my msucles felt no pain whatsoever. It wasn't an all out powerfest but I did hit up some decent hills. I wouldn't worry about your week off. If you are as dedicated as you seem, you're muscles will appreciate the time off. Enjoy your vacation and put your efforts into spending the time with your family.


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## Mr. Jones (Jul 4, 2006)

function said:


> i do a really big intensity week prior to my trip so that my body needs the rest anyway, then i feel rested and even more eager to resume when i get back.


Just make sure you don't go totally nuts right before you leave. The worst thing to do would be to go very hard, weaken your immune system and then spend more than a week being sick.


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## muscleendurance (Jan 11, 2009)

for anyone looking at this later....
missing a week of training can be the best thing or it can be worst thing...the difference is your perception and how you deal with it. This person has a deep base and missing a week out of it withy FAMILY VACATION will most likely give him a good mental break, and wont hurt his fitness in any kind of meaningfull way. Of course if he OBSESSES about it when away, he wont get the mental relaxing break AND miss out on training, which is a much worse situation to be in, and will probably be quite stressed about worrying about what he is looing fitness wise on vacation, and after he comes back and gets on the bike. unless your peaking for the tour missing a week is no big deal!
It more psychological than anything..


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## crispy010 (Jan 26, 2009)

muscleendurance said:


> ...


Not busting your chops man, but why have you gone and dragged up a bunch of old dead threads with essentially the comment "lol, +1"?

I'm confused


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## aussiebullet (Sep 26, 2005)

Proly too much caffine and gone hyper keyboard on us lol!


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## grrlyrida (Aug 3, 2006)

muscleendurance said:


> for anyone looking at this later....
> missing a week of training can be the best thing or it can be worst thing...the difference is your perception and how you deal with it. This person has a deep base and missing a week out of it withy FAMILY VACATION will most likely give him a good mental break, and wont hurt his fitness in any kind of meaningfull way. Of course if he OBSESSES about it when away, he wont get the mental relaxing break AND miss out on training, which is a much worse situation to be in, and will probably be quite stressed about worrying about what he is looing fitness wise on vacation, and after he comes back and gets on the bike. unless your peaking for the tour missing a week is no big deal!
> It more psychological than anything..


+1
I recently sprang my ankle I had to stay off the bike for a week. Previously I was doing 150-200 miles a week w/ 5000+ ft of climbing. When I came back this Sunday, I zipped up my local mountains. Thinking it was a fluke I did some climbing today and I was still much stronger than I was before the layoff. Being off the bike for a solid week is the best training I've ever done. :thumbsup:


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## race fast (May 5, 2009)

*returning to training*

Same problem - my parents pop stuff on me like that all the time

I find that it takes me 1 - 1.5 weeks to get all the way back into the training

If you can, try running while your there


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