Turbo Man's Fitness Blog: Recovery Week

NO LOVE HANDLES ALLOWED!

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Sunday, 6 September 2009

Recovery Week

After the BIG Fortnight this week was programmed to be a recovery week. I perhaps should have done more than I did but it was nice to have some time off the bike but it never fails to surprise me how many aches and pains appear when you're doing very little, that never seem to materialise when you're training hard.

Today though, I met up with the guys I met for the first time a few weeks ago and rode a number of kms with at the recent sportive. I rode out some 14km and we then did approx 47km before I rode home for a very enjoyable 75km ride. It was quite a lumpy route including (for those that know it) Portsdown Hill and the last 10km together were ridden very hard. My legs certainly felt it afterwards. One of the guys also had a fairly spectacular crash, high-siding it into a comfortable bed of stinging nettles after attempting a tightening right hander too quickly. One of the guys is currently the GB Olympic Team sailing coach and knows Dave Brailsford, which is where their Sky bibshorts came from. Interesting.

So, 4 weeks to Barcelona. Next Sunday I ride the 155km Southern Sportive and the following weekend I have entered the 128km Southdowns Challenge. I should have my endurance legs by then and will look to hit gold standard at both of them. Hard turbo sessions will also be included over the next 2 weeks before reducing the quantity with 2 weeks to go and then tapering properly in the last week.

Train smart folks.

2 comments:

jc said...: Nice one for the big fortnight. Am I living in the past to be using miles to measure my rides?; 7 September 2009 at 07:56
Turbo Man said...: I wouldn't say so; I just got used to recording everything in km because all the races are in km.; 7 September 2009 at 21:23