Rest week! Amateur athletes might often jest with the thought of resting and recovering and continue to push themselves to their limits for too long. It's a lesson I have learned the hard way and if you have been following my blog and are training as much as I have then take it from my first hand experience that rest and recovery is just as (if not more) critical than exercise itself. Be off the bike or out of the gym because you can, not because you are forced to. Over-reaching is not fun and the rest and recovery element of your training schedule should be strictly adhered to.
With that said, I will use this week's training summary to share with you the recovery process from over-reaching by publishing this post at the beginning of the week and continue to update it at the end of each day with my findings and experiences - whether I ride or not.
I don't think I over-reached because I ignored the advice I have been provided with and collected over the past four months. I think it has been from not balancing the amount and intensity of my training with the right amount of rest and recovery and of course, making sure I ate correctly and balanced the carbs I took in with the amount I was burning (I lost 3-4 kg over the previous three weeks). I believe I got caught up in my own determination to push myself through my limits by stacking on more work than was on my program and not take the opportunities to recover properly.
Then there is Strava! It is such a powerful training tool but it can also be your worst enemy if you don't necessitate the discipline needed to use it properly. Strava encourages us to compete against ourselves and our friends and it is easy to fall into the trap of being overly competitive on days where you should not be going so hard. We all love to record achievements and KOMs on Strava but this should not be done to the detriment of your training plan. Leave the KOM hunting to days that you have hard efforts scheduled and don't use them as excuses to deviate from your training plan and add too much on top of what you have already done for the day.
There are myriad other elements that may have contributed to my over-reaching and some of these probably have nothing to do with the training program I have gone through. I have not doubt that the stresses with work and other elements in my life have played a part in my recent overloading and I mention these in general terms only to indicate that it is not just an imbalance in training and recovery that can play a part in over-reaching. Interestingly, it can be the early signs of over-reaching that can cause these other stresses and start a vicious circle that can bring on not only over-reaching, but eventually over-training and much quicker than you might think.
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Monday was my first day of the recovery process so a 2 hour ride in RE was most definitely the order of the day. It's hard to do when you know that everyone else you normally ride with on a public holiday (WA Labor Day) are tackling hard hills and making the most of the perfect riding conditions. The second troubling factor is when you wear an old cycling jersey that flaps in the wind like a flag and interferes with your HR monitor strap. A quick tuck in under the strap itself corrected that but not before it had record a thumping 240 bpm for the first 10 minutes or so - I'm sure I'd be dead if it was really that high for that long!
Given the wind was practically non-existent, I opted for the loop around the river between the Narrows and Fremantle and back up along the Freeway PSP. It was important to keep the HR within the RE zone and not be tempted to do anything harder by avoiding longer hills and sprints - this meant no sprint along Port Beach Rd or Burke Drive - not so easy to do but happy that I was disciplined enough to ignore the urge.
As much as my legs were feeling strong throughout the ride, it was important for me not to put them to the test and to adhere to the recovery process. The 2 hours of riding was beneficial as it still allowed me to ride out yesterday's race efforts and the usual feeling from the effort was there in the afternoon. There was no real evidence of a lack of power during the ride or even afterwards which is hopefully a sign that I am on the right road to recovery.
My diet today was full of good carbs (as well as a small amount of the other type) and I am prepared to take on a small amount of weight throughout the week to ensure I have the carbs needed for stronger efforts at the end of the week and the WCMCC Age Division Champ Crits on Sunday. I need to be sure that my carbohydrate balance is perfect from now on to ensure that I am providing my body with enough fuel to keep me from ending up in this position again.
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A day off the bike on Tuesday has given the legs a chance to really recover but more important to the recovery process is the extra sleep I have been able to get which I am sure is helping to expidite the return to normal. Of course, sleep is not something you get during a weekday with a full time job so it has been important for me to ensure I get some extra sleep at night this week by continuing to hit the hay early and wake up a bit later.
From the reading I have done, I have learned that it is when we are asleep that the body's fitness improves as it recovers and repairs itself and it is during strenuous exercise that the body adapts to being able to cope better with such activity. Therefore, good sleep is an important part of an athlete's training program but it is when we over-reach that the sleep pattern can be disrupted and may be harder to come by.
I'm not the sort of person who will resort to supplements to fuel the body with essential elements (aside from whey protien isolate) so it was with some "encouragement" that I accepted Kathy's idea that I try a night time multivitamin that is taken before sleeping. I was surprised to find that this seemed to allow me to sleep a little better so will continue to go with it for a while.
Nor am I a full-time athlete so I need to ensure I get quality sleep through the night so I can wake up feeling ready to take on the rigours of the day's training and work. From what I have read, it is ideal for an athlete to try and get in a short nap after exercise to allow the body time to recover after harder efforts but this is not going to happen with a full time job so I can only rely on the usual night time sleep pattern.
--
Recovery on the bike is just as important is it is off the bike. By this I don't mean recovery between hard efforts as this should be implied with training efforts. What I mean is to complete the entire ride in a lesser heart rate zone to allow the body to resume working and building back up to harder intensity.
I headed up to Kings Park with Emma again on Wednesday morning to look at putting the legs to a bit of a test without sending the heart rate through the roof. I wanted to be able to test the strength and power in the legs without putting too much intensity on the heart and respiratory system so I looked at completing some of the exercises that Brad had pushed us through in Kings Park but using the bigger gears to force the legs to work while keeping the HR in check.
This seemed to work perfectly. The legs were put to the test while I was able to keep the HR inside E2 and averaged E1 across the entire ride. There were one or two spikes into E3 (just over 150 bpm) and these did not seem to stress the system too much and I was still able to maintain the recovery approach to the ride.
The power is defnitely back but I will not know to what extent until I am really able to push through my limits again. This will likely not be until Sunday's race or possibly a ride on Saturday with a bit of harder work in Kings Park and around the river to try some stronger hill climbs and sprints. While Wednesday's efforts made me work and provided signs that the recovery was working, I will still be keeping off the bike on Thursday and repeating a recovery ride on Friday to fully restore my strength and power.
The rest has definitely been worth it and the remainder of the week will be a valuable part of rebuilding the body back to the form I had been enjoying. I don't think my fitness has been affected by the over-reaching but I do expect my form will have dropped slightly so I will be keen to build this back up again in time for the UCI WCT event. This Sunday's race will be a crucial part of the rebuilding process. Brad has also provided me with my next program which, to use Brad's words "really throws the kitchen sink at me". It reads horrendously but I am incredibly keen to get cracking with it. All in good time though.
To date, I have been taking on as many carbs as possible while avoiding anything fattening. Pasta and potatoes have been a good source of carbs in my long term diet while red meat has made a regular appearance for protien and salads for additional fuel. There have been other sources of carbs that I dare not mention on this page but the end result is that I have managed to replace the 2-3 kgs I lost last week and the exhausted feeling and lack of power has gone - possibly not completely but does not seem to be holding me back.
--
The end of the recovery process is getting closer and being off the bike on Thursday allowed me an additional whole day of recovery before giving the legs a good test on Friday.
I wasn't able to get onto the bike until around 9:00am so the easterly wind was up and the temperature was slowly rising. It was time to see how the "guns" would perform and to see if my fitness had slipped by much. I knew that my form would not be as it was before over-reaching so I was expecting some kind of imbalance between the power in the legs, the respiratory system and heart rate.
I'll not be going into details about the result of my recovery as it stood on Friday morning as I would prefer to keep that to myself until after Sunday's race but it would be fair to say that I feel there was a certain level of power that was back in the legs. Exactly how much strength and power that will be on Sunday remains to be seen.
I think over-reaching is something that every athlete will experience if they are serious about their sport and training. As much as it is a frustrating experience, it is a clear indication that you have reached a temporary ceiling to the form that you body is able to attain and it is time to rest and recover. If the athlete is disciplined enough to take the time to rest, the recovery process should not take long (a matter of days). Adversly, if the athlete ignores these early signs of fatigue, the result can be far worse (over-training) which can take weeks or possibly months to recover properly.
Taking the time to recover properly allows your body to repair itself and prepare for additional hard training efforts that will allow you to slowly increase the level of that temporary ceiling. This is how we improve as athletes. That ceiling your body reaches should lift after each recovery period allowing you to work a little more each time. A disciplined athlete can avoid the frustrations of over-reaching by ensuring they take the necessary time to rest and recover. A good coach can advise you as to the frequency of these rest and recovery periods but it is up to the athlete to ensure they adhere to their coach's advice.
This whole week and a half has been a huge learning experience for me and not one that I was ever expecting back when I started cycling only a short time ago. For me, it has higlighted the importance of ensuring that I get the required rest that is prescribed to me in my training plans and that I should be careful about how much additional training and efforts I do. If I am strict about the work:rest ratio that I should be sticking to, then I should not have to go through the same recovery from over-reaching for some time.
I look forward to putting this experience behind me now that I have learnt from it and begin to move forward again with my focus firmly fixed on the UCI World Cycling Tour Qualifier. With only two weeks to go until the race, I'm keen to get through the upcoming training that Brad has outlined for me and get to the starting line and give it my absolute all.
From the reading I have done, I have learned that it is when we are asleep that the body's fitness improves as it recovers and repairs itself and it is during strenuous exercise that the body adapts to being able to cope better with such activity. Therefore, good sleep is an important part of an athlete's training program but it is when we over-reach that the sleep pattern can be disrupted and may be harder to come by.
I'm not the sort of person who will resort to supplements to fuel the body with essential elements (aside from whey protien isolate) so it was with some "encouragement" that I accepted Kathy's idea that I try a night time multivitamin that is taken before sleeping. I was surprised to find that this seemed to allow me to sleep a little better so will continue to go with it for a while.
Nor am I a full-time athlete so I need to ensure I get quality sleep through the night so I can wake up feeling ready to take on the rigours of the day's training and work. From what I have read, it is ideal for an athlete to try and get in a short nap after exercise to allow the body time to recover after harder efforts but this is not going to happen with a full time job so I can only rely on the usual night time sleep pattern.
--
Recovery on the bike is just as important is it is off the bike. By this I don't mean recovery between hard efforts as this should be implied with training efforts. What I mean is to complete the entire ride in a lesser heart rate zone to allow the body to resume working and building back up to harder intensity.
I headed up to Kings Park with Emma again on Wednesday morning to look at putting the legs to a bit of a test without sending the heart rate through the roof. I wanted to be able to test the strength and power in the legs without putting too much intensity on the heart and respiratory system so I looked at completing some of the exercises that Brad had pushed us through in Kings Park but using the bigger gears to force the legs to work while keeping the HR in check.
This seemed to work perfectly. The legs were put to the test while I was able to keep the HR inside E2 and averaged E1 across the entire ride. There were one or two spikes into E3 (just over 150 bpm) and these did not seem to stress the system too much and I was still able to maintain the recovery approach to the ride.
The power is defnitely back but I will not know to what extent until I am really able to push through my limits again. This will likely not be until Sunday's race or possibly a ride on Saturday with a bit of harder work in Kings Park and around the river to try some stronger hill climbs and sprints. While Wednesday's efforts made me work and provided signs that the recovery was working, I will still be keeping off the bike on Thursday and repeating a recovery ride on Friday to fully restore my strength and power.
The rest has definitely been worth it and the remainder of the week will be a valuable part of rebuilding the body back to the form I had been enjoying. I don't think my fitness has been affected by the over-reaching but I do expect my form will have dropped slightly so I will be keen to build this back up again in time for the UCI WCT event. This Sunday's race will be a crucial part of the rebuilding process. Brad has also provided me with my next program which, to use Brad's words "really throws the kitchen sink at me". It reads horrendously but I am incredibly keen to get cracking with it. All in good time though.
To date, I have been taking on as many carbs as possible while avoiding anything fattening. Pasta and potatoes have been a good source of carbs in my long term diet while red meat has made a regular appearance for protien and salads for additional fuel. There have been other sources of carbs that I dare not mention on this page but the end result is that I have managed to replace the 2-3 kgs I lost last week and the exhausted feeling and lack of power has gone - possibly not completely but does not seem to be holding me back.
--
The end of the recovery process is getting closer and being off the bike on Thursday allowed me an additional whole day of recovery before giving the legs a good test on Friday.
I wasn't able to get onto the bike until around 9:00am so the easterly wind was up and the temperature was slowly rising. It was time to see how the "guns" would perform and to see if my fitness had slipped by much. I knew that my form would not be as it was before over-reaching so I was expecting some kind of imbalance between the power in the legs, the respiratory system and heart rate.
I'll not be going into details about the result of my recovery as it stood on Friday morning as I would prefer to keep that to myself until after Sunday's race but it would be fair to say that I feel there was a certain level of power that was back in the legs. Exactly how much strength and power that will be on Sunday remains to be seen.
I think over-reaching is something that every athlete will experience if they are serious about their sport and training. As much as it is a frustrating experience, it is a clear indication that you have reached a temporary ceiling to the form that you body is able to attain and it is time to rest and recover. If the athlete is disciplined enough to take the time to rest, the recovery process should not take long (a matter of days). Adversly, if the athlete ignores these early signs of fatigue, the result can be far worse (over-training) which can take weeks or possibly months to recover properly.
Taking the time to recover properly allows your body to repair itself and prepare for additional hard training efforts that will allow you to slowly increase the level of that temporary ceiling. This is how we improve as athletes. That ceiling your body reaches should lift after each recovery period allowing you to work a little more each time. A disciplined athlete can avoid the frustrations of over-reaching by ensuring they take the necessary time to rest and recover. A good coach can advise you as to the frequency of these rest and recovery periods but it is up to the athlete to ensure they adhere to their coach's advice.
This whole week and a half has been a huge learning experience for me and not one that I was ever expecting back when I started cycling only a short time ago. For me, it has higlighted the importance of ensuring that I get the required rest that is prescribed to me in my training plans and that I should be careful about how much additional training and efforts I do. If I am strict about the work:rest ratio that I should be sticking to, then I should not have to go through the same recovery from over-reaching for some time.
I look forward to putting this experience behind me now that I have learnt from it and begin to move forward again with my focus firmly fixed on the UCI World Cycling Tour Qualifier. With only two weeks to go until the race, I'm keen to get through the upcoming training that Brad has outlined for me and get to the starting line and give it my absolute all.
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