# recovery ride or day off after a tough day?



## tindrum (Mar 5, 2008)

so yesterday i went really hard, intervals and so on. last night at work (i work at a restaurant where i stand for hours on end) my legs were killing me. this morning i feel much better, but a little worn out. my question is, should i go out for a recovery ride or take a day off? i am in training mode right now so i am leaning towards recovery ride, but i guess a secondary question would be how do you know when to push through and do a recovery ride when you are tired or when you are doing more harm than good by getting on the bike? sorry if this is disjointed, i just got up and haven't had my coffee. thanks all.


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## Sumguy1 (Apr 5, 2008)

Recovery ride.
But make sure it is a recovery ride. Too many pple - myself included - go too hard on their "recovery" rides. 
Honestly, recovery rides are EASY pedal arounds. 
I always feel better after a true recovery effort than if I sat and read a book or something.


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## kbiker3111 (Nov 7, 2006)

It depends on what you're doing the day after the day off. If you want to go hard again or feel good, a recovery ride will help your leg prime for the next day. If you just want to go easy, it doesn't really matter. Recovery rides don't actually help recovery that much, the just prevent staleness.


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## Creakyknees (Sep 21, 2003)

yep, a little rolling around at super easy pace. Fridays are good for that, grab a buddy and instead of happy hour, roll for an hour or so at easy chatting pace, lots of coasting, soft pedaling etc. no tempo, no jams (ok maybe one small one).


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## Kram (Jan 28, 2004)

This, for me, is the hardest thing to do. I'm usually better just taking the day off, or, gawd forbid, I get on the spinner I have in the basement and then I can spin real easy while watching the tube.


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## stevesbike (Jun 3, 2002)

when I do a literature search for this, I've yet to find any evidence that active recovery is better than passive recovery.


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## rydbyk (Feb 17, 2010)

stevesbike said:


> when I do a literature search for this, I've yet to find any evidence that active recovery is better than passive recovery.


Are you saying that some feel that sitting around all day is as effective as a recovery ride?

Just asking...


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## stevesbike (Jun 3, 2002)

here's one review of a study worth reading. Active recovery shares some ideas with massage as a recovery aid - flushing out toxins etc. Evidence suggests massage actually impairs recovery - maybe same myths about active recovery...


http://evidencebasedfitness.blogspot.com/2008/02/rest-vs-active-recovery.html

Wiltshire, E. V., et al. "Massage impairs postexercise muscle blood flow and "lactic acid" removal." Medicine and science in sports and exercise 42.6 (2010):1062-1071.


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## Doctor Who (Feb 22, 2005)

I take Monday and Friday off the bike completely and love it. I do my core workouts, go for a long walk with the girlfriend for ice cream, and chill out.

And then hammer it the day after. 

I think active recovery on the bike is bunk. At this point of the season, my training schedule is full of VO2 intervals and other "fun" stuff and any time away from my bike is good time (I'm partly in jest). 

Remember, the body's not a machine -- and rest is just as important to getting stronger as riding.


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## pretender (Sep 18, 2007)

stevesbike said:


> when I do a literature search for this, I've yet to find any evidence that active recovery is better than passive recovery.


Word.

It's weird that people think that the best strategy for repairing muscles damaged by cycling is...more cycling!

"Active recovery" is actually training. Whether you should do it or not, is a different question.


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## heathb (Nov 1, 2008)

Take the day off and relax. If I'm feeling cooked after a hard day, there's no reason I'm going back out and slowing the rate of recovery. Sort of like lifting weights, if you're lifting hard and all out you need time off in order to repair the damage. 

My best recovery is sleeping and eating...period.

I agree that riding a little prevents staleness, but I only worry about that when I have a race that is important and coming up very soon, other wise grab a good book and some food and just chill out.


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## tindrum (Mar 5, 2008)

thanks for all the responses guys. after some research of my own (i've found when looking for info on how muscles really work it's important to not just look at cycling-specific websites) i decided to take the day off. as i mentioned, i am blessed (or cursed) with being pretty active at my job so the day isn't a total wash exercise wise if i don't ride. anyway, yesterday was off, and today is always my rest day so i will do some core and upper body work in preparation for beating myself up all over again tomorrow on my big sunday ride


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## rydbyk (Feb 17, 2010)

Dang it!! So are we all suggesting that a "light spin" is NOT more effective for recovery than just sitting around the house?? 

I certainly do not want to suit up and ride lightly IF it does no good for me. Geez..what a complete waste of time.

Maybe a light spin does not help recover, but my legs feel "stale" w/no spin the day after a hard ride..


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## atpjunkie (Mar 23, 2002)

*I find*

I work the lactic out easier if I pedal lightly vs doing nothing

the key is learning to pedal lightly


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

*Lactic workout*



atpjunkie said:


> I work the lactic out easier if I pedal lightly vs doing nothing
> 
> the key is learning to pedal lightly


Great theory, except that the lactic acid is cleared from your muscles in less than an hour, so what this has to do with a ride the next day is a complete mystery. Just saying.


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## lonefrontranger (Feb 5, 2004)

tindrum said:


> thanks for all the responses guys. after some research of my own (i've found when looking for info on how muscles really work it's important to not just look at cycling-specific websites) i decided to take the day off. as i mentioned, i am blessed (or cursed) with being pretty active at my job so the day isn't a total wash exercise wise if i don't ride. anyway, yesterday was off, and today is always my rest day so i will do some core and upper body work in preparation for beating myself up all over again tomorrow on my big sunday ride


everyone is different - as the argument in this thread indicates, some riders find that an easy spin the next day helps to alleviate muscle stiffness/soreness, and some find that a complete rest is better. You are better off to try to determine what works best for you than to adhere to advice from someone who may have completely different physiological needs. This can get pretty nuanced even depending on the type of rider, the type of hard day prior, the type of race schedule / peaking requirements, etc.

There's been very little effective sports science related to this type of thing that I can find. Also, one of the big topics of debate on our team forum right now is that even "sports science" based studies do a very poor job of using reliable datasets because of multiple issues (the biggest one being lack of academic funding no doubt) --

- they don't use a statistically significant sample (most "sports studies" are done with 10-20 volunteers max)
- they don't do a very robust job of reporting for variables such as: age, gender, fitness level, etc...

Doing a study on 20 "volunteers" with no reliable backing data as to whether they're 55 year old recreational cyclists or 22 year old Cat 1 racers is IMO fairly close to useless. A highly fit young athlete who's reliably used to high-load training stress responds much, much differently than his (or her) older weekend warrior type counterpart. Not to mention that the more fit you are, the faster you tend to recover, and (within reason) the less likely you are to encounter "overtraining" effects from an increase in training load/volume.

Something that I've found extremely effective for recovery after a very hard day in my own personal training regimen (female Cat 3, age 42, 24 seasons' racing FYI) is to "shock" the lactate out of the legs with very cold water within 30 minutes post ride. What we do after a killer testicle tour / insane interval session is to go stand up to our hips in Boulder Creek until our legs go numb, then spin home the last 10 minutes in our easiest gear at a ridiculously easy pace that I've heard described as "no faster than it would take to ride if you were chatting up a cute gal/guy who was walking along the bike path". Granted, this is all purely anecdotal and may equate to placebo effect / old wives' (coaches?) tales. However it works very well for me and a number of the decent Cat 2/Cat 3 racers of both genders on my team.

Last but not least, and more important than recovery ride vs. rest day (IMO) -- if you work on your feet a lot, do consider using some form of support / compression clothing to aid recovery and avoid fluid buildup in your lower extremities. You can either buy the cool-looking kind from Excel, or do like one of my collegiate age teammates, who doesn't have the cash for the expensive trendy stuff, so she just goes to Walgreens and buys "old lady support hose" for $5 a pair. Either type works exactly the same, it's just you'll have to shell out 10x the amount for a pair that won't make you look like the lunch lady.


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## martin_nj (Jul 12, 2010)

tindrum said:


> where i stand for hours on end.


try to use either compression sleeves/socks and/or prop your feet up high when you go to sleep

good luck


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